cubesat script writing help

[Frost24]

Hi so im working on my first mod and i have just gotten into 3d modelling with blender now i was thinking that i would make a normal cube sat with working solar panels already built  in with an antenna,etc however while i have made the textures and successfully got the cube into the game by copying a CFG file from a command pod i dont really know how i would make the solar panels work since have to be an object. normaly i guess it has to have a uniqe collision mesh so the game can figure out things like how it is oriented to the sun. so the things i would like to get help with is how do i make the solar panels on a command module work without having it as a separate part and how to i write the CFG file for it. 

thanks for all help sincerely a swedish noob

Edited May 7, 2016 by Frost24

[SpannerMonkey(smce)]

Hi the easy way for you to proceed is to extract a stock fixed solar panel using the blender KSP mu importer, you can get it in the tools section of addons. Then you can see the relationship and transforms you need..

The item you need in a solar panel is a transform called sunCatcher, it is this that is used by the game to determine how much exposure to the sun the panel has. To incorporate it into your cubesat it would be a case of just adding the solar panel part module to your cfg and adding the sunCatcher transform in unity. 

You will only be able to have one active solar panel though as multiple suncatcher transforms doesn't work very well, and I've tried multiple modules in the past and that seems to mess things up quite badly.   In conclusion you would be much better off just making some ultra light solar panels for it instead

Edited May 7, 2016 by SpannerMonkey(smce)

[Frost24]

thank you spanner and yes it does seem like it will be easier to just make seperate solar panels and it will be easier to write the config file too, i was just thinking that the future mod would not have 100 parts but a all in one instead but thanks for the help.