Is there anyway to archive ships?

[davidpsummers]

I have a bunch of old ships that I want to be able access, but I don't want to keep appearing in the load menu at the VAB. Is there anyway to put them in some sort of archive? Even dragging files on whereever the info is stored on my disk would be OK.

[Klingon Admiral]

your KSP directory/saves/*save in question*/Ships

Then either VAB or SPH, just copy the files in another directory

[Pecan]

Ships are stored in .craft files in KSP\Saves\Ships (SPH and VAB). Just copying them to a backup folder somewhere is all you need. There is no way to change folder from within the VAB/SPH though, so you'll have to copy them in and out of individual saves as required.

Ninja'd

[Epthelyn]

Move any ships you don't want to be loaded from KSP\Saves\[savename]\Ships\[VAB or SPH] to wherever you want. Anything not in that folder or the Ships folder in the base KSP directory won't be available in the VAB or SPH.

To put them back, just replace them in the save folder you took them from

[LethalDose]

Has anyone ever recommended that the devs just let us access the file tree from the "load" menu? Or created a mod that let's you access your directories to get other craft files?

It's a little old school, but just give an "open craft" window that lets you see .craft files would be awesome.

[longbyte1]

In the older versions, you could actually place your craft files inside an inner folder (KSP\Saves\[savename]\Ships\[VAB or SPH]\ForgottenShips) that could be navigable through. I'm not sure if this is still a feature.

[Red Iron Crown]

Has anyone ever recommended that the devs just let us access the file tree from the "load" menu? Or created a mod that let's you access your directories to get other craft files?

It's a little old school, but just give an "open craft" window that lets you see .craft files would be awesome.

This is one of those ideas that seems so obvious once someone says it. I hope the devs and modders are listening.

[SciMan]

Allowing the creation and management of sub-folders in three folders would solve this problem very simply and effectively.

Those folders are "KSP/saves/VAB", "KSP/saves/SPH", and "KSP/saves/subassemblies".

That way you could set up something like this:

/saves/subassemblies

[INDENT] /Launchers
[/INDENT]

[INDENT=2]/1.25m
/2.5m
/3m
/SLS
/Stock
/KW
/etc etc etc
[/INDENT]

[INDENT]/Landers
/Probes
/Tankers
/Rovers
/etc etc
[/INDENT]

Similar idea for /VAB (/mun, /minmus, /fuel tankers, etc.)

As well as for /SPH (/Planes, /Drones, /SSTO/Cargo, /SSTO/Manned, etc.)

Of course, it might start out with some pre-set folders like in the above examples, but it should NOT limit us to those preset folders.

I repeat We should be able to make our own sub-folders of the VAB, SPH, and Subassemblies folders, and delete the stock sub-folders if we want.

Of course, it would be nice if it won't let us delete a sub-folder if there's anything in it.

There is an add-on for older versions of KSP (Sub-assembly Loader) that allowed us to access subfolders of the subassemblies directory before KSP even had one, so it's definitely possible to do that.

Of course being able to define custom categories for parts would be cool to have also, but that's a whole different topic. And before you say it, yes I know there's mods that do that. I'm not asking for mods. I'm suggesting STOCK KSP behaviour.

[Pecan]

Just for the record, I've tried it and a sub-folder to VAB doesn't even show in the load list.

[katateochi]

My save file management tool could do that for you. It tracks the changes to your craft and save files in a git repo. When you delete a craft you can always recover it to how it was before you deleted it. So all you need to do is just delete the craft and it is automatically archived. You can still see and search for the deleted craft in the tools interface (if you tell it to include deleted craft) so you can click on it to restore it.

The tool is called Jebretary (link in my sig), its primary function is to automatically track different versions of craft and save files so you can rewind your designs or saves to previous states.

[Mr Shifty]

Of course being able to define custom categories for parts would be cool to have also, but that's a whole different topic. And before you say it, yes I know there's mods that do that. I'm not asking for mods. I'm suggesting STOCK KSP behaviour.

You should probably make a suggestion in the suggestion forum. I agree that the vanilla behavior should be better; vanilla GUIs in general need an overhaul. It's jarring to go from the Science screen, which has a pretty slick GUI, to the editor, which is pretty terrible.

On the other hand, comments like this sort of annoy me:

"I need to pound in this nail."

"Use a hammer. I've got one right here."

"No way. I refuse to use any tools that aren't already in my toolbox."

[John FX]

My save file management tool could do that for you. It tracks the changes to your craft and save files in a git repo. When you delete a craft you can always recover it to how it was before you deleted it. So all you need to do is just delete the craft and it is automatically archived. You can still see and search for the deleted craft in the tools interface (if you tell it to include deleted craft) so you can click on it to restore it.

The tool is called Jebretary (link in my sig), its primary function is to automatically track different versions of craft and save files so you can rewind your designs or saves to previous states.

I came here to recommend this course of action. I have every craft I have ever launched available, you just need to install git (not a bad thing in itself)