Scrap Mechanic – Rotate With Mouse Wheel in Build Mode

Since getting the game one of the more frustrating things for me was spamming Q to rotate blocks in build mode. Here’s how to avoid that frustration by setting Mouse Wheel to rotate parts.

Rotate With Mouse Wheel

Huh?

In-game key bind is not the best and would not allow setting up certain button combos for functions. Conveniently all of the game’s key binds are stored in a text file. By modifying that file directly it is possible to set way more key combinations for different functions.

Ok, where is it?

On Windows the file in question is located at:

• C:\ Users\ [your name here] \ AppData\ Roaming\ Axolot Games\ Scrap Mechanic\ User\ User_[some number here] \ keybindings.json

It can be opened with Notepad, although formatting will be a bit jumbled so a better editor like Brackets is recommended.

It is also recommended, though not required, to make a backup copy of that file “just in case”. Since the key binds can be reset from in-game menu worst case is that everything will get reset to default.

Got it. Now what?

Now that you have infiltrated the code itself use Ctrl+F (or just, you know, look at the text…) to find these four binds:

• “NextCreateRotation”
• “PreviousCreateRotation”
• “NextMenuItem”
• “PreviousMenuItem”

And replace them and everything behind them up to the ” of the next bind with:

• “NextCreateRotation” : [ { “Alt” : true, “MS” : 1 } ],
• “PreviousCreateRotation” : [ { “Alt” : true, “MS” : -1 } ],
• “NextMenuItem” : [ { “Alt” : false, “MS” : -1 } ],
• “PreviousMenuItem” : [ { “Alt” : false, “MS” : 1 } ],

Huzzah?

The game has two mouse wheel functions:

1. Scroll wheel alone: Changes which part you’re selecting
2. Alt + Scroll wheel: Rotates the selected part

Important detail: The Alt key works like a switch:

• When you hold Alt: Part rotation works, part selection is disabled
• When you release Alt: Part selection works, part rotation is disabled

This prevents a problem where trying to do both at once would just change parts instead of rotating them.

So while the game shows these controls, understanding how Alt acts as a switch is key to using them correctly.