is there a maximum size my craft file can have?

[praise the suuun]

im having a serious issue over here:

http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/109225-HELP!-massive-craft-suddenly-has-blocks-i-can-t-move-highlight?p=1707834#post1707834

and it has to do with my question. after seeing my ship of 4000 or so parts have frozen zones of parts that cant be touched, highlighted, clicked on, moved, i wondered the question if there is a limit to the size of a craft file.

it sort of fits because only parts that i have placed very recently are being zoned out. the zone increases the more i add parts. its not outright deleting parts it seems to just be keeping the bare minimum of detail enough to stay under the limit.

the obvious solution would be to make that parameter unlimited.

what do the wizards of ksp think?

Edited February 1, 2015 by praise the suuun

[vexx32]

There is no defined limit. However, the editor code is known to bug out at high part counts (most frequently over 3000 parts or so, becoming nigh unavoidable at around 4500 or 5000 parts). A forum user by the name of Whackjob made an extensive number of ludicrously-large craft, and according to him (if I recall correctly) the best way to circumvent it is to:

1. Save often
   
2. Keep the last five to ten saves of the craft so you can revert to the version before there is a problem; issues like this may not be immediately noticed, and if you save over all your backups with broken files, you're pretty stuck.
   

It is, in the end, probably a bug, but it's quite difficult to pin down (much less find solid scenarios where it will definitely occur). It seems to be a bit more likely if you're toying with symmetry an awful lot, especially if you're using nested symmetry, but apart from that there's not much you can do at the moment.

[technicalfool]

As Vexx said, there's no defined limit, but you can build too big for your computer. One option is to find large-parts mods that give you the same amount of rocket for a lower demand on the physics engine. I've been playing with SpaceY Lifters as a reasonably lightweight large-parts mod, but there's also KW Rocketry and Novapunch that add all kinds of extra gear.

[Jimbimbibble]

Even if you could build a 4000 part ship I doubt your computer (or any computer for that matter) would allow you to fly it. Maybe you should consider reducing part count. Even the best computer will start lagging around 500 parts.

[praise the suuun]

thing is jim, ubiozur part welding is gonna take a large percentage of those parts and make them one block for the physics. ive seen a test craft of mine go from slideshow back to a playable framerate in launch.

thanks for the responses everyone unfortunately i have no choice but to continue building but i have some methods to get around the bug.

[praise the suuun]

for the record, i have some findings.

• 
  once a dead zone appears, taking parts off immediately brings some parts back but not sure if this method brings them all back.
  

• 
  when you add more parts, the zone increases a lot, after the craft has been reloaded.
  

• 
  detaching the dead zone, putting it into a subassembly, reattaching it from subassembly removes the zone.
  

• 
  this fix is short lived cause when you reload the craft or quit the game the problem will reappear.
  

• 
  someone needs to test dead zones in launch.
  

Edited February 1, 2015 by praise the suuun

[cantab]

Keep in mind that you're using old versions, and the VAB/SPH got big changes in 0.90. There's every chance the bugs have changed. 0.90 also adds several new and powerful tools, in my view you're really handicapping yourself trying to do a complex build in an older version.

[praise the suuun]

some of my mods stopped development yonks ago. the project is so big that i started when 0.2 was new. its just too much work for unforseeable bug fixes when i can just finish already.

[panzer1b]

Ive tried making some massive stuff, and ive had this bug at least twice in 0.25, but sofar in 0.90 never happened. then again, ive given myself a hard limit of approximately 200 physics parts recently for any one ship, as its hard to have formations of 3-4 of them together at once time, and fighters in between without lagging to death.