First you will need to load a layout by selecting file - > Open and selecting the file you would like to open. You should now see the contents of the file listed in the table. You can modify items directly by double clicking on a cell and typing in a value. You can also select the row by clicking on the grey area to the left. You can use Shift or CTRL to select multiple lines. Also note that all fields that accept a value will allow for decimals. EQ2 seems to be limited to hundreths and so this program will round everything to hundreths for most displays and when it saves the layout. To save a layout, use Save under the File menu.

Once a layout is loaded the program will display the total number of items in the file as well as the header information for the file . The hearder info is not very important aside from the zone name on Header Line 2 (after the comma). This is the housing zone the layout was created for.

Under the Header information is a set of four buttons shown above. The Top left button will open the manifest window. This window lets you see the number of distinct items in the layout and the quantity of each item. It will also let you export this manifes to a CSV file which most spreadsheet aplications can open. Next to the manifest button is the "Del Crates" button. This is short for "Delete crates" and will remove any items that are in the moving crate from the layout. Currently there seems to be an issue with the Load_layout function in EverQuest II that causes layouts to only partially load. Removing items in the crate from the layout seems to fix this issue. Plus there is really no reason to leave these items in the layout since they are not displayed.

Under the manifest button is the Filter button. This will open the filter window (above) which alows you to filter the main table based on the criteria selected. There are three types of filters you can use. The "Find Items by Area" filter will select all items within three dimensional space contain in the points entered. If you leave a value blank it will not apply that to the filter. This is handy for selecting a group of objects in an already decorated house. Example would be if I had a group of items at (x,z,y) (1,1,1) (2,1,2) (3,0,1) and I set the Xmin value to 1.5 and XMax value to 3.5, then it would filter out the item at (1,1,1). This feature is easy to use with helper objects which is later in this document. The "Find Items by Name" filter will filter out any items that do not match the text entered. You do not need to type the entire name of the item since this uses a "Like" filter. "Filter by Crate" will filter out items either in the crate of not in the crate. For any of the filters to be used you will need to check the box next to "Use Filter?" for that section. You can use all three at once.

The MultiEdit controls to the right of the table alow you to modify the selected item(s) using this set of buttons. The "move amout" value is the amount it will move the items. North, South, East and West will change the X and Y values of the selected item(s).

The Rotate,Pitch and Roll buttons will rotate the item(s) around a given axis. If you hover your mouse over one of these buttons it will give you a hint on the airplane about how the item will be rotated. Rotations are always relative to the object. This means if you rotate an object by 90 degrees around the z axis (rotate), then the X and Y axis will rotate with it.

The Scale button will set the scale value of the item(s) to the amount to the right of the button. The Crate button will set the selected items crate value to the checkbox to it's right. A checked crate value means the item is in the moving crate ingame. An important note here is that items in the crate will maintain their position values.

The Group Point to Point move section will move the selected item(s) from one point to another relative to the Start and Destination values. This means that if you set the start point to 1 meter south of the selected item(s), then set the destination to a point in another room of a house, the selected item(s) would move to the other room 1 meter north of the destination point.

The Rotate Group Around Point section will rotate the selected item(s) around the point entered by the angle set (clockwise). Because this is only rotating on a 2D plane, you do not need to specify a Z location for the rotate point. You can set a negative value for angle to rotate counterclockwise.

Above the main table are the Save Group and Load Group buttons. The Save Group button will save the selected item(s) into a group item file. This file can then be loaded into other layout files even if the other layout file is not the same housing zone type. The Save group will create a file that is similar in format to a normal layout file however it modifies the location values of the items so that they are moved to 0,0,0 which should be a valid location in all house zones. The Load group button allows you to import these files into the current layout. You can then use the Group rotation and point to point move functions to place the imported items to where you want them in the new layout.