v2.1 Dev Demo: Mini Launch Rail
Working on some launch rails for v2.1 of Modular Launch Pads. This is rough demo of the Mini size rail (actually a launch rod), meant for 0.3125m and 0.625m rockets. I'm still tweaking it, but it's mostly done pending furthur testing. This is a rough assembly and launch demo for it.
There will be larger sizes of launch rails, and all are a separate part, to be attached to a launch base or stand. Rockets can be node or surface-attached to the rail, and there are built-in decouplers for both methods.
Rotating the rail can be done by two methods. The better method is by installing the Animated Attachment plugin, which allows surface attached parts to move with an animated part. The deploy limit slider for the rail rotation can then be adjusted, rotating the rail and the rocket attached to it. It only works for surface-attached parts, and the root part can not be in the thing that's attached to the rail, e.g. a probe core on the rocket. You have to reroot to something in the rocket after rotating the rail, or the rail will not decouple.
The other method is by using the B9PartSwitch angle switcher to rotate the rail in 5° increments. This will not move the rocket with the rail, so use of the offset and rotate gizmos is needed to reposition the rocket in the correct place.