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Getting started

Install

Unpack the download anywhere and run the executable. There is no installer and nothing is written outside the folder you unpacked into, apart from the configuration file and whatever maps you save.

Point it at Rust, optionally

The editor works without a Rust install: it can open, edit and save maps on its own. Giving it your install path adds two things.

  • The prefab catalogue, so you can browse and place the game’s own prefabs.
  • Terrain generation, so you can produce the same base terrain a server would for a given seed and size.
The default path is often wrong. A Steam library on a second drive does not live under Program Files, so set the path rather than assuming it was found.

Start a map

Three ways in:

  • Open an existing .map, including one made in RustEdit.
  • Create a flat map at a chosen size, with a starting splat and biome.
  • Generate terrain from a seed and size, which needs the Rust path set.

Map size runs from 1000 to 6000 metres. Larger maps carry proportionally more layer data, so a 6000 metre map is a little over a hundred megabytes before compression.

Moving around

  • Right mouse held, then WASD to fly. Shift for faster, Ctrl for slower.
  • Middle mouse to pan, wheel to zoom.
  • F to frame the current selection.

Sculpting and painting

Pick a tool, set its brush size, opacity and hardness, then drag on the terrain. Alt inverts most sculpt tools, so raise becomes lower without changing tool. Ctrl and right click samples a value where that makes sense, such as the target height for flatten.

Painting writes to splat, biome, topology or alpha. Conditions restrict where a stroke may land, by height range, slope range, or by which existing values it is allowed to touch. All active conditions apply together.

Saving

Save writes the whole document: all seven layers, every prefab and path, and the extension blobs. Auto save runs on a clock and writes extension edits first, so a recovered file is not missing what the panels changed.

Keep a copy of any map you care about. This is new software writing a binary format, and while it has been tested against real maps, it has not been through as many hands as the tool it replaces.