Entity ghost

Ghosts of Medium electric poles at the top row, with normally placed ones below.

An Entity ghost is a transparent version of a placed entity, which is used as a planning tool to either map something out for future placing, or something for construction robots to place once the materials are available. An entity ghost can be placed with the LMB while holding Left Shift while an entity is selected beforehand. Placing the ghost entity comes at no cost of the actual entity selected. This can also be done when placing rails, by selecting which direction you want the rail to travel, starting with an existing (ghost) rail while holding Left Shift.

Many ghost entities can be created at once from a single blueprint, depending on the layout of said blueprint. Only some static structures can be placed in ghost form, so other types of (more mobile) entities such as robots or vehicles can not appear that way.

Construction robots will place the real version of the ghost entity if the following (or even both) conditions are met:

• The materials required to build the entity are available in the logistic network, and enough construction robots are free to begin the placing.
• The materials required to build the entity are available from the player's inventory, and the construction robots are available in the same way.

The cursor as it appears prior to placing an entity ghost.

Gallery

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  Construction robots paving a Refined concrete path. (Click to see GIF animation)

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  The top and middle part of a 3-way railway in "ghost mode".

See also

• Deconstruction planner
• Upgrade planner
• Blueprint book
• Logistic network
• Roboport
• Personal roboport
• Construction robot