Space Engineers Tutorial: Rotors (tips, tutorials and tests for survival)

This tutorial is a look at rotors and how they work in Space Engineers. After watching this you should be able to get a start into building your own crazy contraptions using rotors, while hopefully getting lucky and steering clear of clang.
At the time I made this video small grid rotors were still behaving badly which is why I focused on large grids. If Keen manage to improve small grid rotors all of the information provided here should hold true for them as well.
As I mention at the end please make sure you save your creations before you start messing around with these blocks as they can sometimes cause devastating damage when they misbehave.
While you're making all those saves, don't forget to enjoy this awesome (if at times buggy) game!
For those of you kind enough to want to support me in making more videos: / splitsie
Discord: / discord
Steam Workshop: steamcommunity.com/id/Splitsie...
Steam Community: steamcommunity.com/groups/ligh...
Facebook: / zebramonkeyproductions
Twitter: / splitsie
Reddit: / zebramonkeys
www.spaceengineersgame.com
Space Engineers is used pursuant to the terms laid out in their video policy, found at www.keenswh.com/press.html
Music and Sound Effects by:
Space Engineers

[@Splitsie]

G'day everyone! In this video I've pretty much only looked at large grids, there was a very particular reason for that: when I was messing around with small grids they were behaving very badly. It seems, (and I've heard others mention this on discord) that the large grid rotors are working reasonably well right now but small grid ones are sadly not. Hopefully this will be fixed in the future, when that happens all of this stuff should be directly applicable to the small grids :) When clang isn't in control of them...

[@NightH4wkG4ming]

I don't know if you have noticed or not but behind the white writing (the degrees actually written on the rotor block) there is black writing behind it they are different numbers to the white re-watch your video and pause when you are up close to the rotor you will see (if you have not already). I am also not very sure what relevance they have to the rotor position either.

[@Splitsie]

They're the same numbers just in a different font - it's a slightly odd font, but I'm pretty sure the numbers are the same. I think someone stuffed up when they were creating the textures :P

[@gary0228]

KEEEN!?!

[@Splitsie]

Oh, is that the problem!? That makes a lot of sense. Apart from the fact they haven't fixed it yet...

[@shadowman6156]

Splitsie I was wondering if you can do a video on the pc and hardware you use and what your fps is

[@riccardogemme]

The Clang is like the Force. It's in every metal beams but only the most Clangy can manifest it

[@clamr7775]

I take it that the dark side of the clang is when your ship goes into the deep galaxy never to be seen again because of a borked physics engine?

[@gwizz5898]

This is the most underrated comment ever. Clang is very much real, my friends would insult clang whenever I tried warning of the only real God in existence. Clang would destroy each and every one of creations.. everytime Clang is REAL

[@cherriberri8373]

There is no tips, or tutorials. There is only Clang.

[@Splitsie]

May Clang guide you.

[@ChozoSR388]

OMG, you need to put a passenger seat in place of that spot light lol. The ultimate Space Engineers thrill ride lmao

[@Splitsie]

I think it would put the vomit comet to shame :P

[@ChozoSR388]

Splitsie Without a doubt!

[@MiguelAbd]

This tutorial is so complete I wasn't even looking for rotor tutorials, yet here I am entertained at almost half an hour of information at almost midnight on a Wednesday.

[@Splitsie]

Wow, thanks so much, that's a huge compliment :)

[@brentdaniel2163]

Same scenario, one year later lol.

[@Dylan-go5iv]

More or less the same situation another year later haha.

[@johncasey9544]

Same

[@adamkocourek9640]

You deserve more than this. Your videos are really well made and they helped me a lot. Thanks for making these! :3

[@Splitsie]

Thanks Adam, I'm glad they've been useful :)

[@katarrhakt]

@@Splitsie still supremely useful even years later for newbies like me ;)

[@mikea2363]

I want to point out that subgrids have physics separated from the ones of the original grid. That means that if you have a rotor holding a lot of mass in the prow of your ship, it will start to tilt downwards, as the weight pulls it's nose down. To avoid this, you must use the safety override function, which will make the subgrid a part of the original grid (from a physics point of view), avoiding this problem. This happens with pistons too. Please note that the safety lock also makes the rotor incapable of any movement, and that sometimes (like anything rotor related) will cause clang.

[@Splitsie]

That's a good point to bring up, I forgot to mention the physics effects of subgrids and the safety lock - I'll make sure to bring it up when I take a closer look at pistons, thanks for the reminder :)

[@mikea2363]

Also, inertial dampeners might not always be enough to hold your ship up in the air if you have a subgrid unlocked. Even if you can lift it, it will slowly pull the ship downwards anyways, so be careful with that or your ship could slowly crash behind you.

[@Splitsie]

That aspect of subgrids is really unfortunate, I don't mind that you need to balance them but I wish the inertial dampeners would still function normally :( I don't think that will ever change though as it doesn't seem an easy thing to fix.

[@mikea2363]

Splitsie there are scripts that will keep your ship balanced, but there nothing that can fix the other problem

[@Splitsie]

Yeah, I saw someone talking about their leveling script, but it wouldn't hold altitude, oh well at least they gave us the locking state and managed to make it workable :)

[@samuelsann8219]

"Rotor's are Evil." As my last mining ship was named, before it exploded.

[@Splitsie]

They certainly can be, though I wonder if they really are evil, or just misunderstood :P

[@danjones8182]

You know Splitsie, I love your channel, and I've watched just about everything else first before the tutorial series. Due to your dedicated commitment I have a WAY better understanding of how this game works and how to get into it SOLELY because of you(and Capac, he's awesome too). I just want to say(and no doubt on behalf of MANY), THANK YOU. Seriously, thank you.

[@Splitsie]

You're very welcome, glad I've been able to help :)

[@DrMckay991]

Damn, these Tutorials are high quality

[@Splitsie]

Thanks so much :)

[@RexMachinus]

great tutorial, well structured, easy to follow, straight to the point, loud and clear voice. very professional my good sir! subscribed

[@Splitsie]

Thanks so much for the kind words :)

[@justinwheeler5614]

Man, I really enjoy my time fiddling with things in Space Engineers. Thanks for sharing your understanding of things, Splitsie!

[@Splitsie]

You're very welcome :)

[@nanookdan]

Best video on rotors I've seen, thanks.

[@Splitsie]

Thank you and you're welcome :) There's a really good, but old, video by morphologis that explains how you can attach 2 rotors to the same grid to make a pretty cool looking lifting mechanism, most of the techniques he uses still work even though the video is 3 years old. Here's the link if you want to take a look: kzbin.info/www/bejne/qZOYkH2Vg8-Hhac

[@Mr-Pap1]

A little late to the party, but I love your videos/tutorials. Watching your survival series, atm. Keep up the great work!

[@battlehaggis4421]

Yeah I'm 6 years late to the party, thank u for this vid it's really helped me get rotors doing what they are told. Finally got my drill rigs and blast doors operating with no clang 😁 thank u

[@conservativecody6239]

Bro I just got this game and your videos have made my life amazing. Thank you so, much!

[@Usernamebry]

This neatly done tutorial couldn't have come at a better time for me! Cheers and keep it up.

[@Splitsie]

Thanks so much :) I've got a whole bunch of ideas still to come, but I'm always happy to get suggestions too

[@sirhellhound3074]

All hail lord clang

[@Splitsie]

Clang be with you.

[@skylark306]

the mortals who dare to challenge the will of the clang shall prepare to be consumed by its wrath

[@theletterm9811]

Hail Lord Clang

[@etopsirhc]

May your vessel go unseen by lord klang.

[@shootypewpew2683]

These videos are SO thorough! Thank you, thank you! (Well done!)

[@Splitsie]

You're very welcome :)

[@Jensettiman]

Cheers, mate. I recently got into experimenting with the rotors, but I never got it to work, because I hadn't yet touched on the displacement. Now I can finally build that blasted platform I wanted.

[@Splitsie]

Nice, glad this was useful :)

[@montro2220]

Before invoking Klang through rotors, pistons, and hinges, the proper rites have to be observed. The proper rites are: Watch more Splitsie videos preferably with Capac Capacing himself and/or Splitsie 😉

[@TheMetalwrench]

Thanks for the vid! Been looking for an updated version!

[@Splitsie]

You're welcome, there's so much old information out there for SE I'm trying my best to get more up to date info on each area :)

[@Tigerbeast]

NOTE: Hold CTRL and click to make specific adjustments...

[@miguelmaldonado9143]

Thank you! i was just thinking about how he did that

[@Tigerbeast]

@@miguelmaldonado9143 You're welcome, i wish people would take the time to explain simple things that would usually be considered "Common Knowledge".

[@mattclark6509]

Thanks I have been looking for that!

[@derpyallan1435]

You Sir, have just made my day))) Now I'm gonna fix my asymmetrical planes/starfighters wings

[@fazzo]

This is the best SE Channel by far! love your content!

[@Splitsie]

Thanks Jonas, that's very kind :)

[@mikek3459]

thnx a lot for these video instructions, i have so much trouble with these rotors, always messing up my ideas :D Keep up the good work Splitsie :D

[@Splitsie]

Thanks and you're very welcome Mike :)

[@VanHamGaming]

Perfect, I had been trying to get two rotor arms on a ship to spin together at opposite rotations the same way. Thanks for the help

[@Splitsie]

Glad I could help :)

[@cavalfou]

Probably the best rotor tutorial, tank you for your work

[@Splitsie]

You're very welcome :)

[@Dydreth]

Very impressive. Thanks for this!

[@Splitsie]

Thanks and you're welcome! :)

[@stanpollard]

Great video splitsie. I use these ideas for flaps for a plane and landing gear doors.i also use them for the nasa g force simulator . Keep up the great werk

[@Splitsie]

Thanks Stan :) I actually started feeling a little ill when I first played around on that thing - surround monitors and high velocity spinning are not a good combination :/

[@1974rabj]

Thank you for the tutorial .... It is greatly appreciated!

[@Splitsie]

You're very welcome :)

[@aldegator]

the first thing I ever built was a pillar with all my amenities attached to it. I was floating in space so I thought it would be cool if I had a set of rotors on the top connected to solar panels so I could rotate them to any angle and collect maximum solar. I did not know how rotors worked, set them both to maximum, and my pillar went flying off into space rotating wildly right before an autosave.

[@clamr7775]

O o f . M y . G a m o r. That sucks… I built a ship that had failed rotors and it did pretty much the same thing your pillar did…

[@Hans45]

wery informative! helped me a lot, thanks

[@Splitsie]

You're very welcome :)

[@RangedAssassin]

Great job!! Keep up the good work!!

[@Splitsie]

Thanks so much :)

[@jacoblansman8147]

I love the dancing spotlight at the end

[@IanGem1121]

I think this is the coolest video you've ever made, Splitsie.

[@Splitsie]

Thank you! :)

[@seansmith8222]

This tutorial is perfection!

[@Splitsie]

Thanks :)

[@otter502]

This is an amazing tutorial

[@Splitsie]

Thanks 🙂

[@TheophilNerd]

It's crazy! I never had thought about that!

[@Splitsie]

Which bit?

[@TheophilNerd]

@@Splitsie The way how you made this gates is so interessting.

[@socialus5689]

Just found you & So far enjoying everything i've seen :)

[@Splitsie]

Thank you very much :)

[@riccardogemme]

Nice Tutorial Splitsie

[@Splitsie]

Thanks :)

[@BlazinNSoul]

This deserve so many more views. I feel like I'm in an advanced propulsions & engineering class at MIT. Nice work!! :b

[@Splitsie]

Thanks :)

[@dichebach]

Hey Splitsie, I suspect the reason that the marker on the rotor part is offset by 45 degrees is that those markers are intended to be useful for attaching objects whose faces you wish to point in the direction you wish the rotor to rotate into. Say a solar panel with face pointing at 0 degrees, will have its edges pointing in -45 and +45. The notches in the rotor part help you to visualize how to attach the solar panel in such a way that you can easily input a value relative to the face of the attached object. An additional graphic on the rotor part would sure be useful though!

[@Splitsie]

The offset was a graphical bug that's since been fixed thankfully :) As well as the fact that the white text didn't match with the black underneath :P

[@YAHYEL-ANUNNAKI]

OUTSTANDING TUTORIAL!!!

[@Splitsie]

Thank you very much :)

[@davidalldred9392]

Got th game game recently, and this has helped so much. Going to watch them all again just make sure a left a like on one😂

[@AndyE7]

Subscribed to help you out. Going to be honest I thought you had hundreds of thousands of subs watching your videos because they are so well made. Kind of a shock to see only 2.9k... You deserve so much more just keep up the work and one day you will make it big.

[@Splitsie]

Thanks :) I'm actually pretty impressed I've made it this far so fast :P

[@acanadianderg4035]

I didn't know u could change the gap size for rotors, this is going to make my ideas so much easier, thank you!!!!!!

[@Splitsie]

You're very welcome, I'm glad there was something useful here :)

[@acanadianderg4035]

Splitsie can u teach us a little about scripting?

[@Splitsie]

I'm going to do a video on how to import scripts, but in terms of writing them, that's well beyond my abilities sadly. Thankfully there are a lot of awesome people who put that stuff on the workshop so we don't need to learn how to make them ourselves :)

[@tassie7325]

Thanks for another great tutorial. A few more tricks to add to the arsenal. I was a little surprised that you never showed the method for putting a rotor on both ends of a privot to give it a bit more stability.

[@Splitsie]

I was thinking about it, but I thought I'd be pushing things going beyond 30 mins for the tutorial :P It's a very good point though, Morphologis has a very good, but old tutorial on doors that use that technique and look really cool.

[@bluelightfox]

If you do merge the subgrids of rotors, the displacement setting is critical. You can see this in space when the main grid is non-static. When displacement isn't set correctly, the main grid will continually spin randomly on multiple axes as the rotor top parts continually push against each other. Find the equilibrium displacement value to appease clang. IIRC, it used to be that when you merged rotor's subgrids (without things blowing up), their displacements would auto-adjust to the correct value. An update probably broke this...sigh. So if you do a video on this someday, please test it with a non-static main grid. Also, oddly, when merging subgrids, structural integrity matters. Making sure a merge block has more than one attachment point to its own grid can prevent clang-splosions when the grids merge. Fiddling with torque and braking torque may also help - seems the rotors try to counter the forces generated by the merge.

[@Splitsie]

Very interesting, I didn't realise at the time but when watching morphologis do this it did all seem easy, maybe 3 years ago all of this still worked. I'm keen to look into this some more :)

[@thevelocipastor1721]

helped me make wing like solar panels, thanks!

[@sixtycents]

What a massively helpful video! I was just about to fiddle them to get some blast doors to complement my already existing hangar doors, this does help out quite a bit, had no idea angled blocks have different collision mesh, I wonder if there are any other blocks with similarly offset collision meshes.

[@Splitsie]

Gotta love some convenient timing! Off the top of my head I'm not certain, but if you're in creative you can press F12 and get the overlay and check some of them out :)

[@judahmills1731]

I learned a lot thanks

[@Splitsie]

I'm glad and you're very welcome :)

[@seanPlox]

thanks mate! really helpfull

[@Splitsie]

Thanks :)

[@Blockinstaller12]

Clang vs the Kraken, now that would be an interesting battle.

[@Splitsie]

I think they'd probably start to wonder why they're fighting, then work together and destroy us all :P

[@gelengi6864]

Perfect. Thank you...

[@vladkruglov7719]

there is no replacement for displacement

[@Splitsie]

You should send that to Xocliw, it sounds like something he'd say :P

[@hunterlee8383]

I was hoping that spaceworm would summon clang.

[@Splitsie]

So was I! I was sorely disappointed, and also felt quite ill when I put a cockpit on the end and sat in it...

[@merendell]

I dare you to try that agian with a VR headset :P

[@Splitsie]

Oh please no, it was bad enough with a single monitor 🤢

[@macgabhann1108]

id love to get my hands on a VR head set $600 though kinda impossible since im only living on $130

[@builder396]

Heh. The other day (before watching this video) I made a small grid truck with a rotor-attached semi-trailer. No real practical advantage, but its fun to drive around with and so far hasnt blown up, so yay.

[@Splitsie]

I actually think some of the most fun things in Space Engineers actually have no application within the game and having attachable trailers is pretty cool :)

[@SuperNoir88]

very nice video!!! good job ;)

[@Splitsie]

Thank you very much :)

[@Pwipel]

splitsie i love you sry for my anglish but i helped me alot with that game buidling my base and ship was very hard for me u helped me alot love you

[@Splitsie]

Thanks, glad I was able to help :)

[@clintonsavage4018]

Could you do a remake of your past video regarding how strong each thruster is using your contraption at around 25:00 and adjust the torque of the rotor to find the values of thrust that each thruster puts out? I think that would give a better idea of their strength than counting blocks considering some of those thrusters were lifting unimaginably large amounts of blocks. Also, assuming physics works the way it should in this game, the length of the arm that the thruster would be attached to should have an effect on how much torque is required to stop the thruster. So if a certain length arm couldn't stop a specific thruster (probably hydrogen), or you couldn't find the point where it could move (probably ion), you could make it shorter or longer and then find practical numbers to assign each thruster by using torque and arm length.

[@mknight6902]

EXCELLENT, Thank you been looking for a good tutorial, now the question is : How have you used these in your own base?

[@Splitsie]

I've used these for all sorts of crazy contraptions, my single player series is the one where I've used pistons and rotors the most. From elevators to turntables to semi-trailers and a bunch of others :)

[@charlieodom9107]

Mmmmmmm....elevators!!!

[@TheMuffinGnome]

Firstly, excellent content. I'm new to SE and your tutorials have saved me from having to learn everything the hard way :) I have a question though: Air Blast doors Airtight? I know there are hangar doors, but for several designs I want to build I really need something that is larger than 4 blocks tall. So I thought the blast doors might be the answer to my problems...

[@Splitsie]

Unfortunately blast doors are not airtight, at least not using the style I used in the video. There are methods where you can make large doors using a combination of rotors and the airtight hangar doors, one example is this door: steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=909634127 It might be easier to use one of the mods for larger airtight hangar doors though, probably less clang too :P

[@TheMuffinGnome]

Thank you very much ^^ The rotor idea is nice, still got maaaaany things to try xD

[@davesbeatz]

hey dude, strange question.. how do you type the relevant degrees etc into the rotar menu? i can only drag the bar

[@AungKhant-pr5jq]

Ctrl click on the bar

[@walterjones4875]

Im on xbox I have a small ship with a router connecting the wings and piston with Ion engines in the rear but the engines aren't working on the wings or piston what do I need to do to fix it where they will work with the ship

[@alystair]

Never played this game, I'm curious - when in space do rotors/rotating objects impart force into the object their a part of? Eg. Could you make a gyroscopic stabilizer or movement tool without gas?

[@Khjin]

Wow! I didn't know you can attach the large piston head to the small rotor. Nice.

[@Splitsie]

I'm tempted to put some large ship turrets on my small ships this way, I didn't test if the ammunition can feed through though...

[@Khjin]

I see, you mean the small to large adv rotors. I'll try to test that one. Although, the first thing I thought of are my APC builds. Now I can make something that has a working Medbay in it. All in vanilla too! So thank you for this. I almost forgot. I was waiting for the part where you talk about how to do a double rotor door with two piston heads attached to the same door section and how to properly adjust the head offset. I guess that one's too clangy though.

[@dndhatcher]

Why would you do that? Don't the small and large turrets do the same amount of damage?

[@ianwilson4286]

has there been any way to import blueprints with diffrent size rotors and grids?

[@Splitsie]

The only way you can import a blueprint that has subgrids is in creative mode and pasting it in (mixed sizes on the rotor don't affect this), you can't project subgrids from a projector

[@belethious9201]

How did you Edit the Numbers, like the Value to set? I can only or only know how to use the Scrolling of it. Im new to this.

[@Splitsie]

Ctrl+left click will bring up that dialogue box :)

[@Marco.Magnani]

Hi, awesome tutorial! But maybe I'm missing something... I can't find the blocks with the smoothed edges in game. Are they from a DLC or MOD?

[@cethegus_divinus_rex_porno7638]

thinking of using adv rotor to counter drill drag, or attach a drilling arm to increase the hole just a bit further 😁 also using adv rotor and a timer for making welders wobble so i dont always need to be perfectly lined up. angled thrusters are a thing i commonly use already to reduce thruster count.

[@Splitsie]

Do you use Whip's script with the angled thrusters or do you use vector thrust more? I haven't tried Whip's one yet but I'm interested how it handles with fine controls

[@cethegus_divinus_rex_porno7638]

no script. i have set up the thrusters myself, grouping them to achieve directions. it does turn out to feel very realistic -like a helicopter or hovercraft- but much harder to handle than the built in press-z-to-compensate-lack-of-skill. worst experimental design used three rotors to angle the thrust on x y and z by 45 degrees. bad newz is that these many subgrids dont handle good at all. note: wobble welders DO a fine job!

[@giuba98]

I really like this video! Does anyone know all the reasons why a rotor head detaches? Because I think I've done everything ok, but sometimes all of them detach apparently without a reason.

[@ninjakali5137]

Thenks Splitsie, I thoroughly learn a lot from this game because of you. I don't have time to browse through the massive comment section so I'm not sure if this has been asked/answered: When I do a large grid advanced rotor with a small grid sub part, can that not function as a conveyor system? I used that setup as a cheap alternative to mine (large block advanced rotor, small block rotor head, conveyor junction with a large port on opposite sides and 3 small ports on opposite sides, and small grid drills). For some reason, the resources collected by the drills do not transfer through the setup. I can assure you that the conveyor system is connected properly with green lights across the board. I'm wondering if there's a mechanic somewhere that does not allow inventory transfer between differing grid sizes?

[@Splitsie]

Nope, transfer works just fine through it but when drills are involved the small rotor part frequently accumulates damage from something unknown so you'll likely need to check it's still at a functional level and keep repairing it while using a system like that :(

[@therealbobmayo5065]

I have a question unrelated to the video. there is a mod for bendable conveyors, if i use a connector, sensors, and some thrusters, could i have the bending conveyors auto attach to a ship?

[@Splitsie]

It might be possible, but with sensors the way they are at the moment - bugged when detecting grids - you might be in for more frustration than you expect :(

[@therealbobmayo5065]

Bummer, thanks for the reply though. :)

[@markpeter3411]

Funny thing. I have watched a couple of your vids now, great work, even tho i have never played SE. Lol my small ass laptop can't handle it.

[@Splitsie]

Glad you're enjoying the videos, pity you can't join in the fun though :(

[@markpeter3411]

@@Splitsie yeah looks like fun.

[@TheNomnomnom0815]

Heyyy, apologies for commenting on a relatively old video, but I was wondering if it's possible to create a sort of bobblehead-esque effect using rotors (or any means really). What I mean by that is to have a rotor set to a certain angle and when force is applied to the subgrid, the rotor gives way to a certain extent but, once released, will 'wobble' back to its set angle. :)

[@Splitsie]

If you have the rotor set to a very low torque you might be able to achieve that effect, but would only be able to do so in one direction (so it wouldn't be able to bounce back and forth, just be pushed down and slowly return to its start position).

[@TheNomnomnom0815]

@@Splitsie Yea, that's the impression I got from the block's settings and your explanations on how they work. Maybe I can achieve something relatively similar with timer blocks. :)

[@zonerdarkrevention6223]

how are you able to type in the exact numbers you want on the control panel?

[@Splitsie]

Ctrl + left click will bring up the dialogue box to type in :)

[@brucet7965]

Thanks again Splitsie! I hate to ask, but have you done a video explaining thruster overrides? I haven't been able to find the 'Thruster Overides for Idiots' explinations.

[@Splitsie]

I haven't actually done anything on that. I probably should since it's a much better way of getting off a planet using hydrogen and can be useful for long flights with atmospheric craft too in order to save on batteries... if I can come up with a few other uses for it I'll try to put a video together :)

[@brucet7965]

That would be awesome!

[@Splitsie]

It's in my 'future videos' list, which is actually a bunch of folders ready for whenever I start working on a video :)

[@Hateious]

Are these more stable then they used to be? Getting back into space engineers and wanting to finally build bigger objects. I love splitsie always helped me in space engineers, even yo this day these videos are great for a reference or to remind yourself.

[@Splitsie]

Yep, much more stable - still capable of destruction if you mess it up, but much more predictable when that'll happen

[@sheev9852]

4:58 what do I need pr press so I can chose the specific angle rather than using the slider?

[@Splitsie]

Ctrl + left click will give you the ability to type in values :)

[@sheev9852]

@@Splitsie Thank you so much, I have been trying to work this out for months lol. Never occured to me to click ctrl

[@changsplace]

Great video. Thank you for it. I tried to set a rotor to go from 360 to 270. I set the velocity to 2rpm's. When I activated it, it slamed in a very fast motion. How do I slow that down? I thought it was supposed to go 2 rpms

[@Splitsie]

I suspect that rapid movement may have been the rotor snapping to reach the range you'd set (if it was outside the range it'll sometimes do that) or if gravity had an influence over the rotor in that range and the attached blocks were heavy they might have overwhelmed the rotor torque. The last possibility is that something attached to the rotor was colliding with something else forcing it to move in a dangerous way. I'm sure there are other possibilities but those are the most common ones I can think of

[@internetttroll1908]

well... here i am again... just looking at another Super tutorial. another like from me, thank you.

[@Splitsie]

Thank you very much :)

[@loneRang3r]

I know this is an old vid now but I think this is still relevant, even if tweaks have been made in the game. With torque on the door you're showing it on, gravity will (should?) assist the drop back to the closed position. Does that use braking torque to prevent the thing over-accelerating or will gravity only impact the torque needed to reach the set velocity?

[@Splitsie]

Braking torque only applies to rotors that are switched off, torque on a rotor that's on will be used to keep a rotor or move a rotor to the desired position whether that's working with gravity or against it. I haven't tested, but if the moving part attached to the rotor isn't heavy enough that gravity can overcome the torque I think the rotor will move faster through the segment where gravity is assisting than where it's neutral. Hopefully that makes sense as I'm struggling to come up with particularly clear ways of saying it :P

[@loneRang3r]

@@Splitsie yep, clear! Thank you mate, you're a legend! For some reason I had it in my head that breaking torque was also used for deceleration.

[@Splitsie]

@@loneRang3r Well based off the name you'd think it would be, but it doesn't seem that way

[@shreklol960]

Splitsie thank you for the tutorial it was very helpful.but I have a problem.i made a ship with a rotor hanger door an for some reason my ship can't say in one place.it always starts falling down at a slow speed.pls help.

[@Splitsie]

Unfortunately there isn't any method to avoid that, the inertial dampeners that keep ships flying while in natural gravity fields don't compensate for the weight of things attached to rotors or pistons. You would need to have the door lock down when closed with either a merge block or connector for it to work :(

[@pierreooo1]

that's great thank you

[@Splitsie]

You're welcome :)

[@bram119]

At 4:58 how did you open the value set menu?

[@Splitsie]

Ctrl plus left click will let you enter the value :)

[@XMaster340]

I have a short question. How did you manage to setup the toolbar of the passenger seat in 24:22? Is that a rmote control and if yes how did you get access to it that fast?

[@Splitsie]

That was a remote control and some editing :P I'd already set up the remote to have those functions on its toolbar so all I had to do was jump in and take control, I edited out the bit in between as this video was getting long and I didn't realise I'd make it look like I'd figured out a special shortcut, sorry! I wish you could do it that fast, it would be really handy if seats could have remote control blocks put on their hotbar...

[@XMaster340]

Thanks a lot for the quick response. Too bad that there is no way to do this. But awesome video anyways. I've played Space Engineers for quite some time now and i didn't know what "Breaking Torque" is for. Keep it up! :)

[@Splitsie]

Thanks! Every time I make another video people give me ideas for many, many more so I think I'll be able to keep doing videos like this for a long while - which is good because I am learning so much I didn't know about Space Engineers and really enjoying it :)

[@captincheezee]

Hey Splitsie, I know you're good with SE mechanics. I have an issue with rotors that're causing my ship to spin when I've got two of them on a subgrid setup (as in for a rotating door). Any idea?

[@Splitsie]

The rotor will apply force to both sides, so the door needs to be a lot lighter than the ship in order to have it move and the ship barely move. I've been running into a similar issue with my custom turrets on a rover in my Assertive Acquisitions series. The turret is so heavy that when it tracks a target it moves the rover as well as the turret making control very difficult

[@captincheezee]

@@Splitsie I'll give this a try.. but Clang wasn't happy. 😅

[@Banrado]

Hi, nice Video.

[@Splitsie]

Thanks :)

[@Rasip]

Wait. How do you have controls while in a passenger seat? Is that a creative thing? Did you hop in and cut out taking control of a remote control from the k menu?

[@Splitsie]

Sorry! That was a cheeky edit. There's no quick way to take control of a remote control without going through the menu :(

[@mouthforwar17]

When I do this with small blocks, the door collides no matter what setting I have it on. I tried to make s drip down cargo door, with a frame around it but it doesn't seem to matter what I set the relief to, it collides with everything around it

[@Splitsie]

This video I did on pistons kzbin.info/www/bejne/oZ-1mIFmjM2tgck and one of the subsequent starter tutorials on hangar doors I show the collision box of the small grid blocks and why you're having issues - even the blast doors have a larger collision mesh than the visible size of the block making it quite difficult to get doors to work on small grid as they do on large :/

[@jonathangreen9080]

Just at the start around 5:06 how do I get the option to pop up for a specific value? I can use the arrow keys to slide it slightly more precise but how do i do that?

[@Splitsie]

Ctrl plus left click will get that dialogue box up for you :)

[@jonathangreen9080]

Splitsie thank you so much!!!!!

[@Splitsie]

You're welcome :)

[@thegamingnb_666]

Just one question... how did you edit the value without using the slider?

[@Splitsie]

You can use Ctrl+click on most sliders to enter a value 🙂

[@thegamingnb_666]

@@Splitsie Thank you so much! It's so infuryating when you can't get the rotors to turn exactly 90°. Thank you so much!

[@carlyvalente]

Hello. I have the following problem: Big ship with a loading moving ramp. Everything goes fine when in station mode but as soon as I swap to ship mode the nightmare begins. The ship starts rolling? Spinning? it's just the same effect as when you hit the Q or E keys movement. I think is because the ramp subgrid. And it happened in another ship too. Is there a way to solve this?

[@Splitsie]

It sounds like you've got part of the ramp trying to occupy the same physical space as the main grid, even if the visual model isn't, the physics body may well be. Have a look at this video kzbin.info/www/bejne/oZ-1mIFmjM2tgck as I show a few examples of that problem with pistons, rotors can do similar things. They'll usually behave with static grids because they're completely immovable, but the phantom forces created can cause mobile grids to spin wildly

[@connormackie1395]

As a suggestion for a future video, a wheel tutorial would be a massive help.

[@Splitsie]

Absolutely, I've got it in my to-do list :) I want to do a break down of what all the different sliders actually do to your suspension so people can hopefully understand how to set up their vehicle to behave the way they want

[@connormackie1395]

awesome, thanks!

[@Rexxie44]

What key are you hitting to do custom numbers?

[@Splitsie]

ctrl+middle mouse will let you type values into sliders :)

[@Rexxie44]

@@Splitsie Awesome thank you!

[@uncleweirdbeard86]

If you haven't already, you should make a video showing us what not to do during a build. I'd like to know how to make a ship self destruct without warheads to make it obvious that it will self-destruct as part of my server I'm working on

[@Splitsie]

I may well do something like that, as I'm contemplating some ways to make some collections of tips into useful videos :)

[@uncleweirdbeard86]

That would be awesome. I've been watching a number of your videos to learn some of the more complicated stuff in the game. I want my server to have a big emphasis on the engineers part of the title. Play subgrid part was a bit confusing to me at first, but now I have a better understanding of it I think

[@chriss2031]

I cant believe that you forgot the legendary throw up room which basically is a sealed room in space with a couple of rotors + gravity generators. :P

[@Splitsie]

It was bad enough on the spinny NASA-like g-force testing rig. When I built that I might have stayed in first person a little too long and started to feel dizzy. Your idea sounds horrible! ;)

[@Awolwelding]

nube question: how do you type the settings for each section of the rotor?

[@Splitsie]

Not a noob question, I hadn't used it until someone pointed it out to me: ctrl+right click and you'll be able to type in values :)

[@fiveoneecho]

Oh my god.... I thought that was a mod you were using... That alone just lifted all of the negative feelings I have towards building complex contraptions! I am totally getting back into this game xP

[@mouthforwar17]

Hey Splitsie, I've made a Star Wars Imperial Shuttle with moving wings using rotors. Unfortunately the ship drifts while in flight, even if it's not meant to be moving. I believe this is due to the rotors. How can I fix this so that it doesnt drift in flight?

[@Splitsie]

If it's drifting while in a gravity well there's almost nothing you can do about that, if it's drifting in space then you almost certainly have some blocks that are attached to rotors that are trying to occupy some of the same space as the blocks around them (the collision mesh for the blocks is bigger than the visual one). On my 'garage building' basics tutorial I show some of the collision models in game to give you an idea of just how different it is and how easy it is to unintentionally cause clang this way kzbin.info/www/bejne/h4bXmHyllM15Y9k

[@mouthforwar17]

@@Splitsie I fixed it! I had 2 rotors, controlling each wing. That was causing the blocks between to push on each other creating the drift. I took the rotor I had turned off off of each wing and it fixed the problem

[@ShishouDzukiZaManako]

how does one type a custom value in the control panel? been tapping around too long

[@Splitsie]

ctrl+click, this handy little tip was highlighted to me when I made the parachutes video :)

[@ShishouDzukiZaManako]

thanks bro

[@Casal0x]

how you set the value i cant accest to write the value to set it at -90 deg

[@Splitsie]

To type in a value you can ctrl+click on the slider and that'll bring up the dialogue box :)