I created this mod because I was tired of moving from settlement to settlement looking for the right fricken' resources I needed for manufacturing! Especially since they are connected, yet there is no way to pull the specific resources I need. Now there is! Thought others might enjoy this as well.

This does not require the Contraptions Workshop DLC, and it has other benefits unrelated, but it was pretty much made for it, so I highly suggest you also have the Contraptions Workshop if you download this mod.

I also suggest you download a mod that removes the build limit on your settlements. I haven't tested it, but I imagine if you build a ton of crates it will suck up a lot of the build limit. If someone with a build limit could test this for me and get back to me that would be great.


How Crates works:

Crates are kind of like shipments in that they represent a group of crafting material. Crates however, are static objects that the player can place through the settlement build menu.

To place a crate, at least 25 of a resource is required (for an extra small). To move the resources from a crate to a workbench, simply scrap the crate in the build menu. It will give you back the exact number of resource put into the crate.

Crates come in five sizes. Extra small, small, medium, large, and extra large. which hold 25, 50, 100, 200, and 4000 materials respectively. 

As of version 1.55 extra large crates have been added along with a color code to differentiate crates for easier finding. Currently the color code is not used for the wooden crates, but they will be added probably in the next version.

Below is the crate color code and easy ways to remember them in parentheses. Red, green, and blue should be the easiest to remember being only for oil, nuclear material and water respectively.

yellow (electrical components) - circuitry, crystal, fiber optics, copper  
red - oil  
orange (volatile chemicals) - acid, fertilizer
green - nuclear material
blue - water
solid gray (common raw materials)- steel, aluminum, lead, wood
gray striped (basic materials) - ceramic, concrete, glass, plastic, rubber, fiberglass
black (complex materials) - screws, gears, springs, bone
aqua (non-volatile chemicals) - antiseptic, adhesive  
brown (armor crafting) - cork, leather, anti-ballistic fiber, cloth, asbestos
white (precious metals and currency) - gold, silver, caps, pre-war money

Benefits of Crates:

-there is a max limit on the resources your scavenger settlers can gather, removing resources from the workbench in this way can get around that
-you can remove materials from your workbench to store in another form (good for manufacturing, prevents hopper from taking resources you don't want it to)
-an aesthetic  addition to the settlement build menu, which incentivises people to make buildings dedicated to storage
-crates are snappable and stackable in various ways for more easy and orderly storage
-it's an easy way to scrap large amounts of junk items

If you have connected settlements...

-because you can use resources from all connected workbenches to build, you can easily pull a resource you need for manufacturing from other connected workbenches
-as an added bonus, you can see how much of each resource you have among your all connected settlements through the crates option in the build menu 


In future versions:

-colored crates for crates smaller than extra large