The World tab
Set the base floor, place land, draw buildings, and scatter scenery on the map.
The World tab holds the scene’s setting, buildings, land, and plants. A switch at the top splits it into four doors: Setting, Land, Build, and Scenery. Selecting a door puts its controls in the side panel. While the World tab is open, you work right on the top-down map grid . On the Figs and Animate tabs, the corner map only pans; selecting ⇄ makes the map grid big so you can move and place things on it.
Below the switch, the panel lists what you made with that door (Setting has no list). List headers show the count (e.g., My buildings · 2). Empty lists show a hint. Rows have a thumbnail, name, and details.
- My land: Lists landforms and water (Landforms and Water).
- My buildings: Lists buildings by kind (Buildings, Decks and platforms, Bridges, Fences, Loose pieces). Rows list floors, size, and openings (e.g., 2 floors · 6 × 4 · 1 door · 2 windows).
- My scenery: Lists placed scenery by kind (Trees, Flowers and grass, Rocks), then paths on the ground under Paths and water (Path, Sidewalk, Street, Stone, Stream, Sand). A lake’s or pond’s water lists as Lake or Pond, and its shoreline as Shore. A painted plant area is one row, named for what grows there (e.g., Grass · Flowers, 33 squares · 7 placed).
Pieces with the same name get a number on the end (Building 1, Building 2).
Selecting a row opens its page in the panel. Selecting it again or switching doors brings back the door’s tools. Selecting something right on the map grid opens its Picked page in the panel.
The four doors
- Setting: Sets the scene’s floor. The top switch picks Base floor or Photo. Scene › Make a photo scene… in the top menu bar opens Photo.
- Base floor: Sets the main floor. The Surface well sets its surface. Pattern size sizes the pattern. In indoor worlds (in some community scenes and challenges), toggles show or hide Floor, Walls, and Ceiling. A new scene’s floor has Shape (Circle / Square), Size (Cozy, Classic, Grand, Vast), and Roughness. Shine sets plain (Matte) or shiny (Water). Scenes with water show the kind of water (Water, Ice, Lava, Dead) with Waves and Speed sliders. See Shiny surfaces .
- Photo: Starts a photo backdrop. Has Your photo, Photo look styles, Sun direction, and Floor and cutouts tools. Full-screen tools (Redo the floor (full screen) and Edit or add cutouts (full screen)) line up the floor and cut out the front. See Make a photo scene .
- Land: Lets you add big landforms and shape the ground in detail. Has eleven landform tiles, tools at the top (Raise and Land steps), and surface tiles (Grass, Water, Sand, Snow, Marsh, More ▸). See Land .
- Build: Has a catalog of building pieces for drawing walls, rooms, openings, roofs, and sets. While a piece is armed, the Draw with section sets the default surfaces (Outside, Inside, Floor, Roof). Selecting a wall or roof piece shows Wall style or Roof kind choices. Tools at the top include Paint brush (repaints surfaces) and Mural (adds a picture). Selecting a placed building opens its page in the panel. See Build a building .
- Scenery: Scatters plants with Foliage and draws paths and streams with Roads. See Scenery .
The Picked page
Selecting something on the map grid swaps the door’s panel for its Picked page. Select ‹ Back (‹ Catalogue on Build) or None on the Select bar to clear the pick and bring back the door’s tools.
- Placed figs: Shows the fig’s card, with Copy and Remove. It also has Wearing, Skin, Pose, Moves, and Doing rows.
- Buildings: Selecting building pieces in Build opens the building pages. Selecting a building from other doors shows a shorter card with an Edit building › shortcut. See Build a building .
- Landforms: The Land page stays, and its dials, Top, and Sides change the picked landform. See Land .
- Ground squares: Shows the square’s surface name (e.g., Grass square) and a Surface dropdown to change it (Grass, Water, Path, Sand, Snow, Marsh, Sidewalk, Street, Clear ground). Picking several squares shows Top and Sides (Sides for raised squares), Raise one step, Lower a step, and Clear for all of them.
The Erase tool sits on the right of the panel header on Land, Build, and Scenery. Arm Erase and drag across the map grid to erase what that door made: land changes on Land, building pieces on Build (a tap on a piece in 3D erases it too), and paths and plants on Scenery. Select it again to disarm. See Cliffs and stairs .
The Select bar follows the door
The top of the Select bar changes with the open door:
- Build: Has What (Building · Walls · Floors) and How much, which set how far a pick spreads. See Build a building .
- Land: Picks by Square · Patch · All alike.
- Scenery: Picks by One · Patch · All alike.
- Animate: Picks by One fig · Its group.
- Default / other: Picks by One · Group.
The pick buttons (Tap · Add · Box, All · None, Undo, Redo) are the same on every door.
One tool at a time
The map grid’s status bar names the armed tool and says what a tap will do. Arming Erase disarms the door’s tools. Selecting a door’s tool disarms Erase. Switching doors disarms every tool.
Worlds with no floor (e.g., Space) hide the floor controls, leaving only Pattern size. Photo scenes show a note that the photo sets the floor. Land and Scenery work in every world.