Struts not going where I want/expect them to

[maddog59]

I've noticed this in both the SPH and VAB: sometimes the 2nd end of a strut will jump to another point on the ship ... sometimes reasonably close to where I've placed it, sometimes quite some distance away. This happens regardless of what mirror/symmetry mode, and whether or not Angle Snap is on or off. Sometimes they don't even attach: I click to start the strut on one part; drag the end to another part where I want the end to be (the second part turns green); when I release, the end of strut might not even appear, just leaving the starting 'nub' of the strut in it's place; other times the end jumps to another part that's connected to the part I release. And sometimes the end attaches where I want it to attach.

Even more maddening is that sometimes the struts look right (or acceptable) on one side of the ship, while on the other, the corresponding strut (placed w/ symmetry) is completely off.

I can understand this happening when I've inadvertently placed a part slightly off-center (for instance, strutting a nose cone to the body, when I've got a probe core between them the core is off-center). But my question applies to ships where I've used symmetry to build the parts I'm strutting. 

Why don't the end of the struts attach where I click? What 'rules' am I missing?  Thanks!!

[HansAcker]

On 11/22/2020 at 4:45 PM, maddog59 said:

sometimes the 2nd end of a strut will jump to another point on the ship

Unless your struts really behave differently than everywhere else, the second end requires a "line of sight" to the first. If it hits any other part in the direction you chose, it will be placed there. Struts don't intersect parts other than struts.

On 11/22/2020 at 4:45 PM, maddog59 said:

Even more maddening is that sometimes the struts look right (or acceptable) on one side of the ship, while on the other, the corresponding strut (placed w/ symmetry) is completely off.

That often happens with parts whose models are asymmetric, e.g. the large tanks with cable raceways at one side. One of the ends will either embed into the texture or hover in the air. They still should work as expected and funnel forces from one part to another.

[maddog59]

9 hours ago, HansAcker said:

Unless your struts really behave differently than everywhere else, the second end requires a "line of sight" to the first. If it hits any other part in the direction you chose, it will be placed there. Struts don't intersect parts other than struts.

Right, I learned that a while ago ... but no matter how carefully I'm placing the strut ends (from nose to tank, or vice versa for instance, in my asparagus staging), it's just not working. I've rebuilt it a couple of times now from scratch, restarted the game a couple of times, and just can't see what I'm doing wrong.

[HansAcker]

10 hours ago, maddog59 said:

but no matter how carefully I'm placing the strut ends (from nose to tank, or vice versa for instance, in my asparagus staging), it's just not working. I've rebuilt it a couple of times now from scratch, restarted the game a couple of times, and just can't see what I'm doing wrong.

Maybe be a (modded) part with a weird hidden collider? A picture of the problem might help.

[maddog59]

Thanks for taking the time to respond; not sure what I did, whether restarting the game enough times or what, but things seem to be behaving again. I imagine it was really just a problem somewhere in the chair-to-keyboard interface!