Build Area

It only runs on your side. The server doesn't need it and doesn't know it's there, so it works in singleplayer and on servers where you're not an admin.

Getting it installed

You need three things: Minecraft 1.20.1, Fabric, and Fabric API. If you're already playing a Fabric modpack (Prism Launcher, CurseForge, that kind of thing) you've already got all three – skip to put the jar in.

If you're on the normal Minecraft launcher

1. Go to fabricmc.net/use/installer and download the installer.
2. Run it. Pick Client, pick version 1.20.1, leave "Create profile" ticked, hit Install.
3. Download Fabric API for 1.20.1 from modrinth.com/mod/fabric-api and put the jar in your mods folder. The mods folder is at %APPDATA%\.minecraft\mods – paste that into the top of a File Explorer window and hit Enter. If there's no folder called mods yet, make one.

Put the jar in

Drop buildarea-1.0.0.jar into the same mods folder. On Prism or another launcher, it's the mods folder inside that instance.

Start the game with the Fabric profile. That's it. There's nothing to set up – the mod stays out of your way until you use a command.

How commands work

Everything is done through chat. Press T to open chat, type the command, press Enter. All the commands start with /buildarea.

Coordinates are optional almost everywhere. The mod mostly works off where you're standing.

Part 1 – Marking your build area

The quick way

Stand where you want the front-left corner of your build to be, look towards where the build will go, and type:

You get a box that's 20 wide, 20 tall and 20 deep, starting at your feet and going out the way you're facing. The three numbers are width, height and depth – so here 30 15 40 is 30 wide, 15 tall, 40 deep. Just want a cube? One number does it: here 20.

If the box shows up somewhere you didn't expect, check which way you were facing. Depth goes forward, width goes to your right.

The exact way

Walk to one corner of where you want to build and type:

Then walk to the opposite corner (the far one, diagonally) and type:

The box appears as soon as both corners are set. Height counts too – if you want it 30 blocks tall, fly up 30 before setting corner2.

Fixing it after the fact

Got it a bit wrong? Don't redo it, just nudge it.

Everything else about the box

• /buildarea hide and /buildarea show – hide the box without losing it
• /buildarea color rainbow – or green, red, blue, yellow, white, magenta, cyan. Press Tab after color to see them
• /buildarea info – the corners, the size, and which way the box is from where you're standing (handy when you've walked off and lost it)
• /buildarea clear – forgets the box completely

The box is saved, so it's still there tomorrow. Each world and each server gets its own box – you can have one on your survival server and a different one in your creative test world.

Part 2 – Numbers on the edges

Turn these on when you're counting blocks, off when you just want to build. They're off when you first install.

puts little numbers along the bottom edges and the corner posts of the box, counting blocks from the corner. By default it's every 5 blocks. Want every single block? /buildarea ruler 1. Every 10? /buildarea ruler 10.

puts a small readout in the top-left of your screen: how big the box is and how far you are from its corner. It looks like this:

"+14 +0 +7" means 14 blocks across, 0 up, 7 in. Super handy when you're following a plan and need to know "which block am I on". /buildarea labels on turns both on at once, labels off turns both off.

Part 3 – Copying a build

This is the big one. Say you built a house and want the same house on the other side of the map. Or you've got a design in a creative world and want to build it for real in survival.

1. Save it

   Put the box around the build (make sure the whole thing is inside, roof included). Stand near it so the area is loaded, then:

   /buildarea save houseCopy

   Name it whatever you want, just no spaces. That's the build saved to a file. Save as many as you like; /buildarea builds lists them.

2. Go where you want the copy

   Walk to the new spot. The copy lands with its front-left corner at the corner of your box, so it's easiest to set a fresh box: stand on the corner, face where the build should go, and type /buildarea here 1. Then:

   /buildarea load houseCopy

   The box resizes to fit the build and a see-through ghost of the whole thing appears. Walk around it, look at it from a distance. Not quite right? /buildarea move 3 east and friends work on the ghost too, and undo if you overshoot.

3. Check what you need

   /buildarea materialsCopy

   gives you the full shopping list – every block, how many, and how many stacks that is. Go get them and put them in your inventory. Any slot is fine, it doesn't have to be the hotbar.

   Once you're carrying some of it, /buildarea progress tells you what you're still short of, and the HUD shows the top three things you need as you go.

4. Let it build

   /buildarea buildCopy

   Now walk around the ghost. Every ghost block within your normal reach gets placed from your inventory, a few blocks a second, starting from the bottom. It's literally doing what you'd do – picking the right block and right-clicking it onto the block next to it. You'll see your hand swing.

   • You have to walk. It only places what you can reach, same as you. Wander along the walls, fly up for the high bits.
   • It never breaks anything. If something's already there that doesn't belong, that spot shows as a red block and gets skipped. Clear it by hand.
   • It tells you when you run out. A chat message says "Out of oak_planks – need 40 more". Get more, come back, it carries on.
   • A block with nothing next to it has to wait. A log floating over a doorway can't be placed until the wall beside it exists. Usually the printer gets there on its own as it builds upwards. If one's stubborn at the end, put any block next to it, let the printer place the real one, then take yours back.
   • Blocks that face a certain way come out right. Stairs, slabs, logs, doors, torches, chests, beds, candles – it works out which side to click and which way to face so they match the original. You might see your head turn for a split second. That's normal.
   • /buildarea build again turns it off. It's always off when you start the game, so it can never surprise you.

   If a few blocks a second feels fast for the server you're on, /buildarea build rate 2 slows it down.

Some honest limits

• Chests come out empty, signs come out blank, banners lose their pattern. The mod can only see the blocks, not what's inside them.
• Paintings, item frames and armour stands aren't blocks, so they don't get saved.
• Water and lava don't get placed (they're buckets, not blocks). Same for a couple of odd technical blocks – progress tells you if there are any.
• The blocks have to be in your inventory. It won't reach into shulker boxes or chests.

Part 4 – Using a schematic from somewhere else

Got a .schem file? That's the WorldEdit format – lots of build-sharing sites use it. You can load it straight in without WorldEdit.

Put the file in config/buildarea/builds/ inside your Minecraft folder (the mod makes that folder the first time you save something). Then:

using the file's name without the .schem bit. It turns into a saved build and shows up as a ghost, just like load. From there it's exactly the same as Part 3: materials, build, walk.

If you also use WorldEdit, it finds files in WorldEdit's schematics folder too.

Cheat sheet

Everything starts with /buildarea, and Tab shows you the options.

When something's not right

"Unknown command"

You typed it somewhere that isn't Minecraft's chat, or the mod isn't loaded. Check the jar is in the mods folder and you launched the Fabric profile.

I set a box but can't see it

/buildarea info tells you which way it is from you. If you moved worlds, remember each world has its own box.

The box is behind me

here goes the way you're facing. Turn around and do it again, or /buildarea move 20 north (or whichever way) to slide it.

The printer is on but nothing's happening

Three usual reasons: you're not close enough (walk right up to the ghost), you don't have the blocks (check the HUD or progress), or the ghost is sitting exactly where the original build is so there's nothing to do (move it).

Blocks appear and then vanish

The server is refusing them. Try /buildarea build rate 2. If it keeps happening, the server probably has an anti-cheat that doesn't like it, and you should stop and build by hand there.

The ghost is hard to see

/buildarea build style cubes swaps the textured ghost for simple coloured blocks, which some people find clearer. style models puts it back.

I broke something and want to start over

/buildarea clear forgets the box and the ghost. Your saved builds are safe – load brings one back any time.

Have fun, and build something ridiculous.