Enter your first target
The planner works backwards from one question: what do you want to produce, and how much of it per minute? From that it derives the recipes, buildings, raw resources, power and logistics you need. You do not have to understand every setting on the first run — add a single target in Planner mode and read what comes back.
Type an item name into the output targets and pick it from the suggestions, then set a rate per minute. Ask for 60 Iron Plate per minute, for example, and the smelting and constructing steps that cover exactly that rate are recalculated for you. If you cannot settle on a number, switch the target to maximize and the planner returns the largest amount your resource limits allow. Only one item can be maximized at a time.
Read the five result tabs
Results are split across five tabs. Summary gives you output against target, power draw once clock speeds are applied, building count, construction cost and an approximate footprint. Production steps lists every recipe with its machine equivalent, the number of machines you actually build, the clock speed and the inputs and outputs. Resources covers what has to be extracted, including miners and node counts by purity; item balance shows production, consumption and surplus for every intermediate; the flowchart draws the connections between steps. The quickest route is to size up the factory in the summary, then read production steps and resources as your build sheet.
Adjust the planning conditions
Use the objective to steer the layout. Minimizing resources weights scarce raw materials more heavily and keeps extraction down, minimizing power favours a lower factory draw, and minimizing buildings favours fewer machines running. Enable only the alternate recipes you have actually unlocked and the planner solves again with those candidates included. Intermediates shipped in from another factory belong in the list of items you already have, where they are consumed before anything is mined. Setting a resource limit to zero lets you look for a layout that avoids that resource entirely.
Move on to power, logistics and saving
To design power as well, pick the generator types and fuels, then set a target in MW or ask the plan to cover the factory’s own consumption. The belt and pipe you select under logistics never change the solution itself; they only decide how many lines each flow needs. Finished inputs can be saved in your browser, and a share URL lets someone else recalculate the same conditions on their own machine. Once a plan is solved, you can export it to Excel.
Start by opening the plan for 60 Iron Plate per minute and changing the target rate to match your own factory.
Related items
Try it in the planner
Opens the planner with the conditions from this guide already loaded. Target rates and the recipes you allow can be changed once it is open.
Open the sample plan for 60 Iron Plate/min