The workshop is located inside the spawn tower
The Workshop is an 8x8x8 block room inside of the Spawn Tower, used to create Custom Blocks.
Workshop location icon
Location
The entrances to the workshop are located 30 blocks down from the top of the spawn. In some new worlds, you will often have to dig down to get to it.
After the introduction of the workshop, it was discovered that players were finding it difficult to locate it so, in patch 1.1 alpha, an icon was added to project its location. The icon disappears when the player first enters the workshop.
Use of the Workshop
In the workshop is an 8x8x8m cube area of which you can build in. The inside of the workshop is made from the Reinforced Wood Block and some Reinforced Rock.
To create a custom block, the player must select an empty custom block slot in the last pane of the block selection wheel, this assigns the slot of which the custom block will be built. Then the player can build whatever they like within the buildable area and the game will shrink it to the size of a standard 1x1x1m cube. The block is saved when the player either leaves the workshop or opens the start menu.
To edit/remove an existing block the player must simply select the custom block slot and edit the design.
Help! I blew my Workshop up!
If for any reason you end up blow up destroying part of the workshop, do not worry. Destroy every single one of the Reinforced Wood blocks with TNT and quit to the menu. Upon re-entering the world the game will rebuild the workshop back to its default state, and you will not lose your custom block designs from the last workshop.
Tips
The workshop has a number of features to help the player to construct custom blocks easily:
- In each of the 4 corners, there is a projection of the custom block as it will appear out of the workshop. These projections also reflect the behavior of the custom block.
- There is a (2x3) stripe of Reinforced Rock on the west wall of the workshop, this indicates the front of the custom block. If the player stands on the stripe and faces into the workshop, that is the orientation that the custom block will be when placed outside of the workshop and also the direction things will move toward when making conveyors. This is useful to tailor custom blocks to specific needs.
- The torches help you see a lot clearer in the workshop, try not to cover them up too early in the custom block build as you will not be able to see as clearly while building.
- Though copy and paste does not work in the workshop, the little builder does. Use this to fill in blocks quicker to save time when building.
- A HUD appears on screen when entering the workshop, this displays the name of the custom block (see Custom Block effects) and the number of poly's the custom block is displaying, this is useful for optimizations of the world to help the game run better on the xbox.
- To optimize the blocks for best performance, leave no hollow spaces inside of the blocks, and try not to use many transparent blocks.
- A lot of players like to clear the area around their workshop so they can see the block better and move around more freely. This has the added benefit of not relying on the torches in the workshop to see designs. A tutorial for clearing out the spawn area can be found here.
- Water Spawners, Torches, Lights, Easter Eggs, and other custom blocks do not appear in the custom you are creating. You may build them in the workshop, but they do not appear in the custom block.
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