BuildXD machinery uses real placed blocks, finite coal reserves, and face-touching connections. A burning coal dynamo powers a graph of conductive devices. The graph has no need for a return wire, and ordinary building blocks do not carry its signal.
New to machinery? Start with your first coal circuit. It walks through a complete dynamo, lever, conduit, and lamp layout, including the crafting bill and the right-click interactions that can otherwise make placement confusing.
The toolkit
| Part | Its job | Detailed guide |
|---|---|---|
| Coal dynamo | Turns stored Coal into a load-dependent burning power reserve | Power and switches |
| Copper conduit | Carries a connection between touching block faces | Power and switches |
| Lever | A persistent on/off connection inside the actual route | Power and switches |
| Push button | A manual connection lasting roughly 0.8 seconds | Power and switches |
| Pressure plate | Conducts while triggered by the player or nearby living animals | Power and switches |
| Signal relay | A conductor that visibly indicates its powered state | Power and switches |
| Circuit lamp | A real light that turns on and off with graph power | Lighting |
| Piston and sticky piston | Push eligible blocks; the sticky type pulls one back | Pistons |
| Coal lantern | A standalone light that burns operating Coal | Lighting |
| Rail, brake rail, and booster rail | Track, braking, and a powered motor-cart boost | Rails and carts |
| Handcart and coal cart | Player-driven rail travel | Rails and carts |
| Blast charge | Excavation with a fuse; accepts a remote powered trigger | Blast charges |
Three rules that prevent most failures
- Use actual Coal for refueling. Charcoal is accepted by a kiln and by some crafting recipes, but the dynamo, coal lantern, and coal-cart fuel interactions require Coal.
- Put the switch in the only route. A lever beside an unbroken conduit does not turn that conduit off. Another conducting branch can go around an off switch, including above or below it.
- Build and test nearby. A generator searches at most 64 connection steps and 1,024 visited cells. Device updates depend on loaded chunks. Begin with a short working layout before extending it.
What the current machines can do
They can switch room lighting, show a powered indicator along a cable, push a short wall or block train, retract one block with a sticky piston, carry a player along rails, and light a charge from a remote lever. Each guide includes exact controls, recipes through the item catalog, and a simple build example.
The present signal relay does not extend range, add configurable timing, or act as a programmable controller. Doors, gates, and containers are not piston cargo. Carts require a rider and do not have a freight inventory or automatic delivery scheduler. These boundaries describe the current implementation rather than future plans.
Workshop resources
Most machinery recipes use a building deck's 3×3 grid. Small shapes that fit the inventory's 2×2 grid can be made there too. Follow the exact pattern on each linked item page; output batch sizes matter. Dynamo construction consumes a kiln, and a coal cart consumes a handcart and kiln, so keep another kiln if you still need to smelt materials.
The coal dynamo and coal lantern have right-click refuel/status interactions rather than container inventories. If trying to place a conduit against one only opens its status message, aim at the floor under the desired empty cell instead. See machinery troubleshooting for a symptom-by-symptom checklist.