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Build your own shelf

A shelf is a child Blueprint, because what changes from one shelf to the next is a shape. You duplicate the gondola, swap the mesh, drag the splines onto your own boards, and you have your furniture.

The recipe

  1. Duplicate BP_Shelf_Gondola100 into Blueprints/Environments/Shelves/Childs/ and rename it.
  2. Open it and set ShelfMesh to your own mesh.
  3. Delete or add BP_StorageRow components until you have one per shelf board.
  4. For each row, drag its spline points onto the front edge of its board, and set DepthCm and ClearanceCm.
  5. Create a DA_ShelfType_<Name> and list the categories it accepts in AcceptedCategories.
  6. Set ShelfType on your Blueprint to it.
  7. To be able to buy and place it in game, create a DA_Structure_<Name> and add it to DA_App_Structures.AvailableStructures. See Add a placeable structure.

Drawing the rows

  • The spline runs along the front edge of the board. Points are in local space, so you drag them in the Blueprint viewport.
  • Depth goes toward the spline's Right vector: walk the spline from its first point to its last, and depth pushes to your right.
  • DepthCm is how far back the board is usable. Measure the board.
  • ClearanceCm is the gap up to the next board. On a top row it is whatever headroom you allow — the shipped gondola uses 200.

A row does not have to be straight. BP_Shelf_Round uses three circular splines, and the products follow the curve.

What you set on the child

On the child
ShelfMesh Your mesh
The BP_StorageRow components One per board, drawn in the viewport
ShelfType Which categories it accepts
InitialProduct and InitialUnits What it starts stocked with, usually set per placed instance instead

The interaction, the stocking, the take-back and the display all come from BP_ShelfBase. There is no graph to write.

Doors and lids

If your shelf has to be opened before it can be used, override IsAccessible() on your child and return your own state. Both stocking gestures and both prompt lines disappear while it returns false.

BP_Shelf_FridgeTwoDoor is the shipped example: E swings both doors, and IsAccessible returns DoorsOpen.

Shelf types that ship

Asset Accepts
DA_ShelfType_Gondola100 The dry categories
DA_ShelfType_FridgeTwoDoor The chilled categories

A shelf type has one field, AcceptedCategories.

If you are modelling the furniture

  • Put the pivot on the floor, centred in the footprint. Placement snaps the pivot to the grid.
  • Give it a UCX_ collision hull. The automatic hull swallows the shelf openings, and customers then refuse to approach it.
  • Name the material slots semantically (M_Wood, M_Metal, M_SteelPainted): the props master material is assigned by slot name.

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