2019-05-16 Drilling Rigs, Platforms

[Haxus]

Drilling Rigs
Drilling rigs have never been implemented.

Drilling rigs are now ready for use.

• A drilling rig model will be found in the exchange, after the servers are up and I have a chance to post it. It has an interior room with a door to the outside, so it can be used effectively as a transporter destination, without ending up in the water.
  
• Its blueprint can also be found in the Blueprints/Buildings folder, called Drilling Rig 10.SoH.
  
• Design properties now enables selection of Sea Surface Building structure.
  
• I haven't actually tested them to see that they work like a well, though.
  

Platforms
Platforms have never been implemented.

Platforms can now be built.

• Construction window has buttons to create aerial, ground and sea platforms, on the Superstructures page.
  
• Platforms create a structure on which other buildings can be built.
  
• Design properties now enables selection of Aerial Platform, Ground Platform, and Sea Platform structures.
  
• Some platform designs will be available in the exchange after I have a chance to post them. Their blueprint files are distributed in the Blueprints/Buildings folder as Aerial Platform 820m.SoH, Ground Platform 400m Square.SoH, and Sea Platform 500m with Harbor.SoH.
  
• A new Build Zone part type was added for platforms. A build zone defines the area on a platform where buildings may be built. A build zone also creates a floor against gravity and it acts as a 3m tall hull void. The floor is active even when the platform is under construction, so you can land on top of it to build it.
  
• Platforms can incorporate the Environment Void part, added for biodomes. Environment voids on platforms will create an enclosed environment space just like a biodome.
  
• Biodomes can be built on platforms.
  
• Aerial platforms can be built in all atmospheres, including gas giants and vacuum. The UI needs work on gas giants. It is currently very difficult to build an aerial platform on a gas giant because you must be at the core; that will be fixed shortly.
  
• Sea platforms can be built in lava if they are constructed of vulcium or adamantine. This has not been tested.
  
• Ground platforms can be built on dry land or on sea bottoms, including under supercooled seas. I'm not sure they have much use.
  
• Most buildings can be built on platforms, including farms and orchards.
  
• Building sites are not visible on platforms. To insure buildings under construction are visible, a minimum amount of structure is shown even when no construction has been done.
  
• Aerial and sea platform building sites are not visible on the terrain. They actually don't allow site meshes. To find them when they are under construction, a minimum amount of structure is shown even when no construction has been done.
  
• Plants appear on platforms at designated plant locations in building designs, such as crop rows at a farm or landscaping at a building.
  
• When a platform is destroyed, all buildings on the platform are destroyed.
  
• It will be possible to break building construction rules using a platform. e.g. HQ on a platform is destroyed with the platform; that could leave military buildings behind on the surface. We will see if any significant problem is caused by this.
  
• Transporter can beam to and from a platform. When beaming to a platform, you could (currently) end up inside a building. If a platform has buildings, it is better to beam directly to one of them.
  

Spindle Smoothing Broken
Whenever I make a spindle, the lighting is wrong on the faces. I have to flatten them then resmooth them to get the correct result.

Fixed smoothing error in spindle generator.

Paste Radial
It would be nice if there was an easy way to make a copy of something in a circle, in the designer.

A Paste Radial command was added to the Edit menu. It works a lot like Paste At, except that the rotation of the pasted object rotates radially around the origin of the design plane, in the design plane.

This enables polar coordinate input to be used effectively to specify exact radials for placement. To paste radially 10m from the origin, at 30 degrees, enter p10,30 into the edit box.

Select Contiguous Faces
I have a large complex mesh and I want to select part of it that forms a huge flat surface with hundreds of polygons. The shape and other geometry makes it impossible to isolate for a box-drag-selection. Can I have a command to select all the faces in the same plane?

Select Contiguous Faces command added to the Edit menu. It pops up a dialog with a single option, to specify the angle tolerance for deciding if adjacent faces are in the same plane. The default is 1. 180 degrees or greater would effectively ignore the angle test.

Hull Void Spindle
Spindle tool for making hull voids would be welcome.

Hull void spindle tool added to the Part menu.