How can you get an npc to move out of the way when you want to use something, like a forge, or an alchemy lab, grinding stone, etc.?? I know that the housecarls in Hearthfire will move out of the way and let you have access to the equipment but my npcs will not. I've looked at them in the CK but can't seem to find what is making them defer to the player.

Anyone know how to do this?

Just click on the item they are using. You'll get a message about someone else using it, but it will also cause them to back away from it and let you use it. If you're in a hurry just click again right away, you'll be warped into position and they'll be pushed away.

Fus Roh Da usually works in my experience.

Oh, in the CK? Generally I'm with cdcooley - you can use the item they're using and they'll get off it, or sprint at them and rudely barge them out of the way. If you stand up close to a non hostile npc and stare at them for a but, they'll generally take the hint.

If your NPCs aren't doing these things, it could be a DefaultMasterPackack option that they're missing - or which never fires.

Failing that, you could probably do something clever with a conversation option where you place a marker say 20 units away in the direction you're looking, and then start a three second scene where the NPC travels to that marker. Give it priority 99 or something and it should move them all right. Not sure the benefit is worth the faff on, mind.

Clicking on the item I want to use did the trick. Not sure why I never had that problem when actually playing the game. Thank you!

DocClox, I've pretty much created all of my own packages and I'm not using masters. I wish I could do something clever with conversations, but I'm not getting how to set all that up.

Might be worth looking at the master definitions then to see if there's something that triggers when you stand too close to someone.

For the marker: you need an xmarkerheading somewhere. The create a topic on the lines of "out of the way, you" (you'd probably be more polite) and have it call a script.

The script gets the players z-angle so it knows which way the DB is looking, and moves the marker to 20 units or so in that direction. Basically move it to the pc's location plus x and y offsets based on the angle. The trig is on the wiki somewhere.

Once you have the marker, force the actor you want to move into a quest alias and start a scene that gives that actor three seconds of Travel package with the destination being the xmarkerheading you just placed. They'll try and move onto it and in the process get out of the way.

Like I say, probably more trouble than it's worth.