[1.8.x] Precise Maneuver editor

[Morse]

7 hours ago, Gordon Dry said:

and want to circularize and afterwards change inclination

You can change the inclination first, and then circularize. Circularization won't change your inclination. You can also use the "turn orbit" tool.

[primco]

I'll just add one more vote to add orbit increment buttons. Must have for doing Hohmann transfer during rendezvous.

[Waz]

On 5/26/2016 at 1:22 PM, Gordon Dry said:

I found something.

I choose a node, click on Focus.

But then? I can't set the focus back on my vessel...

Backspace. (i.e. normal KSP functionality)

[brusura]

On 26/5/2016 at 8:40 PM, primco said:

I'll just add one more vote to add orbit increment buttons. Must have for doing Hohmann transfer during rendezvous.

You have my vote too

Also avoid the gui "click-through"

Edited May 28, 2016 by brusura

[Gordon Dry]

And my vote...

And how about a copy-to-clipboard button and an add-clipboard-value button? To easily combine two nodes to one - which in many cases is okay (not in all though)....

[Gen. Jack D. Ripper]

And my vote. This is by far the best of the maneuver editors, and a +/- orbit button is the *one* useful tool it lacks.

[Keniamin]

+1 for +/- orbit buttons, really useful for rendezvous.
Also confirming gui "click-through" (when trajectory or some object lies under the window KSP treats click on the button like click on the trajectory/object).
The only things that annoying in this mod, despite them it's great! Change inclination buttons is a killer-feature, absolutely!

[drhay53]

I was trying to use this to reach an orbit with a precise eccentricity. I noticed that when changing the orbit with the 0.01 or 0.1 settings, the predicted eccentricity doesn't get updated. It only updates when using the 1, 10, and 100 settings.

[DuoDex]

Oh, yes. I had been frustrated with the limitations of the stock maneuver planner for a long time before I found PreciseNode, and then I was frustrated with PreciseNode...

Excellent work!

[evileye.x]

Cool mod, but + / - orbit is a must for transfers and rendezvous, please add and be official better than precise node

@Morse Also, there's a bug - next encounter periapsis does not show minus if your periapsis inside body (on collision course)

Edited June 16, 2016 by evileye.x

[peteletroll]

Works fine on 1.1.3, Linux, 64 bit

[DasValdez]

OK, this mod is totally legit. The gizmo needs to be stock. Period.

We're looking at it live on the stream right now. View pointed it out to me (thanks augustgwest!)

Also, it would be good if you broke the "snap to AN/DN/AP/PE" etc tool into it's own module, so I can have only snap to and the gizmo on the screen. This is exactly how I would design the stock node interface.

You rock.

[Deimos Rast]

pre...sets....?

[Deimos Rast]

@Morse any chance for a recompile for 1.1.3? I'm getting the popup dialogue exception error in the log and that's an easy fix.

[Morse]

@DasValdez, I just watched your stream. This is the first feedback on the gizmo tool that I got   I'm preparing some fixes for the mod now and I already addressed some of your concerns from the stream. First, I removed the dead zone (there was a technical reason for it, but I changed some stuff and now it should work without it). And second, I changed the way the "undo" behaves. Now It can save any number of changes, not just the last one. I capped it at 30, should be enough for everyone.

Considering the AP/PE buttons, as you noticed, KSP starts freaking out when you try to use these. Some people even report crashes (in this thread). I have no idea why. Moving the node to AP/PE is no different than moving it in any other place (and I mean literally, it's the very same function), but for some reason KSP has a spaz attack. I don't think you'd like KSP to crash in the middle of the stream

If you have any other idea how to improve the tool, please write them here. I'm planning to release the next version in the coming days.

[AugustWest]

Hi Morse,

I saw Das messing around with nodes the other day so pointed him your way. It is one of the "core" mods everyone should have!

The only thing I have trouble with is click-thru. Is that fixable?

+/- Orbits would be a big help...

Thank you for a great mod!!

[Morse]

11 hours ago, AugustWest said:

The only thing I have trouble with is click-thru. Is that fixable?

Probably. Right now the whole KSP GUI is a mess: half of it has migrated to the new uGUI system, while the other half is still IMGUI. This creates a lot of problems, including click-thrus. To fully fix it,  we should first wait until KSP fully migrates to uGUI. Hopefully, they'll do it in 1.2. And who knows, maybe it'll go away by itself

[Tyko]

- I've mastered perfect intercepts with Precise Maneuver -

I discovered today that you can keep advancing your maneuver node past a full orbit and actually continue forward multiple orbits in the future. I'd never tried this before and it's really useful.

Here's my new method for doing precise rendezvous -

1. start with a circular orbit lower than the target and move forward in time until I'm catching up with it.
   1. this also works if your target is behind you, just start in a higher orbit and wait until the target is catching up with you.
2. I drop a Maneuver Node when I'm still trailing the target. I'm sure there's a mathematical way of knowing exactly when to drop it, but because I can advance multiple orbits, I just drop it early.
3. Set the Maneuver Node for a prograde burn until my Apoapis is about 500m below the target's orbit. (500m above if it's behind you)
4. Advance the Maneuver Node along my orbit until I achieve a sub-1 kilometer intercept with target
   1. This might require me to advance the Maneuver Node several orbits ahead, but no worry, I can just use Precise Maneuver to keep advancing the Node around until I get my desired intercept.

The ability to advance to future orbits has taken a lot of the guesswork out of when to drop the Node in the first place. Drop it early and just advance it forward for perfect intercepts.

Edited July 18, 2016 by tjt

[Gen. Jack D. Ripper]

Would it be possible for the AN/DN buttons to snap a node to the current planet's equatorial AN/DN if no object is targeted?

[Deimos Rast]

On 7/11/2016 at 0:56 PM, Morse said:

....I'm planning to release the next version in the coming days.

I don't really care when you release it - when it's done it's done - but any chance of a status report?

[Morse]

Well, version 2.1 was released 10 days ago, you can find it in the usual place along with the changelog.

 

For 2.2 I'm planning to rework the UT control, probably add +/- orbit buttons, probably add the "snap to" functionality for the gizmo, and probably to make the input fields editable if I find how to lock the input, preventing click-throughs and hotkey-throughs (is this a term?). No ETA on that though, but probably after KSP 1.2, since input locking is probably gonna change a lot.

[Deimos Rast]

3 hours ago, Morse said:

Well, version 2.1 was released 10 days ago, you can find it in the usual place along with the changelog.

 

For 2.2 I'm planning to rework the UT control, probably add +/- orbit buttons, probably add the "snap to" functionality for the gizmo, and probably to make the input fields editable if I find how to lock the input, preventing click-throughs and hotkey-throughs (is this a term?). No ETA on that though, but probably after KSP 1.2, since input locking is probably gonna change a lot.

welp, I'm a goof, missed that version I guess.

Cheers.

[TheAnswerIsIsaacNewton]

Is there any possibility of getting some kind if "Import from Transfer Window Planner" functionality?  Something that would read from the clipboard, and parse the node settings?

 

Kerbin (@200km) -> Duna (@100km)
Depart at:      Year 1, Day 106, 0:00:00
       UT:      2268000
   Travel:      320 Days, 0:58:08
       UT:      6915489
Arrive at:      Year 1, Day 426, 0:58:08
       UT:      9183489
Phase Angle:    89.84°
Ejection Angle: 47.03° to prograde
Ejection Inc.:  -0.07°
Ejection Δv:    1439 m/s
Prograde Δv:    1439.0 m/s
Normal Δv:      -4.5 m/s
Heading:        90.18°
Insertion Inc.: -0.35°
Insertion Δv:   824 m/s
Total Δv:       2263 m/s

 

[Morse]

Yes, I was thinking precisely the same idea at some point. The problem is, the precision of this output is insufficient. I asked TriggerAu to implement an additional feature to copy the parameters with greater precision (here) but he never answered.

 

[Skalou]

i think the problem is not the precision, but our ship is probably not at the same place on the orbit compared to th reference orbit used by transfert windows planner ( or any other transfert program), an so not at the same place at the burn time point,

on my side i copy manualy the burn date and burn vector, and then adjust the date of the maneuver at more or less 1/2 period time, and it works perfectly

maybe a solution could be to adjust the mean anomaly ( or the true, i don't know what is used) of the planner or the burn date of our ship accordingly to it.

Edited August 8, 2016 by Skalou