Prefab

**Prefabs** are pre-made designs built by players that can be loaded up and pasted at any time.

## Overview

As players in Starship EVO build larger and larger, there will come a time when they will wish to reuse designs or shapes. Usually, this would mean that the player would have to rebuild these designs whenever they wanted to use them again. But by using Prefabs, players can easily save their favorite structures and recall them for later use.

Players can find the Prefab tab in their Codex as a part of the build tab. Opening the Prefab tab will display all of the currently saved prefabs. These prefabs icons act similarly to blocks in the blocks tab and can be dragged and dropped into the players' toolbar.

Selecting the prefab on the toolbar will immediately send it to the clipboard and allow players to paste the design wherever they please. Prefabs can be rotated with the **[R]** key, much like blocks, before being placed. Players must hold the **[Right Mouse Button]** to clear the clipboard until the on-screen circle fills.

### Copy & Paste

Prefabs are an extension of the Copy-Paste tool. For players to use prefabs, they must first make them. Once players have chosen a design they wish to save; they must use the copy-paste tool to copy it. What separates a prefab from a copied design is the fact that prefabs are saved and can be recalled later.

Players must draw a grid on their design by selecting the Copy-Paste tool in their hot bar. This grid can be stretched much in the same way blocks can. Pressing and holding the **[Left Mouse Button]** while moving the mouse cursor will expand the grid; the aim is to encompass the design entirely. Players should start at a corner and stretch the grid for the best results. The orientation at which the player begins expanding the grid impacts the direction the player attempts to paste the design later.

When the player is satisfied, they should release the **[Left Mouse Button]** to confirm the copy. The copy grid will always attempt to copy whatever is within the grid's boundaries, even if nothing is there. Along with blocks, the grid will copy any Decals, mechanisms, and the current state of any Logic Bricks and configurable block.

If the copy is successful, the player's copy-paste tool will now have a placement ghost of the copied design where before there was nothing. The design is now ready to be pasted wherever the player wishes.

The copy is placed like a block and rotates as such. The copy orientation will affect the direction of the design. If players drew the copy grid from the top-down, the design's placement point would be on the bottom. Conversely, drawing the copy grid from the sides will place the placement on the opposite side of the design.

Copied designs are sent to the clipboard, where players can fine-tune the pasting settings. The clipboard can only have one copied design at a time. To clear the clipboard of the design, players will merely need to press and hold the **[Right Mouse Button]** until the on-screen circle is filled.

### Clipboard

Successfully copied designs appear in the clipboard. The 7th tab only appears when an item is copied using the copy-paste tool, the clipboard can only handle one copied design at a time. When the clipboard is loaded, selecting the copy-paste tool will always load up the design, ready to paste. While using the clipboard is not required changing various settings will significantly help players when pasting their clipboards.

Opening the clipboard, the player will see several settings. The first of these is the **"Placement Grid size."** This setting affects the distance in meters between placement points for the prefab. Akin to changing the scale of a block, it does not change the overall size of the design, only how its placed. The following parameter works in conjunction with this setting.

The **"Grid Offset"** parameter is more important than players will realize at first. When players attempt to paste a design, they will notice a white arrow emanating from the placement ghost of the prefab. This arrow is the placement point and will follow the player's mouse cursor as they try to place the prefab. The Grid offset alters the location of this placement point so players can better control where and how a prefab results. The parameter's three input windows correspond with the prefab's axes. The ***X*** and ***Z*** axis will move the prefab along the ground, while the ***Y*** axis will allow the prefab to be sunk into the ground or hover above it. The inputs measure in 1/4 increments. A value of 4 will always correspond to a single unit of the grid size; for example, at a scale of 1 meter, six units will move the paste 1.5 meters

The player can clear the clipboard, but they can click the bottom buttons if they wish to save the design. Clicking the **"Export Prefab Locally"** button will immediately save the design to the player's drive. The menu will save the prefab under the name present, so they should name accordingly. It is possible to overwrite a previously saved prefab design by calling a newly copied design with the same name, effectively allowing players to build work-in-progress prefabs. Pressing the **"Export Prefab on Workshop"** button will export the prefab to the steam workshop for other players to download and use.

 **Export Location** | Save locations for a prefab.
**"Export Prefab Locally"**-*Saves the prefab to the player's local hard drive. File can be found in the "BlueprintsPrefabs" folder.*
**"Export Prefab on Workshop"**- *Exports the Prefab to the Steam Workshop.*

## Steam Workshop

Prefabs can be shared on the workshop much like blueprints.

## Tips

* Because copying blocks is orientation-based, players can place orientation-specific blocks such as Mechanisms in ways they could not normally do.
	+ For example, pasting a Rotor facing up to the side of a block when normally the rotor would be facing the player.
* Players can copy the entirety of a child entity if players copy the base Mechanism block.
* Copying a base mechanism block will copy all other child entities lower in the chain.
	+ Using this method is a fast and easy way to create Turret prefabs.
* Creating prefabs of practical Logic circuits is highly advantageous.