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Work-in-Progress [WIP] Design Thread


GusTurbo

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4 hours ago, Thor Wotansen said:

and everything is autostrutted to the root part, which is the cargo bay.

There's your problem. Autostrutting is far from a magic bullet, and if fact it can be counter-productive if you abuse it. Limit it to a few key parts several joints away, and never wings (don't ask me why, but that creates phantom forces). I'd just autostrut the engines and the adaptors on each end of the ship, and it would probably work like that.

 

Rune. Also, I always autrostrut to "heaviest part", because that doesn't suddenly change when you dock, often summoning the kraken.

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2 minutes ago, PointySideUp said:

Have you tried auto strut as grandparent part?

No, the grandparent part in this case is the root part.

 

2 minutes ago, Rune said:

There's your problem. Autostrutting is far from a magic bullet, and if fact it can be counter-productive if you abuse it. Limit it to a few key parts several joints away, and never wings (don't ask me why, but that creates phantom forces). I'd just autostrut the engines and the adaptors on each end of the ship, and it would probably work like that.

 

Rune. Also, I always autrostrut to "heaviest part", because that doesn't suddenly change when you dock, often summoning the kraken.

Thanks, I'll try this.

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So it seems the problem was with rigid attachment and not autostrut.  I think the wings were trying to flex under extreme aerodynamic loads at 500m/s and with rigid attachment turned on, they couldn't flex and just broke off.  I've used rigid attachment on a lot of wings but I haven't tried it on Big S wings before, I guess they don't like it so much, having a bit more drag and all.

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On 4/4/2017 at 5:20 AM, He_162 said:

Based on a similar architecturally speaking standpoint, I have developed a very inefficient 1500 ton lifter, but I guess efficiency isn't the point of these, these just take your huge random cargo to orbit in a single launch.

 

I present the He1500 ton lifter!

https://kerbalx.com/He_162/He1500-ton-lifter
These designs are work in progresses, I am essentially developing 2 stage to orbit lifters to take eventually, 2000 tons to orbit, and I am almost there, I simply have to take what I've learned from these, and put them towards developing a stronger more structurally stable rocket, which is what I have done.

(Part count is now a more respectable 857 parts, thanks to what I learned from that last 1200 ton lifter (1510 parts) That thing was a beast.)
 

[see above for pics]

Keep checking back for my next, hopefully a new architectural design than the cylindrical cone shaped one I have now, I want to make it more like a simple cylinder, whilst being aerodynamic at the top. (Possibly 1750 tons to orbit?)

All craft from now on will use at LEAST 4550 deltaV, the 1500 ton lifter has around 4660

[see above for pic]

Still possibly not big enough for the projects I usually do... :P (I did a stock interstellar mission :D )

Edited by Technical Ben
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2 hours ago, Rune said:

There's your problem. Autostrutting is far from a magic bullet, and if fact it can be counter-productive if you abuse it. Limit it to a few key parts several joints away, and never wings (don't ask me why, but that creates phantom forces). I'd just autostrut the engines and the adaptors on each end of the ship, and it would probably work like that.

 

Rune. Also, I always autrostrut to "heaviest part", because that doesn't suddenly change when you dock, often summoning the kraken.

Autostrutting wings does not always invoke the kraken, I use it often but only on wing tips. That's fine until you damage your craft and somehow the rest goes into RUD.

Autostrutting to heaviest part has another risk because the code is too immature and will easily choose a fuel tank based on resource mass instead of empty mass. I've had a kraken attack when I used fuel beyond a certain level and the struts started switching during flight. This also means that if you dock with a space station with a heavier part it could summon the kraken anyway. I should write a bug report on this.

But it's true, often struts work better than autostruts. Too many struts creates problems as well, a structure that bends will break less easily (and keep your FPS higher).

1 hour ago, Thor Wotansen said:

So it seems the problem was with rigid attachment and not autostrut.  I think the wings were trying to flex under extreme aerodynamic loads at 500m/s and with rigid attachment turned on, they couldn't flex and just broke off.  I've used rigid attachment on a lot of wings but I haven't tried it on Big S wings before, I guess they don't like it so much, having a bit more drag and all.

Based on my experience, I never use rigid attachment anymore. The code looks for a modifier in the physics.cfg, with standard settings it lowers both joint breaking force and breaking torque to ridiculously low levels.

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3 hours ago, EpicSpaceTroll139 said:

Interesting, I've never had problems with autostruts on wings. What kind of phantom forces did you get?

Someone told me once that it was the tiny pulls to the right I was getting on my spaceplanes. Dunno if it was that 100%, but it stopped happening so much, so, you know, just in case. I also add a prayer to the FSM every now and then. can't hurt, right? :wink:

3 hours ago, Thor Wotansen said:

So it seems the problem was with rigid attachment and not autostrut.  I think the wings were trying to flex under extreme aerodynamic loads at 500m/s and with rigid attachment turned on, they couldn't flex and just broke off.  I've used rigid attachment on a lot of wings but I haven't tried it on Big S wings before, I guess they don't like it so much, having a bit more drag and all.

Yeah, that is a bad idea. In general, if your structure is too rigid, KSP will usually blow it up. Glad you got things sorted out, tough! :)

1 hour ago, Azimech said:

Autostrutting wings does not always invoke the kraken, I use it often but only on wing tips. That's fine until you damage your craft and somehow the rest goes into RUD.

Autostrutting to heaviest part has another risk because the code is too immature and will easily choose a fuel tank based on resource mass instead of empty mass. I've had a kraken attack when I used fuel beyond a certain level and the struts started switching during flight. This also means that if you dock with a space station with a heavier part it could summon the kraken anyway. I should write a bug report on this.

But it's true, often struts work better than autostruts. Too many struts creates problems as well, a structure that bends will break less easily (and keep your FPS higher).

Not a matter of blowing up, just weird forces applied. And yeah, I think we concur on the basics: use autostrutting as least as possible, only when it's necessary. I've saved so many space station at this point with a quick autostrut.

1 hour ago, Majorjim! said:

Except it does when anything you dock to has a heavier part. 

;-)

I've found it a bit less kraken-inducing than root part, but yeah, it still has some issues.

 

Rune. Protip: In case of "the shakes", freeze things by warping time, then start fiddling with autostruts until the shakes stop. Greatest trick ever.

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3 hours ago, Triop said:

Project is on hold, having problems with ailerons that don't want to move...

jV0pw7O.png

 

Looks like it thinks the "forward" vector is currently pointing up, which means the ailerons would not affect any of the normal axes.  Maybe mount a probe core facing forward and make it the root part?  I tend to use the OCTO2 since it's small, easy to hide and fully functional.  And its shape might even fit the aesthetic of your model.

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6 minutes ago, Torquimedes said:

Looks like it thinks the "forward" vector is currently pointing up, which means the ailerons would not affect any of the normal axes.  Maybe mount a probe core facing forward and make it the root part?  I tend to use the OCTO2 since it's small, easy to hide and fully functional.  And its shape might even fit the aesthetic of your model.

You are my hero, it works !

Placing the core did the job, ailerons are moving left and right.

ZxE1tAk.png

It looks happy now... ^_^

mIAyOo7.png

Thanks Torq.

 

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Picked up the project, have a flying prototype.

8oLVhSb.png

g61vY82.png

ADfL0kh.png

3 minutes ago, Thor Wotansen said:

Working on a vehicle for a challenge I'm putting together.

TLiqRwW.png

Awesome, the buggy is my favortite.:cool:

What is the challenge ?

Edited by Triop
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7 minutes ago, Triop said:

Picked up the project, have a flying prototype.

ADfL0kh.png

I commend your bravery for using the lollipop wheels, they are the bane of my low-tech science-survey plane attempts.  If you go much faster they might explode from the pressure!

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1 minute ago, Torquimedes said:

I commend your bravery for using the lollipop wheels, they are the bane of my low-tech science-survey plane attempts.  If you go much faster they might explode from the pressure!

I know the uselesness (not a real word, sic) of these wheels, they don't even have brakes...

It's just a prototype to test flying, landing is not an option.... brave indeed. :lol:

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11 minutes ago, Triop said:

I know the uselesness (not a real word, sic) of these wheels, they don't even have brakes...

It's just a prototype to test flying, landing is not an option.... brave indeed. :lol:

Meh, TIE fighters were always expendable anyways.

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