Most efficent method of bracing

[Bunzmaster]

I do my best to keep my Rockets/vehicles as simple as possible, but lately I've been building larger rigs for landers, and to pickup stranded Kerbals.

As I add more Rockets and Fuel Tanks I'm starting to have issues with keeping everything together, I've landed on the Mun without anything falling off, but now as I start to go bigger I start to have issues.

-If I have 2 of the orange tanks one on-top of the other, and a Mainsail on the bottom, sometimes the 2 tanks aren't securely connected.

Do I need to add struts to the seams between every tank?

Is it better to refrain from placing tanks one ontop of the other?

-If I add a series of Radial Decouplers up the side of a tank (vertically) , when I attempt to attch something to them it will only be solidly connected to one of the decouplers. even though the others appear to be in solid contact. I end up having to use struts to connect everything.

-If I add a struts connecting an item that is in an early stage, to say the command module, does that strut automatically disconnect when the staged piece disconnect from the rest of the ship? Does that stress or cause any damage?

[kujuman]

-If I have 2 of the orange tanks one on-top of the other, and a Mainsail on the bottom, sometimes the 2 tanks aren't securely connected.

Do I need to add struts to the seams between every tank?

Is it better to refrain from placing tanks one ontop of the other?

Depends on the size and number of tanks. With the tall and narrow tanks, I usually do not strut them vertically, even if they are 6 tanks high. Orange tanks: I always strut between them. The non orange rockomax tanks I might strut if they are 4 tanks tall, otherwise I only strut them if testing reveals they need it. An effective solution is to skip over tanks when placing struts. Using the small cubic struts to extend outwards from and tank and then strutting the cubic struts works very well, so tank #1 is strutted directly to tank #4, with #2 and #3 in the middle unstrutted. Building a taller rocket usually is better in terms of manuverability (the distance by which the thrust vector passes by the center of mass determines tourque) if you're using gimbaled engines, but can lead to wobbling. So tall but not too tall works.

-If I add a series of Radial Decouplers up the side of a tank (vertically) , when I attempt to attch something to them it will only be solidly connected to one of the decouplers. even though the others appear to be in solid contact. I end up having to use struts to connect everything.

This is the correct behavior. For now there can only be one "parent" for a part, so the tanks are being joined to the tank below or above, not the decoupler. You can attach a side tank with only one decoupler, and then use the struts to connect the tanks further up the stack. Otherwise you can make each lateral tank parented to different decouplers, leaving a gap between tanks which would need fuel lines to connect.

-If I add a struts connecting an item that is in an early stage, to say the command module, does that strut automatically disconnect when the staged piece disconnect from the rest of the ship? Does that stress or cause any damage?

Yes, struts only work within one vessel; when you decouple, the spent stage becomes another vessel so the struts automatically disengage. Strutting between stages is very common and very effective, and there will be no harm doing so.

Other tip. When strutting multiple stages, I typically start at the bottom stage and strut up, so that when the stage disconnects the mass of the strut falls away with the stage (because it is parented to the bottom stage). This might not actually do anything in game because struts may have some special physical properties, but it is something I do anyway.

[Colonel_Panic]

I do my best to keep my Rockets/vehicles as simple as possible, but lately I've been building larger rigs for landers, and to pickup stranded Kerbals.

As I add more Rockets and Fuel Tanks I'm starting to have issues with keeping everything together, I've landed on the Mun without anything falling off, but now as I start to go bigger I start to have issues.

-If I have 2 of the orange tanks one on-top of the other, and a Mainsail on the bottom, sometimes the 2 tanks aren't securely connected.

Do I need to add struts to the seams between every tank?

Is it better to refrain from placing tanks one ontop of the other?

You can stack tanks. You can also add struts in 3 symmetry around the joint to reinforce it, even if you can't see the struts externally. You should however refrain from using stack decouplers below heavy rocket parts, as they are notoriously hard to reinforce.

-If I add a series of Radial Decouplers up the side of a tank (vertically) , when I attempt to attch something to them it will only be solidly connected to one of the decouplers. even though the others appear to be in solid contact. I end up having to use struts to connect everything.

This is a feature. For best practice, use the 'long' decouplers positioned near the top 1/3 of the stack, and use a strut to reinforce near the bottom. Note: you may experience extreme wobble and stability problems. This often is not the fault of poor reinforcement but rather the gimballing on the outer engines causing a positive feedback loop and oversteer. Fix this by setting them to a control group to toggle gimballing, and turning the gimballing off before flight.

-If I add a struts connecting an item that is in an early stage, to say the command module, does that strut automatically disconnect when the staged piece disconnect from the rest of the ship? Does that stress or cause any damage?

Yes, the struts are as of the current version connected via explosive bolts that will automatically disconnect if the core node connecting two parts is severed. It will not damage either side in the process.

[Bunzmaster]

Thanks everyone. All this info helps alot.