Correct and that's part of the trick. If you use multistage to jettison something it will have a class of 'STAGE' which sometimes isn't useful - I think it even deletes the stages after 300 seconds or something.
For my neptune one mission the STAGE1 section looks like this:
Code:
[STAGE_1]
Height=40
Diameter=10
EmptyMass=55420
FuelMass=477745
Thrust=8896250
BurnTime=145
off=(0.,0.,19.628)
eng_1=(0,0,-19.628)
eng_diameter=2.2
ENG_TEX=Nep-1\exhaust
ENG_PSTREAM1=con2
ENG_PSTREAM2=con3
MeshName="Nep-1\Ns1"
SPEED=(0,0,-3)
ROT_SPEED=0
module=srb
note the module=srb section, when the stage is jettisoned it picks up the class 'srb'.
the srb.cfg looks like this:
Code:
Meshname = ns1
Mass = 55420
Size = 1
Very simple, same mass as an empty NS1 stage and same mesh but no longer governed by the stage class so I can do other things with it.
EDIT: I've checked and I can't recall exactly how it was done, I know that Loru assisted and I think the parachute was attached via UCD.