Hinges often break and wander off. (When docking and undocking)

[EitanTal]

This is an issue I encounter very often, especially when combining a clamp-o-tron with a hinge. The root cause is a geometric issue

I have a rover that grabs a tool with a clamp. The tool consists of two hinges and a clamp at the end (Macaroni-L shaped).

The tool works great in the beginning, but gets damaged after moving things around. (docking/undocking), causing unwanted moves and stresses. The problem gets as severe as tipping over a 20-ton construction vehicle and making it fly in the air like a crazy poltergeist!

Broken hinge:.

Same broken hinge before I tried to move it:

I can supply a Craft file that makes the problem appear.

Also, another interesting side-effect is that the gantries get affected too, somehow, with their bases now hovering in the air.

[sirkut]

This is a known issue although I specified specifically not to attach docking ports to pistons. This also applies to hinges as it will cause strange things to happen. I have a vague idea that I need to redo the parenting portion of the code when docked. Thanks for submitting the issue, until then tread carefully when using IR parts directly connected to docking ports.

[EitanTal]

Right, ok. That should be a broader warning, as I didn't use a piston, but a gantry, and they were two different objects that joined together, and the gantries were relatively far away. It worked great until I did some docking and undocking.

Anyway, managed to get a similar job done by using a washer instead of hinges.

Speaking of pistons, I haven't figured out how to use them right, and the plugin didn't come with stock ships.

[shrx]

Also happens with docking washers:

so the temporary fix is to not attach them directly to docking ports?