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Editor controls/hotkeys

By Janeator

A basic introduction to all of the editor's controls.

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Created by

Janeator
Offline

Category: Maps or Levels, Workshop

Languages: English

Posted

Updated

4 Feb, 2016 @ 1:02pm

11 Jul, 2022 @ 7:24am

376	Unique Visitors
20	Current Favorites

Guide Index

Overview

Quick troubleshooting/setup

Basic controls

Advanced hotkeys

Thanks & notes

Other guides

External links

Comments

Quick troubleshooting/setup

This guide is dedicated to nothing else than the hotkeys, so don't expect explanations on functions, menus, how to hook up triggers, map design, or anything else like that.

However I feel these issues should be addressed here as they haven't been fixed yet:

If your editor crashes on launch or you can't open it, install OpenAL. There's another guide with a link to that.
If your editor starts off in a small window, you'll have problems later on, like the tiles menu getting cut. For this there is a simple solution: Go to your documents\cobalt folder and edit the daisymoon file. In there you'll find options for resolution, fullscreen and VSync.

Basic controls

Please note that there is some functions that have no hotkey (such as remove/rename layer) which can be found in the menus in the tabs at the top of the screen in the editor which won't be listed here.

Basic functions

Hotkey

Function

Ctrl + N

New map

Ctrl + Z

Undo

Ctrl + Y

Redo

Ctrl + C

Copy selected

Ctrl + V

Paste

Ctrl + S

Save

Ctrl + O

Open

Ctrl + W

Workshop menu

Esc

General cancel/exit key for some menus and brush modes

Camera

Hotkey

Function

Move mouse around window edges

Move camera

Space + left click (Drag)

Drag camera

Space + right click (Drag)

Move camera

Scroll

Zoom in/out

Space + wheel-click

Reset zoom

Quick zoom out and in

Toggle minimap

Selection

Hotkey

Function

Left-click

Select tile

Shift + left-click (Drag or click)

Select multiple tiles/uneslect a tile (click only)

(Select a tile first) Ctrl + E

Expand selection to related tiles

Pressing it multiple times will keep expanding the selection to more semi-related tiles.

Ctrl + A

Select all

Pressing it multiple times will expand to all layers.

General

Hotkey

Function

Quick set editor render

Note that the ingame render doesn't simulate 100% how it will look. Also note that bitsquid has different render, so some stuff (like the sun/sunrays) will look different in the game than it does while testing it in the editor. Hopefully once all issues are fixed the only thing that will be different is the sun.

Shift + R

Editor render menu

Theme options menu

I (that's "i")

Auto generate AI pathing

Tile placement

Hotkey

Function

Tile menu

Left-click with tile in hand

Place tile (hold and drag to place multiple)

Double-click placed tile (without tile in hand)

Pick tile

Right-click

Tile properties

Right-click with tile in hand while hovering a tile

Remove tile

Q (Hold, move mouse and release)

Quick set grid size

Shift + Q

Grid size menu

W (Hold, move mouse and release)

Quick set scale snap

Shift + W

Scale snap menu

S (Hold and scroll)

Scale selected tile(s).

If you have multiple tiles selected, they will each individually shrink or grow relative to their own central point, however if you hover one, it'll all act as one big tile and shrink or grow relative to the center of the tile you're hovering.

E (Hold, move mouse and release)

Quick set angle snap

Shift + E

Angle snap menu

A (Hold and scroll)

Rotate selected tile(s).

If you have multiple tiles selected, they will each individually rotate relative to their own central point, however if you hover one, it'll all act as one big tile and rotate relative to the center of the tile you're hovering.

Flip tile (Selected/in hand)

If you have multiple tiles selected, they will each be individually flipped relative to their own central point, however if you hover one, it'll all act as one big tile and flip all tiles relative to the center of the tile you're hovering.

X (Hold, move mouse, move mouse and release)

Quick switch to tile from same family

C (Hold, move mouse and release)

Quick switch to tile of same shape from same family

Ctrl + Up arrow

Move selected tiles one layer up (and change layer)

Ctrl + Down arrow

Move selected tiles one layer down (and change layer)

Layers

Hotkey

Function

Z (Hold, move mouse and release)

Quick layer change

Layer menu

Ctrl + L

Create new layer on current layer group

Layer properties menu

Wheel-click

Switch to clicked tile's layer

Up arrow

Move one layer up

Space + Scroll up

Move one layer up

Down arrow

Move one layer down

Space + Scroll down

Move one layer down

Testing

Hotkey

Function

Shift + F5

Testing settings

If nothing shows up here, make sure you have assigned a gamemode to your map, saved it, closed the editor, and reopened it again for it to successfully detect the assigned gamemode.

Test stage

Toggle autoteleport

When autoteleport is on, instead of playing the map like you would, you'll spawn an actor you can control at the center of your current view. Known issue: If you're testing a challenge map with autoteleport you might have no control over the character at first. Press X (attack/confirm key) to gain control over it.

Return to editor

Advanced hotkeys

Basic functions

Hotkey

Function

Shift + B

Clipboard

Tile placement

Hotkey

Function

1 (Hold, move mouse and release)

Quick placement options

Usually you always want this on "normal". If your map starts looking like it has random tiles somewhere, check it's set to normal.

Shift + 1

Placement options menu

Tile properties actions

Hotkey

Function

(With selected tile (Usually a trigger)) 2

Set action

(With selected tile with action) 3

Set target (click on target tile)

Brushing

While in brush mode, you can paint tiles with colors, also their opacity. Note that the color is not absolutely opaque on top of the tile. You paint tiles given their 4 corners.

Hotkey

Function

Brush colors

Enter brush mode

You can restrict which tiles you paint: It's restricted to those you have selected.

(While in brush mode) Left-click

Approach

(While in brush mode) Right-click

Erase painted color

(While in brush mode) Wheel-click

Pick painted color

(While in brush mode) Shift + left-click

Smooth color transition (between various corners)

(While in brush mode) Shift + right-click

Paint

(While in brush mode) Shift + wheel-click

Add random coloured noise

(While in brush mode) A (Hold and scroll)

Modify the brush's alpha

No, it's not the same property as in the . menu. This has to do with how fast the brush paints. Usually it's normal to have it at 100%.

(While in brush mode) S (Hold and scroll)

Brush size

(While in brush mode) Esc

Exit brush mode

Horizons

First of all go into one of the horizon layers.

Hotkey

Function

Double-click on horizon

Enter horizon brush mode

(While in horizon brush mode) Left-click

Approach

(While in horizon brush mode) Right-click

Adds vertical noise. Better make your brush big and alpha low.

(While in horizon brush mode) Shift + left-click

Smooth. Alpha is significant as well.

(While in horizon brush mode) Shift + right-click

Set. "Pull" the horizon

(While in horizon brush mode) A (Hold and scroll)

Modify the brush's alpha

This modifies how fast you "pull" the horizon.

(While in horizon brush mode) S (Hold and scroll)

Brush size

(While in horizon brush mode) Esc

Exit brush mode

Right-click on horizon

Horizon options

Brings up a right-click menu with options: Generate (random), smooth, level, average, increase, reduce, offset left, offset right, match behind, match sibling, match ahead.

Locales

(Other "screens" of your map)

Hotkey

Function

Ctrl + M

Create new locale

V (Hold, move mouse and release)

Quick switch locale

Shift + V

Switch locale menu

Wires

(Electricity stuff)

Hotkey

Function

Tab

Toggle Wire/Tile editor mode

(While in wire editor) Right-click

Exit wire editor mode

Left-click on input/output

Set target/origin (click on it)

Physics

(a bit buggy)

Hotkey

Function

(With tile selected) 4

Activate physics

IMPORTANT NOTE: Physics work while editing too. Pressing 4, unlike right-clicking a tile and pressing "Activate physics", will make it so the physics are already resumed and active. If you don't want it to have physics on the editor view as soon as you click it, right-click and activate physics from there. For some reason though, toggling the in-editor physics for a tile with 5 and then turning them back on won't make it have physics in editor view anymore.

Toggle resume physics

(With tile selected) 6

Deactivate physics (removes physics for the tile both in editing mode and ingame, just in case it wasn't clear)

Tags

Edit: I have since learned how to use tags, but since I haven't used them for a long time now I cannot remember the hotkeys. However if you've made it this far it shouldn't be too hard to figure out; I think left arrow key and right arrow key were some of them. I recommend leaving the tags menu open, as it is vital (despite being grossly formatted) to keep track of what you're seeing.
If you want to see examples of how tags can be used, please download one of my WASD Bomb Defusal maps[janeator.com] and open it in the editor.

Thanks & notes

I'd like to thank Oxeye for the fantastic job they've done, and for creating such a powerful editor allowing for huge freedom and letting me make a ton of maps.
Also thanks for adding some of my maps into the game!
Everything here is the result of my going through the editor and figuring out how most of the stuff works, but some of the basic knowledge and my excitement for mapping got passed on to me by some of the original community members from back in the original Cobalt forums. I'd like to thank Burntcustard, Puffdot, Saibot, Seradin, Aconitin, Isogash, mkster, TP, mcpjb, Fuzzel, and many others for that. Thanks!

If you have any question, want to correct some mistake, or something else, please comment right away!
Hope this helped!

Other guides

How to upload your maps to the workshop
How to set up elevators

External links

My stuff

My maps[janeator.com]
My twitter
My videos

Community portals

Game Discord[discord.gg]
Game Reddit

29 Comments

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Janeator [author] 8 Aug, 2016 @ 7:49am

No idea then sorry, send the .dmp to oxeye. If you want to put a pic here upload it to Imgur or so then paste the link.

Raoul1808 5 Aug, 2016 @ 10:30pm

même avec openal, ça ne marche pas.

Raoul1808 5 Aug, 2016 @ 10:29pm

comment on fait pour mettre une image dans un commentaire ?

Janeator [author] 1 Aug, 2016 @ 2:09am

I don't think it's the case but have you tried installing openAL?
http://steamproxy.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=615773109

Also you should do as the error says & send the .dmp file to [email protected]

Raoul1808 31 Jul, 2016 @ 8:24pm

Il crash quand je l'ouvre, avant, il m'affiche un ecran d'erreur et après il m'exporte un fichier .dmp à reporter à [email protected]

Janeator [author] 30 Jul, 2016 @ 4:48am

When does that crash happen? Just as the editor open? Or in a popup and the editor doesn't open at all? Or does it happen when you do some special action?

Raoul1808 29 Jul, 2016 @ 9:21pm

Problèmes avec des fichiers en lua :
[Extraits de plusieurs lignes du log]
Lua: A Lua script error has occurred!
Lua: Press #4CTRL+R#7 to reset the script parser
Lua: (2) main chunk of [string "$GAME_RESOURCES$/daisyMoon/localized.lua"] at line 0
Lua: (3) main chunk of [string "$GAME_RESOURCES$/daisyMoon/resources.lua"] at line 0
Lua: (4) main chunk of [string "$GAME_RESOURCES$/daisyMoon/resourceStorage.lua"] at line 0
Lua: (8) main chunk of [string "$GAME_RESOURCES$/daisyMoon/main.lua"] at line 0
Lua: (6) main chunk of [string "$GAME_RESOURCES$/daisyMoon/lib/cache.lua"] at line 0
Lua: (7) main chunk of [string "$GAME_RESOURCES$/daisyMoon/lib/renderHelpers.lua"] at line 0
[Fin]
Et il y a plus de 40 FOIS l'erreur de ode avec le fichier renderHelpers.lua.
J'ai regardé dans les données du jeu et j'ai vu qu'il n'y avait AUCUN FICHIER LUA.
Pouvez-vous m'aider ?

Janeator [author] 18 May, 2016 @ 1:20pm

Why?

Raoul1808 18 May, 2016 @ 12:32pm

Je ne peux pas ...

Janeator [author] 18 May, 2016 @ 7:19am

Hey Raoul1808 - please post about crashes on the forums, & provide crash logs!

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