[1.4] Project Manager - Group and Autonumber Your Launches [09/03/2018]

[Beale]

SEE NEW THREAD IN SIGNATURE.

Edited July 23, 2019 by Beale

[Rock3tman_]

Congrats on the first plugin! Very useful!

[dboi88]

Downloading Immediately! Congrats on getting your first plug in release!

[CobaltWolf]

First (plugin)

Edited April 18, 2017 by CobaltWolf

[Guest]

YAY! No more wondering anymore which Gemini 3 is actually Gemini 14.

[cxg2827]

First plugin, great work baele!

[münambulist]

Looks great! Would love an option for roman numerals instead of decimal.

[thunder175]

Is this compatible with Kerbal Construction Time?

[Beale]

12 hours ago, münambulist said:

Looks great! Would love an option for roman numerals instead of decimal.

I will look into it.

Rather than introduce a new tag or something for roman numerals ( Maybe something like [RN] ), maybe it would be best to add a setting to the mod, so you can go from launching Gemini 11 to Gemini XI, but the numbering is not "bound" to a project or anything.

I am kind of re-thinking having a GUI at all, and keeping the plugin very light and "hidden".

11 hours ago, thunder175 said:

Is this compatible with Kerbal Construction Time?

It should be compatible with pretty much anything, as long as the standard rollout game event is being called.
The numbering might not work right on extra-planetary launchpads, etc as I'm unsure how they work, but it will still be compatible.

If anybody can confirm it works with other launchpad mods, that would be very handy.

 

[thunder175]

21 minutes ago, Beale said:

It should be compatible with pretty much anything, as long as the standard rollout game event is being called.

I just tested this with KCT and indeed it does work with a catch. Since KCT basically saves the spacecraft in the persistence file until its ready to launch, the name is still bracketed in the KCT assembly queue. In other words, if you have [ComSat] and click build a couple times, you'll have multiple [ComSat] being built in the construction queue with no numbering. When you roll out to the pad and then hit the KCT launch button, the vehicle is then name appropriately as ComSat 1, ComSat 2, etc. I think this will be especially useful for block production when the design changes slightly.

The one thing I would ask is that for those of us adding to existing saves, there doesn't appear a way to get ProjectManager caught up with our current numbering scheme. Does the plugin store the current sequence number somewhere? Or asking another way, is there a way to manually increment the number sequence to start at a higher number? I track everything manually in my own Excel file and would like to utilize this in my ongoing save. 

[Beale]

1 hour ago, thunder175 said:

I just tested this with KCT and indeed it does work with a catch. Since KCT basically saves the spacecraft in the persistence file until its ready to launch, the name is still bracketed in the KCT assembly queue. In other words, if you have [ComSat] and click build a couple times, you'll have multiple [ComSat] being built in the construction queue with no numbering. When you roll out to the pad and then hit the KCT launch button, the vehicle is then name appropriately as ComSat 1, ComSat 2, etc. I think this will be especially useful for block production when the design changes slightly.

The one thing I would ask is that for those of us adding to existing saves, there doesn't appear a way to get ProjectManager caught up with our current numbering scheme. Does the plugin store the current sequence number somewhere? Or asking another way, is there a way to manually increment the number sequence to start at a higher number? I track everything manually in my own Excel file and would like to utilize this in my ongoing save. 

Thanks for testing!

Regarding existing saves, yes - you can get Project Manager caught up.

If you Go in <KSP Directory>/Saves/<Your Save Game>/projectmanager.settings and open this file in notepad, you can see the current projects in a save game and what number they are on.

For example:

ComSat
{
   launchCount = 2
}

If you have a "Thunder 57" craft in orbit and want the next one to be "Thunder 58" and so on, create a new craft with a [Thunder] tag and create an entry in the settings file like:

Thunder
{
    launchCount = 57
}

Hope this helps.

I'll put a better explanation of this in the first post.

 

You can also use this technique if you ruin a launch (forget RCS thrusters ever?) and want to roll back the numbers, or want to erase a launch record completely.

Edited April 19, 2017 by Beale

[smotheredrun]

27 minutes ago, Beale said:

You can also use this technique if you ruin a launch (forget RCS thrusters ever?)

All of the time!

Thanks for this plug in! Looks like I get to make some more decals

[münambulist]

2 hours ago, Beale said:

Rather than introduce a new tag or something for roman numerals ( Maybe something like [RN] ), maybe it would be best to add a setting to the mod, so you can go from launching Gemini 11 to Gemini XI, but the numbering is not "bound" to a project or anything.

That'd be perfect.

[Noobton]

Looks great! might have to edit my current save

[monstah]

19 hours ago, Beale said:

a small and unintrusive plugin

I love you.

4 hours ago, Beale said:

so you can go from launching Gemini 11 to Gemini XI

Huh? 

<parse error syntax error unexpected>

I swear it took me like 5 tries to correctly understand this sentence.

But nice, will definitely give this a try when I get home  

[Beale]

2 hours ago, monstah said:

I swear it took me like 5 tries to correctly understand this sentence

It means as an idea you can switch between Arabic and Roman numerals.

[Frybert]

23 hours ago, CobaltWolf said:

First (plugin)

Yes I see that hidden part.

[Beale]

On 19/04/2017 at 11:04 PM, Frybert said:

Yes I see that hidden part.

You need to let him be first in at least one thing in life 

 

To get back on topic!

How do people feel about the formatting?

Currently it is:

<shipname> <launchnumber>

I.E. Soyuz 12

Other styles?

Soyuz-12
Soyuz - 12 
Soyuz (12)
Soyuz XII (already proposed).
Soyuz twelve

 

[Murdabenne]

I go with your original format: Shiptype Number, and an option to make the number a roman numeral.  Sometimes simple is best. 

The rest of the things I might want like "F16C (Bloc 50) 33"  or "Type-XXI (Mk2.bis) 17"  can be put in the name string to generate unique launches per type.

[thunder175]

Just following up from an earlier post. I love this mod with KCT on a new career save. It's really helping keeping the clutter down in the craft files since I'm using a block buy mentality in my spacecraft design. Definitely recommend using the name outside the brackets to differentiate between craft in the KCT construction queue. 

I know there was a desire to keep this mod lightweight and simple, but I offer a suggestion to expand the mod with a GUI for true program management. Would be great to have a log per program showing all vehicles, with launch date, cost, etc. That would finally eliminate the need for a separate Excel spreadsheet for the truly OCD.

[Beale]

20 minutes ago, thunder175 said:

Just following up from an earlier post. I love this mod with KCT on a new career save. It's really helping keeping the clutter down in the craft files since I'm using a block buy mentality in my spacecraft design. Definitely recommend using the name outside the brackets to differentiate between craft in the KCT construction queue. 

I know there was a desire to keep this mod lightweight and simple, but I offer a suggestion to expand the mod with a GUI for true program management. Would be great to have a log per program showing all vehicles, with launch date, cost, etc. That would finally eliminate the need for a separate Excel spreadsheet for the truly OCD.

Glad to hear you enjoy it  

For the second part - I can immediately add this information to be logged in the next update, then eventually when we have a GUI you could view this info in-game.
In the mean-time, if this information is logged, you can at the minimum look into the settings file that is saved to disk in notepad.

Edited April 22, 2017 by Beale

[Stone Blue]

1 hour ago, Beale said:

In the mean-time, if this information is logged, you can at the minimum look into the settings file that is saved to disk in notepad.

Would it be a lot of work, to have it maybe save as a .csv? So people could import to text or spreadhsheet type of their choice?

[Beale]

11 minutes ago, Stone Blue said:

Would it be a lot of work, to have it maybe save as a .csv? So people could import to text or spreadhsheet type of their choice?

Not really, it only comes to the issue of if people are comfortable with me saving non-strictly game related files on their computer.

Is that even allowed with Addon posting rules?

Edited April 22, 2017 by Beale

[TheRagingIrishman]

3 hours ago, Beale said:

Not really, it only comes to the issue of if people are comfortable with me saving non-strictly game related files on their computer.

Is that even allowed with Addon posting rules?

you can save whatever files you want as long as they stay within the /KSP folder

[Stone Blue]

8 hours ago, Beale said:

Not really, it only comes to the issue of if people are comfortable with me saving non-strictly game related files on their computer.

Is that even allowed with Addon posting rules?

There are several other mods (even very old ones) like Graphotron, and IIRC, even MechJeb, which can save logged data... IIRC, I think the rules are strictest with source code, but as long as its stated in the OP that the mod can create and save its own files as well, i belive youre good to go... Best to ask, but I think thats the gist of it...
Theres even a couple mods, that their ONLY purpose is to pull data from the KSP logs, and save it in seperate log files they create themselves...

Edited April 23, 2017 by Stone Blue