SSE Working with large buildings in CreationKit

[scorpiosixnine]

Does anyone have any cunning tips for working with large buildings in creationkit?

There doesn't seem to be a way to group geometry which makes it really hard to work on multi-level buildings.

I really want to split the floors apart whilst working on them then stack them up again, but it's horribly error prone. I'm wondering if I'm missing something or if CK really is this primitive!

 

[thumbincubation]

Make sure your snap to grid and snap to angle are on, so the kit pieces will fit together as they are meant to, and realize pieces from a different kit won't always line up with the first. You may need to resort to creative beam or column placement, to join two kits.

 

In the outside world, what you are placing will most likely not be at the proper angle for snap to work, so I find it easier to create an empty interior cell, add a large piece of floor, build what I want, and then copy/paste it into the world as a unit, when I'm ready.

 

The snap to grid and angle are explained in the level portion of the CK tutorials. Here's the intro page first, with a link to the tutorial hub, where the more specific level design tutorials can be found.

 

 

https://www.creationkit.com/index.php?title=Category:Getting_Started

 

https://www.creationkit.com/index.php?title=Bethesda_Tutorial_Layout_Part_1

[thumbincubation]

Also, a little trick. If you want to "hide" things, so you can work without selecting the wrong thing, click on them and hit the 1 key twice. First hit should fade them, so you can't interact but can still see them. 2nd hit should make them vanish altogether. 3rd hit should bring them back. It is important to note that if you hide one thing, then select something else, you may run into an issue where one appears as the other vanishes. Best bet is to select them all at once. Don't worry about them, though. They're not gone, only hidden. When you're all done, ALT + 1 should bring them back. Failing that, f5 to refresh the view will work. Even if you close the kit without un-hiding them, they are still there and will appear in game, and the next time you load the kit.

 

This is especially useful for hiding trees, ceilings, banners, chandeliers, light sources, and other annoyances, so you can get down to floor decorations.

[agerweb]

A trick I use for patching parts of architecture together is to use various beam meshes and change their texture to whatever is appropriate to the architecture you are working with. eg the KShipKatariahWoodBeamStraight01 with WRStone as a texture replacer becomes a stone beam.