Parts

Parts are descendants of the BasePart class and are Roblox's primitive building blocks with properties like position, size, orientation, and color. You can use basic parts as is, or you can apply solid modeling operations to combine parts into more complex shapes.

For advanced and intricate 3D models, you can also import third-party model files as MeshParts as outlined in Meshes.

Basic sphere part
Bowl created with solid modeling
Mesh with texture

By default, parts are rigid bodies that follow real-world physical mechanics, including gravity, collision, and momentum. You can connect related parts together as a single assembly using a WeldConstraint, or a joint like Motor6D or Bone. As an assembly, the connected parts act as a single rigid entity, referencing a common position, orientation, and scale.

You can use a Model container to group related parts together and access the group as a single assembly in the Explorer. See Models for more information.

Basic Part Types

Part objects can take the shape of blocks, spheres, cylinders, wedges, or corner wedges. In addition, TrussPart acts as a truss beam that characters can climb like a ladder.

Block
Sphere
Cylinder
Wedge
Corner Wedge
Block partSphere partCylinder partWedge partCorner Wedge part

Part Properties

Each part has a variety of properties that you can customize through the Properties window.

The following are commonly utilized properties:

  • Anchored controls if physics affects the position of the part. When this property is set to true, the part never changes position due to gravity or any other force. You should anchor most parts in your experience, otherwise gravity and physics affect your parts as soon as the experience begins, and this might lead to unwanted changes to your scenery and props.
  • CanCollide controls whether or not a part can collide with other parts. When this property is set to true, the part is impenetrable and the physics engine accounts for it within your experience. Conversely, when this property is set to false, the part can pass through anything, and the physics engine does not account for it.
  • Transparency sets a part's visibility to any value between the default value of 0 (fully visible) and 1 (fully transparent). If you have many partially transparent parts, they can slow down performance. To alleviate this, merge them using solid modeling.

Inserting Parts

The Part button inserts a new part into the workspace. Clicking the small dropdown arrow on the button lets you select either Block, Sphere, Wedge, Corner Wedge, or Cylinder.

Part menu indicated in Model tab

Selecting Parts

As you hover over parts in the viewport, they are outlined to indicate their potential selection. You can select an outlined part by clicking it, or you can select multiple parts by holding Shift, Ctrl, or as you hover over and click them.

See here for advanced methods of selecting parts in the 3D viewport.

Manipulating Parts

You can move, scale, and rotate selected parts either through modeling tools or by setting a new position, size, or orientation in the Properties window.

When using the tools, you can move, scale, or rotate parts in either world orientation or local orientation by pressing CtrlL on Windows or L on Mac. When you enable local orientation, the arrow axis indicators change to a part's local orientation, and an L indicator displays. For more information, see Object and World Space.

Part draggers in World orientation mode

Moving Parts

Parts move on the X (red), Y (green), and Z (blue) axes. You can move a part to a new position using the Move tool.

  1. In the Tools section, select the Move tool, then select the part you want to move.

    Move tool indicated in Model tab
  2. Click and drag the arrow that is pointing in the direction you want to move the part.

Scaling Parts

Parts scale on the X (red), Y (green), and Z (blue) axes. You can make a part larger or smaller by using the Scale tool.

  1. In the Tools section, select the Scale tool, then select the part you want to scale.

    Scale tool indicated in Model tab
  2. Click and drag a ball to scale the part in that direction.

Rotating Parts

Parts rotate on the X (red), Y (green), and Z (blue) axes. You can rotate a part to a new angle using the Rotate tool.

  1. In the Tools section, select the Rotate tool, then select the part you want to rotate.

    Rotate tool indicated in Model tab
  2. Click and drag a circle to rotate the part in that direction.

Coloring Parts

While a part is gray by default, you can change it to any color through the following methods.

Hexagon Map

Clicking the small dropdown arrow on the Color button reveals a hexagonal color picker and, by default, applies the chosen color to all selected parts. You can also apply a chosen color as a painting tool by toggling on Color Action as Tool and clicking specific parts in the 3D viewport.

Color button indicated in Model tab

Colors Popup

The Colors popup allows you to set a color through your operating system's color picker widget. To access it, navigate to the Properties window and click the small box to the left of the Color property.

RGB Value

To define a specific RGB color value for a part, enter an RGB value into the Color property field.

Applying Materials

Similar to color, you can customize a part's material to simulate real-world materials such as wood, glass, or fabric. When selecting a material, consider the following:

  • Material affects the physical traits of a part, not just its appearance. For example, the Concrete material is heavier than the Plastic material, so a concrete brick will have higher density than a plastic brick and sink in water faster.

  • Some materials have special physical effects. For example, parts will appear to glow if they are set to the Neon material.

    SmoothPlastic
    Neon

See Materials for more information on how to apply both default and custom materials to parts.