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Gizmos (the G key)

Gizmos are the contextual command buttons that appear when you select something: deconstruct a wall, reinstall a bed, form a caravan, rename a zone, and so on. Whatever is under the cursor, its gizmos are the actions available for it.

Press G with the cursor over an object to open its gizmo menu.

Opening and using the menu

Place the cursor on an object (a building, furniture, a pawn, a caravan) and press G. The mod reads the gizmos available for that object. Arrow Up and Down to move through them and press Enter to activate the one you want.

What appears depends entirely on what is under the cursor. A wall offers deconstruct. A bed offers reinstall and deconstruct. A finished caravan hitching spot offers "Form caravan." If an object has no actions available, the menu will be short or empty.

Gizmos can carry their own shortcuts

As you arrow through the menu, the mod announces a gizmo's keyboard shortcut when it has one. These shortcuts come from the game, but RimWorld Access uses the plain letter keys for its own navigation. So it delegates a gizmo's shortcut to Shift plus that letter: if a gizmo's vanilla key is B, you press Shift+B to fire it.

You can trigger a gizmo this way without opening the menu at all. With the right object under the cursor, press Shift plus the gizmo's letter and the action runs immediately. Once you know an object's common shortcuts, you can skip the G menu.

When two gizmos share a shortcut

Sometimes two gizmos share the same shortcut. Pressing it opens a short menu of the choices: arrow to the one you want and press Enter. You pick from the menu rather than pressing the shortcut a second time.

A worked example: moving a bed

  1. Place the cursor on the bed.
  2. Press G to open its gizmos, arrow to "Reinstall," and press Enter. (Or press the reinstall gizmo's Shift+letter shortcut directly.)
  3. You are now in placement mode. Move the cursor to where you want the bed to go.
  4. Press Space to place it, then Enter to confirm.

Deconstruct works the same way: it is another gizmo in that same menu. For the full walkthrough of moving and removing things, see moving and reinstalling.

Where gizmos appear

  • On the colony map, gizmos command buildings, furniture, and pawns.
  • On the world map, gizmos command caravans: settle, split, rest, merge, and more.
  • During building placement, the gizmo menu is unavailable. You cannot open it until placement is finished.

When you have selected an object and want to know what you can do with it, press G.