Creating blocks

Create a block by drawing a shape or placing a linked Level Template. The tools work in Top View and in Scene when the TopView Blockout context is active.

Creation tools

Tool	Shortcut	How to place it
Polygon	P	Click points, then click the first point to close the outline or press Enter to finish. Two points create an open wall.
Rectangle	B	Click two opposite corners.
Cylinder	C	Set the center, then its radius.
Level Template	T	Choose a Blockout Asset, then click to place its linked contents.

For Polygon, Rectangle and Cylinder, the first click starts at Current Y and takes the current Onion distance as its initial height. After that click, Wheel adjusts creation height; hold Shift for four times the step. The preview and cursor hint show the result before you commit. Before drawing starts, the wheel still zooms Top View.

The shape is created as soon as you finish its outline, as one Undo operation. The shape tool and Add/Subtract choice remain active for the next block. Press Q to return to selection, or W to move objects. Press Esc to cancel a draft. Backspace removes the last point, or the last digit while entering a distance.

While drawing a polygon or cut path in Top View, hold Shift to constrain the next segment to the horizontal or vertical direction of the current view. With Rectangle, Shift keeps the footprint square. Type a distance and press Enter to place the next point; a further Enter finishes a polygon when no distance is pending. Snapping uses the same settings as movement; see Top View and Scene.

Add and Subtract

Shape tools expose an Add/Subtract choice. Press X, or repeat the active shape's shortcut, to switch operation without losing the drawing.

• Add creates Solid blocks by default.
• Subtract cuts geometry and requires a closed area.

An open two-point polygon creates a wall. Open wall paths cannot switch to Solid or Subtract.

New blocks inherit the selected editable block's group. A block drawn on a level surface in Scene inherits that surface's group. Use Affected groups in a Subtract block's inspector to choose what it cuts; see Organizing levels and materials.

Cylinders

Set Sides and Radius in the contextual toolbar before placement. Click the center, then the radius; in Top View, Enter after the center uses the toolbar's radius.

Sides accepts 3–128 and Radius has a minimum of 0.01 m. Both remain editable in the selected cylinder's inspector. Editing its outline or scaling X and Z by different factors converts it to a polygon, so these cylinder controls no longer apply.

Solid, Subtract and Hollow

Select a shape block to choose its mode in the inspector:

Mode	Result
Solid	Filled geometry for platforms, walls and other solid volumes.
Subtract	A cutting volume; the inspector shows its affected groups.
Hollow	A room-like volume with independent Walls, Floor and Ceiling controls.

Mode changes apply to editable selected blocks and support Undo/Redo. Add blocks expose Ignore subtraction inside their Solid or Hollow settings; enable it to protect them from cutters. Subtract blocks have no surface material overrides.

Open and reconnect walls

In Hollow mode, select an edge in Vertices 2 and press Delete to remove that wall while preserving the vertices and floor/ceiling area. You can remove several sides independently. A missing wall uses a thin dash-dot boundary, distinct from the dashed outline of a Subtract block.

To extend a wall, choose Polygon P with Add and click a free endpoint. Add points, then click the other endpoint of the same gap to reconnect it, or press Enter to leave the extension open. Esc cancels without changing the existing block. Open wall paths generate walls only.

Duplication, Mirror, vertex editing and Cut preserve existing openings. Cut adds walls along its new boundaries.

Shared defaults and materials

Open Variables to edit the level defaults. Blocks inherit thickness, texture size and materials through shared variables. Material fields are always visible; edit a purple field to change its shared variable, or use × to keep a local value. Hollow part buttons use icons for Walls, Floor and Ceiling.

See Level defaults and variables for material links, Boolean values, previews and Undo.

Level Templates

A Level Template T reuses another BlockoutAsset. Assign a Blockout Asset in the contextual toolbar and click to place its preview. See Linked level templates for placement controls, shared-source editing, instance variables and converting a group into a reusable module.

Create on a surface in Scene

In Scene View's Tools context selector, activate TopView Blockout. Opening the editor window alone does not activate Scene editing.

The first click chooses a working plane on the pointed-at object, or the Current Y grid when no object is hit. Click the outline as in Top View. On a floor or grid plane, Wheel sets height. On a wall, the outline defines the width and heights while the wheel sets depth; Subtract initially uses the wall depth to make an opening. Points snap in the chosen plane, and Ctrl/Cmd temporarily inverts snapping.

Review the provisional volume before finishing. Esc cancels and Undo removes the creation. A concave outline drawn on a wall can create several pieces; they are created and undone together.

Cut blocks into pieces

Cut K is available in Top View only. It divides existing geometry and keeps every resulting piece editable.

1. Select one or more editable shape blocks and navigate to their height.
2. Choose Cut and click at least two points to draw a path.
3. Press Enter to finish an open path, or click the first point to close a polygon.

An open path follows only the segments you drew. Its ends are not extended, and no closing segment is added. It must cross between block boundaries to divide a block; an interior dangling segment does not split it. Closed cuts can enclose a region, including within a concave block or a block with existing holes.

Use Shift to constrain a segment, snapping or typed distances to place it, Backspace to remove the last point and Esc to cancel. Invalid paths and paths that do not divide a block remain available for correction.

Pieces retain their group, operation, materials, Keep own materials preference and height surfaces, including slopes and creases. One Undo restores the complete cut. Hollow pieces share one wall thickness along the new boundary; widen a path if it is too narrow for the wall thickness. Open wall paths and linked template instances cannot be cut directly.

Edit and save

Use Blocks 1 to select whole blocks, or Vertices 2 to edit shape corners and edges.

• W, E and R select Move, Rotate and Scale.
• Drag selected vertices or edges to reshape an outline.
• Edit base and upper vertex heights to create slopes, or use Height (m), Base Y and Top Y in Transform to edit the vertical interval.

Use Add to Scene to create or reveal the level's scene object. Use Save in the file menu to build and save changes.

Continue with Editing blocks for slopes, vertices, pivots and Extrude, or Saving and exporting for Live builds and output formats.