Station

Space Engineers grids can be mobile Small Grids, mobile Large Grids, or Stations. Stations are stationary grids made of large-grid Blocks.

Comparisons

• Stations are made of large-grid Blocks 125 times larger than the volume of Small Grid blocks. This does not mean that the mass and costs are increased by 125 times, since the blocks are hollow.
• In contrast to small grids and mobile large grids, station blocks can intersect with voxels (asteroids, moons, or planets).
• Stations are the only grids that can benefit from Safe Zones.
• Stations are the only large grids that cannot use  Jump Drives, wheels, or thrusters. If such a mobility block is added to a station, it will be non-functional, regardless of power, and can only be decorative.
• If you dig into voxels to build a station, the hollows are not part of the grid blueprint.
• The mobile variant of stations are Large Grids.
• Small grids cannot be stations.

Examples

Examples of stations include planetary surface bases, mining outposts, mountain or underground hideouts, moon bases, asteroid stations, space stations, or space elevators.

Example purposes of stations include crew quarters (airtight living spaces with life support, cryopods, medical rooms), stationary cranes, 3D Printers, grinder pits, welder pits, refuelling stations, mining rigs, production factories, Trading Outposts, airfields, or stationary defense grids.

Stationary grid means the building cannot drive or fly away; a cargo crane or folding ramp etc. on the station can still move using mechanical blocks.

Construction

To begin building a station, place a large Armor Block so that it is embedded in voxel, such as intersecting with an asteroid, a planet, or a moon.

Alternatively, if the Unsupported Stations option is enabled in the World Settings on PC, stations are immobile and unaffected by gravity even if they are not touching any asteroid, moon, or planet.

In this case,

1. Build a large-grid ship.
2. Use its thrusters to position it in mid-air or in space.
3. Use the Info Screen to turn it into a station.
4. Optionally, grind off the thrusters.

If the Unsupported Stations option is disabled (default), stations that are not anchored by at least one block that's embedded into voxels float freely through space like Large Grids. Possibly, one day, they will crash into asteroids or the nearest planet surface.

Stations only use large-grid blocks. Note that some functional and decorative blocks are only available in large-grid size and some only in small-grid size. When attempting to add a new block to a large grid in Block Placement Mode, the large-grid version is automatically selected, if not, then press the same toolbar slot number a second time.

If a block does not have a large-grid version, you can’t add it to the station grid. The only exception is this workaround.

Tips

• When copy/pasting a station using Creative Tools or Creative Mode, the ghost preview will move along a raster aligned to the copied station. Use this automatic alignment to merge a pasted station onto a pre-existing station!
• Stations can be converted back into mobile Large Grids under certain conditions:
  1. Add mobility blocks such as thrusters to the base.
  2. Drill to free the station from voxels.
  3. Go to the Info Tab.
  4. Click the Convert to Ship button.
• Conversely, mobile large ships can be temporarily or permanently merged with stations and become static, using Merge Blocks.