AIC PLANNER

How to Use the AIC Planner

The editor embedded above is Enka.Network's AIC blueprint tool, loaded straight from their site. It works inside this page, but the grid is small in an embed, so most players click Open in New Tab for a full-size workspace. If you are new to factory building, start with the built-in tutorial mode to learn the controls before sketching your own layout.

A good first session looks like this. Decide what the layout should produce, then place the production buildings that make it. Add the Resourcing buildings that feed them, route belts and pipelines between everything, and finish with power coverage. Working from the product backward keeps you from building a pretty belt network that feeds nothing.

When the layout looks right, use the Share button to generate a link. Each blueprint gets a unique ID, so the link doubles as a bookmark you can reopen later or send to a friend. If you want ideas before you start, browse the community blueprints library on Enka to see how other players solved the same production chain.

The editor can also save designs locally, which makes it a notebook between play sessions. Keep one saved layout per production goal instead of editing a single sprawling design, so you can compare versions side by side. When a layout finally works in-game, share it and keep the link next to your notes. That way a rebuild after a base reshuffle takes minutes instead of an evening.

What Each Building Category Does

The planner groups buildings the same way the game does, and knowing each group's job speeds up every design. Logistics covers the movement pieces: Automation Cores, Belt Bridges, Convergers, Splitters, and Item Control Ports. Resourcing covers how raw materials enter the line, through Mining Rigs, Fluid Pumps, Depot Access, Loaders, and Unloaders. Those two groups decide whether materials arrive where you need them.

Production is split into two tiers. Production I holds the basic processing units: Fitting, Moulding, Planting, Refining, Seed-Picking, and Shredding. Production II holds the advanced chain: Filling, Forge of the Sky, Gearing, Grinding, Packaging, Reactor, and Separating Units. A classic early chain uses a Seed-Picking Unit, a Planting Unit, and a Shredding Unit, where the Shredder turns 1 Sandleaf into 3 Sandleaf Powder, as the factory guide walks through.

Power is the last group: Electric Pylons, Relay Towers, Thermal Banks, and Xiranite Pylons. Per the factory guide, power starts at your Protocol Automation-Core (PAC), travels through Relay Towers with an 80m range, and reaches buildings through Electric Pylons with a 30m wireless radius. In Wuling, Xiranite Pylons connect to the PAC and to each other automatically within range, which removes most manual wiring. Place power last, but leave room for it from the start.

Planning Layouts for Throughput

A layout that fits on the grid is not the same as one that runs at full speed. According to the site's AIC throughput guide, ports and conveyors all move items at 0.5 units per second, and each conveyor carries one item. That makes the number of ports you can feed the real ceiling on output, so plan belt routes around ports first.

Machine speed matters too. Fast machines such as refineries output at the same 0.5 units per second as a belt, so merging their outputs causes backpressure. Slow machines such as fillers and packagers take 10 seconds per product, outputting 0.1 units per second, and those sparse outputs can share a belt. Sketching both cases in the planner before you build shows you where merges are safe.

Underfeeding is the other common trap. The throughput guide's example is a Filling Machine that needs 10 bottles and 10 powder every 10 seconds; if the belt only delivers 5 bottles, the machine runs at 50%. When you lay out a chain in the planner, count inputs against demand at every step. The AIC optimization guide covers more layout patterns once the basics are in place.

Where the AIC Planner Fits in Your Toolkit

The AIC Planner is a static editor: it shows footprint and placement, not live flow. That makes it the fastest way to sketch and share a layout, but it will not tell you when a belt backs up. For that, the Industrial Planner runs a production line as a simulation and surfaces bottlenecks as they happen.

Power math is a third job. The planner lets you place Thermal Banks and pylons, but it does not calculate fuel burn cycles. The D.I.G.E. Power Calculator handles Wuling fuel and generator counts, and you bring those numbers back into the planner to place the banks. Used together, the three tools cover layout, flow, and power.

Whatever you design, rebuild it by hand in-game. Links from the planner do not import into the game's own blueprint system, and terrain, obstacles, and pylon range edges can block a layout that looks clean on the grid. Treat the planner as the paper sketch, then check each building in your actual Automation Industrial Complex. For in-game blueprint codes shared by the community, see the endgame blueprints collection.