Using Commands

The Command Button allows you to create and run shell commands (other programs) from Tiled.

You may setup as many commands as you like. This is useful if you edit maps for multiple games and you want to set up a command for each game. Or you could setup multiple commands for the same game that load different checkpoints or configurations.

The Command Button

It is located on the main toolbar to the right of the redo button. Clicking on it will run the default command (the first command in the command list). Clicking the arrow next to it will bring down a menu that allows you to run any command you have set up, as well as an option to open the Edit Commands dialog. You can also find all the commands in the File menu.

Apart from this, you can set up custom keyboard shortcuts for each command.

Editing Commands

The ‘Edit Commands’ dialog contains a list of commands. Each command has several properties:

Name: The name of the command as it will be shown in the drop down list, so you can easily identify it.
Executable: The executable to run. It should either be a full path or the name of an executable in the system PATH.
Arguments: The arguments for running the executable.
Working directory: The path to the working directory.
Shortcut: A custom key sequence to trigger the command. You can use ‘Clear’ to reset the shortcut.
Show output in Console view: If this is enabled, then the output (stdout and stderr) of this command will be displayed in the Console. You can find the Console in View > Views and Toolbars > Console.
Save map before executing: If this is enabled, then the current map will be saved before executing the command.
Enabled: A quick way to disable commands and remove them from the drop down list. The default command is the first enabled command.

Note that if the executable or any of its arguments contain spaces, these parts need to be quoted.

Substituted Variables

In the executable, arguments and working directory fields, you can use the following variables:

%mapfile: the full path of the current file (either map or tileset).
%mappath: the path in which the current file is located.

Since Tiled 1.4

%projectpath: the path in which the current project is located.
%objectclass: the class of the currently selected object, if any (also available as %objecttype for compatibility with Tiled < 1.9).
%objectid: the ID of the currently selected object, if any.
%layername: the name of the currently selected layer.

Since Tiled 1.6

%tileid: a comma-separated list with the IDs of the selected tiles, if any.

New in Tiled 1.9

%worldfile: the full path of the world the current map is part of, if any.

For the working directory field, you can additionally use the following variable:

%executablepath: the path to the executable.

Example Commands

Launching a custom game called “mygame” with a -loadmap parameter and the mapfile:

mygame -loadmap %mapfile

On Mac, remember that Apps are folders, so you need to run the actual executable from within the Contents/MacOS folder:

/Applications/TextEdit.app/Contents/MacOS/TextEdit %mapfile

Or use open (and note the quotes since one of the arguments contains spaces):

open -a "/Applications/CoronaSDK/Corona Simulator.app" /Users/user/Desktop/project/main.lua

Some systems also have a command to open files in the appropriate program:

OSX: open %mapfile
GNOME systems like Ubuntu: gnome-open %mapfile
FreeDesktop.org standard: xdg-open %mapfile