Cargobay's seem to be about useless if the payload doesnt have nose clamps.

[Kendrick]

I have been fighting with a probe for quite a while to get it to work in a 3 tier cargo bay. The bay has a green ball attach point in the middle of each section and unless i stick the docking port on that and rebuild a probe every time from there It wont attach. if I stick a clamp on the top of the carbobay it works immediatly. I find this quite frustrating as i would preferr it to have sensors on the nose rather than a docking clamp. Am i missing something or is this a bug or general game play gotcha?

[Taki117]

a picture of your probe would help greatly, but the issue could very easily be that the parts on your probe are clipping the decoupler/docking port, or if you are not using a decoupler/docking port then they could be clipping the end of the cargo bay, and you will not be able to get your probe out again.

[Wanderfound]

Cubic octagonal struts are also your friend here. You can create an attachment node anywhere you need.

[The Yellow Dart]

If I understand your problem (I'm not sure I do), Try holding alt to disable surface attach.

[The_Rocketeer]

Docking clamps don't need to attach to docking clamps, you can use them the same way as stack separators and just 'decouple node'. So, you don't need to put one on your probe at all.

Also check your root part (the part that last attached to something when you built it) on the probe subassembly is the part you're trying to attach to the cargo bay. If it's not, that's your whole problem. You can change the root part using the new extended features in the VAB or SPH.