Building Modular Piece Blueprint

Piece Inputs Category

Building Type

Building Type is an integer parameter and it defines which type of building is that modular piece. All the modular pieces of a building should have the same building type.

Piece Variation

Building Variation is an integer parameter and it defines which type of variation has that modular piece. The variation depends on a few parameters: Length, Building Type, Floor Type, and Piece Type of the modular piece.

Example of variations when Building Type= 1, Length=4, Floor Type=Simple, Piece Type=Window:

Piece Sub-Variation

At this moment the Piece Sub-Variation is available only for GroundFloor pieces because the system already uses Piece Variation for the ground floor to fit all the pieces together, having the same style. The sub-variation helps to break the pattern if you want some variation of the ground floor pieces but still fit together with the other pieces with the same variation.

Same variation of ground floor:

Same variation/length/piece type but with the Sub-Variation changed:

Piece Length

Piece Length is a parameter and represents the length of the modular piece in meters.

If for a specific building, a piece with this length doesn’t exist, the piece will be stretched until it reaches the right length.

Piece Height

It determines the height of the modular piece in meters. When you set this parameter, you should check the “Custom Height” checkbox first.

Floor Type and Piece Type

Floor Type is an Enumeration and it can have one of 2 values:

Ground Floor
Simple Floor

Piece Type is an Enumeration and it can have 4 values:

Window
Corner
CornerEnd (*)
Simple
CornerConcave

* CornerEnd – piece for a corner when the front facade intersects the back walls of the building.

Mirrored

“Mirrored” is a boolean parameter, if true, the piece will be mirrored (the pivot position is preserved). This could be very useful for the “CornerEnd” piece type to be aligned to any direction.

Front - Back

This parameter should be “Back” for all pieces that are on the back facades. For some types of buildings, the back piece could be completely different from the front one – other 3D modular pieces, other materials, etc. The CornerEnd will be only for the “Front” type.

Building Style Table

You can choose the Building Rules Table to determine which Building Style Table will be used. The Building Style Table should be the same for all the modular pieces from a building.

In the blueprint, you can add in the “Building Style Tables” the existing tables from the project, or you can create your own table.

The Building Style Table includes for each building the input meshes, materials and options:

Materials Category

There are a few parameters for each type of material for variations:

Yellow – “Facade” material
Cyan – “Facade 2“material
Orange – “Ground Floor” material
Black – Window Frame material (Custom)
Green – “Ornaments” material (Custom)
Grey – “Concrete” material (Custom)
Red – “Shop Windows” material
White – “Windows” material
Purple – Border material (Custom)

“Random Window Material” is a boolean that works like a button, you press it and it applies a random material of the “Windows” and “Windows Shop” material.

Added Elements Category

Air Conditioners Category

“Visible ACs” is an array of checkboxes, for each one, it’ll spawn a new AC depending on the sockets’ positions from the modular pieces.

You can have more ACs if you add more sockets for the specific modular piece with new positions of the ACs and names like this “AC1”,”AC2”, “AC3” (…).

For example:

If you check the “0” checkbox, you’ll spawn the first AC (in the position of the “AC1” socket).

If you check the “1” checkbox, you’ll spawn the second AC (in the position of the “AC2” socket), and so on.

"Random ACs" is a boolean parameter that works like a button and spawns random ACs on the modular building piece.

Sockets in the asset view: you can use “SM_ac” as “Preview Static Mesh” and each socket should be named like “AC1”,”AC2”, “AC3” (…)

AC Variation

Border Top Category

Border/Top Type

It can have one of the following 5 values:

None
Short Border
Tall Border
Top
Top Extended

Example of Top:

Example of Extended Top:

Awning Category

The “Awning” checkbox, if true, the awning will be spawned on the modular building piece.

Awning Type is an integer parameter and it defines the type of the awning.

Example of different type of awnings:

The awnings are available only for the ground floor and you can have only one per modular piece.

The modular piece should have a socket named “Awning” and as “Preview Static Mesh” it should be “SM_Awning1”. Then you can set the position & the scale of it.

Fire Escape

“Fire Escape Type” can have one of the following values:

None – Has no Fire Escape
Top – The Fire Escape for the last floor modular piece.
Bottom – The Fire Escape for the first modular piece.
Simple

Doors and Stairs door

If the “Door” checkbox is true, a modular building piece with a door will be used. This will work only if a specific modular piece with the same length and variation exists in the array of the building rules.

A model of the door will spawn only if there is a socket named “door” on that piece. The Stairs door will spawn only if a socket is named “StairsDoor”. You can select the material and the model for each one.

Example of a door piece with a door model attached to a socket (the door is a separate object):

Example of door piece without a door socket (the door is not a separated object):

Custom Added Elements

Each piece can have multiple custom elements, depending on the custom elements from the building rule of the modular piece and the sockets

The “Name” shouldn’t be changed. It will be automatically changed depending on the building rule.

The material can be changed only if the custom added element doesn't have “Overwrite Ornaments Material” checked in the building rule. Example of custom elements:

Building Index

Each Building Modular Piece has a Building Index number. All the Building Modular Pieces of a building should have the same Building Index, this will allow editing the building after creating it.