what determines Ship length?
 

In SH4, which file(s) determine the actual length of a ship during gameplay?
i know that there is a ship length value in the Ship.Cfg file and i thought there was a value in the Ship.sim file, but there is not.
so, is it just the Cfg file or is there another length value in some other file that determines how long a ship is within gameplay?

3D-model in file ship.dat.
You can view the length of the 3d model in 3d-max, wings-3d, blender_3d and other programs, and then enter this value yourself in ship.cfg
S3Ditor is also available, read here in Russian: https://brat01.mybb.rocks/viewtopic.php?id=94

i am using version 0.9.9 of S3ditor but it is not performing as the instructions indicate.
following Step 2 is not possible. clicking on the xyz graphic will not rotate the graphic.
if i move on to the next steps, i can vary the color, etc.
Step 6 says to click start and select insert a separate node. that option does not appear.

The instructions are written for those who know how to use S3ditor - everything should work,this is the basic standard operation of the S3ditor program. Perhaps not yet correct meaning of the translation complicates the process.

You need to rotate the ship with the mouse with the middle mouse button pressed, zoom in/out - mouse wheel, mouse + pressing the right mouse button also does something. The arrow keys on the keyboard move the ship roughly, but they are rarely needed.

Start - you need to repeat the commands in the image, the big picture does not open, but you can understand it:
"Edit -> Append new chunk -> Nodes -> Node (type: 4/100)"

P.S.
I forgot to write - everything is in METERS, I measured NSS_Cachalot it turned out -4.15 and 3.95 (4.15+3.95=8.1) is 81 meters or 265.748 feet.

thank you for your patience. and yes, in the past, i have not performed any work on graphics files using S3ditor.

for everything there is a first time.

question: are you using an Apple system? i ask because your mouse directions seem to not work with a Microsoft-based mouse. i am trying to compensate. :)
next, your documentation is superb. however, when i click on the graphics to look at the screenshots of S3ditor, the result is a 404-Page not found. not sure why that happens but it does handicap me in that i cannot see which elements you are using in S3editor.

at the moment i am trying to execute Step 13 and not making any progress.

I have windows10 with a standard mouse driver, a logitech g700s mouse, I don't know why it doesn't work for you.

In instrkutsii a lot of extra, all the most important things I have already written to you - "Edit->Append new chunk->Nodes->Node (type: 4/100)". Created a new Node and then move this Node to the bow and stern of the ship.
Length NSS_Cachalot (video clip): https://disk.yandex.ru/i/aDTwUdxOjqfxgQ