Kerbal Space Program

Did you play around with autostruts? It may help in some instances.

I'm not able to make the ships I want to make.

I see this the same way! Seems that physics have been broken at some point.
See also: #13318, #13250, #13276, #13080, #13033 (not directly physics, but it causes connected parts/bases to oscillate until destruction)

When I docked the ship, all was stable. No shakes at all.
As I docked, I turned off RCS and SAS so that as the two joined, it wouldn't get confused as it often does.
After I dock I look at the bottom left of screen to see if the staion SAS is trying to adjust the station. It Was Stable.
I even processed some ore into monoprop.
I had an upcoming manoeuvre on a craft on it's way to Duna. I went to KSP to check the status of the craft and I still had days before the manoeuvre so I simply went back to my station at Mimnus.
Within a few seconds of loading my new ship exploded on the dock. Every reload it did the same, Verifying KSP on steam it did the same. Loading a save before the ship docked, it still get destroyed on load.
What I can't understand is why didn't it pop when it got to the launchpad from the VAB? Why did it survive the weak connection between the 3.5 fairing and anything that touches it? Why didn't it pop after the timewarp when physics reasserts itself? I made it without legs so it's not an autostrut problem.

Well, i could imagine, that it might be something similiar to #13033. When leaving the scene, everything is good, when loading the scene, something isn't the same as you left the scene. In my case wheels stuck in surface, in yours parts might stuck into each other.
As i understand, crafts/scenes get packed on leave and unpacked on refocus. Maybe there are some inaccuracies doing this.

On the other hand, you surly did change focus before without exploding, did you?

I just tried to look at the ship in that savegame again but with 'unbreakable joints' turned on. Wow.. now that was freaky.

The save I uploaded in the edit above yours p (2016_11_26_12_31_06).sfs has my ship before docking at the station and that was the ship I was referring to.
Your plane was a problem because the autostruts on the wheels connected to the heaviest part on the station and that can cause problems.

the autostruts on the wheels connected to the heaviest part on the station and that can cause problems.

I also see this at my mun planetary base sometimes after shifting fuel, first there is no problem, but on leaving and returning to scene it starts. Autostruts for wheels/landing legs should not be forced or at least the general problem with physics should get fixed somehow.

The ship and save file I posted clearly shows that this is not related to that problem.
The ship I posted has no wheels or landing struts.
I didn't use either because I tried my best to prevent any problems from known bugs.
It seems that my designs can cause errors never seen before which makes it a 'fringe' case.
As I see it, if I go to the trouble of trying to make ships in only stock parts and with as little clipping as possible and these designs then go on to be 'fringe' kraken inducing disasters, my time is better spent elsewhere.
Being a 'fringe' case suggests that this bug will never be addressed.
This bug prevents me from playing as I wish to with stock and within the guidelines provided.
The thing is, I have seen this bug several times before.
While I was playing with modded games I saw this bug and assumed it was a mod causing the problem. As I couldn't say which mod caused it, I never reported it. Indeed, if I had, Squad would not have touched it as the game was modded and not enough data could be supplied.
This is vanilla. A ship craft file has been provided. A save game has been provided. Screen shots have been provided.
All I need now is a solution.

I haven't done any coding since before most of you guys could chew your own food.
As I clearly was not going to get any help from you I decided to look at it myself.
I've sussed it and started fixing it myself too.
The clue is in lines 5 and 6 of my description of the problem. Which is far more help and consideration than you gave to me.
Good luck with that.

I've been testing various causes and have come to the conclusion that auto strut to heaviest part is the source of the issue. When fuel tanks change their mass with the movement or depletion of fuel, the heaviest part shifts around and the auto strut jumps with it, making the ship unstable.

The best solution is to use auto strut to grandparent or root where needed. With grandparent, you get the strength of a triangle in that the part connects to a parent and struts to a grandparent. Setting this up during design time is best, but you can also set it while in orbit and definitely should check every part before transferring fuel. So much as a small RCS tank with auto strut to heaviest part can cause the explosion. Only when heaviest part is not a fuel tank will you be safe, and that will never be the case on large ships.

rudi1291 wrote:

Just throwing this in here. The ship in question is "Kerbin SOI Taxi", the station is "Station Launch One". Both completly stock. As is the savegame. Loading the quicksave should load up with the ship about to dock. When the ship is docked, the station starts to vibrate. No flexing, just vibrating, increasingly. Until it all explodes.
Whats really interesting though: It only starts to vibrate, when the GUI is on. Turning the GUI off (F2) just before docking and it wont start to vibrate and explode. WTH...

jclovis3 wrote:
Just as I described in my other edit, the heaviest part changes when you dock, so all your auto struts on heaviest part will shift causing the instability. Try using grandparent or root for the auto strut setting.