Blueprint
Blueprints are a smart way to 'copy & paste' parts of a factory with help of Construction robots.
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Craft a blank blueprint
Blank blueprints can be crafted in the crafting menu, it could be found in the top row of the production tab. The blank blueprint can now be used to 'copy' a set of buildings.
For example we will copy this small laser defense setup: 
Create a blueprint
To create a blueprint select it out of the toolbar or the inventory, a blueprint icon is shown next to the mouse cursor. Click and hold left mouse button and drag a box as large as needed, all buildings which will be included in the blueprint will be highlighted green. If everything to 'copy' is inside the drag box release the mouse button, the 'Blueprint icon setup' menu will open.
Blueprint icon setup
On the top left of the 'Blueprint icon setup" menu there are four icon slots. The game chooses automaticly how many icons and which are preselected depending on the amount of buildings that are included. However they can be changed by simply clicking on them and choose the wanted icons.
On the top right there are two icons to 'create blueprint' and 'cancel blueprint'. The 'create blueprint' icon will also show a preview about how the blueprint icon will look after creation.
The 'Blueprint preview' just shows the preview of the blueprint.
On the bottom is shown the 'Total' amount of buildings included in the blueprint.
Create the blueprint if everything is fine or cancel it. By canceling the blueprint is not lost. The created blueprint will be in the toolbelt or the inventory (or dropped to ground if no place is available).
Place the blueprint
To use/place the created blueprint select it from your toolbelt or inventory. The whole building setup of the blueprint will be shown at your mouse cursor. It is possible to place it rotated. The blueprint could be placed everywhere but it needs to be inside the green (or orange) 100x100 area of a Roboport to be actually built.
After the blueprint got placed somewhere the buildings are placed as ghost buildings. When inside the construction network Construction robots will now start to pick up the needed items and replace the ghost buildings. The needed items needs to be inside the logistic network in an Active Provider chest, a Passive Provider chest or a Storage chest.
Deleting a blueprint
Blueprints could be deleted by rightclicking them, which requires one Electronic circuit. After that the blueprint will be blank again.
Additional informations
- Once a blueprint is created it could be used unlimited times.
- To place a blueprint the area has to be free or it couldn't be placed at all, exception is when the overlapping part is the same building on the same place (usefull for extending walls for example). You may use the Deconstruction planner before placing the blueprint.
- It is actually unknown if there is a limit about the size of a blueprint. But it could at least be bigger then one screen even when zoomed out max.
- To place very large blueprints could be problematic when parts of it are out of the roboport construction area. But when roboports are part of the blueprint and are placed inside the construction area it extends itself as soon as it is powered up.
- Ghostbuildings stay for 5 minutes, after that they get removed. So be sure to have all items needed to build in this time frame.