Build menu

The build bar sits at the bottom left. Tabs, in order: Build, Staff, Rooms, Templates, Objects, Utilities, Tools, Deploy. Names below are the English catalog labels.

What you can build first

• Most tools and hiring stay locked until a road you placed still touches a map-edge town connection. The blocked hint is "Build a road from the edge first".
• The first road stroke may start anywhere. Later strokes must touch the road you already have. Reaching the map edge is what connects the town.
• Allowed before that connection: Road, demolish tools, Eyedropper, Clone, Erase Zone, Remove Utility, Work Priority, Unit Paint, Route Floor Tape, the outdoor yard zones (loading bay, parking, storage, business bulk, smoke area, truck parking), and the Deploy tools.
• Structure, the Recycling Dumpster, and the Garbage Dumpster also need a loading dock that is already placed.
• Some machines stay locked until you clear a deal under Operations, then Deals. The Auto Postage Machine is one of them.
• Story mode uses the same gates. It adds tutorial highlights. It does not replace the road or dock rules.

One-click object tools drop the selection after a single place unless you hold Shift. R rotates. T mirrors a template or flips a swing door. Ctrl+Z undoes the last build stroke. Full keys are on Keybindings.

Structure, roof, doors, windows, uninstall, and template fit-out become crew jobs (a blueprint, then a build). Zone paint, roads, and most clicks land immediately. Painted cables and pipes can show as planned until someone fits them. Live power and water wait until that job finishes.

Who shows up to build

The city crew has three trades. A worker only claims their own trade. Nameplates read Builder, Electrician, or Plumber.

• Builders fit floors, walls, roofs, and other work that is not a utility trade. If you have Maintenance on duty, those hires own ordinary floors, walls, doors, and props. City builders then keep roads, tree cuts, and lot asphalt.
• Electricians fit power cables, power connections, lights, fuseboxes, AC units, heaters, box fans, and street lamps. They keep those jobs even when Maintenance is on duty.
• Plumbers fit cold water, hot water, and sewer pipes, the town water and sewage connections, toilets, and sinks. They keep those jobs even when Maintenance is on duty.

A water boiler and a water main are not on the plumber object list, so that object job goes to a builder. Zero jobs of a trade sends nobody. One through eight jobs send one worker per job. More than eight jobs of one trade assign at least eight workers of that trade.

A separate crew-staging flow (runners pulling stock to a wait stand) exists in code and is off by default, so it is not how a normal plant builds. In progress

Build

Fixed order, not alphabetical. The Type / Style strip picks wall packs, floor packs (carpet, sidewalk, concrete, stone), door family, and window width.

Staff

Hiring opens a negotiation window (union or contractor, shift, and duty are chosen there, not as extra build buttons). Hiring is road-gated like most of the catalog.

• Clerk, Carrier, Hire Manager (Clerk Manager, Carrier Manager, or Facilities Manager), Postmaster, Janitor, Maintenance.
• Fire Staff: click someone to dismiss them.

Union bosses are not hire buttons. See Staff and traits.

Rooms

Zone brushes. Ctrl while painting one zone type erases that type. Erase Zone clears any zone paint and leaves floors, walls, and objects. Delete on a selected zone also clears it. Truck Parking Zone is a Type / Style variant of Parking Zone, not its own chip.

Templates

Click to stamp a room: zone plus furniture. R rotates the footprint. T mirrors it. The crew may still have to build structure on bare grass, and you still connect pipes and power yourself.

• Restroom, Break Room, Smoke Area, Sorting Floor, Distribution Floor, Loading Bay, Customer Service, Box Mail Area, Parking, Secure Mail Cage, Bulk Mail Bay, Office.

Objects

Uninstall Object is pinned at the top. It queues maintenance. The piece stays until the crew finishes. Pending installs cancel with a refund. The grid groups into Stations, Infrastructure, Containers, and Furniture. Selecting a room sorts the pieces that belong in that room first.

Stations

Sorting Station, Carrier Case, Package Sorting Station, Service Counter, Passport Station, Cage Window, Auto Postage Machine (deal-gated), Outgoing Mail Bin, Stamp Safe, High-Volume Sorter, Scanner Bay, X-Ray Machine.

Manual desks (sorting station, carrier case, package sorting, service counter, passport station, cage window) do not need power. Lights still help them work. The high-volume sorter, X-ray, and auto postage machine do need power. See Utilities.

Infrastructure

Loading Dock, parking spaces (Customer, Employee, Postal Truck, Big Rig), Fleet Garage, Bus Stop, Recycling Dumpster, Garbage Dumpster, Key Storage, PO Box Wall, Street Lamp. Fusebox, Heavy Fusebox, Light, AC Unit, Heater, and Box Fan are classified here and are placed from the Utilities tab. Fire Extinguisher is in this group too.

Not on this menu: a carrier truck bay (runtime only), and the gas station car wash, mechanic shop, and winter service shed (those are placed from Operations, then Logistics). The old Generator tool is retired.

Containers

Tray cart, Roll cage, Canvas hamper, Tray rack, Shelf cart, Sort rack, Pallet (a wooden inbound deck of parcel boxes), Mail Tray Stack, Mail Tub Stack. How they move mail is on Containers and trucks.

Furniture

Desk, Chair, Office Chair, Filing Cabinet, Secure Cage, Mailbox, Conveyor, Trash Can, Coffee Station, Time Clock, Ash Tray, Bench, Flower Bed, Shrub, Toilet, Sink.

Utilities

Road, Remove Utility, then power, water, hot water, sewage, climate, and lights. Detail is on the Utilities page. U toggles the overlay. The Utilities tab also has an overlay button.

Tools

Deploy

Deploy Clerks, Deploy Carriers, Deploy Janitors, Deploy Management. Left click on a zone adds one. Right click removes one.