How do I get one part of my station to rotate on its axis?

[nickrulercreator]

I have this donut-like section on my station (orbiting Kerbin) that I want to rotate so that it is spinning and "simulating" gravity. I can't for my life figure out how to make just the donut rotate, and nothing else.

Anyone know? I've tried undocking it and spinning it but it destroyed my station (quicksave!!). I tried spinning it and then docking it while spinning. Nope.

What do I do? I've seen videos of people with spinning parts but they don't explain it.

[Shadowmage]

4 minutes ago, nickrulercreator said:

I have this donut-like section on my station (orbiting Kerbin) that I want to rotate so that it is spinning and "simulating" gravity. I can't for my life figure out how to make just the donut rotate, and nothing else.

Anyone know? I've tried undocking it and spinning it but it destroyed my station (quicksave!!). I tried spinning it and then docking it while spinning. Nope.

What do I do? I've seen videos of people with spinning parts but they don't explain it.

 

Mods; namely Infernal Robotics for general 'spin anything with physics'.  Other mods have parts with spinning animations; RoverDude's  USI - UKS/MKS mods have a spinning hab section.

Edited to add links...

Edited June 1, 2016 by Shadowmage

[nickrulercreator]

Just now, Shadowmage said:

 

Mods; namely Infernal Robotics for general 'spin anything with physics'.  Other mods have parts with spinning animations; RoverDude's  USI - UKS/MKS mods have a spinning hab section.

oh sweeeeet thanks

[ZooNamedGames]

you can't have independently rotating portions of your stations. It's either the entire station or none of it.

What you saw was likely from mods such as Infernal Robotics or something else.

[nickrulercreator]

Just now, ZooNamedGames said:

you can't have independently rotating portions of your stations. It's either the entire station or none of it.

What you saw was likely from mods such as Infernal Robotics or something else.

yeah i think it was a mod. Thanks

 

and nice profile pic!

[ZooNamedGames]

1 minute ago, nickrulercreator said:

yeah i think it was a mod. Thanks

 

and nice profile pic!

Thanks

[Xavven]

Some of the folks here know how to make bearings from stock parts. I haven't personally made one but I'm sure you could find it by searching "stock bearing" or something to that effect. Of course, a mod is probably better.

[fourfa]

It's definitely possible in stock, but very advanced and full of critical caveats.  It usually involves a vessel being divided into several independent sections, which interact by carefully controlled collisions between caged parts.  Things sometimes explode upon loading physics when returning to the scene.  If you ever timewarp without docking everything together, the vessels will just drift apart.  There's usually a ton of wobble.  All in all, it's a terrific and fun challenge in KSP sandbox, but probably not something you want to live with in a play save.

Edited June 1, 2016 by fourfa

[nickrulercreator]

20 hours ago, fourfa said:

It's definitely possible in stock, but very advanced and full of critical caveats.  It usually involves a vessel being divided into several independent sections, which interact by carefully controlled collisions between caged parts.  Things sometimes explode upon loading physics when returning to the scene.  If you ever timewarp without docking everything together, the vessels will just drift apart.  There's usually a ton of wobble.  All in all, it's a terrific and fun challenge in KSP sandbox, but probably not something you want to live with in a play save.

Yeah I think I'll use mods XD

[Snark]

Another mod example is RoverDude's UKS/MKS.  It contains a "habitation ring" part that has rotation as part of its built-in animation.

Moving thread to Gameplay Questions.