Re-docking?

[Streetwind]

I have docked something to my space station. It was a difficult maneuver with an unwieldly part, and as a result, the rotation is off. It's slanted like 30 degrees to the side from what I want it to look like. Now the transport stage is still attacked, so I could just undock the part, rotate it as I want, and dock it again. I would be perfectly aligned and there would be no need to translate, so it should be easy.

But in practical application, after you undock, the docking collars don't "like" each other anymore. You can touch them together but they won't connect. My question is - how do you make it so that it connects again? Do I have to be a minimum distance away, or does a minimum amount of time have to pass, or anything like it?

Edited June 21, 2014 by Streetwind
Marking as answered.

[Red Iron Crown]

There's a trick for this that another poster recommended: Undock, rotate to desired orientation, quicksave, quickload. After quickloading, the ports will reconnect.

Otherwise, the ports have to reach a minimum distance before they'll mate again.

[Padishar]

Well, officially, you have to move away to a certain distance before they will reset. However, I believe quicksave and quickload can also trick them into resetting so you can simply undock, rotate the ship to the correct alignment, quicksave and then quickload and it should connect immediately...

Edit: Ninja'd

[Streetwind]

Sounds good, I'll give it a try!

[Taki117]

On a completely unrelated note you can avoid the problem altogether with this mod which pops up a helpful Docking UI whenever a target port is selected.

[Claw]

Yes, the undock/rotate/quicksave/quickload does indeed work. If you use that, you want to make sure you keep the pieces really close together. So only rotate as much as you need and try not to back away as you quicksave/load.

[Streetwind]

Success! The solar arms are all properly aligned now: https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/44754370/screenshot26.png (transport stages at the ends pending jettison and deorbit)

On a completely unrelated note you can avoid the problem altogether with this mod which pops up a helpful Docking UI whenever a target port is selected.

Yes, I am using that. But the first solar arm transporter was seriously RCS unbalanced and so I really had other things to worry about.

[Red Iron Crown]

What do you plan to fill those other docking ports with?

[Streetwind]

The small ports at the bottom are ports for ships (they are equipped with fuel pumps; some facing in, some facing out). The large ports at the top are for additional station modules. A number of them will get fuel tanks; it's supposed to be a resupply station. But I intentionally placed a large number of ports so that if I ever happen to need something else, I can just tack it on.

For instance, as this is a Better Than Starting Manned playthrough, I suspect I may have to do an orbital habitation study at some point. Unsure how that will end up looking and what will be required, but there is plenty of docking space on this station.