Roblox Studio

Roblox Studio is an IDE^[1] developed by the Roblox Corporation offering an assortment of building and scripting tools as well as testing, debugging and collaboration tools for development on Roblox.

Before the release of Roblox Studio, creating places was possible using RobloxApp. This continued from the birth of Roblox until July 23, 2012, when Roblox Studio was released publicly.^[2] Currently available platforms are Windows and macOS. Linux and mobile devices can also unofficially access Studio functions using third-party software, a special API key and Studio Lite for example.

The programming language Luau, a modified open-source version of Lua, is used to develop places.

Installation[]

The Roblox Studio installer can be obtained from the website, usually by clicking the "Start Creating" button through the Create page. Roblox Studio requires Windows or macOS, WebView2, and a user account to be able to run.

File[]

Roblox Studio can load places from the website or local files in binary (RBXL) or XML (RBXLX) format. If launched from the place's edit button, it will automatically load the place's file. The file menu provides functions for loading, saving and publishing places. If a new file is chosen (Ctrl + N/⌘ Command + N or "New" from the menu), the place Baseplate will be loaded. Because Roblox Studio does not allow loading multiple places, if a place is already loaded, another instance of Roblox Studio will be launched instead.

Layout[]

Roblox Studio 2022 — Roblox Studio interface.

Roblox Studio's user interface is organized into two main separate elements: windows, and the ribbon which contains various tools. Windows may be customized while additional tools in the ribbon are provided by plugins.

The main window represents the place and displays a view of the place from a 3D perspective. The view can be controlled using a keyboard and mouse. This view is represented by a Camera object in Workspace. This window cannot be toggled; if this window is closed, the place will be closed as well. However, other windows can be toggled.

The ribbon occupies the top of the screen and contains various tools. The tools are grouped as toolbars by their function and labeled as such. The ribbon has six tabs, each displaying different assortment of tools. The Home tab contains basic tools, while the Model tab contains advanced building tools. The Avatar tab contains tools for building and manipulating rigs. The Test tab contains tools for testing the place as well as emulation tools. The View tab allows toggling different windows including Explorer and Properties. The Plugins tab contains tools displayed by plugins as well as tools to manage plugins.

If a UI object is selected, the UI tab will appear which contains tools for creating different UI objects. UI elements are displayed onto the screen and can be dragged or resized. The visibility of UI elements can be toggled.

Toolbox[]

The toolbox window shows a catalog of assets created by users with distribution setting to on. In the Marketplace tab, models, audio, decals, mesh parts and videos can be inserted while plugins or fonts can be installed. In the Inventory tab, the toolbox shows the user's inventory which includes animations, while in the Creations tab, the toolbox also shows group assets. In the Recent tab, the toolbox shows the recent assets the user has inserted.

The toolbox also contains "endorsed models", which are models that are recommended by Roblox themselves and are typically high quality.

Explorer[]

The Explorer window shows a hierarchical list of all instances in the place. Branches of instances can be expanded or collapsed. Most instances can be dragged to another parent instance. The highest level of instances are services. Services are children of the DataModel object, which is not visible in the Explorer.

There is a search bar in the explorer that can allow you to not only search for stuff but filter parts by a certain property. Also entering a class name into the search box will only display objects with that class name.

Properties[]

The Properties window displays the properties of the selected instance(s) and allows changing them, affecting the appearance or behavior of the instance(s). The window also allows changing the attributes of the selected instance(s). The window can also filter properties.

Output[]

The output window displays messages, errors and warnings from the engine and scripts. It also displays the source of the message and the context (client or server).

Command bar[]

The command bar allows entering any code to be run within Roblox Studio. The code is run with thread identity of 4 with permissions similar to plugins. If code is run while the place is in run-time mode, it will only affect that place.

Scripting[]

Roblox Studio features a script editor used to edit scripts. More than one script editor windows can be opened for any line of lua scripting. The script editor has syntax highlighting, code suggestions and a lot of other cool features.

Publishing[]

Roblox Studio allows publishing places as well as other types of assets.

Models/Plugins[]

In the Explorer window, the user can upload the selected object(s) into a model asset by right-clicking and then clicking "Save to Roblox...". Similarly, the user can upload the selected script(s) into a plugin by clicking "Publish as Plugin..." instead.

Animations[]

In the animation editor, click on the "..." and navigate to "Publish to Roblox...".

Importing[]

You can import your work from other software. Such as Blender or Roblox Studio itself. In Blender, save your work and it will be in your PC folder.

In Roblox Studio, just select all parts you want (Like a Model) and select Import to Roblox.

Tips[]

Don't forget to anchor parts that you want to not fall down (like buildings or baseplates).
Don't insert free models with viruses.
If you script, the Roblox Documentation will be very helpful for you.
Try to learn Roblox lua by yourself. Free/copied scripts from videos or such can be considered useful, but it is absolutely recommended to learn by yourself.
Try going to the official Roblox Developer Forum to search for errors that look similar to yours (if they exist) to try and find a solution.

Collaboration[]

There are two main collaboration features. The Collaborate button located at the top-right allows the creator to add other users as collaborators and set their permission settings. Team Create enables the creator of a place to work with other users at the same time. Team Create can be enabled by saving or publishing to Roblox with the Team Create set to on. Team Create can also be disabled through the Team Create window.

Tip: Publish your game before adding people that you do not trust. Publishing will save the current version of your game, so deleting is useless.

If your game was deleted by anyone that you do not trust, go to Create and go to the place that you want to recover and then go to Version History and select the latest version with the checkmark.

Shortcuts[]

Roblox Studio has shortcuts which can be customized through File > Advanced > "Customize Shortcuts...". The following are the default shortcuts:

File: New (Ctrl + N) - Creates a new place.; Open from File... (Ctrl + O) - Opens a local file.; Save Place (Ctrl + S) - Saves the place to the location currently open.
Tools: Select tool (Ctrl + 1) - Toggles the select tool.; Move tool (Ctrl + 2) - Toggles the move tool.; Scale tool (Ctrl + 3) - Toggles the scale tool.; Rotate tool (Ctrl + 4) - Toggles the rotate tool.; Transform tool (Ctrl + 5) - Toggles the transform tool.
Camera: Move upward (E) - Moves the camera upwards.; Move downward (Q) - Moves the camera downwards.
Objects: Cut (Ctrl + X) - Removes the selected object(s) and puts it on the clipboard.; Copy (Ctrl + C) - Puts the selected object(s) onto the clipboard.; Paste (Ctrl + V) - Copies the object(s) stored on the clipboard into Workspace.; Paste Into (Ctrl + ⇧ Shift + V) - Copies the object(s) stored on the clipboard into the selected object.; Duplicate (Ctrl + D) - Duplicates the selected object(s); Undo (Ctrl + Z) - Undoes the last action.; Redo (Ctrl + Y) - Redoes the previously undone action.; Group (Ctrl + G) - Groups the selected objects into a Model; Ungroup (Ctrl + U) - Ungroups the selected Model(s).; Toggle Collisions (Ctrl + ⇧ Shift + C) - Toggles whether collisions of parts is turned on or off. If it is on, a user will not be able to move parts through other objects.; Rotate (Ctrl + R) - Rotates the selected object on a vertical axis.; Tilt (Ctrl + T) - Rotates the selected part on a horizontal axis.; Union (Ctrl + ⇧ Shift + G) - Unions the selected part(s). This fuses them together and creates a UnionOperation.; Negate (Ctrl + ⇧ Shift + N) - Negates the selected part(s). This subtracts from other parts and creates a UnionOperation.; Separate (Ctrl + ⇧ Shift + U) - Separates the selected union/negated part(s).; Local/Global Space (Ctrl + L) - Changes how the currently selected object will move. Global Space will let a user move the object along the world's X-axis, Y-axis, and Z-axis, while Local Space will move along the object's X, Y, or Z-axis.