Building Gadgets is a construction toolkit mod by Direwolf20 that transforms the way you build in Minecraft. Instead of placing blocks one at a time, you can fill walls, floors, and entire structures in seconds using five specialized tools: the Building Gadget, Exchanging Gadget, Copy Paste Gadget, Cut Paste Gadget, and Destruction Gadget. Whether you're a solo builder tired of repetitive clicking or a modpack player working on large-scale projects, this mod will become one of the most-used tools in your inventory.
How to use the Gadgets
Before using anything, bind a key to the Settings Menu. This is the most important first step. Many players skip this and then wonder why their gadgets don't seem to work. The default key is G, but keybinding conflicts with other mods can silently prevent the menu from opening, leaving the gadget completely non-functional.
All gadgets run on Forge Energy, so you'll need a power source before you can start building. Any mod that supports Forge Energy will charge the gadgets, including Mekanism's Energy Cube and similar power storage items. Experienced players recommend setting up a wireless energy transmitter so gadgets recharge automatically while they sit in your inventory, eliminating the need for constant trips back to a charging station.
Bind your gadgets to a 
chest or Applied Energistics wireless access point using the Bind Inventory option in the settings menu. This lets the gadget pull building materials directly from storage, so you don't need to carry hundreds of blocks in your personal inventory.
The Building Gadget
The Building Gadget is the starting point for most players and handles straightforward block placement across a range of shapes and sizes. It holds up to 500,000 Forge Energy and consumes 50 FE per block placed. In Creative mode, it requires no energy or materials.
To select the block you want to build with, Shift-right-click any block in the world while holding the gadget. A ghostly preview appears, showing exactly where blocks will be placed. If you're missing materials or energy, the preview turns red. Right-click to build. Items are pulled from your inventory (or a bound storage) as the structure goes up. You will need the charge and the required materials for the action.
Building Modes
Open the settings menu (G) to switch between eight building modes. Each one targets a different construction scenario. The range slider adjusts how far the mode extends, from 1 to 15 blocks in most modes.
Mode
What It Builds
Best For
Build to Me is particularly useful because it ignores the range setting and extends all the way to your standing position. This lets you bridge or fill sections longer than 15 blocks without repositioning. Surface mode is equally powerful for farms and redstone layouts: it spreads outward across whatever irregular shape you point at, matching the exact footprint rather than forcing a rectangle.
Gadget Settings and Features
Place on Top changes how wall modes attach. With it disabled, the gadget builds around the block you're looking at. With it enabled, it builds on top of that block. Raytrace Fluids lets you treat water and lava as solid surfaces, which is essential if you need to build over a body of water or remove fluid source blocks. The Anchor option freezes the block preview in place so you can walk around and inspect placement before committing.
Six building animations are available in the settings menu: Grow (default), Fade, Squish, Grow Up, Rise Up, and The SNAP! These are purely cosmetic and don't affect building speed or behavior. The SNAP animation, which mimics the disappearing effect from the Marvel films, is a fan favorite and was added by Direwolf20 as a personal touch.
Undo is accessible through the hotkey or the settings menu and reverses the most recent build action. The default key for undo is U. The gadget stores the last 10 actions, so you can undo multiple times in sequence. Blocks are returned to your inventory on undo.
The Exchanging Gadget
The Exchanging Gadget swaps one block type for another without destroying anything. When you exchange 
dirt for 
stone bricks, the dirt goes into your inventory, and the stone bricks are placed in their spot. This makes redecorating or upgrading existing builds painless.
The Exchanging Gadget holds 500,000 FE and costs 100 FE per block exchanged, double the Building Gadget's cost because it performs both a removal and a placement. It supports 
Silk Touch enchantment, which means you can swap out 
grass blocks and get actual Grass Blocks back instead of plain Dirt. Fortune cannot be applied.
Two useful mode toggles appear in the settings menu. Connected Area limits the exchange to blocks that are physically touching the target block of the same type, preventing accidental replacement of nearby matching blocks you didn't intend to change. Fuzzy mode ignores block type entirely, replacing everything within range regardless of its type. Affect Block Entities must be enabled manually if you want to exchange chests, 
furnaces, or other containers.
If a chest contains items when you exchange it for another block, the contents will drop on the ground. Empty the chest first before using the Exchanging Gadget on it.
The Copy Paste Gadget
The Copy Paste Gadget captures a three-dimensional region of your world and lets you paste it anywhere else, as many times as you want. It holds 1,000,000 FE, copying is free, and pasting costs 50 FE per block placed.
To copy a structure, switch to Copy mode in the settings menu, right-click one corner of the area, then Shift-right-click the diagonally opposite corner. A green outline shows your selected region. You can then open the settings menu while in Copy mode to expand or shrink the selection on any axis, which is useful for getting the exact bounds of an irregular structure.
Switch to Paste mode and right-click to begin placing the structure. The gadget shows a preview of where it will be placed, and you can open the settings menu to shift placement up, down, or sideways by exact block counts before confirming. A materials list in the settings menu shows exactly which blocks you need and how many you currently have on hand.
Replace Blocks mode lets the paste overwrite blocks already in the world instead of only filling air. Be careful: this setting voids any blocks it overwrites, including drops. You won't get those original blocks back.
Certain blocks cannot be copied, including doors and beds due to how Minecraft handles their two-block structure. Chest contents are also intentionally excluded from copies. The mod includes a tag called buildinggadgets2:deny that modpack makers can use to prevent specific blocks from being copied.
The Cut Paste Gadget
The Cut Paste Gadget physically moves a structure from one location to another. Unlike the Copy Paste Gadget, it removes the original and stores everything in the gadget itself, not your inventory. It holds 5,000,000 FE to accommodate the large operations it handles, and energy is charged during the paste phase, not the cut.
Select the region the same way as the Copy Paste Gadget, then click the Cut button in the settings menu. The selected area disappears and is stored inside the gadget. Switch to Paste mode to place the structure wherever you need it. The gadget also carries full block entity data, including chest contents, through the move.
The Cut Paste Gadget has no undo function. Once you cut a structure, the original blocks are gone. If the gadget already has cut data stored and you attempt another cut, it will warn you before overwriting, but the old cut data is permanently lost if you confirm. Always use the Anchor to preview the paste position and verify it looks correct before placing.
If the gadget doesn't have enough energy to paste the entire structure, it will refuse to place anything until you charge it fully. The cut data stays safe inside the gadget until you're ready.
The Destruction Gadget
The Destruction Gadget removes large volumes of blocks from the world instantly, voiding everything it clears. No drops are given. It holds 2,000,000 FE and costs 50 FE per block destroyed. This makes it ideal for clearing terrain, mining out spaces, or draining water, but a poor choice if you want to recover resources.
The Destruction Gadget opens a dedicated settings screen when you Shift-right-click. By default, every dimension (Depth, Left, Right, Up, Down) is set to zero, so the gadget does nothing until you configure it. Set Depth to at least 1 to begin. Depth controls how many blocks deep the clearing goes away from the face you're looking at. Left, Right, Up, and Down expand the affected area outward from your crosshair.
Raytrace Fluids must be enabled to remove water and lava source blocks. Without it, the gadget passes through fluids and only removes solid blocks beneath them. When destroying flowing water rather than source blocks, the flowing sections won't be removed, only the source blocks that feed them. Affect Block Entities is disabled by default to prevent accidental destruction of chests and machines.
Unlike the Cut Paste Gadget, the Destruction Gadget supports undo. It restores voided blocks to the world without taking materials from your inventory, since the blocks were never collected in the first place. The Revert button in the settings screen also lets you reset dimension values to whatever they were when you last opened that menu.
Templates and the Template Manager
The 
Template Manager is a craftable block that lets you save structures from the Copy Paste Gadget onto Template items, which are named pieces of paper that store building data. Once saved, 
Templates can be loaded back into any Copy-Paste Gadget, shared with other players, or carried between worlds.
To save a structure, place a Copy Paste Gadget with an active selection into the top slot of the Template Manager, and a piece of Paper into the bottom slot. Click Save. The paper becomes a named Template item, and a 3D render of the structure appears on the screen. You can rotate the render with right-click, pan with left-click, and zoom with the scroll wheel to inspect it from any angle before placing it in the world.
The Template Manager's Copy button generates a text string that encodes the entire structure. Copy it to your clipboard and share it on Discord, Reddit, or any chat platform. Anyone who receives the code can open their own Template Manager, paste it using the Paste button with Paper in the bottom slot, and load the structure into their gadget. This makes community structure sharing entirely code-based, requiring no external files.
The Materials button in the Template Manager toggles the 3D render into a full materials list, showing exactly which blocks and how many are required. This is useful for gathering resources in survival mode before committing to a large paste.
Tips for Success
The Grid mode combined with Surface mode creates one of the most efficient lighting setups in the game. Shift-right-click a 
Glowstone block or any light source to select it, enable Grid mode in the settings menu, then point the gadget at the floor and activate Surface mode. The gadget places lights in an evenly spaced grid across the entire surface in a single use, lighting up large farm floors or cave floors with no manual effort.
Binding your gadget to an Applied Energistics ME system is a game-changer for large builds. Enable Bind Inventory in the settings menu, Shift-right-click the ME wireless access point, and the gadget will pull all building materials directly from your ME network. Undo operations also return blocks back to the ME system automatically.
When using the Exchanging Gadget to replace large connected areas of the same block type, turn on Connected Area mode and turn off Fuzzy mode. This limits the exchange to blocks that are physically touching the one you click, which is perfect for replacing one wall in a multi-room build without affecting identical blocks in adjacent rooms.
A wireless energy transmitter that auto-charges gadgets in your inventory removes the need to manually stop and recharge during large builds. Setting this up early, before starting big projects, saves significant time and frustration.
Frequently Asked Questions
All gadgets use Forge Energy, so any power storage or generator from a Forge-compatible mod works. Mekanism's Energy Cube, Thermal Expansion's Energy Cell, and similar items can all charge the gadgets. Place the gadget in the charging device's slot, or right-click on a compatible energy-storing item while holding the gadget. A wireless energy transmitter that automatically charges items in your inventory is the most convenient long-term setup.
No. The Destruction Gadget voids all blocks it removes. Nothing goes into your inventory and no item drops appear in the world. This is clearly displayed as a red warning in the gadget's tooltip. If you need the blocks you're removing, use a pickaxe or a mod with automated mining that gives drops.
Yes, for the Building Gadget, Exchanging Gadget, Copy Paste Gadget, and Destruction Gadget. Press the Undo hotkey or click Undo in the settings menu to reverse the last action. Gadgets remember the last 10 actions, so you can undo multiple times in sequence. The Cut Paste Gadget is the only one without an undo function, so always Anchor and verify placement before committing a cut.
Use the Template Manager. Copy a structure to the gadget, then place the gadget and Paper into a Template Manager and click Save to create a Template. Click the Copy button to generate a text string and copy it to your clipboard. Share the string however you like, such as through Discord or a forum post. The recipient places Paper in their Template Manager, pastes the string using the Paste button, and loads the resulting Template into their own Copy Paste Gadget.
A keybinding conflict with another mod is the most common cause. Go to Minecraft's Controls settings, find the Building Gadgets 2 category, and look for the Settings Menu binding. If G is marked as conflicted, assign it to a different key with no conflicts. This is the single most common problem new players encounter, and fixing it immediately unlocks the mod's full functionality.
Yes, by binding the gadget to an external inventory. Open the settings menu, enable Bind Inventory, then Shift-right-click any chest, barrel, or storage block. The gadget will pull materials directly from that inventory when building. Applied Energistics ME systems also work: bind to an ME wireless access point and the gadget draws from your entire storage network. To remove the bind, re-enable Bind Inventory mode and right-click any non-storage block.
