Groups

If you want to control several functional blocks of a grid together, group them in the Control Panel. You can control grouped actions through the Grid Toolbar as well!

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Benefits of Using Groups

• Each grid remembers the groups you have defined for it, even in its blueprint.
• Other players can use the groups if they have (faction) access to the blocks.
• If all blocks in the group are of the same type and have the same controls, grouping also gives you access to all control actions they have in common.
• Grouping lets you switch all members on/off in one step.

Usage Examples

You create a group containing all doors and name it *MyShipName All Doors*. This group gives you access to the Open and Close actions for all members of the *MyShipName All Doors* group.

If you make a group that mixes pistons and rotors, then you can toggle the group on and off, reverse, change velocity, etc., because they have these actions in common. But you cannot use it to change the group's braking force settings, because pistons don't have braking force settings in common with rotors.

How to Create Groups

You group blocks on the Control Panel Screen:

1. On the left side, use the search filter if needed to find specific blocks.
2. Hold CTRL key and -click every block to include in the group.
   Or -click the first block in the list, hold SHIFT key and -click the last block in the list to select a range.
   Or press CTRL+A key to select all (filtered) blocks.
3. In the text box in the top right, type a group name, then click Save.

Your groups are listed first on the left side in the control panel. You can recognise them because group names are surrounded with asterisks, e.g. *All Doors*.

Important Warnings When Using Groups

Messed-up thrusters groups cause crashes; messed-up turret groups waste ammo; messed-up wheel groups flip rovers, ...

Group names are not unique and will trigger actions in all docked ships with the same group names. If you plan to have multiple drones 3D printed from the same blueprint docked at the same station, use Timers instead if you need to control each drone's actions separately. Or purposefully use the same-named groups to launch several drones together.

Groups don't update themselves automatically. If you damage and repair a block, it stays in the group. But if you destroy and re-add a block, or add new blocks of the same type, you must create a new group to include them. Don't forget to update Timers, Sensors, Toolbars, etc. using the outdated group. Lastly, delete the outdated group.

Don't let overlapping on/off toggles confuse you. If you have groups for all blocks of a kind and also for a subset, you can toggle the subset on/off. Be careful if you later toggle all blocks on/off, this results in a confusing mix of inverted on and off states! Use the explicit "switch on", "switch off" actions instead if this is a problem.

For example, you create a group for "all thrusters" and one for "braking thrusters". After the groups' creation, you add more atmospheric lifting thrusters.

1. You toggle "all" thrusters on, and toggle the braking thrusters off, in order to "coast".
2. You notice you are lacking lifting thrust: The new lifting thrusters are still off because they were not included in the "all" group.
3. You panic and push the slot to toggle "all" thrusters on again: Now, braking thrusters are on, lifting thrusters are still off, and the remaining thrusters are also off... aaand you're crashing.

Now imagine the added confusion when a fleet of docked ships with the same group names toggle off each other's thruster groups in the hangar...