Open Source Construction Techniques for Craft Aesthetics

[GusTurbo]

Coming soon to an Open Source Construction Techniques for Craft Aesthetics thread near you!

All of them are SPH part clipping goodies discovered and used by SSI Engineers:

Hidden Wings

Hidden Cockpit Landing Gear

Hidden Fuel Lines (did you know you can rotate the beginning fuel line strut?)

TURAN Mk. 1 Engine Design (used in the new SSI Shuttlecraft Types I and III Proton series)

VTOL Design (using a cubic strut instead of a mount)

Hidden/Sunken Lighting

Hidden RCS Cluster

That's very exciting!

What's the weight on that?

13.4 tonnes -- there are some unnecessary structural panels on the bottom that add a bit of weight.

Edited December 27, 2013 by GusTurbo

[Don Quixote]

The following may be perfectly obvious to anyone but myself, but anyway: I've always wanted an Apollo-ish looking service module for many of my designs. Now, if you're planning to go anywhere farther out than Duna, NERVAs are usually the prime choice for engines. This usually results in a service module looking something like this:

Looks awful if you ask me. Now, why not hide the NERVA inside the fuel tanks? For the solution shown here, the correct spacing was achieved by placing an inverted cubic strut on the surface of the first fuel tank (not on the connection node!). The NERVA is then mounted on the top node of the strut. The lower fuel tank is then attached to the node of the upper one and covers most of the engine except for the bell.

Visually much more appealing in my opinion. Note that you will need to use a radial decoupler instead of a regular one, otherwise the engine fairings will rip the ship apart during staging.

Of course this can also be done with multiple NERVAs, which may be the preferred way due to the low thrust.

In this case, the necessary decoupler can look something like this:

The hidden NERVAs do not overheat, by the way.

[GusTurbo]

Nicely done!

[Spartwo]

I use the small 1m tank to attach radially,it gives a bit more fuel and ability to adjust how much the engines protrude.

>Pic soon<

[Sli]

The following may be perfectly obvious to anyone but myself, but anyway: I've always wanted an Apollo-ish looking service module for many of my designs. Now, if you're planning to go anywhere farther out than Duna, NERVAs are usually the prime choice for engines. This usually results in a service module looking something like this:

...

The hidden NERVAs do not overheat, by the way.

Have you checked if this makes the immediate fuel tank the engine is clipped within inaccessible? When I tried this on a space plane I was making the fuel was not consumed from that tank. So while aesthetically it might work, you might still need to attach some fuel lines from the bottom of the tank to the engines to get them to be used. At least that's what I had to do to get this to work.

[Sgt. Cookie]

Here's a little thing I made:

This is something that I like to call the Easy-make Meganode. As you could probably have guessed. But how'd I make it? Well, let me guide you through it.

Right, well, the first thing we need to make this Easy-make Meganode is a Modular Girder Segment, like so:

After that, we need four Not-Rockomax Micronodes:

And we arrange them like so, sticking the first Micronode at the bottom and stacking the other Micronodes on top of it. DO NOT have a Micronode attached to both the top and bottom connections of the Girder:

Now, you will notice that three Micronodes are more than enough to fill the Girder and you'd be right to wonder what that last one is for. Well, with the current set up, we've lost our very bottom connection.

And that's what the fourth Micronode is for. What you want to do with this it to clip it (Not via the debug menu, BTW, it will clip naturally) through the bottom Micronode and orient it about until it stays. Sometimes, the fourth Micronode will simply shift the lost connection to one of the sides. If that happens, get rid of the Micronodes and keep on trying until you get a connection for all the visible sides.

[No pic for this, but it'll be fairly self evident when you've got it right]

This works perfectly fine, you can clip stuff through the Girder onto the Micronodes:

But, it just looks kinda awful. So, we need to cover them. But with what? Why with this:

The wide I-Beam, of course. Which fits over them quite snugly:

The best bit? Stuff can still clip through them, right onto your Micronodes:

So, that's the Easy-make Meganode. Capable of multiple attachments and can withstand speeds of upto 80 m/s.

I hope that I've been of some help.

Edited January 2, 2014 by Sgt. Cookie

[Don Quixote]

Have you checked if this makes the immediate fuel tank the engine is clipped within inaccessible?

Yes, it drains both tanks, although the order is reversed - the lower one is drained first. This could possibly influence the way the COM behaves, although I have not noticed any difficulties with RCS thrusters placed where they would normally be.

I've already flown a mission to Moho with a "hidden NERVA" service module, so I'm fairly confident that it is working.

(pictured with tanks from the Stretchy Tanks mod, which is really awesome)

[JiWint]

hope you like it (top-right corner)

[Majorjim!]

hope you like it (top-right corner)

is it click-able?

[Blue]

Here's a little thing I made:

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-v9RsJJVJ2eo/Ur5A8KYjkuI/AAAAAAAAAH4/CiDiMQtnTxg/w729-h547-no/screenshot16.png

...

This is something that I like to call the Easy-make Meganode. As you could probably have guessed.

...

I hope that I've been of some help.

Nice.

There's something visually pleasing about the notion "why make something functional and excellent, when you can make it functional, excellent and compact?".

I may have to integrate that along with my Mini-Probes somehow.

[Rune]

Have you checked if this makes the immediate fuel tank the engine is clipped within inaccessible? When I tried this on a space plane I was making the fuel was not consumed from that tank. So while aesthetically it might work, you might still need to attach some fuel lines from the bottom of the tank to the engines to get them to be used. At least that's what I had to do to get this to work.

The important bit you are missing is "attach to the surface of the tank, not the node". Fuel flo is only interrupted by clipping when stuff shares the same node. And even then, fuel flow is only broken across the clipped node, and you can for example have engines feeding from the tank they are clipped inside (that last one is more difficult, but experiment away).

[The_omega]

A bit cheesy, but my take on a 2001 type space station :-)

http://i.imgur.com/b2WrIV9.png

i tried to do the same thing but with an interplanetary rocket/space-station, this is much better than what i did though good job it looks awsome

[Majorjim!]

The important bit you are missing is "attach to the surface of the tank, not the node". Fuel flo is only interrupted by clipping when stuff shares the same node. And even then, fuel flow is only broken across the clipped node, and you can for example have engines feeding from the tank they are clipped inside (that last one is more difficult, but experiment away).

That last one can be done by placing a small cubit strut onto the larger of the two clipped tanks. If one is smaller. Then turn the cubic strut inwards, move camera into the tank and place a fuel line from the strut to the smaller internal tank.

MJ

[Sgt. Cookie]

Nice.

There's something visually pleasing about the notion "why make something functional and excellent, when you can make it functional, excellent and compact?".

I may have to integrate that along with my Mini-Probes somehow.

Heh, thanks. I found that it's best used as an Ion probe. Not like the first picture, that's just emphasising the number of connections, 14 in total.

I'll post a picture when I get home, but here's the general idea:

Like in my initial picture, you want three xenon tanks attached to the underside of the meganode. This is more than enough xenon to get you to the next galaxy, so you needn't worry about fuel.

On the top, you want a probe core of your choice and the bottom the ion thruster itself.

On the left (or right) side stick on a solar array, unlike the other parts, this are attached right onto the I beam, rather than clipped through onto a connection. On the other side, you want to attach some batteries, try to get two or three of the 1k batteries mounted onto the connections, then mount one of the smaller fold-able solar arrays onto the batteries.

Now, if done correctly, you should have a side that's completely clear. Attach whatever modules you want there be they science or whatever else you want on the back of it. Science, Kethane detector, landing site probe, hell, you could even use them as a comms network. The possibilities are endless.

Like I said, I'll get a picture up later, as I'm at uni right now.

[Blue]

What confused me about your initial configuration on that picture on the previous page was that you had the ion engines' nozzles facing inwards, which would nullify their thrust (thrusting against their own support structure).

[Sgt. Cookie]

That's not a functional example, it's just meant to showcase the connections, like I said. I could have been using Ant engines and it wouldn't have really mattered. After all, it's not the probe I was posting, it was the Meganode. But anyway, I hope you enjoy connecting stupidly large numbers of things together.

And as promised, the probe pic:

It has two lots of the small science, enough battery power to last you about 3 minutes without sunlight and enough fuel to take you to the edge of reality and back. The solar panels provide all the power you're going to need.

Hope I've been of some help.

[Captain Sierra]

XD I like! just make sure to go into a retrograde orbit if you plan to go to Duna or beyond. (I really do forget this sometimes with my Joolian ion probes. It never ends well )

[astropapi1]

After having taken so much from this thread, I felt like I needed to contribute, so here's a little something.

The Concealed 1-Man Capsule!

It may seem kinda obvious, but I hadn't thought of this until I wanted to make a russian-styled 1-man Mun lander.

If you enable part clipping in the VAB, you can clip the camera through the Stayputnik pod and stick a command chair inside it! After a couple of tries, the only part of the kerbal visible from the exterior are his feet.

Here's the lander in question. This method is great for roleplaying, when you feel like the poor guy shouldn't be sitting in a chair, but can't afford to carry a lander can around.

To get on the chair, just zoom into the pod and right click on the chair. To get out, right click the kerbal. That's it! Simple as pie.

[Daishi]

After having taken so much from this thread, I felt like I needed to contribute, so here's a little something.

Wow, that's neat, tiny landers are my current obsession

What are those awesome little landing lights I see?

[astropapi1]

Wow, that's neat, tiny landers are my current obsession

What are those awesome little landing lights I see?

http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/57778-0-22-Surface-Mounted-Stock-Alike-Lights-for-Self-Illumination

There ya go.

[Daishi]

There ya go.

+1, you made my day

[astropapi1]

+1, you made my day

Heeey, thanks for the rep.

[Giggleplex777]

After having taken so much from this thread, I felt like I needed to contribute, so here's a little something.

The Concealed 1-Man Capsule!

It may seem kinda obvious, but I hadn't thought of this until I wanted to make a russian-styled 1-man Mun lander.

If you enable part clipping in the VAB, you can clip the camera through the Stayputnik pod and stick a command chair inside it! After a couple of tries, the only part of the kerbal visible from the exterior are his feet.

http://i.imgur.com/xHObPWV.png

Here's the lander in question. This method is great for roleplaying, when you feel like the poor guy shouldn't be sitting in a chair, but can't afford to carry a lander can around.

http://i.imgur.com/HiYN5cI.png

To get on the chair, just zoom into the pod and right click on the chair. To get out, right click the kerbal. That's it! Simple as pie.

I'm definitely not going to copy that and use it on my own LK lander hehe....

[GusTurbo]

After having taken so much from this thread, I felt like I needed to contribute, so here's a little something.

The Concealed 1-Man Capsule!

It may seem kinda obvious, but I hadn't thought of this until I wanted to make a russian-styled 1-man Mun lander.

If you enable part clipping in the VAB, you can clip the camera through the Stayputnik pod and stick a command chair inside it! After a couple of tries, the only part of the kerbal visible from the exterior are his feet.

Here's the lander in question. This method is great for roleplaying, when you feel like the poor guy shouldn't be sitting in a chair, but can't afford to carry a lander can around.

To get on the chair, just zoom into the pod and right click on the chair. To get out, right click the kerbal. That's it! Simple as pie.

Haha I love it! It works so well!

[Ozzallos]

Love all these ideas.

Probably should have just posted this here to begin with. Looks very streamlined atop the boost stage of your choice. The key to getting those cockpits in is to flip a large quad coupler (forget the actual name; am at work) upside-down so it anchors to the bottom of a fuel tank. There's actually another fuel tank built in there too, neccesitating fuel lines to the nozzle. Realisitcally, you can throw anything on the quadcouple once it's anchored in. Struts are absolutely required because it will not stay together for parachute deployment otherwise. As it is, however, you can punt it into orbit and reenter on the same vehical without any issue.

Edited January 24, 2014 by Ozzallos