Protractor - Rendezvous Plugin - Under New Management!

[diomedea]

@ Mildmicah:

You want to find the distance among three satellites, all of them moving along the same orbit, their mean anomaly exactly at 120° one another (perfect triangle when orbit has eccentricity = 0), this orbit having period (T) = 3 hours?

First, you need to find the orbital radius "a" (in case of a perfect circular orbit, both semi-major and semi-minor axes are the same as the radius).

This formula gives it: a = (µ (T /2 À)²)^1/3; µ = gravitational parameter; À = 3.1415...

In case of Kerbin, with T= 3 hours = 10800 sec, that formula gives a= 2185.176028 km; given Kerbin radius = 600 Km, the altitude is 1585.176028

With the orbital radius "a", you can find the side of the inscribed triangle, with this formula: side = a 3^1/2 , that is = 3784.835903 km.

[Flight]

Hi guys, I'm trying to install Protractor (my first mod). Unzipped under "Kerbal Space Program\GameData\..." and launched the game, but nothing appeared. I was expecting an icon or something on map view to activate the UI. Is there anything else I have to do to make it work? It doesn't seem to change anything at all in the game. Thanks in advance!

[Dweller_Benthos]

Hi guys, I'm trying to install Protractor (my first mod). Unzipped under "Kerbal Space Program\GameData\..." and launched the game, but nothing appeared. I was expecting an icon or something on map view to activate the UI. Is there anything else I have to do to make it work? It doesn't seem to change anything at all in the game. Thanks in advance!

If you're playing career, the needed parts are in the tech tree, under advanced electrics, see this post for where it is. If you haven't already opened that node, you need to get the science needed to do so, if you already have that node open, just click it again like the screenshot, and click the parts and research them. You can then add the parts to your ship, they are in the science tab it memory serves.

[Roxette]

... trying to install Protractor (my first mod). Unzipped under "Kerbal Space Program\GameData\..." and launched the game, but nothing appeared ...

It sounds like you've installed it correctly, so you should see the directories like this:

and in the assembly building you should see the parts under the science tab like this:

so once a ship that you have added the part to is on the launchpad you should see the interface, and the small icon to turn it on and off, like this:

If you want to use the protractor function on any vessel without having to stick a part on somewhere, you can use the ModuleManager addon, which is just a DLL you can download from the link in this forum post - this addon reads a text file and uses the information to modify other game objects. By creating a file anywhere within the GameData subdirectory tree with the extension .cfg (e.g. [path prefix]Kerbal Space Program\GameData\myaddons.cfg ) and containing this text :

@PART[*]:HAS[@MODULE[ModuleCommand]] {
MODULE {
name = ProtractorModule
}
}

- when KSP loads, the modulemanager dll processes this file, and adds the protractor function to all command pods, so any and all vessels will have the protractor available, even those previously launched and in flight before it was installed.

See the previous post for visibility of the parts if you are playing in career mode.

[gilflo]

Hi

I cannot adjust Phi angle: My TMR is 0, don't understand why: I have a big lander docked to an atomic Pusher. TMR means Thrust to mass ratio, i think, so do I see 0 TMR, even with engine running?

[mrenigma03]

Sorry for the delayed reply. I didn't see this until the work week started.

What is the atomic Pusher? My intuition tells me Protractor isn't recognizing this as an engine due to it probably being a mod engine. If you can direct me to what this is, I can take a look at it this weekend.

[gilflo]

Just type FTmN in Kerbal Space Port and you'll find FTmN Atomic Rocket.

I built a 7 engines Atomic FtmN Atomic pusher around 7 Rockomax orange tanks.

The pusher is just docked behind the ship

[PBTS]

I'm having the same issue.

Not sure if this helps, but Engineer Redux recently pushed out a update for compatibility with using ModuleEnginesFX like the FTmN series.

http://kerbalspaceprogram.com/0-18-1-kerbal-engineer-redux-v0-5/

So I'm assuming the same has to be added here for protractor to work with FTmN.

[PBTS]

I actually got it to work. Please excuse my noobness as I'm not 100% familiar with github, etc. But I set up an IDE based on the KSP wiki instructions and made a couple quick changes:

I changed line 1279 from:

 else if (p.Modules.Contains("ModuleEngines"))

To:

else if (p.Modules.Contains("ModuleEngines") || p.Modules.Contains("ModuleEnginesFX"))

Then I replicated this block of code at 1283, only I replaced ModuleEngines with ModuleEnginesFX:

 if (pm is ModuleEngines && pm.isEnabled)
                        {
                            ModuleEngines me = (ModuleEngines)pm;
                            //double amountforward = Vector3d.Dot(me.thrustTransform.rotation * me.thrust, forward);
                            if (!me.flameout)
                            {
                                thrustmax += me.maxThrust;
                                thrustmin += me.minThrust;
                            }
                        }

In other words I copy and pasted, I did not replace.

After compiling it, I successfully used it to send a vessel towards Duna using FTmN. Hope this helps.

[gilflo]

I got the last Engineer redux, but Protractor does to work better on actual vessel.

In which document did you change the line code?

It does not work anymore on new vessel as soon as we are at the FTmN nuclear stage

Edited February 8, 2014 by gilflo

[lyndonguitar]

Will it work with edited orbits like on planet factories, real solar systems and such?

[mrenigma03]

Ok, I updated the plugin. It is 100% untested, so I make no promises that it works a) with the atomic rockets or anymore, like, at all

Someone please give it a try and reassure me I didn't break anything.

lyndonguitar, I haven't tested those myself, so others may be able to give you more accurate feedback. However, I coded the plugin with the intention that it not be tied to a particular solar system, so it grabs all the bodies from FlightGlobals.Bodies. If the mod works by altering that, then Protractor should adjust accordingly. The only caveat is, the system has to be somewhat analogous to the stock one in that e.g. moons cannot have moons.

[CalculusWarrior]

Just a quick question mrenigma. Are you considering making Protractor integrate with Toolbar?

[likke_A_boss]

Just a quick question mrenigma. Are you considering making Protractor integrate with Toolbar?

Oh, 2nd this idea!

[KhaosCorp]

Just a quick question mrenigma. Are you considering making Protractor integrate with Toolbar?

YES pleeeeese =)

Also just curious...does anyone ever use the non-tape version?? I never do, actually delete it out of the folder. If im gonna attach a good ol TI calculator to my ship its gonna be with tape!!!!

[Seeker89]

I don't know if this is asked or just crazy...

Could you make the protractor able to get from moons to planets? like mun to duna?

OH BTW love the mod.

[Dweller_Benthos]

I don't know if this is asked or just crazy...

Could you make the protractor able to get from moons to planets? like mun to duna?

OH BTW love the mod.

I don't think that's possible, mathematics-wise. Not that I'm an expert on such things, but I've never seen a transfer calculation from a moon to a different planet, probably that n-body thing again.

[mrenigma03]

Toolbar: I'd like to, if I can find the time. I'm not against it, just burnt out from real life obligations.

Moon -> Planet: This is already implemented. Orbit a moon, and a new button appears. Click it. Also read the manual for how to use it.

[Dweller_Benthos]

Toolbar: I'd like to, if I can find the time. I'm not against it, just burnt out from real life obligations.

Moon -> Planet: This is already implemented. Orbit a moon, and a new button appears. Click it. Also read the manual for how to use it.

Interesting, I've never noticed this. Though, usually when I'm orbiting a moon, I have no intention of going to another planet, so must have never looked for it. Very nice.

[TBryson2]

Just a quick question mrenigma. Are you considering making Protractor integrate with Toolbar?

Ditto!

TBryson2

[Absolute Human]

When will the toolbar support and integration be added? I feel like it is time...

[mrenigma03]

When will the toolbar support and integration be added? I feel like it is time...

Toolbar: I'd like to, if I can find the time. I'm not against it, just burnt out from real life obligations.

In the meantime, if someone is feeling spunky and wants to take a crack at it, there's a reason I release the code on github and not in a .txt file: https://github.com/mrenigma03/protractor

[gilflo]

Hello

Still TMR 0 with use of FTmN Nuclear engines. I just launch with some DV left on lower Mainsail stage and the Phi angle was well indicated in the protractor window, but when I separated this stage a few second later to burn on FTmN the indication read TMR 0

[mrenigma03]

Hmm...is it working for anyone else?

[Ghost13]

I'm ok with current Protractor impementation. But I would rather have a launch window timer (similar to Kerbal Alarm Clock) that will say 10 days till Duna launch window or 5 days till Eve launch window. This will simplify things a lot since I rather to do maneuver nodes that simply burn prograde and look for the encounter.