Service Bay Help

[Red Shirt]

Let's pretend I am a total idiot. How do I put stuff in a service bay? I have a node top and bottom, but I see people stacking these things full. When I try that the parts remain translucent, meaning they never attached. I really don't get it. No one else seems to have issue with them so I know it is me. Help please.

Edited July 17, 2015 by Red Shirt

[Daveroski]

Let's pretend I am a total idiot. How do I put stuff in a cargo bay? I have a node top and bottom, but I see people stacking these things full. When I try that the parts remain translucent, meaning they never attached. I really don't get it. No one else seems to have issue with them so I know it is me. Help please.

You have your bay with parts of your craft attached on either end.

When you open the doors to put a part in, you have the option of attaching to one of the nodes on either end or surface attaching it to the floor of the bay.

If the part is surface attach, simply place it where you need it.

If you are attaching to a node, press your MOD key. On windows it's ALT on Linux it's Right-Shift.

This will make the part only attach to a node.

Try to line it up with rotation before you press your MOD Key to attach it.

Holding the MOD key stops it from trying to attach to a surface and only attach to a node.

Hope this helps.

[Reddeyfish]

hold 'ALT' to have node-attachable things snap to those top and bottom nodes, attach surface-attachable things (e.g. goo, thermometers, etc.) to the inside surface of the bay.

EDIT: ninja'd

[Red Shirt]

When I put batteries in the attach to the underneath side - meaning only half the battery is visible inside the bay.

[basic.syntax]

Toggle angle snap with 'c' - surface items will attach to the inside, in 'smooth' mode.

Also, the door collider areas can cause problems, check out this picture. Placing items too close to edges can cause "you're in my space!" conflicts.

One test for this is take your assembly out to the Launchpad and open/close the doors a few times. If any parts seem to move when you do this, go back to VAB and adjust until the assembly appears solid.

[Bogeyman]

If you press ALT, yes, then you can attach individual parts.

If you want to "merge" something like a satellite or some other spacecraft that is already complete, like to put it into your space shuttle or something: It does not work.

So the only chance you have to add something preassembled into a cargo bay: Assemble it inside the cargo bay. Or, if your craft with the cargo bay is already in orbit, then you need to fly your other stuff up there, rendezvous and then dock inside that cargo bay.

But again, just adding or merging it into it, does not work. I hope that'll get fixed in the near future.

[Red Shirt]

I've tried all the things mentioned here and the parts still attach to the outside of the bay floor instead of the inside surface. Any other ideas why this is happening?

[basic.syntax]

Does the 'c' - angle snap - cause the icon for it in the lower left, to change from a hexagon to a circle? (asking in case of key mapping problem.) While it looks like a circle (smooth mode) surface mount batteries should snap to the inside. (Doors must be open.) While it's working correctly, while trying to place a battery on the inside, toggling 'c' multiple times should cause it to jump from outside to inside.

[Red Shirt]

Yep angle snap is set to circle. I finally got batteries to attach to floor. Gave up on mystery goo. Finally put an RCS tank on the node and radially attached to it. Not how it is supposed to be done but it worked.

[TythosEternal]

For the 2.5 bay, I like to place an SC-9001 Science Jr. in the middle. It naturally fits well and snaps to the aligned nodes. Then, I hang all my other goodies--batteries, flight computers, Goo, thermometers, barometers, etc.--off of the Science Jr. It's not particularly efficient, but it's very straightforward.

[Red Shirt]

For the 2.5 bay, I like to place an SC-9001 Science Jr. in the middle. It naturally fits well and snaps to the aligned nodes. Then, I hang all my other goodies--batteries, flight computers, Goo, thermometers, barometers, etc.--off of the Science Jr. It's not particularly efficient, but it's very straightforward.

Thank you. I am not alone.

[Sharpy]

did that.

The Science Jr. really, really wanted to escape. Jumping, wiggling around, knocking, making the whole ship shudder.

I don't know why.

[Ripper2900]

I've seen that too. A science Jr. inside a 2.5 service bay. As soon as the rocket was loaded at the launch pad, all he'll broke loose! Sparks flying, rattling noises and BOOOM.

I believe that the culprit is the fact that the bay has 4 nodes. 2 on the ends outside and 2 inside. Somehow we must have attached our science Jr. to the outer node, and it clipped inside the bay. Part clipping is something those bays really don't like!

A second rocket with the same way of putting a science jr. inside a bay worked nicely.

Anyone know if there's a way of determining which of the inside / outside nodes are used?

[Kryxal]

Personally, I liked the time a 1.25m bay ate Bob ... it was hilarious, but he came out of it all right!

[Red Shirt]

I changed this post to answered because I decided the problem probably is not me. Sharpy and Ripper2900 seem to be having, at least in part, my same experience. The nodes I have not experienced a problem with yet. My issue is more often than not floor attached items grab the outside surface or nothing at all no matter how I set angle snap. I checked debug for clipping and it is not checked as allowed in VAB - but things clip anyway. How do I turn this off?

[ForScience6686]

For items placed on the floor, I always have to rotate them to orient the proper way as it automatically sets the part upside down. The translucent part, from my experience, indicates your on the exterior node of the bay.