How to use a schematic in Minecraft: WorldEdit and Litematica

Where to put a .schem file, and how to load, place and paste it with WorldEdit or Litematica in Java Edition, for the circle, pixel art, statue and 3D model tools.

Updated November 6, 2026

Four of our tools save a schematic, a .schem file that holds a whole build block by block: the circle and sphere generator, the pixel art generator, skin to statue and 3D model to blocks. Minecraft cannot open a schematic by itself: you need one of two free add-ons for Java Edition, WorldEdit or Litematica. This page shows where the file goes and how to use it with each.

Both put the build the same way round: its lowest north-west corner goes at your feet, and it extends east, south and up from there. Stand at the corner, not in the middle.

WorldEdit: paste the build in one go

1. Install WorldEdit

• Single player: install Fabric Loader or NeoForge, then put the WorldEdit jar made for your exact Minecraft version in .minecraft/mods. The newest WorldEdit mod is for 26.3; older versions of the game need an older WorldEdit.
• A server: the server needs the WorldEdit plugin (Paper or Spigot) or FastAsyncWorldEdit. You do not install anything on your own computer, but only the server owner can put files in its folder.

2. Put the .schem file in the schematics folder

To find .minecraft on Windows, press Windows+R, type %appdata%\.minecraft and press Enter. On a Mac it is ~/Library/Application Support/minecraft. If the schematics folder is not there yet, make it yourself. Give the file a short name without spaces, such as dome.schem.

3. Load it and paste it

1. Open the world. In single player, it needs Allow Commands: ON, set when you create the world or later with Esc, World Options (before 26.3: Open to LAN, for one session). On a server you need to be an operator, or have the WorldEdit permissions.
2. Type //schem list in the chat to see the files WorldEdit found. A file you have just added shows up without restarting the game.
3. Type //schem load dome with your file's name (the .schem at the end is optional). WorldEdit says it is loaded.
4. Walk to where the build's north-west corner should be, and stand on that block.
5. Type //paste -a. The build appears, starting at your feet and going east, south and up.
6. Wrong place? Type //undo, move, and paste again.

Turning the build, and the air around it

• To turn the build, type //rotate 90 (or 180, or 270) after //schem load and before //paste. It turns clockwise around the block you stand on, so the build then extends a different way from you: after 90 it goes south and west, after 180 west and north, after 270 north and east. //flip mirrors it instead.
• A schematic also stores the air in its box, inside and around the build. A plain //paste places that air too and empties whatever was there. //paste -a skips the air and keeps the blocks already in that space.
• Do not use //paste -o with these files: it pastes at the position the file was saved from, which for our tools is the world's 0, 0, 0.

On someone else's server

Only the server owner can put a file in the server's schematics folder, so send them the .schem. To run the commands you need operator, or these permissions: worldedit.schematic.load, worldedit.clipboard.paste, worldedit.clipboard.rotate and worldedit.history.undo. Without that, Litematica's ghost works on any server, and you build it by hand.

Litematica: a ghost of the build to work over

1. Install Litematica

Litematica runs on Fabric. Install Fabric Loader, then put two jars in .minecraft/mods: Litematica and MaLiLib, both made for your exact Minecraft version (Litematica 0.29.1 is for 26.3, and there are separate builds for 26.2, 26.1 and 1.21.11). It runs on your computer only, so it works on any server for showing the ghost.

2. Put the .schem file in the schematics folder

The folder is .minecraft/schematics. Litematica makes it the first time the game starts with it. Folders inside it show up as folders in Litematica's file list.

3. Load it

1. In the world, walk to where the build's north-west corner should be, and stand on that block.
2. Press M to open Litematica's menu and choose Load Schematics.
3. Pick the file and press Load Schematic. The ghost of the build appears with its corner at your feet, going east, south and up.

4. Move it, turn it, mirror it

Press M and then P (Schematic Placements), and press Configure beside the build. Its buttons move it a block at a time in each direction, and its Rotation and Mirror buttons turn and flip it. In the world you can also hold Left Alt and scroll to push it the way you are looking.

5. Build it in Survival

• Press M and then L for the Material List: every block the build needs, and how many you still have to gather. Our tools show the same list.
• Colored blocks in the ghost mark the mistakes: a wrong block, a block turned the wrong way, a missing one or an extra one. The ghost disappears block by block as you place the right ones.
• Easy Place (Configuration menu, Generic) places the right block from your hotbar where you click. Some servers ban it: check their rules first.

6. Or paste it in Creative

1. Set a key first: open Litematica's Configuration menu, the Hotkeys tab, and give "executeOperation" a key. It has none to begin with.
2. Hold a stick, the tool item. Hold Left Ctrl and scroll until the mode shown is Paste Schematic in World.
3. Press the key you set. The build is pasted where the ghost is.

Pasting works in Creative only. On a server it sends /setblock and /fill commands, so you need permission to use them, which usually means operator.

Bedrock Edition: the .mcpack

WorldEdit and Litematica are made for Java Edition only. For Bedrock, the same tools save a behavior pack instead: press Download for Bedrock (.mcpack). The pack holds the build and a function that places it, so it needs no mods, only cheats on. It works where Minecraft can open a file: Windows, Android phones and tablets (Fire tablets too), iPhone and iPad. Consoles cannot import packs from a file.

1. Open the .mcpack file. Minecraft starts and says the pack was imported. On a phone, open it from your downloads and choose Minecraft.
2. Edit the world you want it in (a copy, or a new Creative world, is safest). Under Behavior Packs, find the pack in My Packs and press Activate. Under Cheats, turn cheats on.
3. Open the world and stand where the build's north-west corner should go, on the ground. The build runs east, south and up from your feet, as the schematics do.
4. Type /function and the build's name, shown by the tool when you saved it and in the pack's description: for example /function statue_sample. A message in the chat says what is being placed.
5. Wait a few seconds: Bedrock places the build once its whole area is loaded, which the function asks for. Then /tickingarea remove with the area's name from the message lets that area unload again.

• The pack needs Bedrock 1.26.60 or later. On an older version Minecraft will not activate it.
• Each download is a pack of its own: Minecraft never replaces a pack when you import a new one. Activate only the one you want in a world, and delete old ones in Settings, Storage.
• A big build is split into pieces of 64 by 64 blocks, all placed by the one function.
• Every block of the build's box is placed, air included, so the build clears what stood there.

If something goes wrong

WorldEdit says it cannot find the schematic

Check that the file is in the right folder from the table above, and type //schem list to see what WorldEdit found. A file name with spaces is easy to mistype: rename it to one word.

The command is unknown, or I have no permission

In single player, the world needs Allow Commands: ON (Esc, World Options). On a Fabric or NeoForge server only operators can use WorldEdit; on Paper or Spigot you need operator or the permissions listed above.

The paste emptied the ground around my build

That is the schematic's air. Type //undo, then paste again with //paste -a.

Some blocks are missing from the build

The tools name the blocks of the newest Java Edition. In an older version of the game, a block that version does not have is left out (WorldEdit puts air in its place). Choose blocks your version has, or play the newest version.

Litematica's paste does nothing

Give "executeOperation" a key in the Configuration menu's Hotkeys tab, hold the stick, switch the mode to Paste Schematic in World, and play in Creative.

Sources

• Clipboard (schematics), WorldEdit documentation. Read November 6, 2026; the schematics folder, //schem load and //paste, the flags -a and -o; //rotate turns around the point you stand on.
• Quick start, WorldEdit documentation. Read November 6, 2026; in single player WorldEdit works only in a world with commands allowed; on a Fabric or NeoForge server only ops can use it.
• Permissions, WorldEdit documentation. Read November 6, 2026; worldedit.schematic.load, worldedit.clipboard.paste, worldedit.clipboard.rotate, worldedit.history.undo.
• WorldEdit versions, Modrinth. Read November 6, 2026; 7.4.6 (2026-10-15): the Fabric and NeoForge mod for 26.3; the Bukkit plugin for 1.21.4 to 26.3.
• Litematica, Modrinth. Read November 6, 2026; Fabric only, needs MaLiLib; 0.29.1 for 26.3, with separate builds for 26.2, 26.1 and 1.21.11; Easy Place "may get you banned on some servers".
• Litematica source code, 26.3 branch, GitHub. Read November 6, 2026; the schematics folder, .schem files in Load Schematics, a placement at the player's position, the default keys (M, M+P, M+L), paste only in Creative, the execute key unbound by default.
• Achievement, Minecraft Wiki. Read November 6, 2026; in Bedrock Edition, cheats or an outside behavior pack turn a world's achievements off.
• Commands, Minecraft Wiki. Read November 6, 2026; Java's Allow Commands and the World Options menu; Bedrock's cheats, which keep achievements off for good.