Action Groups?

[Gargamel]

So I have a huge Space Station, landed on Mun, Minmus, Duna, orbited many other planets, killed untold kerbals.

But I've done this all without action groups.

I can't figure out how to make them work.

Is there a guide or a little help on this?

Edited July 15, 2013 by gargamel

[Coneshot]

I use them to toggle engines or extend/retract solar panels etc.

when you open the action group tab in the VAB/SPH you'll see list of actions and some numbers, the numbers are the numbers on your keyboard. pick one you want to use for a selected action (extending a solar panel for instance) then select the part. the part will turn blue and any available actions will appear in the right side column, of those pick what you want that number to do (like extend that solar panel) and then that action show up in the column to the left.. then select another number and assign the opposite action for that part (if you want).. try it out and i hope this helps

[Gargamel]

Wow... I feel Stupid... lol

Thank you!

[Scarecrow88]

I try to standardise my action groups so that if I dock two craft together pressing an action key does the same thing on both craft. I use 1 for opening docking clamps, 2 to toggle lights, 3 to extend solar panels and so on.

[codepoet]

How does the stage action group work? Every time you stage? When you stage to the stage that the itemis attached to? anything else?

[katateochi]

I try to standardise my action groups so that if I dock two craft together pressing an action key does the same thing on both craft. I use 1 for opening docking clamps, 2 to toggle lights, 3 to extend solar panels and so on.

^^That is a very good point. Can be a nightmare when you have lots of craft interaction. I've started putting action groups for all craft in a mission into an excel sheet so I can see if their action groups interfere.

lol, 3 is also my standard group for solar panels.

How does the stage action group work? Every time you stage? When you stage to the stage that the itemis attached to? anything else?

I'm pretty sure that it is triggered every time and doesn't pay attention to what stage the item is on. For me its one of the least used action groups. I use it for mostly to toggle steering locks on rover wheels, it doesn't matter that they get toggled during flight, but once the rover has landed chances are it doesn't have anymore stages so space can now toggle steering on a set of its wheels while keeping the other actions groups free.

[KerbMav]

I set Solars to 0 - because I can easily reach 1-5 with my wasd-hand - usually for toggling thrusters (fore/aft) on my docking tugs or other mission relevant commands.

Lights go with L and have there own command group, as have gears, although they are not always assigned automatically.

[SRV Ron]

Just a note to say that you can assign multiple actions to one command key. Example, deploy antenna and activate all scientific instruments on a probe using one single command.