How to build with planks and prepare shelter

Start with planks

The wood chain is trees → logs → planks. Use the Axe to cut a log into planks. Logs and planks are different objects: the building tutorial specifically calls for a plank when you finish a plan.

Use the materials and hauling guide to compare logs, planks and stones and bring the correct load to the job.

Mark the structure before constructing it

1. Scroll to the Blueprint tool. Its icon is a blue roll of plans.
2. Hold right mouse to open the build menu. Choose the part you want to place.
3. Rotate the part with R, then left-click to mark the plan. A marked plan is the work target, not the finished structure.
4. Remove an unwanted plan with right-click. This is the Blueprint tool’s documented delete-plan action; it is not a claim that the same input demolishes completed buildings.

Finish a plan yourself

1. Grab a plank with the left mouse button.
2. While carrying the plank, scroll to the Mallet.
3. Left-click the marked plan with the plank to construct it.

The important distinction is placing a plan versus supplying it. Repeating the Blueprint placement step does not replace bringing the construction material.

Let pups supply the construction

1. Prepare loose planks and mark the plan first.
2. Press E on a plank to command pickup.
3. When the pup is carrying planks, press E on the blue preview to command construction.

Use the pup-command guide to keep pickup and construction as two separate orders. If the family needs food, pause the work routine and return to care.

Make sleeping places part of shelter

Pups need cots to sleep in. The guidebook warns that their mother will be angry without them, so a wall or floor alone is not the whole sleeping task.

If a pup is locked and will not move or sleep, the developer’s right-click unlock answer addresses that state. It does not provide a cot or replace the sleeping requirement.

Wrong plan or a finished fence?

For an unbuilt plan, use the Blueprint tool’s documented right-click delete action. A completed fence is a different object.

In the community fence discussion, a player whose pups were trapped received this suggestion from another player, kkbbb: use the hammer and hold right-click on it. This is a player suggestion for that fence problem, rather than a developer-confirmed demolition procedure for every structure. It does not establish material refunds or a way to refill holes.