Saved layouts are text files without any extension. The file structure is that of CSV (comma separated values). You can edit these files using any text editor or even most spreadsheet programs. This Guide will go over the structure of the files. This is not needed if you are using the Layout Editor.

The first two lines of the file look like this

6,Version Number
1276122009,qey_ph_3r01
1303989270, Unique House ID. new to Version 6

The only two parts that are worth noting are the layout version (red) and the zone (blue). As of the patch on 9/20/11, the current layout version is 6. Any layout version 4 or earlier will not load in game (version 5 will).

After those two lines come the actual item data. each line will look something like this –

3237953847,2224579,2.540000,-2.000000,8.210000,47.980000,0.000000,0.000000,0.50, false,”Veteran’s Display Case”,

• 3237953847 is the Item ID
• 2224579 is the Database ID (unique)
• 2.540000,-2.000000,8.210000 These are the X Z Y values
• 47.980000,0.000000,0.000000 These are the Rotation, Pitch and Roll values
• 0.50 this is the Scale value
• false this is the Crate value (true means it is packed away)
• “Veteran’s Display Case” is the Item Name (not used by the load script)
• Blank space after the comma this is a notes field

ItemID is what tells the script what type of item it needs to load. All “Veteran’s Display Case” share the same ItemID. If you change this it will be like telling the server to put a different item in that location. This can be handy if you wanted to replace a red marble floor tile with a white marble floor tile.

Database ID is the unique identifier the game server uses for that exact copy of the item. If that specific item is not in the zone, it will use the first item it finds UNLESS that item is called for elsewhere in the layout. This ID was added to prevent certain items from being mixed up by the load script such as Player written books or display mannequins. It is best not to change this value.

X,Z,Y values follow the same coordinate grid that the /location and /waypoint systems do in the game. Positive X values will move an item South, positive Z will raise an item up while positive Y will move an item East.

Rotation, Pitch and Roll will tilt an object. In game you can only adjust an item’s rotation (aside from wall items). Pitch will rotate an Item around it’s X axis. Think of an airplane, pitching it would be raising/dropping it’s nose up or down. Roll is rotating an Item around it’s Y Axis. This is like raising/lowering one wing or the other on the plane.

Scale increased/decrease the size of the item. Some items have greater ranges that they will scale too than others. This value is a multiplier so if an item had a base size of 2x2x.1 and you set the scale to 3, then the item would become 6x6x.3. If you set the scale higher or lower than and item’s Min/Max size it will just load at the Min/Max.

Crate Is a simple “true” or “false” value that tells the game if it should put the item in the moving crate or not. Items in the moving crate maintain their location values, but they are not loaded by the game client.

Item Name is simply the human readable name of the item. This is ignored by the load script and you can change it to whatever you like. The game will not store this value. This also goes for the Notes after the item name. In truth everything after the comma that proceeds the Crate value is ignored by the load script.

Note to Non-US players –
The File is saved using US standards. This means the decimal separator is a period and the file encoding is ANSI. If you are having problems loading a layout you manually editted, then make sure the file is not being saved as Unicode or UTF-8.