How do I merge two crafts?

[Lechu]

Hi.

I have a plane and a rover. Both have a radial de-coupler. How do I merge them?

 

[Geonovast]

I don't think that particular setup will work.  The decoupler only has one radial attachment point, which you've used already on both of them.  Even with proper re-rooting, I don't think this will happen.

A simple MM patch could make this happen though.  I've been meaning to do something like that with Superfluous Nodes anyway.  I'll get the patch for you in a moment...

[Geonovast]

Here we go.

I see you have KER, but no other apparent mods, so you'll need ModuleManager.

Then paste this text into a new file in your GameData directory.  Call it whatever you wish, as long as it has a .cfg file extension.

@PART[radialDecoupler2]
{
    node_stack_plate = -0.65, 0.0, 0.0, -1.0, 0.0, 0.0, 1
    @attachRules = 1,1,1,1,1
}

 

Then re-load the game.  Once that's done, you should be able to set the decoupler as the root part of the rover, then attach the two nodes on the decouplers.

 

(replies ironically merged)

Of course I go through all of that and then realize you could just use the BZ-52 Radial Attachment Point instead.. doh.  Oh well, I needed that patch anyway.

Edited September 7, 2019 by Geonovast

[dire]

The normal answer would be, "Remove the decoupler from the rover. Hit the reroot tool and set the rover's root to the part that goes on the decoupler. Attach the rover by the root to the plane."

Edit: Fixed

Edited September 8, 2019 by dire

[Geonovast]

22 minutes ago, dire said:

The normal answer would be, "Remove the decoupler from the plane. Hit the reroot tool and set the rover's root to its decoupler. Attach the rover by the decoupler to the plane."

 

Doesn't work.  By default the decoupler cannot be the root part.  Even if it did, it still wouldn't work since the decoupler's surface attach point has already been used.

Go ahead and give it a try.

[bewing]

1 hour ago, Geonovast said:

Doesn't work.  By default the decoupler cannot be the root part.  Even if it did, it still wouldn't work since the decoupler's surface attach point has already been used.

Go ahead and give it a try.

Yeah, well -- because that's not how you do it. You build your rover so that it doesn't have a decoupler. You put the decoupler on the plane, then attach the rover to the decoupler. (The attachment part on the rover still needs to be the root part, of course.)

[Superfluous J]

Just now, bewing said:

Yeah, well -- because that's not how you do it. You build your rover so that it doesn't have a decoupler. You put the decoupler on the plane, then attach the rover to the decoupler. (The attachment part on the rover still needs to be the root part, of course.)

Then your rover has a decoupler on it forever.

I figured out a way, once, to double-decoupler things and get them attached without mods, but don't have the ability to play right now to see if I can re-figure it out. I did it though to my otherwise nonworking asteroid glider 3.0 with the wings. They were attached with radial decouplers on both the wing and ship, that when all was done were a separate craft apart from the ship and the wing.

[BudgetHedgehog]

1 hour ago, 5thHorseman said:

Then your rover has a decoupler on it forever.

This is when I would break out the offset tool to hide the decoupler, put the rover where I want it, and make it look like it's held in place with struts:

Spoiler

 

[bewing]

4 hours ago, 5thHorseman said:

Then your rover has a decoupler on it forever.

If there is an additional requirement to decouple from both ends, then you put a radial decoupler, a cubic octag, and then an upside-down radial decoupler. Now it decouples from both ends without having to use MM to do it.

[Lechu]

Thank you for all the answers. I have thought that decouplers on the both parts would make things easier... After removing one, from the rover, and doing something with re root gizmo (I still don't understand how re rooting is supposed to work) I have managed to merge the crafts. Well, for some reason rover merged upside down, but I rotated it.