Axiom Mod Setup and Editor UI Guide for Minecraft
Axiom is a utility mod for Minecraft that you operate entirely through its own interface and hotkeys rather than through crafting recipes. This guide covers what you need for a first session: getting the Editor UI open, moving the camera, and understanding selections and the clipboard.
Before You Begin
One warning matters before anything else: if the game rule that lets spectators generate chunks is turned off, the Editor UI will run into serious problems. Turn that rule on first. When a warning about this appears, you can acknowledge it and choose not to see it again.
Opening the Editor UI
Axiom's features live in the Editor UI, and its actions are bound to keys rather than items. Because no default keys are listed here, assign your own bindings in the controls menu. There are separate binding groups for the Builder Tools and for Capabilities, so you can map each set independently. If you want to see what is currently bound, there are options to view editor keybinds and all in-game keybinds. If a binding you try to set is already taken, the interface will tell you it conflicts with an existing one.
Camera and Movement
The main viewport is where you look around and work. Use the mouse to rotate the camera, and scroll to travel quickly toward or away from a point you are aiming at. An arcball camera mode is also available for rotation. If the standard rotation feels wrong, there is an Invert Camera Rotate option, and an Arcball Cardinal Snap setting for snapping angles. If you prefer the game's normal movement instead of Axiom's flight, enable Use Vanilla Movement Controls; otherwise Axiom's enhanced flight can be forced on. Flight momentum and the direction tied to your movement keys can be tuned, and those settings can be synchronized with the Editor UI so both use the same behavior.
Selections
A selection defines which part of the world your tools and operations affect. The Box Select Tool works by clicking one point, dragging to a second point, and releasing; you can then fine-tune the result with gizmos, and confirm by pressing Enter. The Magic Select Tool grabs adjacent blocks of the same type, and its count is configurable. To wipe a selection, press Enter. Clicking a block in your hotbar fills the selection with that block. Selections can be expanded or shrunk by a set amount, and shrinking can also trim the selection down to only non-air blocks. If you middle-click while using a builder tool, the selection behavior depends on your configured setting.
The Clipboard
The clipboard holds copied blocks. With a selection active, copy it to the clipboard using the copy keybind, then paste with the paste keybind to begin placing. If nothing has been copied yet, Axiom will warn you that the clipboard is empty. You can also export a selection straight to the clipboard or import from it. Note that rotating a build by angles other than 90 degrees is lossy — information is lost and the original may be hard to restore — and non-integer scaling is lossy as well.
Tools and Options
The Tools Window is where you pick tools for painting, terraforming, and selecting. Whatever tool is active, its settings appear in the tool options area. Some tools need a block to paint or place, which you choose by clicking the icon in the active block slot. A few examples: the Sculpt Draw Tool pulls terrain based on the surface direction, and the Slope Tool draws a slope between two points by clicking once to set the target, then clicking and dragging from another position. When you switch tools, you can have Axiom reset the previous tool's state automatically to avoid accidental misuse.