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In Skyrim, is there a more convenient way to place items around instead of holding e, and trying to fidget them in the right direction?

Say I have a book, and I want align it on top of the desk like this:

+-----------------------------+
|                             |
|                  +-------+  |
|                  | book ||  |
|                  |  of  ||  |
|                  | lolz ||  |
|                  +______||  |
|                             |
+-----------------------------+

What is the easiest way of doing this?

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10
  • 7
    without mods, the only way of doing it is to hold e and wrestle with it
    – l I
    Dec 5, 2011 at 10:48
  • 5
    +1 for well written, useful question (but actually for 'book of lolz')
    – Alex
    Dec 5, 2011 at 11:29
  • 1
    There's the telekinesis spell, but that's just the same as e.
    – Raven Dreamer
    Dec 5, 2011 at 14:59
  • 8
    Maybe there's an OCD potion you can brew up. ;)
    – Doozer Blake
    Dec 5, 2011 at 15:34
  • There's a bunch of HAVOK settings in the full ini file (if you use saveini) that relate to physics but I doubt they will help much. Problem is the game doesn't 100% respect where you place items which makes a prospective "Better Housing" mod somewhat moot to me.
    – Bleep Bloop
    Dec 5, 2011 at 16:40

4 Answers 4

Reset to default
10

I haven't tried it, but I found these commands:

GetPos <axis>
SetPos <axis> <value>
GetAngle <axis>
SetAngle <axis> <value>

with explanations near the bottom of this page that might help.

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2
  • Thanks! Using SetAngle Z 90 on an object did the trick.
    – whirlwin
    Dec 8, 2011 at 19:48
  • 1
    Iv'e found that various models of the same item have different sizes (baskets and tomatoes ) when you pick them up. However, when you drop them in your house, they drop as the same size. Then, when you come back to your house later, they've reverted to the pick-up size. I believe that this is what causes your house to be in disarray when you return.. So, drop an item somewhere it won't effect anything, leave your house, come back, and if it's reverted to it's original size, try to place it where you want.
    – Carl
    Nov 29, 2016 at 2:50
12

Placing items is really annoying. This is what I do to put something flat on a table surface:

  • Drop the item on the floor. If it doesn't land flat, drop it again or fidget it flat.
  • Walk around the item on the floor until the item looks to you like the orientation you want.
  • Hold grab to pick it up in that orientation.
  • Move the item into place.
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1
  • Just a note: the Hold Grab means to hold E key (the same you picking up things)
    – MasterPJ
    Jan 4, 2016 at 11:29
2

The game sometimes throws your items around after you reload the house, to keep them in place you need to do the following:

  1. switch to first person
  2. place the item where you want it
  3. save while you're in first person and looking AT the item (important)
  4. reload save

it should stay in place after you do this.

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1
  • 1
    Does not work for me :-(
    – Josef Sábl
    Feb 26, 2012 at 3:56
0
  1. getpos [axis] = returns the position in axis value of the selected object – getpos x
  2. setpos [axis] [value] = sets the position of the selected object – setpos z 200
  3. getangle [axis] = returns the angle of the selected object – getangle y
  4. setangle [axis] [value] = sets the angle of the selected object – setangle x 45
  5. rotate [axis] [value] = rotates the selected object manually – rotate x 45

Your axis are X,Y,Z

Helpful when placing or positioning objects:

  1. disable = disable object (click on object first to retrieve item code)
  2. markfordelete = permanently remove object (click on object first to retrieve item code)
  3. player.placeatme [item_code] = place any object or item at your current position
  4. tcl = toggle clipping, you won't collide with objects and gravity has no effect on you, allows you to place objects on high walls, ceilings and up in the air if you like
  5. twf = toggle wireframe, gives you a wireframe perspective of your surroundings and objects

Objects can be placed regardless of clipping or collisions with other objects, but you may find that returning after the location cell has reloaded that these objects have moved again.
Circumvent this by "picking up" the item after positioning it through the console, then "dropping" it again. While doing this, take care not to shift or move the item (this can prove difficult sometimes), the method here is to "reset" the item with clipping and object collision on.

Clipping seems to toggle off once you start redefining an item's positioning with absolute values, you can leave your book half poking out the desk and walk out the building, it's fine - until you come back to find the book tossed across the room by physics. "Resetting" an object this way, after moving it around, can save you that surprise later.
I had to deal with this problem while attempting to place a map of the dragon burials on a table top, problem was my z axis value for positioning was actually clipping into the table surface, when I returned the map was lying beneath the table, as though it had "fallen through".

This doesn't seem to be the case with CONT objects like "apiaries" or "strongboxes".

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