# Presets {% hint style="success" %} As of version 2.1.4, manually installing the presets is no longer needed as they are now located directly in the add-on directory. If you have them installed manually before using the address below, you have to delete the preset "random\_starship.bga" in order to avoid duplicates. {% endhint %} {% hint style="info" %} For older Blender versions specially 3X or lower, the localized preset code will not work so you have to use the instructions below to install the presets. {% endhint %} The download files from the store includes presets so you can quickly come up with cool designs.

These presets can be accessed in the **Operator Presets** dropdown menu on top of the redo panel. Unzip the presets folder and paste the operator folder to these directory according to the system you are using: * **Linux** \~/.config/blender/4.0/scripts/presets/ * **Mac** /Users/{user}/Library/Application/Support/Blender/4.0/scripts/presets/ * **Windows** C:\Documents and Settings%username%\Application Data\Blender Foundation\Blender\4.0\scripts\presets\\ In Windows, you can access these directories using the Win+R hotkey and typing "%appdata%" and going to the Blender Foundation folder. if the higher directory does not exist e.g /presets/ then just create it yourself. ### Building A Ship Without Preset The add-on can be overwhelming with the amount of setting or properties involved but most of them are just exposed for fine tuning the resulting mesh. In reality, buidling a ship from start to finish involves just a few settings. Let's start with the **Hull** section. Start by using 8 hull sections - you can leave it to the default 5 if you want.

Next, increase the bump count to 15 and the subdivision level to 1. This will make sure that there is enough changes to the profile of the mesh and its resolution for the following shape altering properties to work on.

Head over to the **Front/Back** section and expand the back area to 4 hull section. Set the front smoothing to something like 0.5 or 1.0 - this will soften the front area making it possible for some extrusions that rely on face normal angle threshold to work here. Use the X and Z depth to extrude faces at the back of the ship which will make it possible for shapes like a bridge to appear. Then use the X and Z taper at the back to taper these faces to make them less straight.

In the **Plating** section, start by using a 1000 plating value. Increase the size min to 2 and the max to 4 - higher values means larger plater details. It's up to you to use Clear or Fill and as for the even offset, only turn this off if you see vertex spiking. In depth, use a random value and increase the max value to offset some plates higher than others. For margin, depth inversino and shading, it's up to you if you want to change them.

In the **Wings** section, go to **Large** and set the count to 6 and taper it, repeat this for the **Small** wings. There are more settings here but now we're just focused on the main properties to build a starter ship. In **Settings**, the ship will be mirrored in the x axis by default but you can also use the z axis if you want. The y axis is exposed just for special use case scenario.

Now go back to the **Hull** section, increase the subdivision level to feed more faces to the randomization and use the random seed value to come up with different designs. You can also play around with the other random seed properties in the other sections like **Plating** and **Wings**. Now that you have your starter ship, you can then play around with the other properties to see what they do. The presets can also help you a lot with this. The randomization script makes it that every time you use the operator, the random result will never be the same as the previous one. This means that if you have a shape that you really like, you better make use of it because clicking on the operator again will not give you the same result even if you are using the same settings. --- # Agent Instructions: Querying This Documentation If you need additional information that is not directly available in this page, you can query the documentation dynamically by asking a question. Perform an HTTP GET request on the current page URL with the `ask` query parameter: ``` GET https://www.blenderguppy.com/add-ons/random-starship/presets.md?ask= ``` The question should be specific, self-contained, and written in natural language. The response will contain a direct answer to the question and relevant excerpts and sources from the documentation. Use this mechanism when the answer is not explicitly present in the current page, you need clarification or additional context, or you want to retrieve related documentation sections.