What is going on here? (Malformed craft)

[archnem]

I've had this problem recently that once in a while when I leave a craft in orbit, go to the KSC and then go back to the craft, it becomes radically malformed and weird.  What is going on here?

[DeadJohn]

Weak joints in a very large craft are a common cause of twisted craft like that, but your ship is small. Were any of the parts clipped when you did your original VAB build? Were any parts wobbly in flight?

Struts or autostruts can sometimes help reduce wobbling parts. If used incorrectly, though, they can sometime trigger new twisting of parts.

The Kerbal Joint Reinforcement mod can be used instead of struts. It strengthens the connections between parts so they bend less.

Those suggestions make it less likely to occur, but I don't know of any way to untwist a a mangled ship. If you catch it early and have a recent save you can reload. Otherwise launch a replacement ship.

 

 

[jimmymcgoochie]

I've had warped craft appear when autostruts were on and then the craft was docked to something else. Try disabling all autostruts, switch to something outside of physics range/go to KSC/tracking station, then return to the craft and it might be fixed. If that doesn't help, a bit of save file editing to turn off the autostruts might do the trick; don't try and adjust the angles in the save file itself, that usually ends badly...