factoriolab VS FactoryPlanner

yes, you can start building the house from the roof, as you suggest, or you can use some kind of planner, and start building from the ground.

factoriolab.github.io - my favorite, but if you need a tool for layout, not a calculator - I'm using my imagination

I can recommend https://factoriolab.github.io

You mean the best one, so factoriolab[https://factoriolab.github.io ] aren't you?

There are also online calculators for this: https://factoriolab.github.io

https://factoriolab.github.io/ is pretty similar, but also supports mods and some more options

You might be interested in checking out factoriolab or kirkmcdonald. Both tools work great for planning the amount of machines needed to make a specific factory.

FactorioLab has recipes from several popular mods, including SE, K2, SE+K2, Py, PyAL, A&B, SeaBlock and more.

I mostly make extensive use of factoriolab online calculator. How much planning I'm doing also changes throughout the game:

There's a production chain calculator called FactorioLab which already supports several games beyond just Factorio, and had some discussion about supporting Captain of Industry, but doesn't yet. I would guess there hasn't been a lot of work into it yet because CoI is still relatively early, and has had some significant recipe changes.

i really hope you don't play SE without Factory Planner or a similar mod because that just sounds like pain

But I do a bit of planning for individual outposts/subfactories just to get a sense of what the ratios are, and I use the Factorio Planner mod (or Helmod) for that. And I use Rate Calculator (or Max Rate Calculator) nice for measuring stuff. And I'll admit to having a spreadsheet for calculating reactor ratios.

In Seablock the challenge is mostly about figuring out and building the production chain for an item. These can be extremely complex. For example, an initial factory to get platinum ore requires 20-30 steps in different sets of buildings to make sludge, turn it into ore and cope with the byproducts. And turning ore into bars and then plates (and dealing with byproducts) can be another 15 steps for some metals. Building these chains efficiently and with the right number of buildings for each step almost requires a planning tool such as Helmod or Factory Planner. Byproduct management is a bigger issue than with Space Exploration and a good recycling center is critical.

Factory Planner and Helmod are good mods.

Ive heard that Factory Planner is very good but i prefer to have a website open on my second screen.

Factory Planner

- Recipe Book and Factory Planner are absolutely essential for any mod with a large amount of recipes.

I've used a combination of three mods to help planning.

Rate Calculator lets you select an already-built area and shows you its input and outputs, Factory Planner is pretty neat too with its matrix solver.

Both of those in combination with the Blueprint Lab have been great. Build out the base of your factory in it, save a blueprint, then actually build in your map.

https://mods.factorio.com/mod/RateCalculator

https://mods.factorio.com/mod/factoryplanner

https://mods.factorio.com/mod/BlueprintLab_design

These aren't really diagramming, but I hope they can help.