Building Tip Please.

[stunt-kerbal]

whenever i buld a BIG craft,it always fall. normaly ,you just add more strut, but my computer just doesn't like strut, and lag REAL BAD if i add many struts, so does anyone know how to build a big ship without using many struts? or just some building tip, because i can build spacecraft that can travel to mun, minmus, but not other planets, like EVE ore Duna. Please help

P/S how do you switch the forum layout, i accidently click on the Switch Layout button and now it's look like something you would see on a Iphone or something.

[Mikki]

I can answer your first question, if you like to have stiffer (not unbreakable!) joints you can find a mod called KJR, however, some consider this cheating...

Look here:

http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/index.php?/topic/50911-105-kerbal-joint-reinforcement-v314-62215/

Edited December 25, 2015 by Mikki

[livefree75]

Some pictures of one of your crafts and/or the specifications of your computer would help a lot.

Normally, you don't need a TON of struts, just enough to hold the craft together. If you are only putting the bare minimum of struts currently, your ship will probably lag almost as much without them.

You also might want to consider executing your mission with multiple launches, putting the vessel together in orbit. This will eliminate most of the need for stability during launch, and you won't have to build a huge rocket, just a few (relatively) small ones. You might still have some problems with lag in space, but it won't be as problematic as lag normally is in the atmosphere/during launch and ascent.

I hope this helps, and again, some images and computer specs would be very useful.

P.S. Happy holidays!

P.P.S. Welcome to the forums!

[pandaman]

Hi, and welcome.  And a merry christmas too.

I can't give you any 'guaranteed fix' tips, because from my experience it depends on many things... But I'll have a go...

Try and use as few parts was possible.

Larger diameter parts tend to be more rigid when stacked than smaller ones, and for things like fuel tanks you don't need as many for a given capacity, so that saves on part count too.

Take care to place struts efficiently, depending on the situation you may be able to get away with less of them if you place them so they cross diagonally, rather than straight up and down, as they can brace the load more effectively.

Really the best advice is to just experiment and find out what works best for you.  I hope this helps a little at least.

[Wallygator]

build big as in tall or build big as in wide?

judicious but not over-strutting it good.

One assumes we are talking sandbox - still, pictures and a specific mission profile would be helpful.

[Snark]

Welcome to the forums!

Yah, pics would really help. In particular, just how big is "big", here?

In general, the bigger the ship, the harder it is to maintain structural integrity, because physics.

If you're talking something under a thousand tons, then that's a size that's reasonably doable in stock, as long as it's judiciously designed. But if you're trying to make a juggernaut that's many thousands of tons, you're likely to run into problems.

Edited December 25, 2015 by Snark

[swjr-swis]

1) Place struts strategically. What looks like a wobbly mess unstrutted can often be rigidized more than enough with surprisingly few struts, if you know where to place them.

• Look for the biggest wobbles first. Big wobbles tend to have an indirect effect on the rest of the craft, so removing the worst offenders first tends to make smaller wobbles disappear as well.
• Watch where the pivot point of the wobble is: often it's where stuff is attached, eg. radial decouplers for boosters. Place struts as far from that pivot point as possible, and start at the bottom (for some reason that works better than the top). Often one strut away from the pivot is more than enough. If that proves not enough, place a strut at the opposite end. If that is not enough, the attachment point is too weak and you probably need to rethink the design anyway.
• Take advantage of symmetry whenever you can, because otherwise struts will add inexplicable tendencies to roll/yaw/pitch to your craft or parts of it. Try to add the symmetry from the inside/core outward. Sometimes you have to zoom in and pan the camera 'into' the craft to be able to do this.

There's another thing: invisible clipping. Sometimes parts are clipped into each other according to the game, even when visually there is air between them. For example, when you say 'big' I naturally think 3.75m in stock, which often means using Mammoth engines (I mean, what else, right?).

With Mammoth-based boosters in radial symmetry (we are talking big, aren't we?) the problem is most often not so much a lack of struts, but that the Mammoth has an invisible collission mesh that is bigger than the visible engine. This leads to the engines 'clipping' or bouncing even though visually they appear to be separated. This results in a rocket that will seemingly lift off ok, but at reaching the first separation blows into smithereens, and no amount of struts will solve because it's the engines bouncing off each other than makes the decoupled boosters fly off and rotate in weird directions.

Solution: attach the radial Mammoth-based boosters with two structural pylons (the decouplers that look like forward slanted wings parts) - Place one pylon, then another pylon on top of it (disable staging for the 2nd one), then you place the 3.75m tank and build the booster. That should create enough space for Mammoths at the base even up to 6x symmetry. Strut the Mammoth's in 6x symmetry to each other and it's perfectly stable. At decoupling the boosters will just slide off in a straight line down and will not start to rotate until well clear of the craft.

The Mammoths are an extreme case of this clipping, but if you build with the default radial decouplers, which hardly add any space at all, you will notice this problem with 2.5m and even some 1.25m parts as well. So, create enough space.

Edited December 25, 2015 by swjr-swis

[GoSlash27]

The best advice I can give you:

 You don't need to build "bigger" to reach further. You just need to build more efficiently.  You can run missions all the way out to Eeloo and back complete with labs and landers without resorting to huge part counts and struts.

If you just want to build big, I definitely recommend launching them in chunks and assembling them in orbit with the 2.5m docking ports.

 Finally... If you need to strut, don't just add a bunch of struts across a weak point as band- aids. Use them so that they complete a triangle. Where you add struts counts for a lot more than how many.

Hth's

-Slashy