Building Gadgets 2 in FTB Skies 2

Building Gadgets 2 is a set of tools that make big building jobs quick: placing lots of blocks at once, swapping blocks, copying and moving whole structures, and clearing out areas. The pack includes version 1.3.9 of the mod.^{[1][2][3][4][5][6]}

The gadgets

• Building Gadget: places many blocks at once. Shift right-click a block to choose what to build with, then right click to place the previewed blocks.^[2]
• Exchanging Gadget: swaps one set of blocks for another. It can't replace air, so use the Building Gadget for that.^[3]
• Copy Paste Gadget: copies a structure between two corners and pastes it somewhere else, using items from your inventory.^[4]
• Cut Paste Gadget: moves a structure instead, including block-entity data such as chest contents. It holds only one stored structure at a time.^[5]
• Destruction Gadget: clears a large area, and the cleared blocks are voided.^[6]

What you need to know first

The gadgets need Forge Energy (FE) for most of their functions, so charge them with any mod that supports charging items. Hold the settings key (default 'g') to open the settings menu, where each gadget has its own options.^[7]

Made a mistake? Undo remembers the last 10 actions a gadget made. The exception is the Cut Paste Gadget, which has no undo.^[8]

You can also bind a gadget to a chest or other inventory so it pulls items from there. It can bind to an Applied Energistics 2 system through the system's wireless access point, with unlimited range.^[9]

Where it fits in the pack

The pack's quest book has a quest, "Building Gadgets" quest, in the useful_items_tips chapter. It is completed by having any one of the gadgets listed above in your inventory.^[10]

Unverified The sources here do not show Building Gadgets 2 as part of the ATM Star quest path, so check the pack's quest book if you want to know whether it is used there.

Building Gadgets 2 lets you place, swap and copy big groups of blocks with a right click. Before you craft anything, know that the gadgets need Forge Energy (FE) for most of their functions, so you'll want a way to charge them.^[2][3][4][7]

The mod's own guide says many mods can charge items with Forge Energy, and names Charging Gadgets as an option if you have none of them.^[7]

Step one: make the Building Gadget

Start with the Building Gadget. It builds a large number of blocks at once, and it is the gadget that places blocks into empty air. This is the in-pack recipe:^[2][3][11]

Building GadgetMod recipe

Crafting Shaped

Crafting Shaped

any iron ingot	any redstone dust	any iron ingot
any diamond gem	any redstone dust	any diamond gem
any iron ingot	any lapi gems	any iron ingot

Recipe id: buildinggadgets2:gadget_building

1. Make sure the gadget has some energy.^[2]
2. Shift right-click a block in the world to choose the block you want to build with.^[2]
3. Look at a block. A ghostly preview shows what will be placed, and a red overlay means you're missing items or energy for those blocks.^[2]
4. Right click to build. Items come out of your inventory, and any block you don't have the item for is skipped.^[2]

The default mode is Build to Me, and you can change modes by holding the settings key. If you make a mistake, undo remembers the last 10 actions the gadget made.^[2][8]

Step two: add the Exchanging Gadget

Next, make the Exchanging Gadget. It swaps one set of blocks for another, but it cannot replace air, so the Building Gadget still does that job.^[3]

Exchanging GadgetMod recipe

Crafting Shaped

Crafting Shaped

any iron ingot	any redstone dust	any iron ingot
any diamond gem	any lapi gems	any diamond gem
any iron ingot	any lapi gems	any iron ingot

Recipe id: buildinggadgets2:gadget_exchanging

It works like the Building Gadget: give it energy, then shift right-click the block you want to exchange to. Its default mode is Surface. You can enchant it with silk touch, and without silk touch grass returns dirt.^[3]

Step three: copy and save structures

Once you have a build worth duplicating, craft the Copy Paste Gadget:^[4]

Copy Paste GadgetMod recipe

Crafting Shaped

Crafting Shaped

any iron ingot	any redstone dust	any iron ingot
any emerald gem	any redstone dust	any emerald gem
any iron ingot	any lapi gems	any iron ingot

Recipe id: buildinggadgets2:gadget_copy_paste

Set it to 'copy' mode, right click one corner of your build, then shift-right click the opposite corner. A green outline means it worked. Switch to 'paste' mode to see a preview, then right click to place it. Items are taken from your inventory, and the 'material list' option in the settings menu shows what you're missing.^[4]

To keep a design, make the Template Manager. Put a copy paste gadget in the top slot and paper in the bottom slot, then click 'Save' to turn the paper into a template.^[12]

Template ManagerMod recipe

Crafting Shaped

Crafting Shaped

any iron ingot	any redstone dust	any iron ingot
Paper	any redstone dust	Paper
any iron ingot	any lapi gems	any iron ingot

Recipe id: buildinggadgets2:template_manager

Later: moving and clearing

The Cut Paste Gadget moves a structure instead of duplicating it. It has no undo and stores only one structure at a time, so be careful with it.^[5][8]

Cut Paste GadgetMod recipe

Crafting Shaped

Crafting Shaped

any iron ingot	any redstone dust	any iron ingot
Shears	any redstone dust	Shears
any iron ingot	any lapi gems	any iron ingot

Recipe id: buildinggadgets2:gadget_cut_paste

The Destruction Gadget clears a large area, but every block it removes is voided. You can undo it, and undoing returns the voided blocks without taking items from your inventory.^[6]

Destruction GadgetMod recipe

Crafting Shaped

Crafting Shaped

any iron ingot	any redstone dust	any iron ingot
any ender pearl	any redstone dust	any ender pearl
any iron ingot	any lapi gems	any iron ingot

Recipe id: buildinggadgets2:gadget_destruction

Same as in the All the Mods 10: To the Sky 2.0.4 guide

Building Gadgets 2 is all about handheld tools that place, swap, copy and clear lots of blocks at once. Most of what they do runs on Forge Energy (FE), so keep them charged. Many mods can charge items with FE, and the mod's own guide also points to a separate mod called Charging Gadgets if you have nothing else.^[13]

Hold the settings menu key (default 'g') to open a gadget's settings. Every gadget has different settings, so it is worth opening the menu on each one.^[13]

Building and exchanging

The Building Gadget places blocks in bulk. Charge it, then shift right-click a block in the world to choose what to build with. Point at a block and you get a ghostly preview of what will be placed. If you are missing items or energy for some of those blocks, they show a red overlay. Right click to build. Items come out of your inventory, and any block you lack the item for is skipped.^[14]

The Exchanging Gadget works the same way, but it swaps existing blocks for the one you selected. It cannot replace air, so use the Building Gadget for that. Items for the removed blocks are returned to you, and you can enchant the gadget with silk touch (without it, grass returns dirt, for example).^[15]

Hold the settings key to pick a mode. The Building Gadget defaults to Build to Me and the Exchanging Gadget defaults to Surface.^[14][15]

Range

Both of these gadgets have a range setting that sets how many blocks are affected, and each mode treats it a little differently. In Horizontal Row mode, a range of 3 is 3 blocks in total, 1 on each side of the block you look at. For walls, a range of 3 builds a 3x3 wall. Even numbers are rounded, and they change the height of a wall slightly, so check the preview.^[16]

Building modes

• Build to Me: builds a row from the block face you look at to you, horizontal or vertical depending on the face. Range is ignored, and 'place on top' builds to your head instead of your feet.^[17]
• Grid: places blocks in a grid, handy for torches or glowstone. As range increases the blocks spread apart until the area itself grows. It is also an exchanger mode.^[18]
• Horizontal Row: builds away from you in the direction you look, which is good for bridges. On the exchanger it swaps blocks to the left and right of your view direction.^[19]
• Horizontal Wall: with 'place on top' on, it builds an area above the block you look at, or extending toward you if you look at a side. With it off, it builds around the block.^[20]
• Stairs: builds up and away from you, or up and towards you, depending on whether you are above or below the block you look at.^[21]
• Surface: extends the set of blocks you are looking at. Fuzzy mode lets it target any blocks instead of only matching ones. On the exchanger, connected mode only swaps blocks connected to the ones you look at.^[22]
• Vertical Column: available on both gadgets. It goes up or down from a top or bottom face, or both up and down if you look at a side.^[23]
• Vertical Wall: builds a wall up or down from a top or bottom face, or around the block if you look at a side.^[24]

'Place on top' behaves a little differently in each mode, and in some modes it does nothing.^[25]

Copy Paste and Cut Paste

The Copy Paste Gadget duplicates structures. Set the gadget to 'copy' mode in the settings menu, right click one corner, then shift right-click the opposing corner. A green outline surrounds the structure. Switch to 'paste' mode to see a ghostly preview, with the block you first right clicked as the starting point, and right click to place it. Needed items are taken from your inventory, and blocks you lack items for are skipped.^[26]

The 'material list' option in the settings menu shows a scrollable, sortable list of the items you have and are missing. The Adjust Placement window lets you nudge the start and end blocks with plus and minus buttons, or switch to 'absolute' mode and type in world coordinates. Paste mode has a similar window for the starting block.^[26]

The Cut Paste Gadget moves a structure instead. Pick two corners in 'cut' mode (the outline is red this time). Nothing is removed until you press the 'cut' button in the settings menu. Pasting then needs no items, because it reuses the blocks you removed. All block-entity data moves with it, including chest contents and block configurations.^[27]

Paste Replace and Rotate

Paste Replace only exists on the Copy Paste and Cut Paste gadgets. When it is off, pastes only overwrite blocks you could normally overwrite, like water and tall grass. That is risky with the Cut Paste Gadget, because blocks could be lost. When it is on, the paste replaces any block in the world, air included, which is great for building a house into a mountain. Replaced blocks are voided and return no items.^[28]

Rotate turns a Copy Paste or Cut Paste structure around its starting point. Watch the preview to see the result before you place.^[29]

Destruction

The Destruction Gadget clears big areas, and everything it clears is voided. Set the area in the settings menu. It is relative to the block and face you look at, so if you look at a top face, 'up' is relative to your screen. Right click a block to void all the highlighted blocks.^[30]

Undo

Undo reverses the gadget's last task, either removing the last blocks built or swapping the last blocks back. It remembers the last 10 actions the gadget made, and you can use it from a hotkey or the settings menu.^[31]

• Undoing an exchange needs the items in your inventory. If you turned grass into stone bricks, you need grass to undo it.^[15][31]
• Undoing a Destruction Gadget action takes nothing from your inventory, because it just returns the voided blocks to the world.^[30]
• The Cut Paste Gadget has no undo.^[31]

Inventories and fluids

Bind Inventory lets a gadget pull items from, and insert items into, a chest or other inventory. Turn on 'bind inventory' mode in the settings menu, then shift right-click the inventory. A blue box confirms the bind. Shift right-click a non-inventory block, like grass, to disconnect.^[32]

You can also bind to an Applied Energistics 2 system by connecting to its wireless access point. The gadget then has unlimited range, so range upgrades do not matter.^[32]

Gadgets can handle fluids too. Make sure Raytrace Fluids is on so you can select a fluid with shift right-click. With it on, exchangers can swap out fluids and builders can build on top of fluids. With it off, they ignore fluids and build on the blocks behind them. To place fluids you need a bucket with that fluid, or you can use a tank from a mod like Mekanism, where fluids are removed or inserted for you.^[33][34]

The Copy Paste Gadget handles fluids as well. When you undo or exchange fluids, the gadget tries to put the fluid somewhere, like an empty bucket or tank, and voids it if it cannot find a place.^[33]

Template Manager

The Template Manager saves structures from the Copy Paste Gadget to items in your world, and even lets you share them outside it. Put a copy paste gadget in the top slot and paper in the bottom slot. Click 'Save' to turn the paper into a template, and a render of the structure appears. You can pan and spin it with the mouse buttons and zoom with the scroll wheel. Click 'load' to copy a template's structure back onto the gadget.^[35]

The 'Render' button toggles to Materials Mode, which lists the needed materials much like the Material List. Templates can be named, and the name shows on the template item. 'Copy' puts a json string on your clipboard that you can share with friends. They copy it, click 'paste' in the same GUI and the structure is replicated for them, as long as there is paper in the bottom slot.^[35]

Anchor and animations

Anchor locks in the block you are looking at so you can move and look around freely, and you can still right click to build while it is anchored. Use the hotkey or the settings menu. Changing range may not take effect until you remove and replace the anchor.^[36]

Each gadget can have its own build animation, which defaults to 'grow'. This is purely visual and does not change how the gadgets work.^[37]

Building Gadgets 2 doesn't have a strict tier ladder in this pack. The sources show these gadgets, the Template Manager, and a single quest that tracks the gadgets. So this section is about which gadget to grab first and what each one does, not about unlocking tiers step by step.^[10][11]

The quest

The quest book places the mod in the useful_items_tips chapter, through "Building Gadgets" quest. It has no title, and its task accepts any of these items: the Building Gadget, Exchanging Gadget, Copy Paste Gadget, Cut Paste Gadget or Destruction Gadget. So you can complete it with whichever gadget you want to build first.^[10]

Power comes first

Every gadget needs Forge Energy (FE) for most of what it does, so a freshly crafted gadget won't do much until you charge it. The in-game guide tells you to make sure the Building Gadget and the Exchanging Gadget have some energy before you use them.^[2][3][7]

The gadgets and what they do

• Building Gadget: places a lot of blocks at once. It shows a ghostly preview first, and it defaults to the Build to Me mode.^[2]
• Exchanging Gadget: swaps a set of blocks for another. It can't replace air, so use the Building Gadget for that. It defaults to Surface mode.^[3]
• Copy Paste Gadget: copies a structure and pastes it somewhere else. It uses items from your inventory and skips any block you don't have items for.^[4]
• Cut Paste Gadget: works like the Copy Paste Gadget but moves a structure instead. Block-entity data goes along with it, including chest contents.^[5]
• Destruction Gadget: clears a large area, and every cleared block is voided.^[6]

Crafting them

The gadgets and the Template Manager are all shaped crafting recipes, and the recipe dump labels each of them as a mod recipe. The Building Gadget and the Exchanging Gadget use the same ingredient types, so check the layouts below to tell them apart.^[11]

Building GadgetMod recipe

Crafting Shaped

Crafting Shaped

any iron ingot	any redstone dust	any iron ingot
any diamond gem	any redstone dust	any diamond gem
any iron ingot	any lapi gems	any iron ingot

Recipe id: buildinggadgets2:gadget_building

Exchanging GadgetMod recipe

Crafting Shaped

Crafting Shaped

any iron ingot	any redstone dust	any iron ingot
any diamond gem	any lapi gems	any diamond gem
any iron ingot	any lapi gems	any iron ingot

Recipe id: buildinggadgets2:gadget_exchanging

Copy Paste GadgetMod recipe

Crafting Shaped

Crafting Shaped

any iron ingot	any redstone dust	any iron ingot
any emerald gem	any redstone dust	any emerald gem
any iron ingot	any lapi gems	any iron ingot

Recipe id: buildinggadgets2:gadget_copy_paste

Cut Paste GadgetMod recipe

Crafting Shaped

Crafting Shaped

any iron ingot	any redstone dust	any iron ingot
Shears	any redstone dust	Shears
any iron ingot	any lapi gems	any iron ingot

Recipe id: buildinggadgets2:gadget_cut_paste

Destruction GadgetMod recipe

Crafting Shaped

Crafting Shaped

any iron ingot	any redstone dust	any iron ingot
any ender pearl	any redstone dust	any ender pearl
any iron ingot	any lapi gems	any iron ingot

Recipe id: buildinggadgets2:gadget_destruction

Template ManagerMod recipe

Crafting Shaped

Crafting Shaped

any iron ingot	any redstone dust	any iron ingot
Paper	any redstone dust	Paper
any iron ingot	any lapi gems	any iron ingot

Recipe id: buildinggadgets2:template_manager

Things to know before you use them

In this pack, Building Gadgets 2 shows up in a single quest, in the chapter called useful_items_tips. The quest is "Building Gadgets" quest, and it has no title in the quest file.^[10]

It is an item task, and it accepts any of the mod's gadgets, so you only need to have one of them to complete it:^[10]

• Building Gadget^[10]
• Exchanging Gadget^[10]
• Copy Paste Gadget^[10]
• Cut Paste Gadget^[10]
• Destruction Gadget^[10]

Because this is the only quest that involves the mod, there is no chain of Building Gadgets 2 quests to work through. Pick whichever gadget suits your build and the task is done.^[10]

Building Gadgets 2 keeps its settings in config/buildinggadgets2-common.toml. Most of what you'll care about is how much power each gadget uses per block and how much it can hold. This pack changes only the Destruction Gadget. Everything else is at the mod default.^[38]

What the pack changed

The Destruction Gadget costs more per block in this pack, and it can store less power than the mod default.^[38]

• power.destruction_gadget.baseCost is 200 in this pack. The mod default is 50, so every block you destroy costs more than it would in the base mod.^[38]
• power.destruction_gadget.maxPower is 1,000,000 in this pack. The mod default is 2,000,000, so the gadget holds less than the base mod allows.^[38]

Gadget power at a glance

The remaining gadgets use the mod defaults. The base cost is per block, and the max power is the most the gadget can store.^[38]

• Building Gadget: power.building_gadget.baseCost is 50 per block placed, and power.building_gadget.maxPower is 500,000.^[38]
• Exchanging Gadget: power.exchanging_gadget.baseCost is 100 per block exchanged, and power.exchanging_gadget.maxPower is 500,000.^[38]
• Copy and Paste Gadget: power.copypaste_gadget.baseCost is 50 per block pasted, and copying is free. power.copypaste_gadget.maxPower is 1,000,000.^[38]
• Cut and Paste Gadget: power.cutpaste_gadget.baseCost is 50 per block. It is checked during the cut and charged during the paste. power.cutpaste_gadget.maxPower is 5,000,000.^[38]

Build range

general.rayTraceRange sets the maximum distance you can build at. This pack leaves it at the default of 32, and the config accepts values from 1 to 64.^[38]