Build a building

The Build page on the World tab lets you build on the top-down map. It is a catalog of pieces when nothing is selected. Pieces you draw snap to the pieces beside them and show up in 3D right away. Selecting a building, a single wall piece, or a floor opens the page for it. The Figs tab’s Scene list and Everything in this scene count connected pieces as one Building.

Buildings you make show up in the My buildings list (below the World view toggle) as soon as you add them. Each entry shows a picture, a name, and details (e.g., 2 floors · 6 × 4 · 1 door · 2 windows). Floors stacked on the same spot are one entry. Decks, platforms, and bridges are in the same list under their own headings (Buildings, Fences, Decks and platforms, Bridges, and Loose pieces). Entries of the same kind are numbered. Select an entry to open its page; select again to return to the catalog. Models placed inside a building snap to the floor they are placed on and stay at that floor’s height when you change the building later. In the 3D view, selecting a wall while a model is picked snaps the model flat against the wall on the side facing the camera. Dragging it does the same.

The catalog

When nothing is selected, the Build page shows the catalog. Select a tile to arm it; select again to disarm. A one-line helper under the armed tile’s row says what to do. Each drawing is one Undo step. The status bar says what you made (e.g., 6 walls, or A room · 14 walls · 12 floor tiles).

In design challenges , the groups a challenge rules out (Doors, Windows, Roofs, or Stairs & ramps) are crossed out. Selecting one shows the character’s rule or Not part of this challenge. and does not arm it. Ruled-out pieces in a wall’s Turn into row work the same way.

Draw with sets the look of what you draw next. It shows only while a piece is armed (e.g., Room, Wall, Floor, or Roof). Set the Outside, Inside, Floor, and Roof wells before you draw. Walls and floors take the first three right away. Roofs take the Roof well. Changing them does not change what you already built.

Arming Room, Wall, Half wall, or Fence shows the Wall style row. It has trim styles: Plain, Baseboard, Baseboard + crown, Chair rail, Wainscot, Panelled, Brick ledge, Battlements, Crown, Picture rail, Dado + crown, Board and batten, Shiplap, Log cabin, Timber frame, and Pilasters. Selecting a style applies it to the walls you draw next.

Catalog tiles and rows scroll sideways with a finger or mouse drag. Arrows (‹ or ›) show there is more off-screen.

Select Return to plain to clear all the wells and set the wall style back to the default. To change what you already built, use the page for that selection. See A building’s page below.

Rooms & walls

• Room: Drag a box on the map. Makes four walls, a floor, and corner posts as one Undo step. Tap inside to add a ceiling. Models inside the room snap to the new floor height; models in the way of a wall move to the nearest open spot.
• Wall: Drag lines on the map. Posts go in on their own where walls meet: at corners, and where one wall meets another in a T. Walls are 2.5 grid units tall. Door openings are 2.1 units tall. Windows go from 0.8 to 1.7 units up.
• Half wall: Makes walls 0.75 units tall.
• Pillar: Tap to place one, or drag to place a row. Pillars snap to where grid lines cross. Pillars with no walls count as their own structure. See A deck of pillars below.

Archways: Archway, Pointed arch, Horseshoe arch, and Flat arch.

• Archway: Makes an opening you can walk through. It has a half-circle top on upright columns. Its height matches the floor’s wall height (e.g., its top is at 2.25 units on a 2.5 unit wall). It takes the wall’s Outside and Inside looks. Drawing an Archway over a Wall replaces it; drawing a Wall over an Archway closes the opening.
• Pointed arch, Horseshoe arch, and Flat arch are other arch shapes. The Flat arch has its own beam and keystone, which take the wall’s look too. Drawing over an archway replaces its shape.
• The map shows the arch’s footprint and a line for its top.

Fences: Fence, Picket fence, Lattice, Iron railing, Low stone wall, and Hedge. Fence is 0.5 units tall. Fences don’t take Trim, doors, or windows. Paint goes on both sides the same. A closed ring of fence does not get a floor. Hedges are thicker. Fences are listed under Fences in the My buildings list and are not buildings.

Half walls and fences take patterns like any wall. Corner posts are as tall as the tallest wall beside them, with a width to match. Posts take the wall’s Outside color (a pattern’s average color). Corner posts go away when their walls are deleted. Doors and windows between corner posts or pillars keep their width; the frame gets narrower beside each post so it doesn’t poke into it.

Doors: Door, Panelled, Glass, Double, Sliding, Shutter, Doorway (frame only), Barn, Dutch (its halves open on their own), Arched top, Saloon, Shop door, and Garage door. On the map: press a wall piece, slide to pick the spot, and let go to place it. In the 3D view: press a wall to preview, and let go without moving to place it. Dragging in the 3D view turns the camera. Each wall piece holds one opening (door or window). Placing an opening on a piece that has one replaces it in one Undo step. Placing the same style again changes nothing. Garage door needs two units of wall in a row. Shutter is a roll-up door. Shop door is a pair of glass doors that part in the middle. While the scene plays (Showtime, Play all, a clip, or a fig’s own Play), it opens by itself when a walking fig comes near and shuts after the fig has gone. Tapping either door opens or shuts both. It never shuts a door that a tap or a shot opened. Tapping either half of a Double door opens or shuts both. In Showtime, tapping opens and closes them. In clips, the shot’s Doors & windows row sets whether they open. See The shot's camera .

Windows: Window, Arched, Round, Bay, Cross, Sash, Shuttered, Flower box, Stained glass, Arrow slit, Diamond lattice, Awning, Storefront, Shop window, small, Shop window, Window wall, and Skylight. One-sided windows (Shuttered, Flower box) face the side you placed them from. Arched and Round cut their shape out of the wall, so the wall’s look runs right up to the opening. Window wall turns the whole wall into glass. Storefront turns the wall piece into glass above a low base, with a bar every block; put one on each wall piece along a side to make a shop front. Shop window is the Shop door’s frame with one fixed pane and nothing that opens; put it on the wall beside a Shop door to match. Shop window, small is a smaller window in the same metal frame. The shop pieces start in a metal color. Panes are see-through (Window, Bay, Storefront, both shop windows, Window wall, Skylight, and glass doors). The middle panes of Window and Bay swing out when tapped in Showtime or in a shot. Select a flat roof or a ceiling to place a Skylight.

While placing a piece, the top of the view shows its kind and what to do (e.g., Barn door: tap a wall to place it). Select ✕ or press Escape to cancel. In the 3D view, a tap places it; a drag turns the camera.

Floors & ceilings: Floor, Ceiling, and Foundation. With Floor or Ceiling armed, tapping inside closed walls fills the whole room. A ceiling still fills a room whose walls have erased pieces. Dragging places single tiles. With Foundation armed, selecting a building adds a slab under it. Change the slab’s height with Steps on the building’s page.

Roofs: Roof, Roof line, Roof tiles, Chimney, and Dormer. Arming Roof shows the Roof kind row: Peaked, Hip, Barn, Mansard, Slanted, Pagoda, Flat, A-frame, Saltbox, Round (barrel vault), Clerestory, Steeple, Dome, Butterfly, Tent, and Sawtooth. Select a kind to use it for the next roof; it also changes the roof of the building you roofed last. The same kinds are in the Roof section of a building’s page. With Roof armed, tapping a building puts one roof over the whole thing. Tapping between rows of pillars adds a flat canopy. A tap in the wrong spot shows Nothing to roof here: tap inside a building, or between two rows of pillars. Dragging Roof line draws one pitched ridge along the walls under it. Dragging Roof tiles places single sloped tiles. With Chimney armed, tapping a roof adds a chimney through the slope. With Dormer armed, tapping a sloped roof adds a dormer.

Stairs & ramps: Stairs and Ramp. Dragging Stairs upward climbs one floor and cuts a matching hole in the floor above. A ramp needs two units of length to climb. Stairs are drawn on top of floor tiles on the map.

Bridges: Bridge, Rope bridge, Stone bridge, and Boardwalk. Drag across water to lay a bridge piece by piece. Bridge is planks with side rails. Rope bridge is slats with rope rails. Stone bridge is solid, with low walls on the sides. Boardwalk is raised planks with no rails. Models walking a route cross bridges.

Sets: Plain, Cottage, Brick house, Farmhouse, Cabin, Stone keep, and Workshop. Each one is a ready-made look that sets Outside, Inside, Floor, Roof, and Wall style. Each comes with its own roof: Cottage (Hip, thatch), Brick house (Peaked, slate), Farmhouse (Barn, tin), Cabin (A-frame, shingle), Stone keep (Flat, stone), Workshop (Slanted, corrugated), Plain (Peaked, plain). Selecting one fills the wells and picks the roof kind for what you build next. It does not change what you already built or place anything. Your saved sets are added to the row as soon as you come back to Build (e.g., after Box it as a set on the Figs tab); a deleted set leaves at once. Selecting one of your sets puts its pieces in the catalog. More ▸ opens the full sets window. Models marked as building parts show up in the Your wall parts, Your floor parts, and Your roof parts rows.

Paint brush and Mural are tools in the Build page header, next to Erase. Tap to arm; tap again to disarm. Armed, each of the three shows its own page in place of the catalog: ‹ Catalogue (puts the tool down), a head card that says what the tool does, and one card with its rows.

• Paint brush: Repaints what you already built. Its Brush card starts with the Pattern well. Select a color or pattern. A pattern adds Pattern size (Small | Medium | Large | Huge). The patterns shown depend on what you paint. The Paint row sets what gets painted: Anything, Walls, Floors, Ceilings, and Roofs. How much sets how far it goes: One piece, This length, or Whole building. It starts on Anything / This length. When Floors or Ceilings is on, How much changes to This room. Roofs has no How much; it paints the whole roof. A note says what to do for each setting. It works on the map and in the 3D view. In 3D, a tap paints; a drag turns the camera. Tapping a wall paints the side facing the camera. The Paint row decides what a tap hits (e.g., Anything paints walls, floors, and ceilings but not roofs; Roofs paints only roofs). Whole building on an outside wall paints the whole outside of the building; on an inside wall it paints the whole inside. Dragging on the map paints as you go, keeping to the kind of piece and the side where you started. Wall pieces holding doors and windows paint like any other wall; the door or window keeps its own colors. Archways can be painted. See-through patterns on pieces that aren’t solid need painting on the outside and inside separately.
• Mural: Opens the mural picker. Select a mural, then tap a wall in the 3D view or on the map to put it there. It hangs on the side you tap. The mural keeps its own size on the wall. Select the Mural well on its page to pick another. Tap Mural to disarm.

Placing something where it can’t go shows a note: Doors and windows need a full wall, A garage door needs two walls in a row, Skylights need a flat roof or a ceiling, Dormers need a sloped roof, Spot already taken.

Ground (Carve | On top) sets how the next buildings you make sit on the land. Buildings you already made keep the setting they were built with. See Building on hills .

Select what to edit

The top level of the Select bar sets what you can select on the Build tab. Set it before you tap.

What sets the kind: Building, Walls, or Floors. Taps only pick that kind.

• Building: Picks whole buildings with a tap or a box.
• Walls: Picks single wall pieces. Doors, windows, and archways count as wall pieces. Pillars count as walls.
• Floors: Picks single floor tiles. Stairs and ramps count as floors.

How much sets how far a pick spreads for Walls and Floors:

• Walls: Piece (one piece), Length (a connected straight run), All alike (every piece of the same kind), or All walls.
• Floors: Tile (one tile), Room (the whole walled area), All alike (every tile with the same look), or All floors.

All walls and All floors only pick on the floor chosen on the map.

Selecting a picked piece with a bigger How much spreads the pick out from it.

Arming a catalog tile turns off What. Selecting a What option disarms the catalog tile. The other select buttons (Tap · Add · Box, All · None, Undo, Redo) work as usual.

Picked things get a thin outline. A picked building gets one outline around the whole thing. Picked pieces each get their own outline.

A building’s page

Set What to Building and pick a building with a tap, a box, or the My buildings list. The building’s page opens. Select ‹ Catalogue to go back to the catalog.

The page’s head shows the building’s picture, its name, and a hint (drag it to move). Sections for its parts are below it: Walls, Floors, Roof, Doors and windows, Base, and This building.

The page stays open when you add to the building from it (Roof toggle, Add a floor, Foundation). Clearing the selection goes back to the catalog.

Wells and the picker

Colors and patterns go in a “well”. A color shows as a solid block. A pattern shows a picture, its name, and its size (e.g., Red brick · Medium). An empty well shows Plain. Selecting a well opens the picker, with Colors and Patterns lists. The Trim well takes colors only.

The Patterns list is grouped: Your patterns (when you have some), then the 147 starters under their pack names, Classics and every pack (e.g., Springtime, Walls, Floors, City). The picker sorts by the well: Wall wells put the Walls pack before Classics; Floor and Foundation wells put the Floors pack before Classics; Roof wells start with Classics. Wall texture patterns can’t go on floors or roofs. On the Patterns shelf, a Recent row above the groups shows the patterns you picked last that this well offers.

For wall and floor wells, Pattern size (Small | Medium | Large | Huge) sets how big the pattern is. On a building that already has a pattern, selecting a size changes it right away.

Walls

The Walls section changes the walls on every floor.

• Outside / Inside: Sets the look of every outside and inside side. Posts and pillars take Outside. A lone wall with no room behind it uses the outside look on both sides.
• Pattern size: Sets the pattern’s size. Wall texture patterns ignore it and keep a fixed size on the wall.
• See-through parts of a Wall texture pattern are truly see-through. They stay see-through on wall pieces with doors or windows.
• Wall style: Adds trim. The trim takes the Trim well color and sits on top of the wall’s look. Archways have no trim style.
• Trim: Adds a cap along the open tops of walls. It takes the Trim well color.

Floors

• Flooring: Sets the look of every floor inside. Pattern size shows once you pick a pattern.
• Ground floor: Turns floor tiles on or off on every floor.
• Ceiling: Turns the ceiling on or off.
• Add a floor: Copies the top floor’s walls, posts, and pillars onto a new floor above. Doors and windows become plain wall in the copy. With Ground floor on, the new floor gets floor tiles too. The map gets a new floor tab. The floors above and the floor just below show faded; floors further down don’t show.
• Draw on: Picks which floor you draw on next.

Wall height for a whole floor is on the wall page (Walls · All walls). See A wall’s page below.

Roof

• Roof: Turns the roof on or off. Turning it on shows the roof kinds (Peaked, Hip, Barn, etc.). Selecting a kind changes the roof’s shape. On a building made of several parts, the kind only changes the part you picked. The Roof catalog tile puts one roof over all the parts.
• Roof well: Sets the roof’s look. Patterns show on every roof kind in every look. Roof pattern size shows once you pick a pattern. The roof keeps its color or pattern when you change its kind, Eaves, or direction; a new pattern keeps the current Roof pattern size.
• Eaves: Sets how far the roof hangs over (Narrow | Wide).
• Turn the roof: Turns the roof to its next direction. The number of directions depends on the kind (Slanted, Saltbox, Clerestory, and Sawtooth have 4; the others 2). Flat roofs hide Eaves and Turn the roof.
• Add to the roof: Chimney and Dormer tiles (a Flat roof offers Chimney only). Select a tile to arm it (again to disarm), then tap the roof to place it. The page stays open.

Doors and windows

This section gathers all the doors and windows. One shows The door; more than one shows All N doors. Selecting a style tile changes them all across the building in one Undo step. Garage doors, window walls, and skylights are left out of this. A building with none shows No doors or windows yet. Arm one in the catalogue and tap a wall. To change just one, select its wall piece. See A wall’s page below.

Door color and Frame color wells color all of them. Door color needs a door panel (hidden for Doorway). Handles and glass keep their own colors. Doors and windows you add later take these colors. Changing one piece on its own overrides them.

Base

• Foundation: Adds a raised slab under the building. Models placed on the slab sit up on it.
• Steps: Sets how high it is (1 step | 2 steps | 3 steps).
• Foundation well: Sets the slab’s color or pattern. Pattern size shows once you pick a pattern.

This building

• Turn: Turns it 90°.
• Copy: Copies the whole building and sets the copy to the side so they don’t overlap. The copy is then selected.
• Peek: Sets what is hidden so you can see in (Whole, Roof off, Front, Follow, See inside). Follow shows the Roof and ceilings toggle (Hide | Show). This is saved with the scene. See See inside .
• Floors: Sets which floors show on a building with more than one (All floors, Up to floor N).
• More › Its Figs tab page ▸: Opens the building’s page on the Figs tab. See Everything in this scene .
• Remove building: Deletes the building.

A deck of pillars

Pillars with no walls are a structure of their own. Set What to Building and tap inside the pillars to select them. The page changes to fit: Roof adds a canopy, Add a floor copies them upward, Ground floor tiles every deck level, Ceiling adds a ceiling, Foundation adds a slab under them, and Trim caps the pillars. The Pillars section takes the place of the walls section. Floor tabs work the same as on any building. A single pillar on its own is not a structure.

A platform

Floor tiles with no walls or pillars are a platform. Set What to Building and tap the tiles to select them. The page’s head changes to Platform. The Walls, Roof, and Doors and windows sections are hidden. Floors only sets the look. Foundation adds a solid base under the tiles. Tiles placed right next to a building’s walls are a platform of their own, apart from the building; Foundation raises that patio without changing the building.

A wall’s page

Set What to Walls, pick a How much, and tap a wall. The wall’s page opens. Select ‹ Catalogue to go back. Changes here only touch what you picked, and win over the building’s settings.

Look

• Outside / Inside: Sets the look of just what you picked. Walls with a room on both sides (walls between rooms) show Side A and Side B wells, matching the labels on the map.
• Size: Sets the pattern size here (S · M · L · XL).
• Style: Sets the trim here, over the building’s style.
• Doors and windows show their own style rows. Changing the style swaps it right away. Switching to an Arched or Round window cuts that shape out of the wall.
• Door color and Frame color wells here win over the building’s colors.
• The piece’s own Inside look is kept with the piece. Changing the building’s Inside still carries down to it.

Shape

• Turn into: Changes what the piece is (Wall, Half wall, Fence, Window, Door, Archway). Each picked piece changes on its own. Turning a door or window back into a Wall makes it a plain wall again. Turning an Archway into a Wall brings back its old color, pattern, and height.
• Height: Changes how tall the picked walls are. Shows from Length up; hidden when you pick one piece.
• All walls: Picks the whole floor. Height sets how tall that floor is (1 to 3 units, in quarter steps). Doors, windows, stairs, and the floors above adjust to fit. The map’s floor tabs keep the pick to the chosen floor.

This piece (reads This pick when you pick more than one)

• Copy look: Loads the picked look into the Paint brush.
• Remove: Deletes what you picked and fixes up the pieces beside it.

A floor tile’s page

Set What to Floors, pick a How much, and tap a floor. The page has Look (one Floor well) and This piece (Remove).

Erase

Erase is a tool in the header on Land, Build, and Scenery. On Build, arming it opens its page: ‹ Catalogue, a head card (Takes away the walls, floors and roofs you built. Figs stay.), and the Erase card with the kinds it can erase. Narrow headers stack each button as a small square, its icon over its word.

On Build, Erase has these kinds: Anything, Walls, Doors & windows, Floors, Ceilings, Roofs, Stairs, and Whole building. Select one to erase only that. Drag across the map to erase as you go, or tap a piece in the 3D view to erase it (a drag there turns the camera). A note explains each:

• Anything: A drag keeps to the kind of the first thing it touches.
• Walls: Erases walls, fences, pillars, and archways. Erasing a wall erases its doors and windows.
• Doors & windows: Erases doors, windows, and skylights. The wall fills back in on its own.
• Whole building: Erases the whole building, every floor, in one Undo step.

On the map, Erase keeps to the floor tab chosen. Whole building ignores the floor tab and erases every floor of that building. To delete one thing, use Remove on its page; a long-press in the 3D view takes a piece off the building instead.

Away from Build

Selecting a building outside the Build page shows a popup with Edit building ›. It opens the Build page with the building selected. The building’s page in the Figs window has the same button.

The building’s page

Open the building’s page from BUILDINGS in the Figs tab’s Scene list. The head shows its name and details, with the picture under it; MADE OF lists what it is made of (e.g., 32 wall pieces · 1 door · 32 floor tiles).

• PEEK INSIDE: Sets what is hidden. Has Peek (Whole, Roof off, Front, Follow, See inside). Follow shows the Roof and ceilings toggle. Buildings with more than one floor also show Floors.
• Edit building ›: Opens the Build page with the building picked.
• SAVE IT: Has Glue it into one fig, Box it as a set, and Take apart. Glue it into one fig turns the building into a single fig, keeping all its patterns; its doors and windows still open and close. See Sets .
• ROBLOX: Has the Ground under it toggle and Send it to Roblox.
• Remove building: Deletes the building.

Some design challenges start inside a building that is already built. Drawing walls inside one shows a note (once a session): This set is finished: walls you draw stay on its ground floor. Build in a fresh scene, or beside the set.