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Prefab Editor Explained

Due to the amount of questions currently flying around I put together a video going through every single option/menu within the prefab editor. There are still a few grey areas but whether you are just starting out or a pro I think this will be very helpful.

Now that we have good access to these easy-to-use tools ingame, hopefully we'll see the prefab forum swell up over the upcoming months as people who previously were a bit daunted by using third part tools and mods can now jump in on the action.

Prefab Editor Explained - Part One

 
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Due to the amount of questions currently flying around I put together a video going through every single option/menu within the prefab editor. There are still a few grey areas but whether you are just starting out or a pro I think this will be very helpful.
Now that we have good access to these easy-to-use tools ingame, hopefully we'll see the prefab forum swell up over the upcoming months as people who previously were a bit daunted by using third part tools and mods can now jump in on the action.

Prefab Editor Explained - Part One

Click to expand...
Thanks, very appreciated.

/Tkullberg

 
Hi! Thanks for your videos Slaan, this has been very helpfull! I've made my first prefab: a rave party in an abandoned factory. It is almost ready, i just need to polish it and tweak a few things.

The editor is great and once you get your hand on it, building is quite fast.

I got a problem tho:

I tried to put it in a randomgen and it works, but only when I insert it threw xml with coordonates. But for some reasons when I try to make a random gen without manually insert it into the world, my prefab is never created.

I must do something wrong here but i don't know what it is.

I got my prefab in "prefabs.xml" and in "rwgmixer.xml".

While other xcustom prefab are here, mine is never created. Any idea about that?

Also once it's done, it would be great if I got some people to test it and tell me what they think about it and if it can go in the prefab pack.

Thanks!

Edit:

It's almost ready so I've created a thread with a link

https://7daystodie.com/forums/showthread.php?99280-Rave-party-in-an-abandoned-factory

 
Last edited by a moderator:
I guess these shortcuts only works in the prefab editor and not ingame on my server?
Thanks.
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The controls pretty much carry over to the world editor (selections are, load in with prefabs etc), I would give yourself full admin rights and check, if the selection (z) works then I would imagine the majority if not all of the features may too. I'm sure the export prefab button is on the escape menu of a live game so it makes me think it might work.

- - - Updated - - -

Edit:

It's almost ready so I've created a thread with a link

https://7daystodie.com/forums/showthread.php?99280-Rave-party-in-an-abandoned-factory
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Hopefully the first of many :excitement:

 
Slaan

Hey how's you wonderful tutorials. Wondering tho if you could do one on making a16 prefab to a17 as it states in the xml at all

 
Slaan
Hey how's you wonderful tutorials. Wondering tho if you could do one on making a16 prefab to a17 as it states in the xml at all
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Done this one a little while ago as a few ppl in the FB group were asking, though this is opening a can of worms because the amount of time and effort required to fully fix up an old prefab can vary quite dramatically depending on what it's been made out of and painted with.

This is the starting point though, but be prepared to spend time in both the A16 and 17 builds, some fixes are easier to implement pre-conversion and I found it was a much less painful process if you spend some time prepping the a16 prefabs beforehand. I've only brought into 17 bits and pieces that I absolutely could not be without as the whole process (for lack of better words) gets right on my tits.

 
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Well funny enough I worked out how to do it lol. I never went to a16 tho. Just copied a16 blocks to a17 renamed it myblocksa16.xml and copypasted from the spreadsheet what I needed. What was wrong block was replaced with missing block and in pills editor I replaced missing blocks with woodframe.

Worked on the hotel I am updating lol may not be so lucky other times tho. Thanks for the reply slaan your awesome :-)

 
hey,

anyone there who can help me please?

is it necessary to choose a group for the prefab? What happens if I do not?

and if there is a group selected is it necessary to edit the rwg .xml or would it be already done in this case?

i made a prefab and exported it without selecting a group for it and i would like to spawn it just in green biomes (city or not doesn't matter, but i build it with pine forest terrain floor/garden)

how to handle this?

and how to handle spawn in cities? export it with or without piece of street?

 
hey,anyone there who can help me please?

is it necessary to choose a group for the prefab? What happens if I do not?

and if there is a group selected is it necessary to edit the rwg .xml or would it be already done in this case?

i made a prefab and exported it without selecting a group for it and i would like to spawn it just in green biomes (city or not doesn't matter, but i build it with pine forest terrain floor/garden)

how to handle this?

and how to handle spawn in cities? export it with or without piece of street?
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You still have to place your prefab name is reg- simply copy whole line of an existing one and replace name with your prefab name.

The very layer first layer under your prefab you should place terrain filler this will then when spawned into the world change to the ground of the cell it is in. So if it spawns in desert it have desertground in forest it have forest etc.

You can edit the xml that is in the prefab folder for your prefab also so you can have allowed biomass allowed towns etc (simply search other prefab xmls you will see these lines and copy into your prefab.xml and add or remove biomes/towns you don't wish.)

 
Ground level and stability questions

I've been using level editors since the Doom Wad days, and have been noodling with building prefabs for 7DTD for years, but just didn't have the patience until the editing tools were made available. Your videos were extremely helpful Slaan, and the comment on YouTube you shared with someone around how z and g function were critical in helping me along. I'm still stumped however by a couple of seemingly simple issues I can't figure out. Specifically around ground level and stability.

The primary issue I'm having is that I can't figure out how to set the ground level while building so that I can edit the subterranean parts of my prefabs. I have to edit them by using the "move whole prefab up" function, and when I return my prefab to the appropriate level everything below ground level is invisible. Further, when play testing these areas are simply cutoff. I must be missing something obvious as this seems like it would be an important editing feature. I feel silly just for asking.

The other issue is that whenever I load a prefab the stability of the structure is always nonfunctional, or yellow when shown in the editor. If saved like this and play tested the buildings obviously just collapse on any interaction. Recalculating stability resolves this and the structures show as green (where appropriate) and can be saved and played without issue, but I'm wondering if there's something I'm overlooking which causes them to load with no stability.

Thanks in advance for any guidance you can provide.

 
I've been using level editors since the Doom Wad days, and have been noodling with building prefabs for 7DTD for years, but just didn't have the patience until the editing tools were made available. Your videos were extremely helpful Slaan, and the comment on YouTube you shared with someone around how z and g function were critical in helping me along. I'm still stumped however by a couple of seemingly simple issues I can't figure out. Specifically around ground level and stability.
The primary issue I'm having is that I can't figure out how to set the ground level while building so that I can edit the subterranean parts of my prefabs. I have to edit them by using the "move whole prefab up" function, and when I return my prefab to the appropriate level everything below ground level is invisible. Further, when play testing these areas are simply cutoff. I must be missing something obvious as this seems like it would be an important editing feature. I feel silly just for asking.

The other issue is that whenever I load a prefab the stability of the structure is always nonfunctional, or yellow when shown in the editor. If saved like this and play tested the buildings obviously just collapse on any interaction. Recalculating stability resolves this and the structures show as green (where appropriate) and can be saved and played without issue, but I'm wondering if there's something I'm overlooking which causes them to load with no stability.

Thanks in advance for any guidance you can provide.
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The ground level in the editor is a funny thing, typically I would build everything above ground for the very same reasons you mention. I've had success adjusting the ground level AFTER creating most of the prefab, this even adjusts the y offset in the xml when saved and reloading a prefab after setting the ground level seems to work ok. I'm sure at one point we could import/paste below the ground level but it's obviously not like that now. It depends on how your dropping the finished product into the game as if your using the world editor for a manual placement the ground level is moot as you will have to sink the prefab to the correct depth anyway. The main thing it will affect will be if you use the rwgmixer, but even if this is the case you can manually adjust the y offset on the prefab to take it's basement into consideration

I don't use the playtest feature in the editor and would stick to actual in-game spawning to test everything.

 
The tutorials have been very helpful in creating prefabs. But I do have a question, when I place sleepers into what I build, and run a test, nothing spawns in. Further, when I hit ESC to bring up the menus, it shows 0 sleepers whereas if I load in an existing prefab it will show the possible sleepers. Am I missing a step to register the sleeper volumes?

 
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