Basics To Build In Second Life

Getting started with "prims": what they are and how to build with them

The Basics of Building with Prims

Building in Second Life revolves around Prims (primitive solids). Prims are the foundational 3D geometric building blocks—such as cubes, spheres, cylinders, and toruses—that can be reshaped, combined, and textured to create anything from a coffee mug to a massive castle.

1

How to Rez a Prim

"Rezzing" means bringing an object out of your inventory or the system memory and placing it into the virtual world.

1. Find a location where you have building permissions (such as your own land, a group sandbox, or a parcel where the owner allows public building).

2. Right-click the ground and select Build from the pie/context menu, or press Ctrl + B (Cmd + B on Mac). This opens the Build Tools window.

3. At the top of the Build window, you will see a row of icons representing basic shapes (Cube, Prism, Pyramid, Cylinder, Cone, Sphere, Torus, Tube, Ring). Click to select the shape you want to create (e.g., the Cube).

4. Move your cursor over the ground. You will see a magical magic-wand or crosshair cursor.

5. Left-click on the ground or a flat surface. The selected prim will instantly appear ("rez") at that spot.

2

Basic Editing Parameters

Build/Edit window in Firestorm Viewer

Once a prim is rezzed, the Build window shifts into Edit Mode. If you ever lose focus, right-click the prim and select Edit to open these options again. The Edit window features several tabs and tool modes:

Position, Rotation, and Stretch Modes (The Top Buttons)

• Move (Ctrl + Step 1 / Arrow Tool): Displays three colored arrows stretching from the center of the prim.

  • Red arrow = X-axis (Forward/Backward)

  • Green arrow = Y-axis (Left/Right)

  • Blue arrow = Z-axis (Up/Down)

  • Click and drag an arrow to move the prim precisely along that axis.

• Rotate (Ctrl + Shift + R): Displays three colored concentric rings around the prim. Click and drag a ring to rotate the prim along that specific axis. Holding down the mouse while dragging away from the circle allows free rotation, while dragging close to it snaps to 11.25-degree increments.

• Stretch (Ctrl + Shift + E): Displays colored blocks around the prim. Dragging a red, green, or blue block resizes the prim along that specific axis. Dragging a white corner block resizes the entire prim proportionally in all dimensions simultaneously.

The Object Tab Parameters

In the Build window, click the Object tab to access numerical fields for precise modification:

• Size (Meters): Manually type exact values for width, length, and height.

• Path Cut (Begin/End): Cuts away slices of the prim. Essential for making semi-circles or hollowed shapes.

• Hollow: Creates a cavity inside the prim (useful for making cups, rooms, or pipes).

• Twist (Begin/End): Twists the top and bottom of the prim in opposite directions, perfect for stairs or spiral shapes.

• Taper: Narrows the top or bottom of the prim along the X or Y axes.

• Top Shear: Slides the top face of the prim along the X or Y axes, skewing its form.

3

Texturing and Material Adjustment

Applying images (textures) to a prim transforms it from a plain grey block into wood, metal, glass, or cloth.

Applying a Texture

1. Open the Build/Edit window (Ctrl + B and click the object).

2. Select the Texture tab in the edit window.

3. At the top of the Edit window, click the Select Face radio button if you only want to texture one side of the prim. If Select Face is unchecked, your texture will apply to all sides simultaneously.

4. Click on the Texture box (which shows a default plywood texture or blank white square) inside the Texture tab.

5. A texture picker window opens. Browse your inventory, select a texture, and click OK.

6. Alternatively, you can drag a texture directly from your inventory window and drop it onto a specific face of the prim in the 3D world.

Adjusting Textures (Mapping and Alignment)

Once applied, textures rarely fit perfectly without adjustment. Use these parameters in the Texture tab:

• Repeats Per Face (Horizontal / Vertical): Controls how many times the image tiles across the surface. Increasing the number makes the texture smaller and more repetitive; decreasing it (e.g., 0.5) stretches the texture out.

• Offset (Horizontal / Vertical): Shifts the texture left/right or up/down on the face. This is vital for aligning seams or centering a specific part of an image (like a door handle).

• Rotation (Degrees): Rotates the texture image on the face (e.g., typing 90 changes horizontal wood planks into vertical ones).

• Mapping (Planar vs. Default): Default wraps the texture around the geometry naturally. Planar projects the texture flatly across faces regardless of the underlying shape, which is highly useful for aligning textures seamlessly across multiple separate prims (like a long wall made of several blocks).

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What's next? In the next chapter we'll analyze the basic features, permissions and contents of an object beyond its shape.