Things I hate about the editor

[Mad Rocket Scientist]

To be fair, it used to be a looooot worse. Remember the old part list layout? No offset/rotate/re-root gizmos? When you couldn't toggle between radial and mirror symmetry and had to save ships as subassemblies to move them between editors if you wanted to? Remember when you sometimes couldn't place engines at the bottom of symmetrical stacks because they "clipped" into the stack? Or when you couldn't place a part because it was touching another part by a pixel and you had to enable part clipping in the debug menu? Oh, the wars that were fought over whether that was 'correct' or morally right..

http://s29.postimg.org/9pvu7khhj/screenshot27294.png

Random screenshot from Google, I think it's 0.22 or 0.23.

The editor certainly has come a long way. Still, Alt+click copying a part should maintain that parts orientation, not be even worse than a new part.

Oh yes, I remember the happy day I discovered "Enable part clipping" before that...

[...]

Same as with local or absolute reference, the f key. I'm constantly switching this as well.

[...]

So what does that do? I've never understood it. It seems to make no difference in attaching stuff.

There is a mod that enables FPS-like VAB camera controls. I am yet to try it.

I love it, but I've also heard mixed reviews.

[Majorjim!]

So what does that do? I've never understood it. It seems to make no difference in attaching stuff.

Pressing f changes the offset and rotate gizmos symmetry between between being around the vessel or the parent part. It's very handy indeed.

[Mad Rocket Scientist]

Pressing f changes the offset and rotate gizmos symmetry between between being around the vessel or the parent part. It's very handy indeed.

Oh! I see! I've got to try that!

[Superfluous J]

Pressing f changes the offset and rotate gizmos symmetry between between being around the vessel or the parent part. It's very handy indeed.

I always thought (for offset at least) it changed the offset between how it was mounted and absolute gridlines. I've never tried it on rotate and am now curious to do so.

[Majorjim!]

I always thought (for offset at least) it changed the offset between how it was mounted and absolute gridlines. I've never tried it on rotate and am now curious to do so.

As I could not remember the words for the two settings I checked the wiki. Those terms are taken from that. I'm fairly sure its correct.

[Mad Rocket Scientist]

As I could not remember the words for the two settings I checked the wiki. Those terms are taken from that. I'm fairly sure its correct.

I just realized, I have been using it on rotate and offset, just not on attach mode.

[Superfluous J]

Pressing f changes the offset and rotate gizmos symmetry between between being around the vessel or the parent part. It's very handy indeed.

I always thought (for offset at least) it changed the offset between how it was mounted and absolute gridlines. I've never tried it on rotate and am now curious to do so.

As I could not remember the words for the two settings I checked the wiki. Those terms are taken from that. I'm fairly sure its correct.

I just checked in-game. For attaching radially, those two terms are used in the game, but not for the offset gizmo (hotkey 2) or rotate (hotkey 3). For those, the modes are "local" and "absolute" which is what I thought. I don't think absolute mode is all that useful as you usually want to rotate or translate relative to how you had the part attached, I've found.

[Azimech]

Take the classic example of the landing gear. Place them on a cone and the landing gear will probably have it's camber and caster set incorrect. Switch on the rotation gizmo, choose angle snap and absolute orientation. Assuming your fuselage is pointing in the standard building orientation, a single click on one of the circles of the gizmo will align the landing gear perfectly with the rest. If not, just drag a bit.

I use this for a lot of things. Aligning rudder, re-aligning propeller blades before setting a new configuration, drop tanks/bombs/missiles, wavy wing segments etc.

[Gargamel]

For what it's worth, if you need to move your whole ship in the VAB/SPH I prefer to do it by selecting the offset tool then clicking the root part (the first one you placed) and moving that. It's much easier to move the ship how you want it that way without it flying off into some stupid place.

Something I learned by accident, if you shift-click ANY part, it acts like the root part for the sake of moving the ship. Big rockets sometimes are hard to position at an appropriate elevation off the ground by dragging the capsule around, but if you shift-CLick the main engine or fin or anything down there, You will be able to move the entire ship.

[jackboy900]

I feel the exact opposite. the camera in the SPH, for me is horrible, I only build in the VAB.

I'm neutral, I often have a BDarmoury SPH focused save and my standard saves where due to SSTO incompetence and general spaceplane failure I stay away. However The VAB controls are still my muscles in-built defaults.

[Camaron]

3) Spacepilot.

[allmhuran]

* As previously mentioned, action groups symmetry breaks when symmetrically attached parts are adjusted.

* No stock alignment buttons (editor extensions provides this)

* The inability to create custom, top level categories (and even for mods, the difficulty involved in creating new top level categories... you have to create and draw rects on the screen, you can't just add an entry to a config file. WTH?)

* Pointless "Manufacturer" filter. Sitting there. Mocking me.

* No filter based on source folder

* No filter based on freely entered text/wildcard text search on part name/description/etc

* Filters, filters filters (USEFUL filters).

* On very large vessels, a new part selected from the list and brought into the editor seems to default to a position in editor space somewhere out near Duna, making it impossible to attach.

Edited September 1, 2015 by allmhuran

[zarakon]

How to cleanly cancel an accidental part grab

1. Accidentally click on something

2. Do NOT place it anywhere

3. Press DELETE

4. Press CTRL+Z

[NecroBones]

I can't remember if someone mentioned this already, but one of the things I also get frustrated with is the Structural and Utility categories having a huge mix of different functions in the same tabs.

I would love to see separate categories for:

* Parachutes

* Landing gear/legs

* Rover wheels (maybe landing gear here?)

* Electrical (batteries, solar panels, RTGs)

* Decouplers

* Launch clamps (Maybe. Since they decouple, I could see them being included with decouplers. I want a greater variety of these too.)

* Cargo bays & service bays

Even the aerodynamics could be split up a bit, separating out wings & control surfaces, vs fairings, heat shields, etc.

Searching by module helps a lot, but I think these are very cluttered primary categories.

[Mister Kerman]

I would love to see separate categories for:

* Parachutes

* Landing gear/legs

* Rover wheels (maybe landing gear here?)

* Electrical (batteries, solar panels, RTGs)

* Decouplers

* Launch clamps (Maybe. Since they decouple, I could see them being included with decouplers. I want a greater variety of these too.)

* Cargo bays & service bays

Even the aerodynamics could be split up a bit, separating out wings & control surfaces, vs fairings, heat shields, etc.

Searching by module helps a lot, but I think these are very cluttered primary categories.

I think you can make your own custom categories. It would be a ton of work though... I don't mind digging through all of my glorious unlocked parts anyways. :]

[keeper]

TBH i think the VAB and SPH are alright.

The single most annoying thing is not getting all the attachment nodes on the subassembilies, but i just about build around that now.

When i hit around 500 parts the clicky of the mouse becomes VERY unresponsive, sometimes having to click 2 or 3 times to select and unselect items.

When grabbing things in staging list there can be a huge lag when i do the draggy up or down. Especially the more parts i selected with ctrl. And sometimes not being able to scroll up to the 1st stage, it covers my "exit" button & i couldn't see the top of the list i dont think.

Sometimes, a mousepointer tip stays on the mouse e.g. when you mouse over a part on the menu "strut" e.g. then it stays with the pointer untill you mouse over it again.

And finally sometimes mouse over a part in the editor or on staging and that part will stay highlighted greeny yellow in the editor untill you mouse over it again. So when you accidently shoot past your x4 engine setup in the staging, you then have to individually mouse over those 4 engines to stop the outline thing. If it bothers you that is...

I've been meaning to fully build something in the VAB then send it up in segments, but its too big of a job, I get distracted and I end up building my units then sending them to space before i go any further.

But yea, apart from those i quite like the editor, it does the job pretty well. cool cool.

[NecroBones]

I think you can make your own custom categories. It would be a ton of work though... I don't mind digging through all of my glorious unlocked parts anyways. :]

Yeah, I started to do that at one point, but gave up when it was looking like I'd have to reorganize most of the stock parts, and most of what gets added by mods too. It's easier to just install Filter Extensions, but I'd be very happy if stock addressed this better than it does now.

Having said that... I really love the new menus as compared to the old ones. The fact that we can sort by various fields, and select by part module, etc, are all hugely useful additions.

[allmhuran]

I think you can make your own custom categories.

You can make custom subcategories, but not custom top level categories. And yeah, as you said it's a lot of work.

Thought of another thing that bugs me: clickthrough. For example, the "Do you want to save" dialog doesn't seem to trap the mouse click*, so if the "save" or "don't save" or "cancel" button is over part of your craft (which is pretty likely, since the craft is usually in the middle of the view and this is also where the dialog appears), then clicking a button can remove a part from your craft. Also true of most other clickable regions in the facilities. Some mods actually fix this for their own GUI's.

*Or, possibly, some operations respond to both "mouse down" and "mouse up", so when you mouse-down over the control it disappears, and then the mouse-up is picked up by the element behind it)

Edited September 2, 2015 by allmhuran

[RocketBlam]

I just came across something (again) that I'd like to add here.

Ladders.

GRRRR!

Often when you place a ladder, if you do some other stuff (I'm not even sure what), you can't deploy or undeploy the ladder in the VAB any more. It's stuck. And this really annoys me when I'm trying to line up ladders in a complex line, like on my recent Laythe lander. I've got several ladders in a line, and I need to line them all up so they work right, and it makes it very difficult to do this when they get stuck on or off.

[_stilgar_]

Often when you place a ladder, if you do some other stuff (I'm not even sure what)

Yes, it's VERY annoying. I think it happens when you go to the launchpad and back to VAB. Or just load the craft. Ladders work only when they are placed, when you exit VAB and go back... NOPE.

[Mister Kerman]

Yes, it's VERY annoying. I think it happens when you go to the launchpad and back to VAB. Or just load the craft. Ladders work only when they are placed, when you exit VAB and go back... NOPE.

Actually it seems to happen even if you adjust it a little with widgets and maybe place another part. It can be under a minute after you placed them, and it still happens. It's a pretty determined little bug.

As for what I hate about the editor? I hate camera controls in the Vab, but that's no biggie. What I really hate is the inability to do a geometrical auto-snap to whatever you're placing the second half of a strut to. You can't always get things pixel perfect.

Does anyone else know if the second half of a strut, or if the strut shaft itself creates drag or weight imbalance when placed atrociously? I feel like it's likely only the root of the strut that has physics attached to it, but I'm too afraid to place them haphazardly.

Edited September 2, 2015 by Mister Kerman

[Val]

...

I feel like it's likely only the root of the strut that has physics attached to it, but I'm too afraid to place them haphazardly.

I think it's just the root part.

[RocketBlam]

Yes, it's VERY annoying. I think it happens when you go to the launchpad and back to VAB. Or just load the craft. Ladders work only when they are placed, when you exit VAB and go back... NOPE.

They used to work right, they got screwed up in a patch.