Creating a Structure SHP (non-wireframe)
by MaperRiz

The ===ADVANCED=== way to make the cooler non-wireframe buildings:

Most of you may have now known, although never tried, the 'simple' way to make buildings, from the packs and just stick this and stick that. Yet, most of the time it becomes obvious (this part is from Allied Barracks, this is from Yuri Bunker...etc) where the parts come from, and the buildings often end up plain and under-qualitied.

This way I will teach is majorly used, so many of you may have known already anyway. Just a tip before we start:
The buildups of buildings are extreamly useful, and, when somebody looks at it, they may be quite stunned where you got it and starts thinking you made it yourself (i fell for it when i saw a slanted Allied ConYard door. I thought it was hand made, cool, when i looked at the ConYard buildup... lol!)

Also, never underestimate the civilian buildings!
Every little bit, every pipe and drum, can be added to your building to make it as detailed as possible!

So lets start with a simple example:
I want to add a door to my Ore Purifier so that miners can be built out. These special miners are infantry so they can come out of a little door.

First, we must find the door. I like the Allied Barracks door, but the normal condition door is boring and its obvious where I got it. So now look at the buildup or it and you can find a door like this:


This door looks better, and it has those horisontal slots that may look realy well with the pipe . Now make it into a single PCX so if u want to use other frames its easy, then turn it into a BMP file.

Open it up in Paint. Now what you must do is wreck the area around the door and copy the door. So carefuly cut out the door like this:


Now, open up PSP, open up a 3x3 grid. Now open the allied Ore Purifier in another paint window. Copy it into PSP with Ctrl+E so it doesn't make a new window. Background color when u use Ctrl+E must be the same Blue as background. Now you've got the Ore Purifier in an exact state. Get rid of the grid. Now you're ready.

Carefuly, cut and paste the half-built door from the Allied Barracks and use Ctrl+V: this opens up a new PSP window. Actualy in this case, because you only have a few parts, you can do it directly, but in more complicated states you need more parts and its best to have a copy of each.

Paste it very carefuly into the Purifier. If you did it right, it may seem funny, Because the pipe on the right is behind the door, it doesn't look right. So to make it better, open up that purifier, isolate and cut out the pipe only. Now go back and use Ctrl+V to keep a history of the part and carefuly override the old pipe. Obviously, you must modify the part in the new window so it fits properly.

Done!


This can get complicated, so I like to save my parts in a distinct folder, 1 for each project, so I know exactly what, and where, the part is from.
The history is actualy very important. Say you want a piece in front of another. But accidently you put it first before the part behind it. So now, once you placed the second part, you only need to open your history, find the part in front, and overlap it agian!

You can also make the buildup. You simply need to know how many frames the door buildup is, and when you think it should appear from the ground. Paste them one by one.

And once done, you can simply return all of the frames back...

These are the completed buildups by me, for artic and temprate: