Engineering Tools

Add-on for building faster, bigger and longer in Minecraft Bedrock

Windows 10 edition only

Building anything big in Minecraft can be a chore! The Java edition has long had decent addons to help with putting down lots of block at the same time, but not so with the Bedrock Edition. Here's an addon that let's you do that. Engineering Tools aims to be powerful yet user friendly: just point and click to quickly build large rectangular shapes, create vast caves or dig giant holes.

Main Features

🟥 Quickly create large rectangular shapes from almost any block in any state
🟧 Easily create walls, buildings, towers, tunnels, mountains, caves and holes in the ground
🟩 Includes two building tools for creating or removing, and support tools for querying and measuring
🟨 Create filled shapes (#todo: hollow shapes)
🟦 Includes easily accessible GUI to configure tool settings: use shift key (the 'sneak' key!) to open
🟫 Uses the fill command behind the scenes
⬜ Bonus tool: Teleport quickly within line-of-sight with a single click

Requirements

What you need:

Minecraft Bedrock v1.17+ for Windows
Will probably work in 1.16.100+, but this version is only tested in 1.17.

Limitations

Only for Windows because it relies on the scripting engine and GUI engine -- neither are available in mobile editions
Single player games only
Education Edition has not been tested
Only works in creative mode

This is a preview version, it may be unstable. Don't use it in any world you're really attached to.

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Highlights

Build large structures

Build with stairs, slabs and (some) items

Configure tools with a graphical interface

Find more screenshots in the screenshots folder.

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Getting Started

Engineering Tools consists of two parts:

Behaviour Pack: Contains items and scripting logic.
Resource Pack: Contains GUI and textures/icons

Both packs must be installed and enabled for the addon to work.

Manual installation required

It's necessary to manually install Engineering Tools in the Bedrock addon development folders. An auto-installing edition may follow later.

Instructions

Download zip file and extract or git clone the repository into an empty folder
Open another Explorer window and navigate to the Bedrock user data folder: %LocalAppData%\Packages\Microsoft.MinecraftUWP_8wekyb3d8bbwe\LocalState\games\com.mojang (copy and paste this path into Explorer)
Copy EngToolsRP to development_resource_packs
Copy EngToolsBP to development_behavior_packs

Required world settings

Make sure you apply both thebehaviour pack and theresource pack for worlds where you want to use the addon.

The following world settings must be enabled:

Cheats
Creative Mode

Experimental world settings:

Holiday Creator Features: To create custom blocks/items
Additional Modding Capabilities: For scripting
Upcoming Creator Features: For block permutations (example blocks)

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Using Engineering Tools

Tools

Included tools

Building Tool: Build rectangular structures
Destruction Tool: Destroy blocks inside a rectangular area
Query Tool: Get block name and block state from existing block to use with the Building Tool
Measuring Tool: Measure distances. Optionally, automatically update width, height or depth for the Building Tool or Destruction Tool
Teleport: Quickly jump long distances within line of sight

The tools are located under the Equipment tab in the inventory.

Finding and using the tools

🟨 Look in the Equipment section in the block selector window (usually accessed with the e key)
🟨 Also possible to retrieve with the command /give @s engtools:*
🟨 Place tool in main hand to use
🟨 Follow instructions that pop up above the action bar (known bug: messages need to stay on screen longer)

Known Minecraft Bug: For some undiscernable reason, Minecraft places the Query Tool and Teleport under the Construction tab.

Building Tool

🟩 Select the desired block to build with
🟩 There are two methods for selecting block type:
1. Place a block from the hotbar - Engineering Tools always uses the last block placed
2. Query a block with the Query Tool
🟩 Place Build Tool in main hand
🟩 Messages will appear above the hotbar with instructions and information
🟩 Point and click on a block with the right mouse button (unless customized) to select the start position
🟩 Click on the same block again to build

Known Minecraft bug: Blocks with custom state (properties) cannot be placed.

Destruction Tool

🟥 Works the same way as the Building Tool, but fills a rectangular area with air

Query Tool

🟫 Use to get information about an existing block, including type and block state
🟫 Very useful for getting a block's rotation (e.g. stairs)
🟫 Automatically updates the configured block to be used by the Building Tool

Measuring Tool

🟨 Use to measure distances - width, height and depth
🟨 Optionally update the settings for the active building tool (Building or Destruction Tool)

Graphical user interface

🟧 Use the configuration GUI to change tool settings
the shape and size of the fill area (see below)
🟧 Parameters are not shared between tools
🟧 To access the GUI, press shift (or the button configured for sneaking and descending during flight)
🟧 Because the sneaking key is repurposed, sneaking or flying while holding a tool will be awkward. Cycle to another hotbar item if you need to fly or sneak

Configurable settings (for some tools):

Fill size: width, height and depth
Build direction: Select in what direction to create blocks relative to the player. By default places blocks away from (forward), up and to the right of the player.
Block selector: Select which block to target when pointing the mouse -- choose the block under/behind the mouse pointer or the empty block (air/water or lava filled block) in front of it.

General tips

🟦 To reset tool coordinates, cycle to another item in the hotbar and back
🟦 Building vast shapes (on the order of tens of thousand of blocks) quickly adds to the stored data of the world and the CPU power required to process it
🟦 Max supported number of blocks that can be filled (x times y times z) is 32,768
🟦 Remember: there is no undo button in Minecraft
🟦 Always make a backup of your world before attempting major operations

Bonus: Teleport Tool

🟪 Not a building tool but it makes it much faster to move around - more convenient than Ender Pearls
🟪 Teleport anywhere within line-of-sight, but with a configured max range (hard coded at this time, may changed from version to version)
🟪 Just point and right click to use

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A few words of wisdom

Do or do not, there is no undo.

With more power comes the ability to make bigger and faster mistakes.

Backup your world frequently.

Build faster and bigger, but maybe not better, unless you equate more with better.

No guarantees that this software will work as implied and not turn your computer into a pile of frogs.

Do not look into laser with remaining eye.

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Future plans

Enable the other capabilities of the fill command: replace blocks of a certain type, create hollow shapes.
More options for controlling building, e.g. selecting corners with the mouse instead of configuring size
Templates for common shapes and maybe also building materials (e.g. brick walls)
Maybe support more sophisticated shapes, e.g.triangles, rotated cubes (slopes)
Copy settings between tools in the GUI

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Known issues

Minecraft limitations

Items (like beds) can behave unpredictably when placed with the Building Tool -- always test first
Not possible to use custom blocks with custom states. See bug MCPE-116750
Some tools are mistakenly placed in the Construction tab
Some items will trigger interaction when clicked on with the Query Tool or Measuring Tool (e.g. levers)
Failure to get coordinates of selected block: When pointing at far-away blocks, Minecraft does not always return a target. Mostly an issue for the Query Tool, possibly Teleport

Bugs

Short timing of action bar messages - in theory possible to control, in practice I don't know how yet
Writing to the log is not working

Fixed (probably!)

Coordinate rounding error: Minecraft sometimes returns coordinates with a tiny rounding error that makes ot more difficult to detect the correct block face. A work-around has been created and seems to be working.

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FAQ (Frustrations and Questions)

It doesn't work!?

One of the following things are happening:

The tools cannot be found
Nothing happens when I right click or press the shift key
I get a red error message in the chat/console when I try to use a tool

Answer 1

Most likely Engineering Tools is not installed correctly, or some crucial world settings are not enabled. Scroll up and carefully read (and apply) all the instructions in the Getting Started section.

Answer 2

Error may occur if you've placed tools in the action bar before enabling all required world settings (causing errors). Disabling and enabling Cheat mode can makee the tools misbehave. To fix this, remove the tools from the action bar, reload the world and then reequip.

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License