Factorio Forums

First, thanks very much for creating such an awesome game!

Second, apologies if this has been suggested before. I did search for "ortho" and "belt" but didn't find an entry like this.

My suggestion is to have a key to hold while placing belts that will restrict the mouse cursor to either horizontal or vertical motion.

Why? Trying to lay belts without crossing into another line is rather hard, especially when you have MS (straight lines are a myth for me, lol). But seriously, I can't move the mouse 10 cells before my hand moves far enough over to lay the belt into a different, unconnected line. Then I have to stop, undo what I did (especially if it's a belt going in the other direction right next to it) then proceed laying my belt.

Many graphics programs have this function and it's a godsend to be able to draw straight lines with it. Having the same ability in Factorio would be a huge time saver.

Thanks!

I know this is not exactly what you're requesting for, but what we usually do is keep the mouse at fixed point on screen, and make the engineer run in the direction we want to lay belts.

The problem is when you are moving the player close to an object and when the player bumps the object the player automatically moves one way or the other and messes up your nice straight line of belts. An option to disable this would be very helpful. Either stop movement or automatically let the player 'ghost' through without side-stepping to prevent the placement of objects in a nice straight line.

A similar, but as it turns out, quite different suggestion was made a short while ago. During the process of finding out exactly what was being asked for, several other suggestions were covered including the ability to draw straight lines when laying belts in a similar manner to how rail track is laid, but without the pathfinding.

Take a read of the conversation here Belt placement as a sizeable brush

I have made a note of this with the intention of attempting a mod that allows us, especially those of us who might have fine motor deficiencies, to be able to draw lengths of straight belts without the hassles you have outlined.

Meanwhile, maybe some mods can help you, like :
https://mods.factorio.com/mod/Cursed-ELB
https://mods.factorio.com/mod/beltplanner-patched