Block Placement Mode
When building, pressing number shortcuts 1 key to 9 key to select blocks from your Toolbar puts you in block placement mode. In this mode, you see a ghost preview of the selected block and you can click to place the block in the world.
- In Creative Mode,
-clicking will place welded blocks. - In Survival mode -clicking will place unwelded blocks.
You can place blocks "in person" as the engineer — and even while seated in a cockpit.
To exit block placement mode, either press 0 key, or select a tool (weapon, welder, grinder, drill) from the Toolbar.
How to place blocks as the engineer
- Press G key to configure your toolbar and add blocks to it. Press ESCAPE key.
- Press a number key to select a block from your toolbar.
You have now entered Block Placement Mode. - Align the block's ghost preview, rotate it, and then -click to place the block.
How to rotate blocks
You can rotate blocks only before you place them, while they still appear as ghost previews. To make changes after placing, you have to grind them down and replace them.
Tip: While rotating a functional block, keep an eye on the conveyor ports (marked with yellow rectangles). Unless you’re building for decoration, you will need to keep the conveyor system accessible and connected.
The rotation keys are INSERT key, DELETE key, HOME key, END key, PAGE UP key, PAGE DOWN key. Ignore what the literal labels on these keys say, "Page Up" and "Page Down" do not rotate up and down. Instead, these six keys are used similarly to paired arrow keys:
| Block Rotation | Keys | Example |
|---|---|---|
| to rotate left/right | Delete / Page Down | shaking your head |
| to rotate up/down | Home / End | nodding your head |
| to roll sideways | Insert / Page Up | tilting your head |
Tip: If you rotated in the wrong direction, press the paired key to undo the rotation.
Tip: You may have noticed the cube also has 3 sides skyblue and 3 sides red/green/blue. Those R/G/B sides represent block's orientation as right/up/back (+X/Y/Z).
How to align blocks
Before placing a block, you see a ghost preview. At this point, press B key to toggle between free placement mode, local-grid alignment mode, and gravity-aligned block placement, before you rotate the block.
- Gravity alignment mode means that blocks automatically snap along the implicit world grid, so that all blocks are aligned with one another and the top side of all blocks is level. Rotation in this mode is limited strictly to 90 degrees. This mode only works inside gravity fields (natural or artifical) and it is useful when building on uneven terrain on a planet.
- Local alignment mode means that blocks snap to the existing voxel grid or the station grid that you are currently targeting, in or outside a gravity well, for example, in space.
- Free placement mode means that you can rotate blocks gradually at any angle and place them without snapping to any neighbouring blocks.
Tip: In creative mode, scroll CTRL key-
for aiming the ghost preview closer or further away.
See below for details about the rotation shortcuts.
How to place blocks while seated in a cockpit
Typically, you place blocks "by hand" as the engineer. With all other tools, you have the alternative of using handheld or ship-mounted tools. The ship-based tools (grinder block, projector, welder block, drill block, and block weapons) can all be controlled from a cockpit.
It is similarly possible to place blocks "by hand" while seated in a cockpit, and you don't even need to build a block tool. This feature exists only in Experimental mode on PC.
Short version: Sit in a cockpit and press CTRL key+G key to toggle your toolbar in and out of Block Placement Mode!
Long version follows:
Best Practices for building from a cockpit
Before you try this, make sure that experimental mode is enabled in the Options on the main screen.
- Outside the cockpit, press P key and select a color and armour skin; then press ESCAPE key to close the color picker.
- Sit in the cockpit.
- Make sure you have building materials in the cockpit inventory.
- Lift off and position the ship (using WASD keys and toolbar actions) as desired, as usual.
- Switch to first person view: toggle with V key if needed.
- Press CTRL key+G key.
A message informs you that "Free Placement Mode is activated". The toolbar changes from the ship’s toolbar to a building toolbar. - Press G key to assign blocks to toolbar slots, then press ESCAPE key to close the G menu, as usual.
- Type a number to select a toolbar slot, as usual.
- Cycle through placement modes and rotate the ghost preview as usual.
- -click to place the block, as usual.
- To regain cockpit control, press CTRL key+G key again to leave Block Placement Mode!
Troubleshooting: Why can’t I place blocks from a Helm or from a drone?
A Remote Control or Helm do not count as a cockpits, presumably because they don't have inventory space. If you need to place blocks while remote controlling a drone, look into using a projector instead.
Important flight crash warnings
Remember to switch back to the normal cockpit controls by pressing CTRL key+G key again.
You know you cannot use your normal cockpit toolbar while in Ctrl-G Block Placement Mode. But you might try to do it nonetheless, out of a habit...
Forgetting to switch back will pose an obstacle when you want to configure or use the ship Toolbar, or even cause a crash because you suddenly cannot use familiar shortcuts while flying anymore:
- You won’t be able to quickly activate magnetic landing gear, gyroscopes, secondary thrusters, or similar habitual toolbar actions to stabilise your flight.
- Similarly, while building "in person" as the engineer, you are used to pressing P key to select colors and armor skins. While seated in a cockpit, P key now toggles the cockpit’s parking shortcut, which could unlock your landing gear or connectors, and that’s not what you expect in that moment.
While building from a cockpit, remember to use the [ key, ] key, { key, and } key shortcuts instead to cycle through skins and colours, don't press P key.
How to place multiple blocks
When building as the engineer in Block Placement Mode in Creative Mode, you can quickly place multiple welded blocks.
- To quickly place a row of welded blocks, hold CTRL key while dragging the mouse.
- To quickly place an area of welded blocks, hold both CTRL key and SHIFT key while dragging the mouse.
In Survival mode, the same shortcuts are not available; use a projector instead to "place" multiple unwelded blocks in bulk.
Troubleshooting
Why can't I place this block here?
If you still find it hard to aim the ghost previews from certain angles, try this:
- (Creative Mode only) CTRL key-
scroll to increase or decrease the view distance between your camera and the ghost preview.
- Move the preview (and yourself) very close and make sure you’re in Free Placement Mode to place decorative blocks at odd angles relative to the grid.
- Move the preview (and yourself) further away if you are placing something large, or if you are placing rows of blocks in Creative Mode.
- Consider pressing V key to switch between first person and third person view to get a different angle.
- Make sure the engineer is not standing in the spot that the block will take up, step a bit back.
- Make sure that there is no scrap or other dropped items floating in that space, pick them all up before placing a block.
- Are you placing blocks next to a subgrid? The moving blocks attached to a rotor, piston, or hinge may be in the way. (Beware of causing Clang.)
- Each block type has its mount points, you cannot always attach blocks on all sides.
- Is your HUD switched off and you are not seeing the error message, for example, saying you are out of components?
- When building onto existing grids, make sure the grid has not accidentally split and no loosely floating, detached[1] blocks are encroaching into the build space.
- While flying with your jetpack on, you can rotate yourself sideways in mid“air” by pressing E key or Q key, and fly “upside down” to reach odd angles from below. Even in gravity.
How do I make the block preview stop snapping to the wrong grids?
If the ghost previews do not align as you expect before placing blocks, remember to press B key to cycle through Free / Local / Gravity-aligned and choose the appropriate placement mode, as described above.
How do I make blocks stop “rotating away” when I place them?
The rotation of a block is not only important for aesthetics but also when aligning ports. If the ghost previews of blocks snap to the right block but then rotate themselves into an unexpected orientation, press T key to reset Auto Orientation Mode.
This mode can be helpful sometimes, e.g. if you have to place a block quickly by jumping without jetpack fuel. But depending on your situation, the automatic orientation choice can also be counter-intuitive.
I can’t remember all these 3D angles and shortcuts...
Go to Options>Game and enable Show control hints, or Show rotation hints to get visual hints while rotating blocks.
If you don't see any reminders while in block placement mod, even after enabling this option, press TAB key to cycle the HUD modes until you see the shortcut hints in the Toolbar and in the top right corner.
The main thing to remember is that the rotation shortcuts on a full keyboard's Navigation key block are paired symmetrically and you undo a rotation "misstep" by pressing the other paired key.
See also Key Bindings, Xbox Controls, or PlayStation Controls for all shortcuts.
Notes
- ↑ Floating, accidentally detached blocks can be hard to recognise especially in low gravity. It can happen when deleting neighbouring blocks, especially in Symmetry mode when you can't keep your eyes on all side-effects of a click. Since loose blocks are still wedged in between neighbouring blocks, they look as if they were part of the grid; you only notice that you cannot build next to or onto them. Loose blocks become more noticeable when you start flying and shake them off. When you jump, loose blocks and items are all left behind.