BetterBuilding

BetterBuilding

Drag-build walls and floors, copy entire structures, save blueprints, and build from a free camera.

BetterBuilding expands Valheim's hammer with tools for small renovations and large building projects. Preview your work before placing it, collect materials for a complete blueprint, or use Valheim's free-building mode to place it without costs. The menus use a consistent Valheim-inspired design and the game's own fonts.

Compatible with PlanBuild blueprints. Import .blueprint and .vbuild files and use them with BetterBuilding's preview and construction tools. PlanBuild does not need to be installed, and your original files remain unchanged. See Blueprint files and PlanBuild import below for supported content and import limitations.

Server installation is optional for the core tools, material projects and live ghost sharing. Installing BetterBuilding on the server adds shared rules, protected project recovery, extended loading support for large blueprints and a server blueprint library. See Client and server support below for the differences.

This page describes BetterBuilding 0.14.1, compatible with Valheim 1.0.16.

Features

Drag building

Hold the build button and move your mouse to preview multiple pieces. Move back to shorten the selection, then release to build.

• Build rectangular walls across width and height, or floors across width and depth.
• Extend supported beams and other structural pieces in a line. Angled beams follow their snap points, including 26°, 45° and 67° beams.
• Preview the total material, stamina and hammer durability costs. An invalid or unaffordable selection turns red.
• If you cannot afford the complete selection, nothing is placed or charged.
• Place up to 500 pieces per drag, with a configurable limit and server overrides.

Right-click to cancel before releasing. Drag building applies to supported structural pieces; ordinary placement remains available for other objects.

Selective demolition

Hold the middle mouse button and aim at the pieces you want to remove. Selected pieces are highlighted. Release to demolish them.

• Hold Shift during an active demolition selection to remove pieces from it.
• Press right mouse or Escape to cancel the entire selection before releasing.
• Configure the selection limit and a confirmation prompt for larger jobs.
• The default limit is 10 pieces. Without a server installation, multiplayer demolition has a hard limit of 10 pieces per selection.

Demolition keeps the applicable crafting-station and access checks. There is no undo, and removing supports can cause nearby pieces to collapse.

Select, copy and save blueprints

Equip your hammer and press F4 to open blueprint controls. Select individual objects, or toggle a visible area selector with Shift. Adjust its radius and height to capture the part of a build you want.

• Use Ctrl+C / Ctrl+V to copy a selection and position its ghost preview.
• Rotate the preview, make fine rotation adjustments, change its height and snap its anchor to existing pieces.
• Save a selection directly as a blueprint without copying it first. Choose your own filename.
• Store designs as compact, compressed .bbp files and load them again later.
• Include or exclude natural objects and vehicles using separate checkboxes. Unchecking a category also removes it from the current selection. Both start enabled for each new selection.
• Select up to 100,000 objects by default, configurable up to 250,000. The limit for placing a blueprint is separate from the capacity for selecting and saving one.

Blueprints can contain building pieces, carts, boats, supported trees, bushes, rocks and pickable objects. Natural objects do not need to appear in the hammer menu and have no material cost, including outside free building. Vehicles use their normal construction recipes.

Sign text, items on ordinary item stands, and food, drinks and potions placed with the Serving Tray are supported. Displayed equipment is recreated at quality 1; survival projects require the displayed item as well as the stand materials.

Blueprints copy the design rather than its stored contents or gameplay history: chests and vehicle cargo are empty, doors start closed, portals have no copied connection, and wards start disabled without their old permissions. Selecting and saving a warded building is allowed; changing, placing or demolishing objects still respects ward access.

Position, inspect and repeat

Blueprint and copy previews can follow your mouse to loaded ground or building pieces from a distant or elevated viewpoint, beyond the ordinary hammer aiming range. BetterBuilding temporarily extends build reach for the whole design during checks and construction, and requests additional loaded area for large blueprints. Server loading limits and placement permissions still apply.

• Press P to lock the ghost's current position and rotation. Walk or fly closer to inspect the details without moving the design.
• Press left mouse to confirm the locked location, or P again to make the ghost follow your mouse.
• Enable Keep blueprint after placement in blueprint controls to place the same design repeatedly without reloading it. This is also available under F10 → Blueprints → Keep After Placement and starts disabled.
• After a free build finishes, or a Project Chest is created, the next preview keeps your rotation and height offset and follows the mouse again. Every copy needs a new placement click and its own terrain confirmation when applicable.
• Press F4 or Escape to leave blueprint mode when finished.

Adjustable rotation

Enable Custom Rotation under F10 → Hammer and set Rotation Step Degrees with the slider or number field. Choose any whole number from 1° to 360°, in steps of 1°.