How to place a chemistry station?

[Molybdane]

Title says it all, I've made a chemistry station and am intent on placing it down. Unlike my previous crafting tables, the outline remains purple, with the exception of very few locations.

It seems to require a lot of direct structural support from below but until I have some more clarity on the situation, I will not place it. My base is under construction and I might lose the chemistry station if I remove some of the support.

Anyone got an idea of what's going on?

[Crater Creator]

The biggest difference with regard to placement is that the chemistry station is 3 blocks long. Make sure you have a volume of space 3 blocks long and 2 blocks high, with nothing occupying this space. It’s more likely you have a poster or painting or something on a wall taking up a voxel the chemistry station needs, rather than an actual structural integrity issue.

[Nocternaldaze]

If you build 100 blocks from trader sometimes when placing items it will show purple, but you can still place them without issues.

Edit: If you want to pick them back up later you will have to check where you can place land claim block has it may require extending your build further away from trader.

[Molybdane]

Whelp, well thanks for replying. Good to know that it's not a structural issue. That gave me the courage to place the chemistry station anyway, on top of the base. The purple outline did not prevent me from placing it. Oops..

[Crater Creator]

Sorry. I’ve had bases collapse too. I’d have to check the files to be sure, but I just can’t imagine the chemistry station is unusually heavy. If it caused a collapse, then I’d venture that other blocks you could’ve placed in that spot would’ve caused a collapse too. In other words, it sounds like you were in straw-that-broke-the-camel’s-back territory, not that the chemistry station was especially the problem.

There’s a lot of existing writing here on the game’s structural integrity system, if you need help supporting your base and its contents.

[Pain Weasel]

I get the same thing, but for me at least it is absolutely a structural integrity issue.

When I am building bases if I try to place a chemistry station on a second floor that doesn't have full support on at least 2 of the 3 base blocks I get the same thing. Usually this happens if I have windows or a door or something on the floors below.

To fix that I fill in the window using different shapes. Any shape counts as a full block for structural support, so you can use a bar shape or even a plate or tiny pole shape in the corner. As long as there is a "block" in that space it counts as support.

One other thing that I see confusing people is that the forge is so much easier to place, even though you would probably think it would be the heaviest workstation since it is all stone with an iron anvil and crucible while the chemistry station is just a table with some junk on it. I don't know the devs reasoning, but in the XML the Forge is set to provide stability support which essentially bypasses the structural integrity requirement for placing it. All the other workstations have that value set to false. You can place a Forge almost anywhere because of this, but you get the purple outline if you try to place a Chemistry Station in a similar spot.

[Molybdane]

Thanks all for the comments. It's been very helpful. Lots to take in.

I did place my base close to a trader, so that probably caused the purple outline. Still, with 5 bottles of acid in a chemistry station, I didn't want to take a chance. Fortunately, mine is right next to a fully supported wall.