Tools

Select the target before the tool

Most tools need a compatible visible layer or object. Select the layer, category, feature, terrain, or raster in Layers or Objects first, then choose the tool in Toolbox. The settings flyout changes to controls relevant to the active tool and target.

If a tool does nothing, check read-only state, target type, layer visibility, bounds, and whether a panel dialog is waiting for confirmation. Do not repeatedly click while a save or long terrain operation is still running.

Navigate — 1

Use Navigate to move without editing. Drag with the left mouse button to slide the view, drag with the right mouse button to look around, and turn the wheel to move forward or backward. Open its settings and adjust Basic speed from 0.1 for careful close work to 10 for crossing a large project (default 1.0); it also sets how fast the camera keys move. Switch Top-Down or First person in View Options depending on the inspection task.

Sculpt — 2

Select the working terrain, choose Sculpt, and set Circle or Rectangle, brush Size from 1 to 500 meters, and Strength from 5% to 100%. Use the configured mouse bindings to Raise, Lower, Smooth, or Flatten while dragging over the terrain.

Use a small weak brush near roads, shorelines, foundations, and seams. Make short strokes and inspect from a low angle. Sculpt writes real terrain changes, so allow saving to finish before leaving the project.

One stroke can save up to four million changed terrain samples across at most 8,192 tiles, including the terrain overview. If a stroke is too large, it is not saved. Use a smaller brush or make shorter strokes, then check the terrain before continuing.

If you kept the Editor open during an update and a stroke asks you to reload, reload the Editor before sculpting again.

Select — 3

Choose Select and click a vector feature, model, marker, or supported road control. Use the visible node handles to edit compatible geometry. Hold the Primary modifier (Left Shift by default) and click more objects to build a compatible selection for merge, copy, delete, batch collection assignment, or one modifier applied to all of them.

Press Delete to remove what is selected, including a single building or model placement you clicked on the map. Undo brings it back. Delete, M (merge), and the copy and paste keys work whichever tool is active, so you can keep using your current tool after selecting.

Lasso is part of Select, not a separate tool. In Select, hold the Secondary modifier (Left Ctrl by default) and drag a freeform area in the viewport; the eligible features or nodes inside it are selected when you release the mouse.

For aligned vector edits, enable Grid in View Options, open Grid settings, and turn on Snap to grid. Drag a node or insert one using a midpoint handle to place it at the nearest intersection at the current Grid size. Existing nodes stay where they are until edited. Preserve Connections keeps linked nodes together when you move their shared node. Use Undo to revert the edit.

Right-click a vector feature in Objects or on the map to Rename it or Move it to another layer or category. This works with any tool; in Sculpt the right mouse button lowers terrain on the map, so right-click the feature in Objects instead. Preserve Connections helps connected line nodes remain joined while editing a network.

Draw — 4

Choose Draw, then click to place nodes for a Point, LineString, or Polygon. Press Space to complete multi-node geometry. Space finishes the shape while the map has focus; if you last clicked a panel button, Space presses that button instead, so click the map again first. With a vector layer or one of its categories selected, the shape goes straight into it. A gameplay zone needs its layer and a preset selected first, as Gameplay Zones explains.

You can also draw first and decide later. With no vector layer selected, the finished shape stays on the map and Place shape opens beside it. Open a vector layer, then choose one of its groups, or choose New group to name a new one. The shape is saved there with that layer’s mapping, and that layer and group become active, so your next shapes go straight in. Close discards the shape, and Undo brings it back with the same choice. If the project has no vector layers yet, Place shape says so: with prepared vector data, add them with Reimport → Vectors in the editor header.

Keep Snap on when new nodes should join nearby existing nodes or line segments. Move the pointer close to the intended connection: the green snap ring shows where the next click will place the node, including along long lines in an angled view. For grid alignment, enable Grid in View Options, open Grid settings, choose Grid size, and turn on Snap to grid. The preview and placed points, line nodes, and polygon nodes use the nearest grid intersection. Grid snapping takes priority over nearby feature snapping and only applies while Grid is visible. Turn off both Snap and Snap to grid to place nodes freely. Preserve Connections does not affect drawing; it matters later, when you drag a shared node with Select or move a joined shape with Transform in a connected road or stream network. Check the created feature in Objects and add or correct attributes before deriving terrain, raster, or collection work from it.

Cut — 5

Select a compatible polygon and choose Cut. Brush mode removes the area under a Circle or Square brush as you drag across polygons. Line mode cuts polygons and lines along one straight line: press where the cut starts and release where it ends. Both modes change only the selected objects, so a stroke that crosses into a neighbouring field leaves that field as it is. With no object selected, Cut works on every compatible object of the selected vector layer under the brush or line. Brush Size ranges from 4 to 100 meters. Every piece left by a cut keeps the Water assignment of the original object, so a lake or river you cut through stays water on both sides.

Complexity, from 8 to 48, is how many corners the Circle brush has: more corners give a rounder cut edge. The Square brush always has four corners. Use the lowest complexity that still gives the edge you need. Very detailed cuts add nodes that are harder to edit and may not improve the exported result.

Paint — 6

Select an editable raster layer and choose Paint. Brush mode paints continuously with a Circle or a Rectangle brush; the Rectangle is a square. Size, from 1 to 250 meters, is the brush’s width. Freeform mode lets you outline the area to fill. Select a named indexed value when the raster defines labels, or set a value from 0 to 255. A 16-bit raster takes values up to 65535, entered as a number.

Pixel perfect gives the brush a hard edge: every cell under the brush gets exactly the chosen value. Turn it off for a soft edge, where values blend from the chosen value at the centre toward the existing values at the rim. Indexed rasters always paint with a hard edge, because each value is a category. Sampled value near cursor shows the value under the brush, and Show exact values exposes cell values for detailed checking. Choose a color map that makes the active value range easy to distinguish.

Paint Lock Mask can protect selected vector footprints from painting. While the Editor prepares the lock, Progress shows Preparing Paint Lock, and a stroke does not start: Paint says Paint Lock is preparing, so paint again once it is ready. Clear selected raster empties the target raster, so verify the layer name and use that action only when you intend to replace all current paint.

Road — 7

Road works with Meshes on in View Options: with Meshes off, the constructed roads and all their targets are hidden, so clicks do nothing. Road activates road-specific viewport targets after compatible lines have Buffer and a Roads collection assignment. Click an intersection, an existing island, a colored decal slot, a junction corner marker, a circular furniture slot, or a blue road-end marker to edit it in Collections.

To create an island, click a road with at least two lanes once for its start and click the same road again for its end, then open Island Constructor. The complete FS22 and FS25 workflow is in Road Constructor, Junctions, Islands, and Furniture.

To raise a road into a bridge, click the road once where the bridge’s high point should be. A note beside the upward arrow on the yellow marker says what it does: drag the arrow up to raise a bridge, or click it for a bridge at road height. Raise a road into a bridge explains the rest.

To add one extra lane, place two points on the orange carriageway-edge line and click the outward arrow. Edge points are separate from the lane-divider points used for islands and bridges. Lane-extension surfaces and through-junction line markings are included in FS22 and FS25 exports.

Railways — 8

For FS25, assign a railway family in Collections first. Railways shows the fitted track paths and eligible closed train routes. Click an available switch arrow to choose the through or branch route. An unavailable branch is not offered if it cannot form a closed route. Click a track or blue guide to show an unsaved sphere. Drag the sphere to create a fitting pin, or click or drag its upward arrow to create a bridge. Selecting a point does not save a pin or refit the railway. Route arrows and bridge fence slots remain available throughout.

Click the upward arrow for a bridge at the current height, or drag it upward to raise the bridge. Select an existing bridge to use its height, ramp-end, deck-width and pillar handles and the Bridge Constructor action at the bottom of Collections. Pink and purple ribbons on a configured railway bridge select its left or right edge for fence placement from Decorations; the selected ribbon turns yellow. The complete workflow and limitations are in Railways, Train Routes, and Railway Bridges.

Transform — 9

Select a vector shape, such as a field polygon or a road line, and choose Transform. Transform moves vector shapes; move and rotate models and markers with their handles in Select, and road furniture with its handles in Road. Use Move / Rotate to reposition the shape, or hold the Primary modifier (Left Shift by default) and drag to rotate it. Use Resize to change a polygon’s size, and hold the Primary modifier to keep its proportions. Y selects Move / Rotate and U selects Resize by default. The current shortcuts are also shown on the Transform settings controls. If you change the Primary modifier in Hotkeys, Transform and its settings follow your key.

Transform also moves several shapes at once, for example a village of buildings and its streets when you squeeze a map into a smaller area. In Select, click empty ground first, then hold the Primary modifier and click each shape; buildings and roads from different layers can share one group. Then choose Transform. One frame appears around the whole group, and Transform settings shows how many objects are selected. Drag anywhere to move the group, or hold the Primary modifier and drag to rotate it around the frame’s centre. Each drag is one Undo step, and Undo selects the group again. Resize, Arc, To circle and To rectangle change one shape at a time, so they are unavailable while a group is selected. Bounds such as the Playable Area are never part of a group. Markers in a rotated group move with it but keep the direction they face, and placed 3D models stay where they are; adjust them with their handles in Select.

For a selected open polyline, choose Arc or press Shift+A. Smooth connection is the default Curve style in Context Settings. It replaces the intermediate nodes with a smooth curve while keeping both endpoints fixed, and initially aligns each end with a connected line in the same layer when one is available. Drag the blue and orange end handles to control the direction and reach of each end independently. Hold the Primary modifier to keep the current end direction while changing its reach. With Snap enabled, a handle near the connected road direction aligns to it.

Drag the green loop handle on the curve to widen, tighten or reposition the loop while preserving both end directions. Use it for near-circular cloverleaf connections, then fine-tune either end handle if needed. Smooth connection is not restricted to a semicircle; it is not an exact-radius constraint either. The number of nodes adapts to the curve instead of adding closely spaced nodes along every straight reach, so ordinary Arc results do not require a separate Simplify step.

The complete curve and all three handles remain visible while dragging, including over raised roads. Release to apply one undoable change, or press Escape to cancel the drag. The saved curve remains an ordinary polyline. Choosing Arc again in Smooth connection style refits the selected line, rounds the loop and realigns connected ends. This shapes the horizontal connection only; bridge heights and ramps are still authored separately with the Road tool.

Choose Circular under Curve style for an exact circular arc. This resets the endpoints to a semicircle with a green bulge handle. Drag outward to exceed 180°, or across the line between the endpoints to flip sides. Hold the Primary modifier to snap to 45°, 90°, 135°, 180°, 225°, 270°, or 315°. Choosing Arc again in Circular style resets to a semicircle.

Arc reshapes the line as soon as you choose it, and its Curve style belongs to that same change. Switching the style right after Arc reshapes the original line again in the other style, and History still shows one entry, so one Undo returns the line as it was before Arc. Choosing the style that is already active changes nothing.

For a polygon or closed polyline, choose To circle or press Shift+C, or choose To rectangle or press Shift+R. These shape commands and Arc are available only for one compatible selected vector.

A polyline is closed when its last node sits on its first: with Snap on, drag the last node onto the first one. A closed polyline is one loop, which suits a roundabout. Dragging its first or last node moves both, and Buffer gives it one continuous band with no ends where they meet.

Transform is for whole-shape changes. Use Select node handles when only part of vector geometry should move. After moving placed models or road furniture with their handles, inspect height and orientation at ground level as well as from above.