Studio Quick Reference
Studio Quick Reference
This guide outlines the basic functionality of Roblox Studio, the all-in-one tool for building, scripting, and testing games in Roblox.
Studio Interface
The Studio interface is divided into several sections:
Menu Bar
At the very top of the Studio window is a menu bar with the following items:
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Test Tab |
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View Tab |
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Plugins Tab |
Ribbon Bar
Below the menu bar is the ribbon bar. The tools displayed in the ribbon change when you click on the Home, Model, Test, View, and Plugins tabs.
Game Editor Window
This is where most of your game design happens. Here you can build, playtest, and move the virtual camera around your Roblox world.
Explorer Window
The Explorer window shows a hierarchical list of every object inside a place. It can be toggled from the View tab. See the Explorer reference for more details on this window.
Properties Window
The Properties window, also toggled from the View tab, shows every detail about how an object looks and behaves. For example, a Part has properties such as Position, Color, and Size which define where the part is located and how it appears.
Game Explorer
The Game Explorer window lets you manage badges, developer products, images, meshes, and places in your game. It also provides a mechanism to bulk import large groups of articles/game assets|game assets. See the Game Explorer article for more details.
Toolbox
The Toolbox contains a selection of models, images, meshes, and audio made by Roblox or Roblox community members. It also includes all of the models, images, meshes, audio, and packages you’ve published or those published by groups you belong to. See the Toolbox article for more details.
Quick Open
The Quick Open window can be opened by pressing Ctrl+P (Command ⌘+P on Mac) or by adding its action button to the Quick Access Toolbar. This window lets you quickly find any instance or path in the game and it includes some useful options for searching:
- The matched part of a search shows up in bold text within the search results.
- Pressing ↓ selects an item and Enter or a mouse click opens/locates it. Scripts open in the script editor while other instances are highlighted in the Explorer.
- Recent items are floated to the top of the list.
- You can optionally respect case by toggling the
button, enable regular expression searches by toggling the 
button, or select “space as wildcard” and/or script-only searches with the 
button.
Moving the Camera
Inside the game editor window, you can move the camera with these controls:
| Key/Shortcut | Action | Description |
|---|---|---|
| W | Forward | Move the camera forward. |
| S | Back | Move the camera back. |
| A | Left | Move the camera left. |
| D | Right | Move the camera right. |
| Q | Down | Move the camera down. |
| E | Up | Move the camera up. |
| Shift | Change camera speed | In combination with any movement key, changes the camera speed (camera speed can be customized within Studio settings). |
| F | Focus | Focus the camera on a selected part. |
| Right Mouse Button | Turn the camera | Hold and drag to freely move the camera view around. |
| Middle Mouse Button | Pan the camera | Hold and drag to pan (slide) the camera. |
| Mouse Scroll Wheel | Zoom in or out | Zoom the camera in or out. |
Saving and Publishing
The best way to save your work is to publish it to Roblox’s online servers. This lets you edit it from any computer that can run Studio. Publishing also lets others find and play your creations.
Select File → Publish to Roblox to publish your work. This will open a window where you can set the creation’s name, description, creator, genre, and which device types it should run on. If you already published your place in a session of Studio, this will publish the creation to the same slot.
Playtesting
There are three options for articles/game testing|playtesting a game, all accessible from the Home and Test tabs. Click on the small arrow below the button to choose one of the three options.
| Action | Description |
|---|---|
| Play | Starts simulating the game, inserting your avatar at either the SpawnLocation or coordinates of 0, 0, 0. |
| Play Here | Starts simulating the game, inserting your avatar at the current camera position. |
| Run | Starts simulating the game but does not insert your avatar. The simulation begins at the current camera position and you can navigate around the game world using the Studio camera controls. |
Customizing Studio
Studio Theme
Studio features both a light theme and dark theme. To change themes:
- From the Studio menu bar, select File → Settings.
- On the left side of the popup window, select the Studio tab.
- On the right side, locate the General section.
- For Theme, select either Default, Light, or Dark. If your operating system supports light and dark modes, the Default option will mirror your system mode.
Moving Windows
The windows in Studio can be customized to fit your ideal work style.
Quick Access Toolbar
The top-left region in the Studio menu bar is called the Quick Access Toolbar and it contains shortcuts to various buttons and commands in Studio. You can freely add, remove, and rearrange actions in this section.
To quickly customize the Quick Access Toolbar, click the small arrow to the right of the toolbar. This will reveal a drop-down menu that lets you enable and disable items. You can also add and remove buttons, as well as change the order of the buttons, by selecting Customize from the drop-down menu.
Studio Shortcuts
All of the shortcuts in Studio can be customized. There are also many Studio actions without default shortcuts that can be tied to any key combo. See Roblox Studio Shortcuts for a complete list of these actions.