Attaching parts to a "welded" part

[KerBob]

So I've been working on welding some parts to get my space station part count down. Placing items in the cfg file and getting them to look right is a fairly trivial exercise at this point so long as I've measured and calculated my trig values correctly. I am now in need of advice for getting attachment node configurations correct. Placing regular nodes is fine, once again a matter of measure/calculate. However getting things to stay attached to a complex part is vexing. For example, I have a bay made of many 1x1 panels and when i try to attach something to the edge such as a moveable door, the part disappears when I exit the VAB. How can i get items to truly attach and stay that way. Items attached to the standard to and bottom nodes do not disappear. I am including a link to my earlier forum post, and apologize for the long form.

http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/showthread.php/49944-Welding-from-craft-files-and-nodes-on-complex-structures

[Alskari]

A part disappearing or changing on exit from the VAB sounds like you may have a naming problem in your .cfg file. Make sure it is uniquely named. Aside from that I think you may need to post your code or screenshots to explain what is going on.

[KerBob]

The parts are uniquely named as "PodBay" and "PodBay-2". The link at the end of the original post will take you to the links for both the code and a screenshot of the original pod-bay. I'll check that I didn't accidentally "save-as" over my edited .cfg file as I had to start over after accidentally deleting a few lines. Thanks for the reply.

Edited September 16, 2013 by KerBob
.cfg part names were wrong

[Alskari]

Oops. So you're not getting any kind of a node at all? Or you're having attach issues?

[KerBob]

The nodes are showing up on top and bottom, like I would expect. I think I have attachment issues (heh). Sorry edited post after I noticed that I had the wrong name for the parts in the .cfg files. I'll check when I get home tonight and post a reply to see if it is solved. Thanks for the lead, I have a sneaky suspicion you might be correct about naming.

[Alskari]

The naming issue was one of my first 'so obvious I missed it' modding problems. Mixture of relief and irritation when I figured it out.

Also if (in the VAB) your parts won't attach at the orientation you want them to, you're probably running into a root node issue. In my experience it is the direction of the last node in the list. So for example if you want a part to be attachable vertically or horizontally (some kind of junction) then you'll need to make two parts with reordered nodes.

[KerBob]

You were right. Copied and pasted to remake the new bay and entirely missed it. Solves the problem with things not attaching properly. Yeah, I placed an extra row of panels on this one (x-direction) and noticed that things were attaching to the original configuration. So you saved me twice on this one. Thank you for your help, saved me some frustration after the initial kerbal-style learning curve of figuring out how to weld.

[Alskari]

No worries. Just always glad to have more modders about.