v1.4.0

Download

x4sd.exe below is the whole program: builder, command line and MCP server. Replace your old x4sd.exe with it (1.1.0 and later offer this update at start). Windows 10 or 11 with WebView2, and X4 installed (tested with 9.00). The exe isn't signed, so SmartScreen may warn the first time.

What's new

• Finds X4 wherever it is installed. Every Steam library and GOG installs are searched. If the game still isn't found, the builder asks for the folder and remembers it, for the command line and the MCP server too.
• Better auto-placement (Place all and Optimize):
  • Modules no longer end up stacked inside each other (Optimize could put ship fabs inside piers).
  • When nothing fits, the station is broken up: a connection hub goes into a joint, which makes room for more modules. Placement also reaches out with chains of struts.
  • A rebuild packs the station into a compact plot instead of a long cross.
  • Dock areas, piers and defence platforms go on the outside, with a clear way out. Defence platforms spread to the edges. Administrative Centres go in the middle.
• Partial builds: if some modules don't fit, Place all asks before keeping a partial build. Plan again to see what's left and what it costs. Undoing a Place all gives its plan items back.
• Checks:
  • Overlaps count as problems only when a dock area, pier or fabrication bay is involved. The game allows other overlaps, so those are listed greyed as notes and no longer marked red. A ring station built from crossing connectors now passes.
  • With Only modules I have blueprints for on, Checks lists placed modules you have no blueprint for.
  • Double-click a check to zoom to its module.
• Planner: items per hour for each target ware, and a warning when the blueprint limit blocks a ware. The sector picker sets sunlight from the game's sector data (Boron sectors included); a typed % overrides it.
• Open game plan: saved plans and import files are listed in separate groups. Import files can be deleted.
• Build order: search highlights matches; Enter jumps to the next one and frames it.
• Camera: hold Shift to move 3x faster (keys, drags and wheel).

Full guide: docs/usage.md

SHA-256 of x4sd.exe: 9E101D30F359FC87813B8E0E1E8EE547626A76C484051DF07B5EB0E9F758F929

v1.3.0

Download

x4sd.exe below is the whole program: builder, command line and MCP server. Replace your old x4sd.exe with it (1.1.0 and later offer this update at start). Windows 10 or 11 with WebView2, and X4 installed (tested with 9.00). The exe isn't signed, so SmartScreen may warn the first time.

What's new

• Copy and remove like the game. A sequence is a module with everything attached to it.
  • Remove (Del) now removes only the module. What was attached to it stays where it is, unattached, and Checks warns about it ("not attached to the station") until you re-attach it with Move…. Remove sequence (Shift+Del) removes the module with everything on it (the old Remove).
  • Copy (Ctrl+C or middle click) picks the module's type to place more of it. Copy sequence (Ctrl+Shift+C or Shift+middle click) copies the module with everything on it: pick the connecting snap, hover a free snap to preview, click to place. Each click places another copy; Esc stops. Copies keep their equipment.
• Right-click menu on a placed module: Copy, Copy sequence, Remove, Remove sequence, Move…, Detach.
• Turning on what you look at. After flying close with WASD, Q/E (and left drag) turned around a point far beyond the station and swung it out of view. Turns now go around the module in the middle of the view.
• Planner: the Other modules box offers piers and dock areas (a chosen one replaces the planner's own) and lists only the planner race's modules plus universal ones. Dock areas without a maker race now show under their race in the palette.
• Auto-placement keeps room to grow: modules with one snap no longer cap every way out of a compact station (a Teladi station for 50 claytronics modules placed 38 of 461 modules; now all 461).

Full guide: docs/usage.md

SHA-256 of x4sd.exe: A15B65F311680D55A79DD26603F4B1C0CB6B9B9654EC7E257103AC3E39709769

X4 Station Designer 1.2.0

Download

x4sd.exe below is the whole program: builder, command line and MCP server. Replace your old x4sd.exe with it (1.1.0 offers this update at start). Windows 10 or 11 with WebView2, and X4 installed (tested with 9.00). The exe isn't signed, so SmartScreen may warn the first time.

What's new

• Much lower GPU load. The 3D view used to redraw every screen refresh, even when nothing moved. It now draws only when something changes, so an idle view uses next to no GPU (measured on a 332-module station with Detailed models: 42% → about 2%). The frame counter reads "idle" then.
• Frame rate limit in the toolbar: 30, 60 (default), 120 or 144 fps, or the screen's rate. It caps drawing while you move the camera or drag; lower uses less GPU. Remembered.
• Fix: after Place all (which clears the planner lists since 1.1.0), Buy on a production-chain row re-planned with empty lists. A plan now keeps the wares it was made for.

Full guide: docs/usage.md

SHA-256 of x4sd.exe: 171DCABE8CBC7834FAA01998A816F9A8C6FF90D688CF6494B3E6F3AA5E91CDF7

X4 Station Designer 1.1.0

Download

x4sd.exe below is the whole program: builder, command line and MCP server. Replace your old x4sd.exe with it. Windows 10 or 11 with WebView2, and X4 installed (tested with 9.00). The exe isn't signed, so SmartScreen may warn the first time.

What's new

• Update notice: at start the builder checks GitHub for a newer release and offers it in a bar above the status line. Skip this version hides it until the next release. Nothing shows when offline. The command line and MCP server don't check.
• Adding modules no longer moves your station. Place all used to lift your existing docks, piers and bays and place them again outside. Now they stay where they are, and new modules keep clear of their approaches.
• Optimize → Apply plan only adds the planned modules unless Rebuild connection structures is ticked. Ticked, it re-lays the whole station out in layers, as before.
• Planner: after Place all has placed everything, the lists of wares and other modules to add are cleared.
• MCP auto_place no longer reports docks_moved.

Full guide: docs/usage.md

SHA-256 of x4sd.exe: 6C71023FC481AD2FC2C57C6B2C1F83BA96433C0422FF604C62967097E78CDCAE