Printing ships

[onryone]

I have built a printer with nine welders in a square connected to a piston. I have found the piston setup to be inadequate because it only extends 10m. Most good ships for atmosphere and space are longer than that. Since the welders are drawing resources they will need to be stationary. I will need the projector to move as a blueprint is being built. Is there an easy way to move the projector instead of a piston to build a ship longer than 10m?

[onryone]

I have thought about using a wheeled vehicle with the projector mounted center mass. Will the vehicle tilt from the weight of the ship?

[Capt Fuzzy]

I had this very same issue a while back and never quite got it to work as intended, due to the very same reason that you cite, the 10m piston range.
Adding more pistons would seem like the logical solution to this, but presents another problem, the more pistons that you add, the further out of whack your alignment becomes.
I thought of mounting the projector onto a piston, or pistons, to move it, but soon realized that this had the same problem as the movable welder wall, alignment.
My best working 'guess' was to mount BOTH on pistons and move them both to complete the ship, but timing them to work smoothly together quickly became tedious.
I finally relented and now just use a mod, Nano-bot Build and Repair system.
With that, the nanobots will build ANY projection that I load, regardless of size.
I only have to make sure that I have all of the components, which is a lot less tedious than timing multiple pistons to work together smoothly.

[Capt Fuzzy]

Originally posted by onryone:

I have thought about using a wheeled vehicle with the projector mounted center mass. Will the vehicle tilt from the weight of the ship?

I tried this as well, and your supposition is correct.
As the ship is built, it's weight will affect the vehicle's alignment.

[CaveDweller]

Originally posted by onryone:

I have built a printer with nine welders in a square connected to a piston. I have found the piston setup to be inadequate because it only extends 10m. Most good ships for atmosphere and space are longer than that. Since the welders are drawing resources they will need to be stationary. I will need the projector to move as a blueprint is being built. Is there an easy way to move the projector instead of a piston to build a ship longer than 10m?

Would you be willing to share a screenshot or two of your printer set up? As I'm understanding it, you're welding set up is essentially not long enough for the ship you're trying to build. So depending on how your set up is, I'm thinking maybe something like the Star Trek Federation type 4 dry dock

[onryone]

Here is a screenshot of my setup. Maybe a long bed truck might work or I could try the Build and Repair mod.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3355331090

[Dan2D3D]

Hi, I prefer to use a welder ship to build my Warship slowly and no need to build all components using Huge Factories, also take time to collect ores to build a Warship.

+ it's Ok to add a floor of welders under the Blueprint to build the floor of the Warship / bigger ship and complete the top with welder ship but may be too much Welder blocks and using a Welder Ship having only 2-3 welders will do Job.

OR
You may try station moving arm, I made one setup like old "Turn Table" where the welder can keep its position while the Blueprint slowly rotate but made for small ships :
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3225368322
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3225368216
Different arm setup :
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3225395401

[ShadedMJ]

Sorry, I'm not trying to be overly critical.

1) Piston only extends 10m : Use put another piston on the end of that one. Keep doing this until you have enough.
2) Welders needing to be stationary : Since when?
3) Most player have the array of welders in one spot and move the projector further away with pistons, or having the projector stationary and moving the welders away from projector.
A) There are a blueprints that just don't work well with projectors because the foundations of some blocks are not present when blocks are made. Bad analogy : If the ship ends up having a "G" shape, welding from the top to the bottom won't work because the center needs the bottom to be made first.
B) I suggest using the Nanobot Build and Repair mod what will weld up a ship while catching all the blocks that get missed with a welder wall.

[CaveDweller]

Originally posted by onryone:

Here is a screenshot of my setup. Maybe a long bed truck might work or I could try the Build and Repair mod.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3355331090

wait a minute, a few other solutions for you, one of them is even gifted by keen themselves. so, depending on the range of the welder (I don't remember if it's the the small grid welders that cover a three block area, or if they all do), you could space them out a bit. You could also essentially just add more. So instead of nine welders, have a length of eighteen. You could also have two walls of welders if only one area is being built. One of keens background cinematics is of a ship being treated like a rotisserie chicken in an oven of welders. That might work as well.

[onryone]

I will figure out how to use the build and repair mod. Will it work on an earth-like planet? I could design my own ships but need to get a feel for the game first.

I had a a few hundred in the game a couple of years ago. I built a miner and a planet to space exploration ship. The space ship used atmo thrusters and hydrogen for space. Used about half the hydrogen to get out of the gravity well and the other half for a short excusion. Made many trips to try to find uranium and platinum. Managed to find about an ingots worth of platinum. Didn't seem worth the effort. Maybe it is better this time.

[onryone]

The mining ship was a Bumble Bee. It could be built using one piston an 3 welders. Didn't think the miner was all that good. It broke alot.

[Jack Schitt]

Originally posted by ShadedMJ:

Sorry, I'm not trying to be overly critical.

1) Piston only extends 10m : Use put another piston on the end of that one. Keep doing this until you have enough.
2) Welders needing to be stationary : Since when?
3) Most player have the array of welders in one spot and move the projector further away with pistons, or having the projector stationary and moving the welders away from projector.
A) There are a blueprints that just don't work well with projectors because the foundations of some blocks are not present when blocks are made. Bad analogy : If the ship ends up having a "G" shape, welding from the top to the bottom won't work because the center needs the bottom to be made first.
B) I suggest using the Nanobot Build and Repair mod what will weld up a ship while catching all the blocks that get missed with a welder wall.

+1 to what he said.: "Add more pistons."

[Dan2D3D]

I must say, my Warships are too big for Printer and why I use Welder ship to build.

How big it your ship ?
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3009851099

[ShadedMJ]

Originally posted by onryone:

I will figure out how to use the build and repair mod. Will it work on an earth-like planet? ...

Nanobiot Build and Repair is very popular and many players use it often. It works on all planets/moons and space. It more or less checks every block including projections and if parts are needed it will pull those components and build. I vastly prefer it over welder walls.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=857053359

[hippybaker]

This is a large ship printer I made. It prints ships ... I THINK 24x24x30 something blocks.

It used only 4 welders, and works like an atual printer using a bunch of timers and sensors.

I built it awhile back and don't remember all the particulars

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2923583610

[A_O_A]

I find for large ships it's best to move the printer and not the projection. I'll put the welders onto the piston and keep the projection static.
Pistons have conveyor ports built into them so you shouldn't have any issues drawing the resource through them and into the welders, just make sure the piston heads are welded up.