Starbase: Building a Pocket Tank

This guide is not aiming to be pretty, so please excuse the horrid spacings (I don’t know how to fix them and this is a quickly thrown together guide).

Before you begin, you will need the following

• a Propellant Tank (any size)
• the Tank Support of that size
• a Hardpoint
• a Resource Bridge
• a Bolt Tool & Magazine
• a Pipe Tool & Magazine

Place the Tank and Support into the world

Grab one of them (E).
In the top left, expand the Controls (to unlock mouse: Tab) and make sure that “Snapping Toggle” is not Off (Priority Off is fine).

Place the parts such that the parts snap to each other.

Use the Bolt Tool to place bolts that connect the two:

Auto-Bolt

• (hold left click) the Support – will place all possible bolts in predetermined spots (orange preview, see above) – possible bolts as determined if you would be manually bolting
• will place all possible bolts in predetermined spots (orange preview)
• will work even when used where manually bolting is impossible (purple preview, see above)

Manually Bolt

• short left click when preview is green (see below)
• will place a bolt connecting the parts below the preview
• will only work if there are two parts behind the preview (the part the preview is on and one or more others)

You now have connected the two parts

Place the Hardpoint into the world

Move the Hardpoint to the Support
It matters that the Hardpoint-face that is facing you in the image above

• is unobstructed to allow placing the Resource Bridge
• that you can bolt the Hardpoint to the Support and not the Tank
• that you can bolt the Hardpoint to the Support and not the Tank

Bolt the Hardpoint (e.g. by manual bolting like below)

Add the Resource Bridge to the Hardpoint

The last step is to connect the Hardpoint Socket and the Support Socket—
—with a pipe
To do so, you basically left click to set the start point and left click the end point to create the pipes, in this case the Hardpoint Socket and the Support Socket.
This can work, but pipes have a few rules

• they can’t be free floating too long a distance (indicated by the connection line becoming pink instead of white)
• they can clip through objects

So while the direct path between the two sockets is a valid one, it clips with the tank. Clipping pipes (or cables for that matter) with any part you want to move is a bad thing, as either the pipe will break, requiring you to replace it after you move the part, or the part will not come off (which happens in this case if you auto-unbolt (hold right click the tank, NOT the support).

Instead you want to take a corner (one more left click along the way, pipe tool can continue placement if you don’t end in a socket or connect to a pipe)
–
If you now unbolt ((hold) right click) the tank you can pull them apart or take the tank into your inventory to craft a refill.

Now, why would one want to build a free-floating tank.
For one, this construct allows you to fill up a ship’s tanks, when you connect the resource bridges and set the FlowIn and FlowOut values. I go into a bit of more depth in my guide on How to Refill Your Propellant Tanks.

Though why not build this on a ship?

The reason is, that when you have a collection of parts that is less than 5 parts + some bolts, cables and pipes (and weighs less than 40 tons) that you can put it in your inventory.