Blockbench tags
The settings you can put on a group name, and the handful of rules that govern all of them.
This page covers the tags you will actually reach for. The complete and authoritative grammar lives in
docs/model-format.mdin the repository. When the two disagree, that file is right and this page is out of date — please fix it.
The grammar
name;key=value;key=valueThe part before the first ; is the display name. Everything after is settings.
body;weight=900;softness=20
ground;surface=ice
tire_front;drive=trueThree rules
Values are whole numbers. Always. There are no decimals anywhere in the grammar. A ratio is written as a percentage: damping=55 means 0.55, softness=20 means 0.20. Writing damping=0.55 does not work.
A group's cubes are its collider. If a group that should be solid has no cubes in it, it has no shape and the car will pass straight through.
An explicit type= beats the name. panel;type=body is a body group even though it is called panel. Use this when a descriptive name matters more than the convention.
Car settings
On a body group:
| Tag | Unit | Notes |
|---|---|---|
weight | kg | total mass; spread across several body groups it is the sum |
power | N·m | engine torque |
topSpeed | km/h | speed cap |
softness | 0–100 | bounciness on impact; clamped at 80 |
On a suspension group:
| Tag | Notes |
|---|---|
springHz | bounce rate — low is floaty, high is stiff |
damping | how quickly the bounce settles, as a percentage |
On a tire group:
| Tag | Notes |
|---|---|
drive | true or false — which axle is powered. Both by default |
Track settings
On a ground group:
| Tag | Values |
|---|---|
surface | tarmac, dirt, sand, snow, ice |
On a prop group:
| Tag | What happens |
|---|---|
weight | mass in kg — a heavy crate barely moves, a light one flies |
explodes | detonates on a hard enough hit |
crumbles | collapses when driven into |
shatters | breaks apart |
pivot | hinges rather than sliding — see-saws and planks |
shape=round | a circle collider instead of a box — boulders, logs, tyres |
Light settings
headlight, taillight and light groups render their modelled housing and carry no collider. A headlight is a spot light that sweeps as the car pitches; a taillight is a plain red glow with no beam or aim at all.
| Tag | Notes |
|---|---|
intensity | brightness |
range | how far the light reaches |
glowColor | the colour, for taillights |
blink | period, in milliseconds — makes the lamp flash |
phase | offset into the blink period, as a percentage |
blink plus phase is how the emergency vehicles alternate: two ordinary lamps on the same period, the second at phase=50. There is no per-vehicle code behind it.
When something is wrong
Nothing throws. Unknown keys, bad values and broken links are collected and printed on screen when the model loads, as errors (which block the model) and warnings (which do not).
So if a model will not load, the answer is already on your screen — read it rather than guessing at the file.