Any way to edit the parts on a craft in orbit?

[User Unrelated]

I've heard people speaking of editing .craft files... but what exactly does that do?

Is there any way for me to edit a craft that is currently in orbit?

I just want to add some aesthetics that I forgot in my hasty launch of a space station... I added surface mounted lights to the rest of the station, but the little command module at the end is bland and dark... I figured I wouldn't feel like that is cheating, since the lights are only aesthetic...

see, the portion where the tug is docked doesn't have any lights on it... bleh.

thanks!

[GoodSirMortimer]

One possibility is to edit your persistent file in your save. Having said that, it'd be pretty complicated due to the fact that the file keeps track of every part of the ship, along with all of it's co-ordinates and data about where and how it is connected to other parts. In short, it's a lot of data to sort through. If you choose to do this, I'd advise backing the persistent file up somewhere in case you accidentally break something.

Another thing I've heard of, and what I'd recommend looking into before trying to edit the persistent file, is something called Hyperedit. I've never used it and so I'm not sure on it's scope, but it's probably worth looking into. Hopefully someone who has used it sees this and can better explain what it does.

[User Unrelated]

I wonder if I could edit the saved ship to what I want (just the station part), toss it on the launch pad, save

and then edit the persistent file, and just copy the new ship over the old ship?...

Or would the persistent file contain one conglomeration of data for the whole docked bunch?

I'll have to look into it.

Yes, definitely would back everything up twice.

[FenrirWolf]

Hyperedit let's you instantly change a ship's position. So one way you could use it would be to just poof a new, updated copy of your station into orbit then poof the old one somewhere else. Like the surface of the sun, perhaps.

[Markus Reese]

User, what you suggest is perfectly plausible. As always, Save the persistent file as backup. If it errors, mess up you can paste it back.

Now I have done this a few times. It is easiest in space but even works for minor changes on landed vehicles.

1. Set up your vessel on the launch pad/ground exactly how you want it to be in new location with a different vessel name. Note that docked vessels count as part. Easist thing to do is undock and move them just slightly away.

2. Save and leave game

3. Find the original orbiting vessel in your persistent file. Copy the location/rotation/velocity portion and any crew over to the new vessel. I cannot remember header name top of my head.

3. Rename replacement to original's name and delete the original vessel.

4. Reload and cross your fingers.

This is what I personally do when I make something really dumb for an error on a complex mission. Notably accidental blockage of crew hatch, or more often, when I get landed on Eve and realize I forgot ladders....

[Jason Patterson]

Editing a specific ship's parts is very difficult or effectively impossible without the help of software. There are limited cases where you can make it work, but in most situations you wind up destroying the ship completely.

Replacing a vessel that is in orbit with another is fairly easy if you're careful though. Back up your sfs file. If you make even a tiny mistake it can corrupt the entire save. Copy all of the part information from one to the other and include the parts that are particular to a build (nrm, rot, CoM, and stage, I believe.) Keep the original location and orbit information.

There is a third option that is probably easier than either of these. Relaunch with your new model. It only takes 5-10 minutes to get to orbit.

[Geschosskopf]

If you have the KAS mod, you can do a variety of things to tweak the designs of ships. Add and remove parts, rearrange parts, run new struts and fuel lines, etc.

[FuzzyLlama]

Once you fiddle with the saves enough, you can start to see just what variables (like rotation) you need to tweak and where. For instance, if your docking port is accidentally placed backwards, swap its top and bottom attachments and change its rotation from, for instance, 0,0,0,1 to 1,0,0,0.

CTRL+F and Notepad are your best friends.