How do you use fairing?

[Cant think of a username]

i have no idea how to use fairings in the VAB. Someone help! They just won't set in place even after I clicked. Now thinking how I visited all the planets with no fairings.

[Superfluous J]

1. Build your payload.
2. Place a decoupler under it.
3. Place the fairing base under the decoupler. It helps to use a fairing that is larger than the decoupler in cross section.
4. Click up and around your payload, as if you are drawing the left or right side outline of the fairing in connect-the-dots fashion. Make sure you don't clip the fairing through your payload.
5. To close the fairing, just put your mouse in the center of the axis line you've been connecting the dots up on.

16 minutes ago, Cant think of a username said:

i have no idea how to use fairings in the VAB. Someone help! They just won't set in place even after I clicked. Now thinking how I visited all the planets with no fairings.

 

Edited June 18, 2020 by Superfluous J

[Spricigo]

 

You just need to give enough room for it not clip through anything and click to set each section.

Just notice that if you attach it right next to something too big (a.k.a: same radius) there is no room to set even the first section.

[Cant think of a username]

Thanks, but what buttons do I use?

 

[jimmymcgoochie]

Fairings can be tricky and there are a lot of options for them that aren't immediately intuitive.

To actually make a fairing, first place the part (you'll need a decoupler between the fairing and your payload e.g. satellite or the fairing will be stuck to it!). When you place a fairing it will automatically go into construct mode, all you need to do then is move your cursor around to drag the fairing wall into the shape you want and left click to place that section. There are limits to how wide you can make the fairing; I think the maximum radius is the same as the diameter of the part, so a 2.5m fairing can be up to 5m wide. When you want to close the fairing, just narrow it to a point and the 'place section' on screen should change to a blue 'close fairing'. You can also close the fairing by moving it into contact with a part, this can be useful if you're using a launch escape tower or just want the fairing to cover up an aerodynamically ugly section in the middle of your rocket.

The two sliders on the fairing control the number of sides and the deploy force. Number of sides is more important with the 'clamshell deploy' mode ON, it simply determines how the fairing splits up when you deploy it. Deploy force should be kept high if you're deploying the fairing in atmosphere and/or at high acceleration as that will 'throw' the pieces away with more force and so reduce the chances of damaging your payload.

'Clamshell deploy' mode is off by default and will make your fairing deploy as solid sections like real fairings do, rather than just shattering into many pieces. It looks better and in some rare cases could help avoid pieces of the fairing damaging the payload, but I don't think the differences are particularly significant. If your payload has protruding parts at a specific symmetry (e.g. 3x), then you can set your fairing to match that symmetry or a multiple of it (either 3 or 6 sides) and line it up appropriately so that the fairing splits away from those protruding parts and reduces the chances of damage. Plus it looks waaaay better, which is more important.

 'Interstage nodes' is a useful feature of fairings that lets you effectively stick multiple payloads in a single fairing by providing a column of attachment nodes rising up from the fairing part itself. These are particularly good when you want to deploy a satellite constellation using resonant orbits, haul many small satellites up in one larger rocket or just want a little bit more space between the base of the payload and the fairing part itself (e.g. if the payload is actually wider than the fairing part and a direct attachment would make the fairing ugly/impossible to build).

'Truss structure' is only relevant if you're using the interstage nodes, it will create a scaffold-like structure for each interstage node that has something attached to it. It looks like this in action:

Each satellite is attached by its own decoupler and can be deployed one by one, but the whole thing can be launched on one rocket.

(taken from here: https://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/index.php?/topic/164391-not-seeing-any-truss-structures/)

 

[Cant think of a username]

Ok So when I use the fairings, it gave me : RMB

[Streetwind]

8 hours ago, Cant think of a username said:

Ok So when I use the fairings, it gave me : RMB

That means "right mouse button". And "LMB" by contrast means "left mouse button".

[AHHans]

10 hours ago, Cant think of a username said:

Thanks, but what buttons do I use?

As already mentioned: when you place a fairing base, then you will be immediately put into "build fairing" mode. If you want to enter that mode again at a later time, then you can select one of "delete/edit/build fairing" from the PAW of the fairing base. In the "build fairing" mode you control the shape of the current section by positioning the mouse pointer, you build ("confirm") the current section with the left mouse button (LMB), and undo the last section you built with the right mouse button (RMB). You can also cancel building a fairing by hitting the RMB on the very first section.

[Cant think of a username]

Thanks everyone. I got it.