Hardplan Crates contain the holographic blueprints of revisable rooms and rigid buildings that your Scuzzers build. Some Hardplans can only be opened on the right deck: working facilities like Factories, Energy Collectors, Berths, Sick Bays, etc. belong on the Engineering Deck, while entertainment facilities like Space Bars, Motels, Shops, and other tourist traps go on the Entertainment Deck. Some items can go anywhere: Lavatrons, Dine-O-Mats, Energy Boosters, and Security Turrets can be built anywhere but on the Bio-Deck.

This opens to yield either a piece of furniture that goes into a room, or a Corridor Item that can be planted outside on the deck. Only the right furniture items can be placed in the right rooms: for example, medical equipment can only be placed in a Sick Bay. Some items, like Image Projectors and Chronometers can go anywhere. While you may not be able to make them some types of rooms (like space bars, for instance) you can still beam them there. Corridor Items, once planted, can be beamed up again and then dropped anywhere on the Station, even in the Bio-Deck! A few statues and litter bins in the Bio-Deck never go astray.

Opening one of these awards you the tech that lurked inside it, which then appears in your Build and Factory menus. Its one way to avoid the involved process of researching something, but these green crates cost an arm and a leg.