Subassembly Editing

[DC]

Is there any way to edit or modify subassemblies once you've created them ? I don't so much mean editing the craft files themselves, but editing or reorganising the entries in the subassemblies menu. I can neither find a mod or work out if there's any way to do it in game. I know you could edit the craft files directly but that's a bit of a drag.

[18Watt]

4 hours ago, DC said:

Is there any way to edit or modify subassemblies once you've created them ?

Not sure about that, I’ve found working with sub assemblies to be awkward and difficult.  What I do instead is simply save my ‘subassemblies’ as normal craft in the VAB or SPH.

Just a few things to make that work:

• The ‘subassembly’ needs to have the part that attaches to the main ship be the Root Part.  The Re-Root tool works well for that, just activate the Re-Root tool, click on any part, then click on the part you want to be the root.
• While building the main ship, to bring in your subassemblies click on Load New Craft.  When you find the ‘subassembly’ you want, click on Merge instead of load.  The second vessel will be loaded, and can be attached to the main ship.

I ended up using that method because I often need to make minor adjustments to subassemblies, and it’s awkward to do that with the actual subassembly mechanism- it’s much easier to just save them as normal ships.

[Fraktal]

8 hours ago, DC said:

Is there any way to edit or modify subassemblies once you've created them ? I don't so much mean editing the craft files themselves, but editing or reorganising the entries in the subassemblies menu. I can neither find a mod or work out if there's any way to do it in game. I know you could edit the craft files directly but that's a bit of a drag.

Save the subassembly again with the same name. Game will ask if you want to overwrite, click yes.

3 hours ago, 18Watt said:

The ‘subassembly’ needs to have the part that attaches to the main ship be the Root Part.

I found a few years ago that the game has trouble recognizing whether the root part is surface-attachable. Effects range from refusing to save if all of the root part's attachment points are in use, to saving the subassembly just fine but throwing nullref errors when you pick up the subassembly and try to put it back down, forcing you to kill the game executable.

[18Watt]

17 minutes ago, Fraktal said:

I found a few years ago that the game has trouble recognizing whether the root part is surface-attachable. Effects range from refusing to save if all of the root part's attachment points are in use, to saving the subassembly just fine but throwing nullref errors when you pick up the subassembly and try to put it back down, forcing you to kill the game executable.

Yep.  I haven't had effects quite as serious as that, but eventually gave up completely on making surface-attachable parts the root for subassemblies, or even for regular ship files.  

My solution was to save all subassemblies as regular ship files, and yes I also get the best results when the root is an inline part, and at least one node is free.

One exception is when I try to mount a small aircraft radially to a large ship.  That is always a frustrating process.  The root part in that case is ideally a fuselage section with both nodes occupied, which I then need to attach radially to a decoupler of some sort.  Making that work has been hit or miss for me. I always eventually make it work, but it is frustrating.