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Caw FAQ's........Links to Tutorials, and Resources. Textures, & Troubleshooting

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    ComrokComrok Posts: 11
    edited October 2011
    Ummm, this may be the wrong place to ask, but I have one teeny tiny question. I consider myself a pretty advanced sims player, but when I downloaded create a world, I couldn't work out how to move around!! :evil: I got veeeeeeeeeeeeery angry because I work out everything else.
    Thanks if you help!

    Ps... the same with rotating
    Pps... I did try clicking on the buttons in the top left corner.
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    auntielyndsauntielynds Posts: 3,071 Member
    edited October 2011
    I had problems too in the beginning. Hopefully you use a mouse, and not your laptop finger thingy, (very technical term).

    Move around with your mouse, right click, hold, and move your mouse to rotate. Use your scroll button on the mouse to go out, or in. You can hold the shift key down to scroll faster. I'm thinking you can use your arrow keys on the keyboard also.

    Hope that helps :)
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    will2586will2586 Posts: 3,863 Member
    edited October 2011
    I accidentally changed my language to greek and I don't know a way to change it back. But I will show you the plan soon when I get it fixed.
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    will2586will2586 Posts: 3,863 Member
    edited October 2011
    Fixed it! One second while I get the plan. It's fine if you don't want to. CAW is pretty much broken and I wasted $75 to get a program to get windows on my mac, only for CAW not realizing how hard it is. And now it's broken! Well i'll get the plan. And take as long as you need!
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    will2586will2586 Posts: 3,863 Member
    edited October 2011
    So here is the plan of the town:
    photo-1.jpg

    Note 1: This top area would be the bigger more expensive lot area for the rich.

    Note 2: All this is the residential area with 20x30, 30x30, 30x40, 40x30, 40x40 lots. Middle Class.

    Farmlands: This would be a lot of farm terrain paint and some dirt roads and lots.

    City Area: Sort of like Rflong's Dark Harbor except has a port area, small central area for the park, and a bunch of lots for other buildings. The size is not the real size I would like. It should be a little bigger than that, a little smaller than Dark Harbor's but not too much.

    "Old Town" Area: This would be a little area that keeps the terrain paint of the city but has enough room for the town hall from pets, and some other buildings from pets. It would still connect to the city but not be too modern. It should match the pets buildings style.

    The world style: A mid colored green grass, something like sunset valley's but a tiny bit darker, the city would have a sidewalk terrain paint, old town would have the same thing, the farmlands would have some pumpkin patches that would have a farm type terrain, the residential area would be like sunset valley's normal landscaping, the upper class area would be darker grass and be a foresty area with dirt paths going through it, 2 60x60 (one at the top counts), 3 40x40, and 1 50x50 lots would be here, for the 60x60 lot at the top it would match the terrain for the rich area. A separate road with no sidewalk and only gravel or asphalt, whichever is easier, would go up to the house.

    Also this wouldn't be a city designated world. Just a normal world.

    Think that's all! It's a little overwhelming to look at! :shock:

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    auntielyndsauntielynds Posts: 3,071 Member
    edited October 2011
    I must go do Sunday stuff with the family, but I'll ruminate on the possibilities :)
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    will2586will2586 Posts: 3,863 Member
    edited October 2011
    I must go do Sunday stuff with the family, but I'll ruminate on the possibilities :)

    What does ruminate mean? I'm thinking it means think?
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    will2586will2586 Posts: 3,863 Member
    edited October 2011
    I might not have school tomorrow because of the snow and half of my town being out of power. Hopefully!
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    will2586will2586 Posts: 3,863 Member
    edited October 2011
    Let's see me try to use ruminate in a sentence.

    Have you come back from ruminating?(?) I would like to know what you think of the plan. If it would take a while you don't have to do it or you could take as long as you want!
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    YzzyBellYzzyBell Posts: 39 Member
    edited November 2011
    This is the best article on CAW i have found, thank you sooooo much! I love it!
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    tsarahpicklestsarahpickles Posts: 22
    edited November 2011
    This is a copy of the Caw FAQ's Shalua originally posted, pre October 2010. In the Fall of 2010, the Forums were hacked, and someone deleted the first page of most of the forums. Luckily Shalua had made a backup copy at TS3CC of the stickied FAQ, and we were able to revive it. I have since expanded the links of tutorials in the first post of this thread.


    CAW Links & Helpful Info:
    World Index - Perfect if you're simply looking for worlds to download, and don't have plans of using CAW.
    CAW Research Thread
    Tutorial
    Beta Walkthrough
    Rabbitholes & sizes
    Assigning Addresses to Lots
    How to Create a Bridge
    Terrain Texture Links & Other Effects
    Downloading and Installing Textures for Caw
    Make your own textures.

    24 bit Png Image Creation with Paint.net
    http://forum.thesims3.com/jforum/posts/list/15/278761.page#3772698

    Pre-made 24bit pngs for Caw thumbnails
    http://forum.thesims3.com/jforum/posts/list/278761.page#3736582

    Video Tutorials:
    How to Create a World 1 of 2
    How to Create a World 2 of 2
    How to Export Your World - Includes instructions on how to make a 256x256 .png image, how to export, & install/upload your world.
    Methods of Bridge Making


    CAW is not currently available for Mac users. It is unknown when/if it will be.

    Useful shortcuts to know in CAW:
    hotkeys.gif

    Problems downloading the CAW tool?

    Blank page –
    Try using a different browser. For me, Firefox didn’t work, but IE did.

    Running CAW:

    Need latest patch –
    Go to “Game Updates” in your launcher and make sure you are up to date. If this doesn’t work, try reinstalling. You won't lose data when you uninstall The Sims 3, as long as you say "No" when the wizard asks "Do you wish to remove your saved games and custom content?" To be sure though, you can backup your data located at:
    C:\Users\UserName\Documents\Electronic Arts\The Sims 3 on Windows Vista/7 or
    C:\Documents and Settings\UserName\My Documents\Electronic Arts\The Sims 3 on Windows XP.

    Edit in Game:

    Slow loading time fix -
    go to My Documents/Electronic Arts/The Sims 3
    Move the folder titled 'DCCache' somewhere safe outside of your sims3 folder. (I use my desktop)
    This should reduce your loading time to a couple minutes or less. When you want to play your game, just put it back in the same place.

    Out of bounds fix -
    If having problems with objects being considered 'out of bounds' when they clearly have enough room, go to the menu in the bottom left corner and click 'edit town' and edit all your lots through there. if you are still having problems then use the 'moveobjects on' cheat. using the cheat before going to edit town can make the object unusable and considered to be in another lot halfway across the world.

    Riverview Objects:

    Rabbitholes not showing up in CAW? If someone downloads a world with Riverview objects, but they do not have Riverview in their game, the objects will not show up.

    Graveyard Ghosts:

    Take a sim household and kill off all but one sim. Have the leftover sim take the graves to the graveyard and place them there and tada! You have ghosts!

    If you don't care about having ghosts, then when in Edit-in-Game type in "BuyDebug" in the cheat bar. (ctrl + shift + c) Then you will have a small selection of gravestones to chose from and place.

    Exporting Your World:

    Add a name and a description for your town, these will show up on the exchange and you can’t change it after you upload, so chose wisely. ;)

    You need a 24-bit png Image -
    Use photoshop if you have it, or use one of the many free programs out there. Here are a couple.
    Paint http://www.getpaint.net/
    GIMP http://www.gimp.org/
    Make sure the image is sized at exactly 256x256!
    Here is a helpful thread regaurding this.

    Installing Your World:

    After you export it successfully, go to C:\Users\YOURUSERNAME\Documents\Electronic Arts\The Sims 3\Exports
    Then open up the sims3pack file which should be called what you named your world. This should open up the launcher and automatically install. Just play your game and it should be an option when you start a new game.

    Says “already installed” – This problem occurs usually when you’ve already installed your world once, and you’ve worked on it some more and are installing an updated version. You must first remove the last one you installed. Open your launcher and go to “installed content”. Check the box next to the world and then hit “uninstall”.

    If the problem still persists try checking these folders for files related to the world, and delete them:
    C:\Users\YOURUSERNAME\Documents\Electronic Arts\The Sims 3\InstalledWorlds
    C:\Users\YOURUSERNAME\Documents\Electronic Arts\The Sims 3\WorldCaches
    You might also try deleting any saved files accompanying that world:
    C:\Users\YOURUSERNAME\Documents\Electronic Arts\The Sims 3\Saves
    I seriously doubt you will have to do that though, uninstalling through the launcher should work just fine.

    Uploading Your World:

    There is a known issue with uploading worlds. The launcher times out after 100 seconds - this has been confirmed by several simmers. If you get the message "upload failed: Network error. Please try again" then your internet is too slow for the size of the world. Until EA fixes this your only option is to upload it to an external site and maybe post a link in the world index sticky.

    You can always upload it to another site and post the link in these forums if all else fails.

    Uninstalling Worlds:
    To uninstall a world simply open your game launcher, and click on the "installed content" tab. Find the world you want to uninstall, check it, and then click "uninstall". This will completely remove the world and any saves for that world from your game.

    Using CAW:

    Terrain Paints:

    This is how you get different paint options for your terrain. All of the default terrains are there for you to use, but you can make your own custom terrain if you like.
    selectpaint.gif"width=600"

    Now that you have the paint you want to use for the terrain, you need to fiddle with the brush parameters to make it look nice, instead of choppy and goofy. Just play around with the Shape, Size, Opacity, and Falloff and see what works for you. Generally I have falloff set to 0, because I think it looks really bad and unnatural with the sharp, abrupt edges it has. You can save a bunch of different settings that you like so you can use them again and again quickly without having to play with the sliders every 5 seconds. When you have a setting you want to save hit the little arrow (small red circle). As you can see, I have two brushes saved in this image. The difference is shown on the left. When switching between brushes just double click the one you want.
    brushparam.gif

    Adding Layers:

    You must add at least one layer to the map in order to place any objects, effects, lots, or roads. To do this, under the "World Layers" tab right-click on yourworldnamehere.world and click "add layer". Now you can place objects and such on your map.

    layers1.gif

    Working with multiple layers:

    To switch between layers, right-click on the layer you want to work with and click "Make Layer Active".

    layers2.gif

    The active layer will be shown in bold text, so you know which layer you are working with at any given time.

    layers3.gif

    Working with layers can be very helpful and keeps things neat so you can find things easier. Many people have layers set up similar to this: Lots, Trees, Effects, & Spawners. You can do it however you want, but keep in mind that all your trees should be in ONE layer. If you use multiple layers for trees it will bring the performance of your world down and may play very laggy on older, lower-end computers. Also, make sure when you're done placing trees use the "cluster trees" button to improve performance.

    Be careful when working with multiple layers. Yes, working with layers can help you make everything neat and organized, but if you forget to change layers, and you place a ton of objects on say, your "Lots" layer, you now have to spend extra time putting those objects on the right layer. *If this happens, under the "World Layers" tab, simply drag the name of the object you want to move, to the layer you want it under.

    Custom Roads:

    You can use different road types, such as the dirt road, by clicking on the road tool and then clicking "create a custom road". From there you basically piece the road together by selecting the different parts for each section. (road base, road texture, sidewalk base, etc.) The dirt road is the easiest to do as all the pieces are clearly labeled, but you can always try out different textures and see how it looks.
    Once you have your custom road, right click the road name and click "select as active" then just lay it out like you would normally. You can always change how it looks later by right clicking it's name and clicking "edit". So if you change your mind later, you don't have to place all your roads again. However, keep in mind you can't edit the default road, so if you think you might want something other than the default, make your own custom road that you can change whenever you want.
    (I will probably be adding a few screenies for this section later. ;))

    niether internet explorer or fire fox worked
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    auntielyndsauntielynds Posts: 3,071 Member
    edited November 2011
    Worked for what?

    The links?

    I'm using firefox with no problems, and the page is rendering fine.


    :?:
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    georgingeorgin Posts: 256 Member
    edited November 2011
    Hi, I'm writing on behalf of my friend because her english isn't so good. She is having problems with "edit in game", it doesn't open for her through the caw tool (she doesn't get the launcher instead, it just attempts to open it and it crashes). She downloaded the eig.bat file and did the drag and drop of the world file on to the .bat file. When the batch file runs she sees this screen (http://i1179.photobucket.com/albums/x390/matinakaivagos/Greenshot_protominima.png), the pets starts to load on the systray but it goes to non responding soon after and an error file gets generated in the folder where the eig.bat is that says "not enough memory". Then she presses a key to exit and nothing happens. Any idea why it's not working? She has the latest caw version (downloaded it today), all eps (incl. generations) and latest game update and caw is not running when she does all that. She has 3 gb of ram. She also has deleted all caw caches and sims3 caches.
    Any help appreciated!
    Post edited by Unknown User on
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    auntielyndsauntielynds Posts: 3,071 Member
    edited November 2011
    The first thing I would try is LAA, Large Address Aware. It's a little program that allows caw to use up to 4 gigs of ram, instead of the 2gigs it's programed to use. In your friends case, it will be able to access all 3 gigs she has available.

    LAA
    Download here: http://www.techpowerup.com/forums/showthread.php?t=112556
    Read about it here: http://simswiki.info/wiki.php?title=Sims_3:Large_Address_Aware

    Any other caw issues, check out this thread: http://www.modthesims.info/showthread.php?t=441595

    Also, she/he probably already does this, but shut down any other programs while running Caw. Open up the task manager and look at what programs are useing a lot of memory.

    This is what mine looks like right now, I could shut down firefox, skype,Side bar, and probably Origins (as long as caw doesn't need that to run EIG. I don't think it does.)
    bKk0x.png
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    matinakaivagosmatinakaivagos Posts: 211
    edited November 2011
    ty both of you for youre help :)
    i download this LLA , open and for 1 step put the world tool for the 2 step i have put v is ok this ? ( i have vista ) i push save and is ok . now i close and go to open caw ?

    it not work for me :(
    Post edited by Unknown User on
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    georgingeorgin Posts: 256 Member
    edited November 2011
    The first thing I would try is LAA, Large Address Aware. It's a little program that allows caw to use up to 4 gigs of ram, instead of the 2gigs it's programed to use. In your friends case, it will be able to access all 3 gigs she has available.

    Thanks for the reply. About the LAA I thought that the latest patches by EA have taken care of the memory problem and this is what the simswiki is reporting: "If your game is patched to 1.17/2.12/3.8/4.5/5.2/6.0 or newer, the necessary files are already large address aware so there is no reason to follow the instructions on this page."
    Is that the case only for the game and eps and not for caw? caw still needs to be converted manually? In any case I think she has already used CFF explorer to make caw L address aware, I will double check. Also I'll make sure no other applications are running when she attempts to run EIG. Thanks again, I'll report back.
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    matinakaivagosmatinakaivagos Posts: 211
    edited November 2011
    i'm sorry is not working for me :(
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    matinakaivagosmatinakaivagos Posts: 211
    edited November 2011
    hi :mrgreen: my world tool is ok now !! and i start a new world ,how can i have more night and litle day ? i see one thread but i dont remeber where :/ do you know how ?
    Post edited by Unknown User on
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    bakes7bakes7 Posts: 59 Member
    edited November 2011
    I'm really sorry if this was already discussed on this thread but I just don't have time to read through it all. I need to know how to change the world number or whatever it is. I made changes to a world I had previously made and basically turned that world into a completely different world. I'd like to keep both worlds by changing the world numbers of if I have to would I just have to delete my first world to keep my remodeled one?
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    bunbunnynybunbunnyny Posts: 3,678 Member
    edited November 2011
    By any chance, Auntie, do you suppose it would be necessary to release a "How to Create a Story Mode World" if I ever get around to releasing Castle Point? I think that it may provide some helpful and convenient tips on how to create one, but I'm not sure just yet whether or not that I'll need to make an entire thread on It...
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    auntielyndsauntielynds Posts: 3,071 Member
    edited November 2011
    Hi Bunbun :D

    I think if you did a how to, right in a post in your world thread, then give me the link, that would be good.
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    earthgirlearthgirl Posts: 1,026 Member
    edited November 2011
    has CAW been updated since Pets was released?

    Cuz, after installing the latest game update, CAW saves in EIG mode bork'd all of my files.
    NK4koaX.png
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    BSIReginaBSIRegina Posts: 5,110 Member
    edited November 2011
    Earthgirl, yes it did. It's been updated and EIG is working fine. :)
    Thanks to AdBlock: currently blocking 184 annoying animated siggy .gifs ;)
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    earthgirlearthgirl Posts: 1,026 Member
    edited November 2011
    Well, I tried last night and each time I go to EIG I get this 'Initialization error'. :(

    So, no EIG for me.

    EDIT: Nvm, figured it out why it didn't work. x'D
    Post edited by Unknown User on
    NK4koaX.png

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