Studio Overview

Roblox Studio is the essential building tool for Roblox experiences. It's free to use, and is available on Mac and Windows computers. See here for detailed system requirements, installation steps, and customization options.

3D Viewport

The 3D viewport represents the Workspace of a place. This is where all the visible content from the experience displays. From here, you can manipulate objects with the mouse, playtest, and move the camera around the virtual world.

3D viewport in Roblox Studio
3D viewport in Roblox Studio

Inside the viewport, you can move the camera with the following controls:

Keys/Shortcuts Action
W A S D Moves the camera forward/left/back/right.
Q E Moves the camera down/up.
Shift In combination with any movement key, changes the camera speed. If desired, you can customize the camera speed within Studio's settings.
F Focuses the camera on a selected part.
Right Mouse Button When pressed, dragging the mouse moves the camera view around.
Mouse Scroll Wheel Zooms the camera in or out.
Middle Mouse Button When pressed, dragging the mouse pans the camera.

Toolbar

The toolbar displays at the top of Studio. The tools that display in the bar change when you click on the Home, Model, Avatar, Test, View, and Plugins tabs.

Common Windows

You can toggle different windows open/closed through the View tab.

View tab in Studio toolbar

Explorer Window

The Explorer window, visible by default, shows a hierarchical list of every object and service inside the place, collectively referred to as its data model. Frequently used services in the hierarchy include Workspace which mirrors the 3D viewport, as well as ReplicatedStorage and ServerStorage.

Explorer toggle button in Studio Explorer window in Studio

Properties Window

The Properties window lets you adjust properties of a selected object to change how it looks and behaves. Object properties are divided into sections; for example, a MeshPart includes sections like Appearance which allows you to change its color, material, transparency, and more.

Properties toggle button in Studio Properties window in Studio

At the bottom of the window, you can define custom attributes for an object, similar to its default properties. Attributes and their values are saved with your place/assets and they're an ideal way for team members to experiment with different values during runtime, even if they don't understand the underlying code.

Attributes in Properties window of Roblox Studio

Asset Manager

The Asset Manager lets you manage places, images, meshes, packages, audio, and models in your experience. It also provides a mechanism to bulk import large groups of assets.

Asset Manager toggle button in Studio Asset Manager window in Studio

Toolbox

The Toolbox contains a selection of models, images, meshes, plugins, videos, fonts, and audio made by Roblox or Roblox community members. It also includes all of the assets you've published or those published by groups you belong to.

Toolbox toggle button in Studio Toolbox window in Studio

Saving & Publishing

Options to save and publish can be found in the File menu in the top left of Studio.

Option Action
Save to File Save the experience locally to your computer in .rbxl format.
Save to Roblox Save the experience to Roblox's cloud storage. Unlike Publish to Roblox, this does not update the current live version of the experience.
Publish to Roblox Save and publish the experience to Roblox so other users can play. For more information, see Publishing Experiences and Places.

In-Studio Testing

Studio offers a suite of options for testing an experience before releasing it to the public. All of the testing options are accessible from the Test tab.

  • Rapid playtesting that provides a close simulation of the experience running on the Roblox application.

    Rapid playtest options in Studio
  • Multi-client simulation for comparing how each client "sees" other clients within the experience.

  • Device emulation that provides insight on how controls operate on a mobile device or how on-screen UI displays on different screens and aspect ratios.

  • Collaborative playtesting with members of your team group.

See Studio Testing Modes for more information on each testing option.