From empty garage to published build
MyCars12 is a build log. A build is one model car; a phase is one stage of that build. This page explains the pieces and the order they happen in — about three minutes of reading.
From account to first build
Your garage is your home page: published builds on one tab, drafts on another.
“+ New build” in the top bar creates a draft and opens the editor. The editor is the build page itself — you edit it in place and everything saves automatically.
A draft is private. Nobody else sees it, and it does not appear on Discover until you publish it.
A build is a timeline of phases
A phase is one stage of work: a name, a date, an optional note, its photos, and any files you want to share (STL, PDF, instructions).
The timeline runs newest first, so the leftmost column is the most recent phase. The + at the left end adds newer work; the thin + between two columns fills a gap in the middle.
Drop photos straight into a phase column, or click it to pick files. We read the capture date out of the photos and offer the earliest one as the phase date — one click to accept.
Cover and Final — two different flags
Every phase column carries two small chips. They look alike and do completely different things. A build has at most one of each, and the same phase can carry both.
Cover
Marks the one phase whose photos become the build’s cover images.
Where it shows: the card on Discover, the tile in your garage, the link preview when you share the build, and the hero grid at the top of the build page.
Shortcut: dropping a photo into the big Cover slot in the editor creates a phase called Cover and flags it. That is where the phase you did not add comes from.
Final
Marks the phase holding the photo shoot of the finished model.
Where it shows: the build’s status. With at least one photo in the Final phase the build counts as Finished; without it, it lists under In progress.
Final is not required to publish. Publish first, tick Final the day the model is done.
Publishing
The checklist at the top of the editor counts down what a build still needs before it can go public:
- a name
- a marque and a model
- at least one phase
- a Cover phase with at least one photo — not needed if your cover layout is the graphic-only Title Card
Every row is clickable and scrolls to the field it is talking about. Once the list is complete, “Publish to Discover →” makes the build public: it gets its own address, appears on Discover and in your garage, and other builders can like and comment on it.
Adding work later
Open your garage and hit Edit on any build to reopen the same editor. Add a phase, drop today’s photos into it, done.
From a phone, Fast Drop in the top bar adds a phase with photos to a build without opening the whole editor. Install MyCars12 to your home screen and it opens straight into it.
Questions people actually ask
Why does my build show under “In progress”?
No phase is flagged Final, or the Final phase has no photos yet. Tick Final on the phase with your finished shoot and put at least one photo in it.
The Publish button says something is left.
Open the checklist at the top of the editor — the rows that are not ticked are what is missing. The usual one is a Cover phase with no photo in it.
A phase called “Cover” appeared that I did not add.
That happens when you drop a photo into the big Cover slot: the photo has to live in a phase, so we create one named Cover and flag it. Rename it, move the photo elsewhere or delete the phase — nothing is locked.
How do I change the cover photo or its layout?
Drop a different photo into the Cover slot, or click the slot to pick one already in the Cover phase. Click a placed photo to set its focus point and zoom. The layout strip under the hero swaps between cover layouts, including the photo-free Title Card.
Can I delete a phase, or the whole build?
Yes. The ✕ in the corner of a phase column deletes that phase and its photos. “Delete draft” / “Delete build” in the editor’s top bar removes the whole thing. Both are permanent.