Undocking and immediately redocking?

[KerikBalm]

Does anyone know if there is a way to quickly reconnect to a docking port after undocking?

It seems if I want to undock, rotate something a little with 1m distance, and redock, I can't do it. It seems I have to move some distance away, and then re-approach.

Can anyone explain what the rules are on docking ports after undocking, and if there is a way to do what I want?

[Taki117]

You can, there is both a time and distance before the ports kick in. If you get Navyfish's Docking Alignment Indicator can really help with docking things in the proper orientation.

[Dust]

There is a minimum distance you need to go out to, and it's not that far - 1 meter-ish - just a puff of RCS out, rotate, and puff back in. I also recommend Navyfish's docking alignment mod. Or if you're a minimalist there's instead Navball docking alignment, which places a single new node on your navball that indicates alignment and rotation of the targeted port.

[Cerberus738]

Pretty sure it's closer to 20m before the port magnets reset

[ScottyDoesKnow]

Whatever the distance is, I assume jumping to to the space center and then back to the ship will reset it.

[Dust]

Pretty sure it's closer to 20m before the port magnets reset

Can't be. I've done it many times. It's on the order of size with the 1.25m docking port. So maybe out to 2 meters, but certainly not much more than that. Probably no more than double the magnet grab distance.

[Sirrobert]

Just go back and forward with RCS, and you should not drift sideways anyway

[MarvinKitFox]

For me, the docking reset seems to be rather close (just outside the "magnet" range), but the reset time can be anything from 5 seconds to minutes. No discernible pattern.

Changing vehicle [] will speed this up, going out of physics range by transferring to another distant ship or space center, will 100% reset the port status, and also solve many of the other docking-port little foibles.

[Kasuha]

Quicksave and quickload, if the two ports are still in range the magnetism will activate and they will snap together.