Question Joining payloads together

[innovine]

For my first steps in building a space station, I've managed to get the Energia with Buran-T set up. In the Buran-T I've placed a module for my space station, and a DM tug to lift it into orbit. I've used payload manager to place these things together and I think its correct. Launch goes well, up until the point where my tug and module are jettisoned from the launcher. At this point, they are now two separate items, with no collision detection.. so when I fire the tug main engine it just goes through the module instead of pushing it.
I assume I have to connect these things together (and later, I will be connecting modules together on orbit) so can you please let me know what I might have missed? Do I need to somehow dock the tug to the module prior to launch? If I'm going about this in entirely the wrong way then please let me know

 

[jangofett287]

Close, just dock them on the ground, and use payload manager to attach one of them to whatever launcher you want to use, then they should still be docked in orbit, so the engine will push the module. (I don't do launches with stacks much)

 

[innovine]

This is probably a very stupid question, but how do I dock things when they are on the ground?

Also, I am using SSBB modules, many of which do not fit inside the Buran-T. Can you recommend a different way to launch these, or some smaller modules?

 

[IronRain]

You have to use payload manager of Buran-T to connect the DM-tug and the Buran-T container, then you need to use the payload manager of DM-tug to attach the module to the tug

 

[jangofett287]

use the scenario editor, there's a button on a ships edit page marked 'docking' or something like that (I don't read the buttons anymore)