[Win][0.23] Kerbal Orderly Parts - Dec 27 - New Version Available

[JumpsterG]

Some parts were missing when sorted, and reappeared when unsorted. When I checked on them I found that when sorted, all the missing parts had an extra PART{...} tag appended. Removing the tags manually solved the problem and let me keep my sort.

Strange. The utility should only be adding the PART{} tag if it is missing, which seemed to be working correctly when I tested it last. By any chance, were there any lines of text before the PART{} tag for these config files? Currently, it assumes the tag is the first thing in the .cfg file (allowing for empty lines or commented lines). I will probably revisit this functionality to make it more robust.

Thanks for the feedback and workaround.

[JumpsterG]

I've made a quick change to how the utility detects the PART{} tag that might fix the issue Dodecadevin reported (Get 1.4.2 from original post). The utility previously would not detect the tag if the curly bracket or other text was in the same line. It now just checks the first 4 characters of the line (ignoring white space) to see if it says "PART" (case insensitive).

The utility assumes the .cfg containing a part definition starts with the PART tag. Any other tags or text (Excepting blank lines and comments) will cause it to fail as reported. If there are any mods out there that rely on consolidating multiple tags into a single file, I will change this behavior but until I hear of such a thing, beware of this potentiality.

[Dodecadevin]

I've made a quick change to how the utility detects the PART{} tag that might fix the issue Dodecadevin reported (Get 1.4.2 from original post). The utility previously would not detect the tag if the curly bracket or other text was in the same line. It now just checks the first 4 characters of the line (ignoring white space) to see if it says "PART" (case insensitive).

I checked and you're right about all the problem parts having the curly bracket on the same line. However, even after updating to 1.4.2, the utility is still exhibiting the same behaviour I reported earlier.

[Dodecadevin]

Update: After some further fiddling, everything in 1.4.2 is functioning as intended :3 Had to Remove All Sorting Data and re-do everything, but it's working.

[JumpsterG]

Update: After some further fiddling, everything in 1.4.2 is functioning as intended :3 Had to Remove All Sorting Data and re-do everything, but it's working.

Sorry, I should have mentioned that you can do a reset, then just delete the OrderlySorting.txt files from the problem parts to have the utility rediscover them next time you open the sorting window. I suppose it can never hurt to start over with Remove All, in the event larger changes have been made by an update, though.

Regardless, Thanks very much for helping me iron out the wrinkles. This project is still relatively young and I'm glad it's reached a state where it can be useful. Once I find I am getting more positive feedback than bug reports, I will feel comfortable submitting this to the Spaceport.

[BigFatStupidHead]

Does this have the capability to delete specific parts entirely? I would find that quite useful.

[JumpsterG]

Does this have the capability to delete specific parts entirely? I would find that quite useful.

The utility doesn't delete parts, but it will allow you to set individual parts not to be loaded by KSP. Just drag them to the "Other" category button at the top of the sorter and those will be assigned an unusable category, effectively forcing KSP to ignore them. Just note that this only applies to parts, any associated plugins will still load.

I find this useful, since you can change which parts are available depending on what you are doing. Remember though, that parts required by an existing flight should not be removed if you intend to keep the flight active.

[Dodecadevin]

My game crashes a lot, and I suspect it has to do with RAM usage from having so many parts addons, so I hoped the 'Other' tab would be useful for strategic disabling of certain parts or partsets. Except, when I move anything into 'Other', they still load - they show on the game loading screen, and they're available in the VAB in their original (unsorted) locations. I don't think this category is working properly from within the parts sorter. I have experimented a few times using the following procedure:

*Open KOP > Sort Parts

*Move any number of parts or subcats into 'Other'

*Save, close KOP

*Reopen KOP > Sort Parts

*Any parts that were in 'Other' are now in their game-original category, even if I had previously moved/sorted them into alternate categories. They retain their subcategory name assignment, and their position within the subcategory, but not their category assignment.

The same thing occurs regardless of whether Apply/Reset is used at any stage. Hope this information is more helpful than bothersome!

EDIT: You don't even have to exit KOP actually. Just saving, closing the Sort window, and reopening it has the same effect as above.

Edited May 30, 2013 by Dodecadevin

[JumpsterG]

Wow, I must have broken this feature somewhere down the line. Thanks once again for the specific feedback and for your patience. I am looking at this now and will provide an update very soon to fix this.

Edit:

New version is up, 1.4.3 on original post.

I can't believe I wrote those 3 lines of code... I guess my logic was, when an invalid category was detected (put there by a modder for instance), it should save the original category instead of the "uncategorized" string that is used for all parts in the "Other" category. This effectively caused all parts placed in the "Other" category to only save their original category...

New version removes that check and just sticks the invalid "Uncategorized" value into the .cfg file for category. This correctly causes KSP to ignore the parts once again.

You shouldn't have to remove your sorting data this time, just open the sorting window and when you save from now on, the category will stick.

Edited May 30, 2013 by JumpsterG

[Dodecadevin]

I was wondering, if the 'Other' functionality assigns them to an "unusable category", does that mean KSP loading still looks at those parts and then decides it can't load them? Would it be any simpler or more effective to just move the disabled parts into some folder elsewhere, isolated from the KSP loading routine?

[JumpsterG]

I was wondering, if the 'Other' functionality assigns them to an "unusable category", does that mean KSP loading still looks at those parts and then decides it can't load them? Would it be any simpler or more effective to just move the disabled parts into some folder elsewhere, isolated from the KSP loading routine?

Now that you mention it, I don't actually know how hard KSP looks at a part folder before ignoring it. I assume that it starts parsing the .cfg file from top to bottom, stopping if it hits an invalid value; only after successfully parsing would it load models and textures. Accessing a folder and a .cfg (a text file) is generally an insignificant amount of time, so I did not worry too much.

It surely couldn't hurt to try though. Worst case scenario, you'd see load time reduced by a few milliseconds; Best case scenario, you'd see load time reduced by a few whole seconds. I might tackle this in the next round of added features.

[JumpsterG]

Updated version (1.5) on Original Post. If you're upgrading from 1.4.x, you wont have to do anything except replace the .exe. Your sorting data will be maintained.

-The biggest change is that the "Other" Category is now labeled "DISABLE". The functionality behind it is now as suggested by Dodecadevin above: the folders for disabled parts are moved outside of the GameData folder entirely and will not be seen by KSP when it starts.

-SubCategories are now tracked separately for each installation of KSP you have, so saving sorting data on one no longer affects the subcategory order of another.

-I also threw the MaxThrust variable into engine tooltips (which seem to be working more often now, either as a result of me optimizing some of the parts code or space magic).

Eventually, I will probably scrap the current design of the Sorting window in favor of something that can display more information at once.

[HeliumFreak]

Hey nice application, just a few requests. Is it possible, instead of having a text box, to have the option to show the item icon instead please? Also building on that, to have a box poopup on mouse over with relevant stats about the part. Personally just keen on sorting things in size order. So difficult after adding a few mods trying to quickly put any rocket together without utter frustration

[JumpsterG]

Hey nice application, just a few requests. Is it possible, instead of having a text box, to have the option to show the item icon instead please? Also building on that, to have a box poopup on mouse over with relevant stats about the part. Personally just keen on sorting things in size order. So difficult after adding a few mods trying to quickly put any rocket together without utter frustration

Hi Helium. Exactly my sentiments and why, when I couldn't find a tool to sort the parts, I made my own. There is a tooltip that's supposed to show when you hold over the icons, but for some reason it does not always work (try switching to each category one at a time until it shows up). It normally gives the description of the part, the folder it comes from, and the mass of the part.

I would love to use icons, but it would require loading and displaying the 3D models and textures which would be hard to implement and once implemented would likely cause the utility to take as long as KSP takes to load. The best alternative I have considered would be painstakingly creating 2D icons from screencaps for parts from the most common mods (if someone has already done this, I will include it in a heartbeat!).

In either event, I think I will be redesigning soon. I'm thinking of supplementing the current click-and-drag with a statistics data-grid and functions to automatically sort parts by various conditions (i.e. smallest to largest mass, max thrust, fuel capacity, etc.).

[Dodecadevin]

Does this tool cause any issues with parts that have Internals?

[JumpsterG]

Does this tool cause any issues with parts that have Internals?

No issues that I know of. I've tested a number of parts that use internals and they all seem to work normally. KSP loads them from separate folders already so moving the parts around shouldn't ever affect them.

[xircon]

This looks pretty nice! Can it handle parts which share assets or have multiple part per part.cfg file? I'd love to use it if it will work with the new B9 R3 pack.

[JumpsterG]

This looks pretty nice! Can it handle parts which share assets or have multiple part per part.cfg file? I'd love to use it if it will work with the new B9 R3 pack.

Sort of... I've only recently realized that parts are now able to share assets and reside in the same folder. The parts will still load in KSP just fine after you use the sorter, but they wont all show up in the sorter window. This is because the utility currently treats each folder as one part. I believe the first PART{} of the first .cfg it finds will be the only one to show in the sorter. This means you can still sort to some extent, but you wont be able to split up parts that share a folder, yet.

I'm working on an update to handle this, but since the sorting process is based on moving and renaming folders, the utility will need to split out these parts into separate folders, copying the shared assets so each folder has access to them. Sadly, this defeats the purpose of resource sharing.

A crazier idea I've considered would be to have the utility rename all resources and .cfgs (splitting out condensed PART{}'s into separate .cfgs) and try to shove them all into one sorted folder... Sounds like there must be a file naming convention that will rear its ugly head though.

Either way, update should be coming within a few days.

[JumpsterG]

Hey all, my redesign has increased in scope since I've found these excellent plugins that cover most of the functions KOP is supposed to provide!

If you find Kerbal Orderly Parts too obtuse and lacking in key features right now, these plugins will be right up your alley:

Mr Shifty's Simple Part Organizer

BlackNecro's PartCatalog

KOP does not add any interface elements to the editor, so some may still prefer it, but since it is mostly obsoleted by these mods, I am redesigning it along the lines of a management suite for parts and mods as a whole, hopefully with a much better, quick and simple interface for adjusting aspects of part .cfg files and (of course) allowing you to re-order your parts.

[Gaiabladegold]

look foreward to seeing this. Just got B9, and it really could use some organization... seems the sorter thinks folders that have multiple part cfg files aren't parts at all... ^^;

[Fooblack]

Man, this is really nice. Moved all RCS into Control and all air-breathing engines into Aero, subcategorized most of my categories. Over a hundred parts disabled. I was a little sketchy about using it considering how often it throws errors, but that's what backups are for.

FYI; clicking "continue" on most of the unhandled exception errors doesn't seem to cause any problems and the program keeps running- which is good, because it throws a lot of them!

Short little wish/bug list:

- Being able to scroll using the scroll wheel, the background of the page doesn't seem to be focusable.

- Dragging an object next to another which has been placed in a subcategory changes it to that subcategory instead of just moving it.

- You know this, but the scroll box won't stay put when dragging a mod. Oddly, the FIRST time you move a part like this, it only scrolls up a little ways(but the scroll bar moves all the way to the top), but the SECOND time it scrolls all the way up.

- If you edit an item's subcategory, and then click another item's subcategory box, the program highlights the new item's subcategory box, then moves the last edited part into the correct sort order. This removes the focus from the text box and sends it to the bottom of the list. Reversing the order of these actions by making the text field lose focus as soon as you click outside of it should fix that I think. Hitting enter after editing it produces the intended behavior and prevents this issue.

- Related to this, pressing enter after entering a subcategory field greys it back out as intended. Double clicking another item's field, attempting to change category pages, clicking save, pressing tab, or any other method of taking focus away from it, leaves the field activated, interfering with the ability to drag a whole subcategory for any items that are not greyed out, as the activated text fields can't be dragged.

All in all I'm finding this quite useful despite the errors, keep up the awesome work!

[JumpsterG]

Thanks for the feedback, Fooblack! Honestly, I'm glad it still works to any extent, as I haven't looked at it since a little testing in KSP .20. I really want to redo this app sometime. As I was building it, I found more and more that I was just creating workarounds for everything and the code became quite convoluted for such a simple interface. I originally thought the default visual basic controls had more functionality built-in for click and drag than they actually do; hence hard-coded (sloppy) drag behaviour and scrolling.

I'll see if I can resurrect it just to remove some of the bugginess in the near future.

[JumpsterG]

Updated the original post with status on a new iteration of this utility.

Still in the design phase, so do not expect this to come immediately, but if anyone has any input to share, feel free to leave a comment.

[MisterFister]

Currently running Steam version of KSP (0.22.0.351)

With the following mods:

Deadly Reentry

RemoteTech2

Ferram Aerospace Research

Kerbal Attachment system

Kethane

KWRocketry

NovaPunch2

TAC Life Support

MechJeb2

And others that are more puglins than part packs (EnhancedNavBall, KerbalAlarmClock, KerbalJointReinforcement,NavyFish's docking port alignment)

My question: Generally, have you run into issues with these not accepting your sorting attempts? I'm just in the beginning of my troubleshooting, and I'll provide more detailed info as I discover it, but preliminarily I seem to be getting some... odd behavior.

Occasional exception errors crop up, but those do not concern me, as I can click "continue" and work past them. With so many parts, I find it helpful to run KSP in widowed mode and to scroll through the VAB parts list on the right while I add category information in your sorter to the left; my plan is to categorize parts by type first (probe cores, then manned capsules based on seating capacity; tanks, liquid engines, jets, SRBs; RCS, SAS... etc), close KSP, apply first-run sorting changes, then reload KSP and tweak my preferred order of parts within each category. (Too bad that the VAB itself doesn't offer this, but they should.)

At any rate, a large part of this is nothing your utility can help solve, because parts like NovaPunch are pissing me off by placing SRBs in the control tab, tanks in the pod tab, etc. Notwithstanding, there are a lot of parts in my VAB display (numerous dozens) that are not even showing within your utility to begin with. Closing KSP, applying the sort changes, and reloading, results in missing parts (using your restore function correctly reverses this.) As a result of those missing parts, I cannot confirm or deny that the subcats I placed are working properly within KSP. Is this a version issue?

Thanks!

[JumpsterG]

Notwithstanding, there are a lot of parts in my VAB display (numerous dozens) that are not even showing within your utility to begin with. Closing KSP, applying the sort changes, and reloading, results in missing parts (using your restore function correctly reverses this.) As a result of those missing parts, I cannot confirm or deny that the subcats I placed are working properly within KSP. Is this a version issue?

Thanks for giving the utility a shot. It's funny, because NovaPunch is essentially what got me to make it in the first place .

The utility is sorely in need of an update, as it's got a number of problems that are known to me. When KSP .20 came (I think), it became unable to handle multiple parts defined in a single .cfg file (the utility still assumes there is only one part per folder and per part.cfg file, so only identifies the first defined part in the file if it finds any at all), which many mods are now utilizing to share textures between parts and consolidate things. This is what I think is causing parts not to show up for you.

Since I am rebuilding this app from the ground up, I don't plan on bugfixing this version (Sorry ), but expect to see a better one some time after .23 comes out.

[Edit] Also, (if the feature hasn't broken at some point), you can use the utility to move parts from one category to another by dragging the part to the category button at the top you want to move it to. I always consolidate my RCS tanks into control, and air-breathing engines to Aerodynamics myself.

Edited December 11, 2013 by JumpsterG