How do I switch to the next ship?

[jnbspace]

I have two spacecraft on journeys to and from the Mun and I want to swap between them efficiently.

The keybindings suggest [ and ] will let me do this. If I try that in the main view it protests they are too far apart and I should do nothing. If I try that in the map view the keys do nothing. I can, in the map view, click on a vessel and select switch to but then it jumps back to the main view for that vessel. Changing to map view gets me the view I want but now any information on periapsis, altitude, velocity etc is hidden again so I have to turn those on.

What I expected to do was to use [ and ] in map view to change the ship I am controlling in the map view and stay in map view. What I would like to do is to do that and also have it show periapsis, apoapsis, vessel data and scheduled manoeuvres for the selected vessel without having to turn them all back on again. Is that possible? It is possible with some kind of add on?

 

[steuben]

In ship view the two, or more, "craft" have to be within 3 kilometers of each other to use the  [ and ] keys.

Other wise you will need to right click on the craft and select "switch to". The other way is to bounce through the tracking station.

[bewing]

I assume what you want it to show is Pe, Ap, and maneuvers for both vessels at the same time? The easiest way to do that in map mode is to temporarily target the other vessel. Then it will show all info for both vessels.

If you actually switch the vessel with focus, then it will show Pe, Ap, and maneuvers for the current vessel plus any target of that vessel.

 

 

[Curveball Anders]

Note that the keys might be different on an non-US/UK keyboard.

But you can always re-assign them to something better.

 

[jnbspace]

On 4/1/2019 at 1:47 PM, bewing said:

I assume what you want it to show is Pe, Ap, and maneuvers for both vessels at the same time? The easiest way to do that in map mode is to temporarily target the other vessel. Then it will show all info for both vessels.

If you actually switch the vessel with focus, then it will show Pe, Ap, and maneuvers for the current vessel plus any target of that vessel.

 

 

Not quite, although that would be useful.

What I want to do is in map mode to have one vessel shown with Pe, Ap, Vessel data and manoeuvres shown. That is the vessel I am flying at that time. The other vessel and its orbit are visible but no data is shown. I would like to then switch to flying the next vessel in map mode with Pe, Ap, vessel data and manoeuvres show for that vessel. That was what I was hoping for when I saw a key binding linked to "switch to next vessel".

If I use the "switch to this vessel" in map mode it changes to ship view for the new vessel. I then have to switch back to map view and turn on all the data one by one.

In other words I want an efficient way to stay in map view and swap between this view;

and this view

[Snark]

6 hours ago, jnbspace said:

What I want to do is in map mode to have one vessel shown with Pe, Ap, Vessel data and manoeuvres shown. That is the vessel I am flying at that time. The other vessel and its orbit are visible but no data is shown.

Reading between the lines, here... Is switching vessels actually your purpose?  Or is your real goal simply "I'm flying vessel A, and I'd like to be able to see the numbers for vessel B while I continue flying A"?

Because if it's that second one, the answer's simple:  while you're flying A, just click on B and choose "Set as Target".  Then it will show you B's periapsis and apoapsis markers, which will show actual numbers if you mouse-over them.  (And if you'd like the numbers to stay visible even when you're not moused-over the marker, just right-click on the numbers while they're visible and they'll stay "pinned" for as long as you're in map view.

6 hours ago, jnbspace said:

If I use the "switch to this vessel" in map mode it changes to ship view for the new vessel. I then have to switch back to map view and turn on all the data one by one.

Yes, that's correct.  The "pin data to be visible" thing in map view resets all the data every time you switch in and out of map view, or switch between one ship and another.  There's no way to make it not do that, as far as I know.

[jnbspace]

31 minutes ago, Snark said:

Reading between the lines, here... Is switching vessels actually your purpose?  Or is your real goal simply "I'm flying vessel A, and I'd like to be able to see the numbers for vessel B while I continue flying A"?

Because if it's that second one, the answer's simple:  while you're flying A, just click on B and choose "Set as Target".  Then it will show you B's periapsis and apoapsis markers, which will show actual numbers if you mouse-over them.  (And if you'd like the numbers to stay visible even when you're not moused-over the marker, just right-click on the numbers while they're visible and they'll stay "pinned" for as long as you're in map view.

Yes, that's correct.  The "pin data to be visible" thing in map view resets all the data every time you switch in and out of map view, or switch between one ship and another.  There's no way to make it not do that, as far as I know.

It is switching vessels that I want to be able to do. In that example I have two vessels on return from the Mun. As each vessel passes through apoapsis or periapsis I want to be able to switch to that vessel and burn prograde or retrograde as required. The map view is ideal as it can show me all the data all I want to do is keep that view and change which vessel I am flying.

Curiously while trying various options I noticed that it appears that orbits are not updated if it is not the vessel you are flying. Both craft skim the atmosphere to lose velocity and lower periapsis but if I fly one and leave the other to its own devices it keeps the same periapsis and apoapsis regardless of how many times or low it passes through the atmosphere.

 

[Snark]

6 minutes ago, jnbspace said:

It is switching vessels that I want to be able to do. In that example I have two vessels on return from the Mun. As each vessel passes through apoapsis or periapsis I want to be able to switch to that vessel and burn prograde or retrograde as required.

Ah, okay.  Well, in that case, I'm sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but I believe that no, there's no way to have what you want, at least in the stock game.  When you switch between vessels, the "pinned data" setting in map view will reset, every time.

That's not to say that there couldn't be some mod that gives you what you want, but I don't know of any off the top of my head that do this exact thing-- you could always go ask about it in Add-on Discussions.

 

3 minutes ago, jnbspace said:

Curiously while trying various options I noticed that it appears that orbits are not updated if it is not the vessel you are flying. Both craft skim the atmosphere to lose velocity and lower periapsis but if I fly one and leave the other to its own devices it keeps the same periapsis and apoapsis regardless of how many times or low it passes through the atmosphere.

Yes, of course-- that's by design.  It's because if you're not flying the ship, it's "on rails" and will stick to its orbit regardless, unless its Pe falls below the magic 1% atmosphere limit (about 23 km on Kerbin), in which case it's silently deleted.

The reason the game works that way is that physics calculations (e.g. for aerodynamic drag on a ship) are extremely CPU-intensive, and the game can't simulate it for all-ships-in-existence.  So it only does calculations for ships that are inside the "physics bubble" (i.e. the ship you're currently flying, and any other ships that are within a few kilometers of it).