Tutorials/Falling blocks

This article is about the entity FallingSand. For the article on sand, see Sand.

Falling Sand
Behavior	Does not exist

FallingSand is a type of block that initially spawns as an entity, like regular sand or gravel with physics applied (block broken underneath). It has various applications, ranging from simple displays of falling objects to advanced command block creations.

Commands

The most basic FallingSand command can be applied by typing the following into a command block:

/summon FallingSand ~ ~ ~ {TileID:1}

This command summons in a FallingSand entity in the same (x,y,z) coordinates as the command block, marked by ~ ~ ~. Also, it is a stone block, as a stone block has a tile ID number of 1. Alternatively, Block can be used instead of TileID. Despite changes from numeric IDs to letter IDs in Minecraft 1.8, the tile IDs remain in numeric form. To spawn the block in another location, add numbers after the tildes, for example ~5 ~10 ~-3.

Extra data can be inserted in the NBT tags to modify the how long in seconds the block remains in the air. This NBT tag is Time. Time stands for the time (in ticks) for how long the FallingSand has existed. If 0, the entity despawns, if 1 or greater, will continue ticking up, until it reaches its maximum lifetime of 600 ticks, or 30 seconds. Adding a value of time for the block will cause the block to assume a physical form when coming in contact with the ground, just like a normal sand block falling downwards. Ensure that the different data values are separated by commas:

/summon FallingSand ~ ~ ~ {TileID:1,Time:1}

/summon FallingSand ~ ~ ~ {Block:"minecraft:bedrock",Time:1}

If the FallingSand block spawns at the exact same coordinates as another block (if it would spawn inside a block), you will get a message: "Unable to summon object."

FallingSand does not necessarily need to fall. For an explosion-like feel, or even a simple bounce, FallingSand's motion path can be altered. Note the use of square brackets for the Motion tag:

/summon FallingSand ~ ~2 ~ {TileID:1,Time:1,Motion:[x:0.0,y:0.3,z:0.0]}

The maximum lifetime – 30 seconds – cannot realistically be reached from {Time:1} unless the FallingSand is riding another entity (in which case it isn't falling, but its time is still ticking) or is spawned high enough that it can fall for at least 2,050 blocks (assuming an acceleration of 4.56 m/s²).

FallingSand can be used to summon multiple blocks using the 'riding' NBT tag. Summoning multiple command blocks is the way you make 'one block commands'.