Sub Assemblies and Mounting Probes in cargo bays

[Bosun]

Hi All,

I cannot use the Sub Assemblies feature. It was recommended that i build my probes as sub assemblies and then load them into the main construction of the space plane I'm using, however it only tells me that the part I have selected isn't attachable, despite it having attachment nodes.

I tried to save the file for the probe and then merge it with the space plane file, however that resulted in me being unable to select the open nodes on the probe as a single unit. I had to SHIFT-select each individual part in order, essentially rebuilding it, piece by piece, inside the bay, which was painful.

Is there any way in the game to build a probe separately and then load it as a single unit into a cargo bay? Currently, I can't figure out how. I suspect I'm just not using the right selection button combo once I merge files? Instead of Shift select, is there another combo that will allow me to activate the nodes on the space probe without deconstructing it first?

[kujuman]

When using subassemblies, you can only attach them by the root part in the subassembly (either a node or surface attach). For example, consider a simple ship consisting of a (in order, top to bottom) docking port, Probe core, fuel tank, and an engine. If the first part you placed was the probe core, if you try to make it a subassembly, you can only attach it to the new ship by the probe core--but since both the top and bottom nodes are already occupied, you can't actually connect it. There are two ways to get around this: the first is to make the first part the docking port, and then build down from it; the second method (and is generally easier) is to, after you build the ship but BEFORE dragging it over the subassembly area ("Drop Subassembly Here" I think), use the re-root tool (press 4 on your keyboard while in the editor to start using the tool) to make the docking port the root part.

Hopefully that makes some sense when you're actually doing it in game.