> For the complete documentation index, see [llms.txt](https://docs.rainmad.com/llms.txt). Markdown versions of documentation pages are available by appending `.md` to page URLs; this page is available as [Markdown](https://docs.rainmad.com/resources/map-editor-place-anything.md).

# Map Editor: Place Anything

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**Pre-Installation Note**

This guide assumes you already know how to manage a FiveM server (start resources, edit configs, grant aces). Following the steps out of order is the most common cause of errors.

**Support**

If something isn't working after you've followed every step, run through [Troubleshooting](/resources/map-editor-place-anything/troubleshooting.md) first, then open a ticket in our [Discord](https://discord.gg/rainmad) with your server console output. Don't skip the [Installation](/resources/map-editor-place-anything/installation.md) and [Dependencies](/resources/map-editor-place-anything/dependencies.md) pages.
{% endhint %}

Map Editor answers two questions for any script that needs objects placed: what props exist, and where does the player want them.

It ships a catalogue of **over 30000 props** with rendered thumbnails, measured dimensions, collision, shaders, embedded lights and the gamebuild each one needs, and an in-game editor that hands a layout back as structured data. Nothing is stored unless you want it stored: your script gets a list of rows and decides what to do with them.

Standalone, it keeps a library of layouts of its own and can stand one up for the whole server. Called from another resource, it is whatever that resource needs it to be:

* a **furniture placer** for a housing script, working inside the shell and handing back offsets that stand up in every copy of it
* a **prop placer** for shop dressing, signage, event staging or a job that leaves things behind
* a **map editor** for building a place and shipping it as a ymap or a resource
* an **object inspector**: `/prop_inspect` reads any prop or any piece of the world, and `getPropDetails` answers the same question to a script
* a **prop catalogue** other resources ask by name or hash, without opening anything

## Features

* **A measured catalogue:** around 23000 props, 5000 elements and 2200 structures, browsed by kind. Every row carries its size, ground offset, triangle count, shaders, collision, DLC and minimum gamebuild, so the picker can dim what this server can't spawn instead of failing on the click. Half of them are mounted everywhere and the other half come and go with the interior they belong to, which [The Catalogue](/resources/map-editor-place-anything/the-catalogue.md) explains.
* **A full editor:** free camera, a prop in hand that seats itself on whatever is under the crosshair, move and rotate handles, grid snapping, edge snapping to neighbours, undo and redo, groups, and typed coordinates for the times a number beats a drag.
* **Tools for more than one prop:** a scatter brush, a fill that covers a marked shape, and a path that lays props along a route. All three take from a pool of props you pick, with spacing, jitter and per-prop turn.
* **The map's own props:** click any piece of the world to read it, take it out of view, or stand an editable copy in its place. What was hidden travels with the layout, so a build that needed a wall gone comes back with the wall gone.
* **Lights:** point and spot lights with colour, range, intensity, cone and shadows, drawn while the layout is active.
* **Sessions with other people:** invite builders or viewers, see each other's cursors, share the boundary, hold the world at an hour and weather everybody sees, and optionally build in a routing bucket of your own with traffic switched off.
* **Layouts:** save, reopen, rename, copy and delete; activate one and it stands up for every player on the server, across restarts.
* **Import and export:** a layout file that comes back in, a generated resource that stands the build up on its own, a Lua table, a ymap and a spooner map. Imports read layout files, ymap XML and spooner/MapObject XML.
* **Your own props:** a tool that renders a prop pack and folds it into the catalogue, thumbnails and measurements included, so custom props answer the same questions as shipped ones.
* **A viewer:** `/prop_inspect` opens the catalogue as a reference: click anything in the world or any tile to read what it is, what it costs and where the game uses it.

## Next Steps

1. [Dependencies](/resources/map-editor-place-anything/dependencies.md)
2. [Installation](/resources/map-editor-place-anything/installation.md)
3. [Configuration](/resources/map-editor-place-anything/configuration.md)
4. [The Catalogue](/resources/map-editor-place-anything/the-catalogue.md)
5. [Using the Editor](/resources/map-editor-place-anything/using-the-editor.md)