Factorio Forums

What I did: I blueprinted a part of my rail-system that is bigger than the part of the map you can see, even on maximum scroll-out. I then wanted to use it but it wouldn't "stick" to the place I assigned it to be built. Of course, I knew that there was an obstruction and that was the reason I couldn't make it work. But ... WHERE was that obstruction? As the blueprint exceeded my view, I knew it was somewhere out of view but that's not really too helpful.

What I would like:
1. A blueprint that will "stick" even if there are obstructions, perhaps showing that this isn't a valid position (yet) by being mostly yellow except for the obstrucive parts being red?
or at least
2. If you click to stick the blueprint and it isn't a valid position it tells you which items are still in the way much as when I deconstruct (though I don't really see that as being too helpful)

If you hold the SHIFT-key while placing your blueprint, it will ignore all obstructions and place all the entities it can place.
Also consider that the player is an obstruction, too.

If you want to see which obstruction causes the blueprint to fail, you can zoom out even further using the console: The standard max zoomout level of the game is somewhere around 0.3.

Changelog for 0.11.18 wrote:

• Features
  • Blueprints can be built over things marked for deconstruction.
  • Blueprints can be force placed using alternative build mode (shift click).

Thank you very much, daniel

Being able to scroll out further should help some. I'd still like to have a pre-blueprint, though, because: If it starts placing without me knowing what the obstruction is, then it just might be an "obstruction" I do not want to tear down (e.g. part of my production line, a railway line ...) and cannot build my blueprint concept around, either.

True, I could do the shift-blueprint without a roboport and thus nothing would get constructed. Hm, I'll try it out and see what I think of it. Still, I think a pre-blueprint would be the long-term easier to handle solution (and won't get me into situations where I forget about checking for roboports first).