Reference models

A reference model is a 3D file from your own disk, shown see-through in the prefab workspace so you can arrange Rust’s own prefabs over it, the way you would trace a drawing. It is a guide and nothing else: it is never saved into your pack’s .prefab, a map, or anything a server or a player receives. What you build is still made only of Rust’s prefabs. Creator does not build custom items with custom models, and a reference does not change that.

Add a model

Open the prefab workspace (F4, or the PREFAB tab) and open or start a pack.
In the document panel, under REFERENCE, press Add Reference Model… and choose the file. Or drag the file from a folder and drop it on the Creator window.
The model appears where your view meets the floor, selected, and its row in the list says reading, then loading with a percentage, then shown.

A large model loads in the background and the window keeps working while it does. CANCEL LOADING stops it.

Dropping a file works while the prefab workspace is open, and one drop adds up to four files. If a drop does nothing, use the button, which does not depend on it. Starting Creator with -nofiledrop turns dropping off.

Format	Read	Notes
OBJ	Yes	Faces of any number of sides, and a color per vertex when the file has one. Materials and textures are not read.
STL	Yes	Binary and text. An STL has no unit, so check File unit or size it from two points.
GLB and glTF 2.0	Yes	A `.gltf` needs its `.bin` beside it. Each material’s base color is read; textures, animation and rigs are not. A model stored with Draco or meshopt compression is refused: export it without compression.
FBX	No	Export the model as OBJ or GLB from your modeling program and load that.
PNG and JPG	Yes	A picture on a flat rectangle: see Reference images.

A file can be up to 256 MB and a model up to 2 million triangles; a pack keeps up to 16 references. A file over a limit is refused with the number it has, and nothing is loaded.

Size it

A model’s file often does not say what unit it was made in. There are three ways to size it, and the third needs nothing from the file:

Reference scale is the size as a multiple of what the file gives. Type a number and press Enter.
The Scale tool puts one handle on the selected reference. Drag it to size the model as a whole. A reference has no per-axis handles: it is never stretched along one axis.
Set Reference Scale From Two Points sizes it from one real length you know:
1. Press Set Reference Scale From Two Points.
2. Click a point on the model, then a second point. A doorway’s two sides, a wheelbase, the ends of a wall.
3. Type the real distance between them in Real distance (m) and press APPLY SCALE.
A third click starts the two points over. CANCEL MEASURE, or Esc, stops without changing anything.

For an OBJ or an STL, Up axis, File unit and Mirror the model change how the file is read, for a model that arrives lying on its side, a thousand times too large, or mirrored. A GLB or glTF file says these itself, so they are not offered.

Reference images

A reference can also be a picture: a PNG or JPG shown on a flat rectangle, for a floor plan to build walls along or an elevation drawing to match heights against. Press Add Reference Image… and choose the file. It is listed, selected, sized, locked and saved exactly as a model is, and it is a guide in the same way: never part of the pack.

The picture starts lying flat on the floor at one pixel to a centimeter, so a plan 2000 pixels wide starts 20 m wide. Set Reference Scale From Two Points makes it true to size: click the two ends of a wall on the plan and type the wall’s real length.
LAY FLAT puts it on the floor, for a plan. STAND UPRIGHT stands it on its bottom edge, for an elevation.
A picture can be up to 8192 pixels on a side. A larger one is refused with its size, and nothing is loaded.

Place it, then lock it

With a reference selected, the Select, Move, Rotate and Scale tools act on the reference and not on your prefabs. Drag an arm to move it, a ring to turn it. Esc during a drag puts it back.

When it is where you want it, tick Lock this reference. A locked reference has no handles and cannot be moved, turned or sized until you untick it, so you can arrange prefabs over it without it shifting.

A reference is selected only from its row in the REFERENCE list. A click in the room never selects it, and it is never part of a prefab selection, so no prefab command can move, copy or delete it.

Snap prefabs onto a reference

This is off until you turn it on. Toggle Snap To Reference under REFERENCE switches it: a prefab you drag then lands on the reference’s surface under the pointer, or on a corner of the model when the pointer is within 25 cm of one, and placing a prefab from the browser drops it onto the reference when your view meets the reference before the floor. A piece that would join another piece by a socket still joins it. With the switch off, dragging and placing work exactly as they do without a reference.

How it looks

Control	What it does
Reference opacity	How solid it looks, from 5 to 100 percent. It starts at 35.
Reference tint	The color it is drawn in.
Show as wireframe	Draws its edges instead of its faces.
Use the file’s colors	Draws it in the file’s own colors, where the file has any.
Show this reference	Hides or shows this one.
VIEW > Reference Models	Hides or shows all of them at once.

These are how you look at the guide, not edits to your pack: they are saved with it, and Ctrl+Z does not undo them. Adding, removing, moving, turning and sizing a reference are each one Ctrl+Z.

An F12 screenshot shows what is on screen, references included. The pack’s own thumbnail never shows one.

What is saved, and where

Saving the pack records each reference in the pack’s companion file (the .rcprefab beside the .prefab): the model file’s name, where the model stands, its size and how it is drawn. The model itself is not copied, and the .prefab is exactly the file it would be with no reference at all.

Where the model file is	What the pack records	What happens when the pack is opened
In the pack’s own folder, or a folder inside it	Its name and its place relative to the pack	It loads, on this PC or any other the two files are taken to together.
Anywhere else on your disk	Its name only. Its folder is kept on this PC, in one small file.	On this PC it loads. On another PC it is listed as missing.

So a pack you give to someone never carries a folder from your disk. To let them see the reference too, keep the model in the pack’s folder and send both.

The row says	What it means	What to do
missing	The file is not where it was. Everything else about the pack is unaffected.	LOCATE FILE… to point at it, or REMOVE REFERENCE.
file changed	A file of that name is there, but it is not the one you placed. It is loaded anyway.	Nothing, if you meant to change it. LOCATE FILE… on the same file accepts it as the new one.
could not load	The file could not be read. The line under the list says why.	Fix the file or export it again, then LOAD AGAIN.

A version of Creator from before references existed opens the pack normally and does not show them. If that version saves the pack, the references are dropped from it.