Support Beams removal — known issue?

[Stranger92]

I wonder why no one tackled this topic here before (I tried searching for quite a while, but found only a dead reddit topic), but let it be me then.

Why support beams are so hard to remove? Sometimes it's completely impossible to target a placed beam.

I know the tricks that kinda "facilitate" the process (axe or empty hands, try to avoid looking at another block through a beam, etc.), but sometimes it is impossible still.

I don't say support beams should work flawlessly, they are still a relatively new feature.
But shouldn't the problem be at least mentioned somewhere?.. Especially with the Cave In system in place?

[FergusTheScotsman]

I've had this constantly - if I twitch on the mouse and misplace a beam its often completely impossible to get the "end to remove" to target. I'm extra f'in careful placing them, but if the mistake is in the second end, it's fully placed wrong and if you can't target the initial end it's boned.

[Tyron]

There is a decent chance that for 1.20 or 1.21 the entire beam will have a hitbox, from then on it will be easier to break

[Lord Kane]

A good workaround would be to make your own with a chisel

[VioletChan311]

in my experience, i can only see the hitbox of the support when placed on a full block. if i place the support on a chiseled block (or inside its block area) then i cannot access it. the temporary solution that has worked so far for me is to break the chiseled block. im sure this will eventually be patched

[Asreal]

as someone who is constructing a whole airship using support beams as the airframe, here are some issues I have encountered:
hitbox hard to locate and can be very hard to remove
other blocks cannot be placed within the hitbox of the beam's start, which can be frustrating when placing chiseled blocks or decorations
beams connected to chiseled blocks, become a part of the chiseled block, and so the whole block must be removed to get rid of the beam
copying a chiseled block with beam attached to the inventory (in creative) will also have the beam attached when placed again
connecting a lot of beams together can cause other connected blocks to become ghost blocks

possible fixes:
as tyrion mentioned, adding a whole hitbox will help with removal, I do worry if this will prevent any blocks being placed over a beam for decorations and stuff though, I don't think the hitbox should prevent other blocks being placed.
making chiseled blocks remain separate from beams when copying/removing would be nice
not sure about a fix for ghost blocks, that may be more of a me issue due to the scale I am building with these beams

nice additions:
being able to click on a beam using a wrench as a way to allow you to move where it connects to

Edited November 26, 2024 by Asreal

[Porkbrick]

On 11/26/2024 at 11:09 AM, Asreal said:

nice additions:
being able to click on a beam using a wrench as a way to allow you to move where it connects to

i think this 1000%. so many times ive clicked to place the second end of a beam only for it to snap to the wrong point. it would be so nice if you could just pick either end back up and move it!

im not sure if its a bug, or new to 1.20 but breaking beams no longer drops them now. they just vanish. kind of sucks when using harder to source materials like aged/rotten wood.

while im talking about it, it would be so nice if the snap points were visible when holding beams. the corners are easy to find, but there are 25 possible snap points per block face(including edges and corners) and getting the right one is a pain. especially if you are at an angle to the block.

[KotoAkira]

Does anybody knows what to do if support beam just doesnt have any hitboxes??

[Josiah Gibbonson]

Me and support beams have a love/hate relationship. 

[-Glue-]

On 2/12/2025 at 5:16 PM, Porkbrick said:

so many times ive clicked to place the second end of a beam only for it to snap to the wrong point.

Do you use the immersive first person mode? Placing beams with that enabled glitches out their placement. Took me forever to figure that out. I just disable IFP when using beams.
 

5 hours ago, KotoAkira said:

Does anybody knows what to do if support beam just doesnt have any hitboxes??

If you have a beam in your hand, it hides the hitbox of other placed beams. If its not that, try breaking the actual block you first attached the beam to.

[Feycat]

If you place a beam on a chiseled block, you CANNOT remove it until you remove the whole block. When they're not attached to a chiseled block, I haven't had a problem finding the lil hitbox

[KotoAkira]

15 hours ago, Feycat said:

If you place a beam on a chiseled block, you CANNOT remove it until you remove the whole block. When they're not attached to a chiseled block, I haven't had a problem finding the lil hitbox

Thank you!

[Voldemort]

On 3/24/2024 at 6:35 PM, Tyron said:

There is a decent chance that for 1.20 or 1.21 the entire beam will have a hitbox, from then on it will be easier to break

If you use a beam on chiseled blocks, it’s basically over. In 95% of cases, you can’t remove it until you break the whole block. Sometimes, when you place the block back in the same position, the beams will reappear as if nothing happened.

[AlexCaptain]

The support beams are also a red rag for me. It's incredibly difficult to remove them and they just don't settle as they should. I place some and suddenly the beam floats all the way to the left. I really hope they change a few things.

[-Glue-]

On 4/2/2025 at 5:13 AM, AlexCaptain said:

The support beams are also a red rag for me. It's incredibly difficult to remove them and they just don't settle as they should. I place some and suddenly the beam floats all the way to the left. I really hope they change a few things.

Are you using the immersive first person setting by chance? That bugs out the beams placement for some reason. So you need to disable it when placing beams.
If you can't remove them, you likely placed it on a chiseled block, which also makes them glitch out. You need to break the block its attached to.

I hope these get fixed in the upcoming de-jank update.

[AlexCaptain]

9 hours ago, -Glue- said:

Are you using the immersive first person setting by chance? That bugs out the beams placement for some reason. So you need to disable it when placing beams.
If you can't remove them, you likely placed it on a chiseled block, which also makes them glitch out. You need to break the block its attached to.

I hope these get fixed in the upcoming de-jank update.

Hey thanks for your question. No, I don't actually use this mode, as it often gets in the way when I'm building. I know that I have to destroy the block to remove the support beam again. But this is of course very annoying and also uses up the durability of the tools.

[XF_Hyperion]

On 3/31/2025 at 12:37 PM, KotoAkira said:

Does anybody knows what to do if support beam just doesnt have any hitboxes??

Just figured this out. If you save and reload, the beam hitbox reappears.
Just destroyed half my roof trying to fix the darn thing.

[Ryilo]

Sometimes the hitbox doesn't appear, but if you hover over it with the mouse you can see the item description in the top center appear, and you can hit it with an axe to remove it.

If I remember correctly, the hit box is at the starting point where you started placing the beam. You can also identify it by the fact that where there is the hitbox you can't place any other block.

[the dealer]

to anyone still having issues with finding the hitbox it usually because the hitbox is somewhere around it not attached to the support beam (or similar item) the hitbox can just be hovering above it invisible until you find it by hovering over it then the outline shows itself so basically a hide and seek to if it