I'm so confused!

[DarkGravity]

OK, things have been going fairly well. Been to Minmus and Mun, but still missing some basic concepts.

1) how do you save something as a subassembly?

2) What the heck is the root tool? Every time I play around with it, I can only click on one thing, but it tells me to click on 2.

3) Why can't I attach the rover in the picture to the lifter in the picture? I've tried angle-snap on/off. I've tried upside down, approach from every angle, tried with various pieces connected to the rover before trying to mate the two. Nothing works. The lifter will not accept the lander/rover.

Edited June 6, 2015 by Claw

[cybersol]

For me at least, the merge feature is completely broken. I would use the old subassemblies. For that, go to the big black arrow, then the green button on the bottom left. You should see a drop subassembly here to save box. Now, use the select root mode (right of the rotate mode) to rearrange the craft you want to save. Make the part you want to attach to be the root, which in your case is probably the lower battery on the rover. Then pick up you rover by the battery and drop it on the save box. Now load your lifter, select the saved rover from the subassembly box, and you should be able to attach it by that battery.

Edited June 6, 2015 by cybersol

[Randazzo]

Your rover doesn't appear to have a connection node.

Try this:

• Reload the rover craft
  
• Attach a fuel tank to the bottom
  
• Select the Root tool, click once anywhere on the rover, then click on the fuel tank. The second object you click becomes the root.
  
• Select the battery that is attached directly to the fuel tank and detach. The entire rover should come with it. Save this as a subassembly.
  

Once you have that saved, you should have a rover subassembly with the bottom attachment node available.

[DarkGravity]

For me at least, the merge feature is completely broken. I would use the old subassemblies. For that, go to the big black arrow, then the green button on the bottom left. You should see a drop subassembly here to save box.

OK, I saved my rover with docking port and batteries attached to the bottom as a subassembly.

Now, use the select root mode (right of the rotate mode) to rearrange the craft you want to save. Make the part you want to attach to be the root, which in your case is probably the lower battery on the rover. Then pick up you rover by the battery and drop it on the save box. Now load your lifter, select the saved rover from the subassembly box, and you should be able to attach it by that battery

This bit screws me up. I click on the root mode button and I see text that says 'select a set of 2 or more parts to attach'. So I click on the lowest battery of the rover. And the text reappears. Nothing else happens. If I click the bottom battery on the rover 4 times, the text reappears 4 times. Nothing else.

[cybersol]

Sorry, as Randazzo says you first pick the part next to the battery and then the battery to make it the root part.

EDIT: Did you get it to work yet?

Edited June 6, 2015 by cybersol

[DarkGravity]

Wow, I sure appreciate the help! I never would have figured that out!

"Pick a set of two or more parts to attach" made it sound (to me) like "Pick two or more parts to attach to each other." I see now that is not what it means at all. Thanks again!!

[Geschosskopf]

1) how do you save something as a subassembly?

In the upper left corner of the editor window is a gray arrow-looking button. Push that and a column of filters appears instead of the usual tabs for different part types. Near the bottom is a green one that looks kinda like a rocket. That's the subassembly button. Click on it. Now instead of seeing a bunch of parts, the left edge of the screen is blank gray but at the bottom is a box that says "subassembly drop area".

With the screen like that, grab the wad of parts off your vehicle that you want to save as a subassembly, drag them into the "subassembly drop area" box, and release. A new box will pop up allowing you to name and save the subassembly, and add a description. That's it. The saved subassembly will now appear at the top of the left area of the screen, looking like a ship on the "load ship" list.

To use a subassembly on another vehicle, open the subassembly tab again as described above, click on the desired subassembly from the list, and attach it to the vehicle same as any other wad of parts.

There are a few tricks to doing this correctly. See #2 below.

2) What the heck is the root tool? Every time I play around with it, I can only click on one thing, but it tells me to click on 2.

The primary use of this is preparing to save subassemblies. To understand it, you need to know how KSP craft files work so I'll explain that first.

KSP craft have a root part (by default, the 1st part placed, usually a pod or probe core). All other parts must attach to the root part or to chain of other parts that ultimately ends attached to the root part. These chains of other parts are "branches", and branches really can't attach just to each other. IOW, the file structure is like your hand, with the root part being the palm and the branches being your fingers.

Subassemblies can only be composed of branch parts, never the root part. Say you started with a lander can and built a whole lander with fuel, engines, and legs attached under the can. All you could save as the subassembly would be these other parts, not the can itself because it's the root part by default. You find this inconvenienty--you want the whole lander, can and all, as a subassembly for your Apollo-style rocket. You use the Root Tool to make this happen.

What you do is attach some other part, it doesn't matter what (I usually use the short box girder) to your wannabe subassembly. Then you activate the Root Tool. Now click on the part the new part is attached to. Then make a 2nd click on the new part. This turns the new, extra part into the root part and makes the entirety of the vehicle, including the can, into branch parts. So now you can grab the entire vehicle, leaving the new, extra root part behind, and save this as a subassembly.

IMPORTANT NOTE: The subassembly will only have 1 attachment node until you attach it to the vehicle you want to use it on. This attachment node will be at the joint where the subassembly was connected to the extra part when you saved it as a subassembly. So, you have to plan ahead and know how you're going to attach the subassembly the the main ship. By it's nose, by it's tail, or radially. Then, when you add the extra part and change the root while saving the subassembly, be sure you put the extra part on the right place of the wannabe subassembly.

3) Why can't I attach the rover in the picture to the lifter in the picture? I've tried angle-snap on/off. I've tried upside down, approach from every angle, tried with various pieces connected to the rover before trying to mate the two. Nothing works. The lifter will not accept the lander/rover.

Is this rover a subassembly? Did you change its root so that it has an attachment node on the bottom?

[DarkGravity]

Is this rover a subassembly? Did you change its root so that it has an attachment node on the bottom?

It is working now, thanks for the help! I was trying to merge the rover and wasn't using subassemblies.

[Mehak50]

I got the same problem now got it solved. It is a very nice discussion forum for Kerbal Space Program discussion. I really liked it. Thanks.