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Zoo U Course 7: Bits and Bites Building Basics (self-paced tutorial)

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  • ZooProfessor3ZooProfessor3 Posts: 9,847 Member
    edited January 2013
    Hi there, Zoo U-ers!

    It's Tuesday and our class is this Saturday, so now is a good time to talk about what to expect and what you might do to be the best-prepared student you can be.

    WHAT YOU SHOULD EXPECT:

    1. Generally, about a half hour or so before our class starts, I will come to the class thread and reserve several posts in a row. This is where I will put the different parts of the lesson.

    2. I will put the parts of the lesson up as soon as class begins, sometimes I put up the entire lesson right away and sometimes I put it up in stages as I think some students are ready for the next part.

    3. Students will make comments and ask questions on the thread as they get to the different parts of the lesson.

    4. Students will be moving back and forth from their game, where they are doing the steps from the lesson, to the course thread where they are asking their questions and seeing the next part of the lesson as they are ready to attempt it.

    5. Some students may finish very quickly, some may use the entire two hour time slot for the course, and some may still be working on the course long after the two hours are over.

    6. Anyone who is not doing the course live, or who finishes the course after the two-hour live portion is over, can still post a question on this thread and I will make sure to answer it.

    7. There may or may not be homework assigned with the lesson.

    WHAT SHOULD YOU DO PRIOR TO SATURDAY'S LESSON?

    1. Read the first several posts on this thread, especially the post that has links for Zoo U students.

    2. Consider making a Builder's Blank version of Sunset Valley as detailed in the thread about using a Builder's Blank neighborhood.

    3. Consider making a Tester Sim (or downloading the one I provided, or using one that you already have) to use for your build. Building with a Sim on the lot has many obvious advantages and one of them is the ease of saving your game.

    4. Look through the list of previous Zoo U courses and see if there is anything there you might want to view prior to class.

    5. ASK ABOUT ANYTHING THAT SEEMS CONFUSING! You are not being annoying or causing a problem, I WANT you to ask me your questions, that is how you learn.

    Let me just say that I don't hold myself up as the be-all and end-all authority on building. I know some stuff and I would love to share the stuff I know with you. I am sure that I will learn some things as well!




    oow785m
  • BreeMilesBreeMiles Posts: 8,903 Member
    edited January 2013
    "Register Me!" Sign me Up ZOO!!!! I'm going to give it a try, hope I can keep up....


    I'm not good with deadline's, I work to much in real life, but I will give this a try....
  • CrescentMoonPyeCrescentMoonPye Posts: 2,080 Member
    edited January 2013
    Well, Zoo, I read all my post 1 & 2 prep threads homework, so that's done. I will try to apply what I can by Saturday. I'm not sure that I can do any of it on my available puter [old, cripply thing that it is], but the threads were awfully enlightening for the future anyway.
    :mrgreen: Glad I read them!
    ::hint hint, nudge nudge to classmates who haven't done it yet::

    I'm APPALLED that there still aren't EA cheats yet to level up/skill up sims. :P weird. I always assumed you DNA guys used magic cheats.
    I'll level up my simself as best I can before the weekend - at least she'll always look good while failing in class:
    large.jpg"width=150"
  • jenny0786jenny0786 Posts: 1,165 Member
    edited January 2013
    I am looking forward to Saturday :D I have got my tester sim ready :D Now I am going to try to make a blank builder neighborhood. I am going to try my hardest Saturday :D I am looking forward to seeing all of my classmates as well!
  • nerdy3000nerdy3000 Posts: 5,520 Member
    edited January 2013
    Yay, I'm so excited! And I finally remembered to bookmark this thread! That took about forever.
    My Saturday will be awesome! I can't wait.
    Just wondering Zoo, have you got any plans or ideas for the next course?
    For a course can I suggest apartments and all that stuff. I still haven't figured out how on earth these elevators work. The high-rise building shells look cool but I am scared to even attempt to do something with them. And If you do this then I've got plenty more questions to bug you with...
    Thank you in advance for doing this excellent course, it will be a huge help to all of us :)
    Yay, I can't wait, I'm so excited!
  • ZooProfessor3ZooProfessor3 Posts: 9,847 Member
    edited January 2013
    BreeMiles wrote:
    "Register Me!" Sign me Up ZOO!!!! I'm going to give it a try, hope I can keep up....


    I'm not good with deadline's, I work to much in real life, but I will give this a try....

    I will add you to the class roster right away, Welcome to Zoo U!
    oow785m
  • ZooProfessor3ZooProfessor3 Posts: 9,847 Member
    edited January 2013
    Well, Zoo, I read all my post 1 & 2 prep threads homework, so that's done. I will try to apply what I can by Saturday. I'm not sure that I can do any of it on my available puter [old, cripply thing that it is], but the threads were awfully enlightening for the future anyway.
    :mrgreen: Glad I read them!
    ::hint hint, nudge nudge to classmates who haven't done it yet::

    I'm APPALLED that there still aren't EA cheats yet to level up/skill up sims. :P weird. I always assumed you DNA guys used magic cheats.
    I'll level up my simself as best I can before the weekend - at least she'll always look good while failing in class:
    large.jpg"width=150"

    Cressie,

    I wish we KNEW some Magic Cheats! LOL!

    I have thought for some time that letting the player set the skill levels for each skill was a cheat that should be made available. Even for hidden skills. That way you could truly customize a Sim whose life you wish to try out. For example, if you wanted to have a brilliant but poor painter, who was going to make her living by selling her art, then you need to START with a Sim who already has a very high skill in painting.

    Sometimes you would want to start with no skill and build, but sometimes the story of your Sim's life would be more realistic if you could set the level of each skill to whatever you desire. In Sims 2 you could do that for all but hobbies and hidden skills.

    I have heard that Master Controller does allow this option, but I have a fear of MODs, so I don't know from experience that that is the case.

    I hope you get your computer woes fixed soon!

    Zoo
    oow785m
  • ZooProfessor3ZooProfessor3 Posts: 9,847 Member
    edited January 2013
    jenny0786 wrote:
    I am looking forward to Saturday :D I have got my tester sim ready :D Now I am going to try to make a blank builder neighborhood. I am going to try my hardest Saturday :D I am looking forward to seeing all of my classmates as well!

    Good job, sounds like you'll be well-prepared! :D
    oow785m
  • ZooProfessor3ZooProfessor3 Posts: 9,847 Member
    edited January 2013
    nerdy3000 wrote:
    Yay, I'm so excited! And I finally remembered to bookmark this thread! That took about forever.
    My Saturday will be awesome! I can't wait.
    Just wondering Zoo, have you got any plans or ideas for the next course?
    For a course can I suggest apartments and all that stuff. I still haven't figured out how on earth these elevators work. The high-rise building shells look cool but I am scared to even attempt to do something with them. And If you do this then I've got plenty more questions to bug you with...
    Thank you in advance for doing this excellent course, it will be a huge help to all of us :)
    Yay, I can't wait, I'm so excited!

    Hi, nerdy! I have many plans for upcoming Zoo U courses, but I am happy to take all suggestions. I have approached a few different possible guest professors.

    Tentatively (depending on my being able to get a teacher), I have the following topics in mind:
    *Apartments
    *Landscaping
    *Photography (for showcasing your builds)
    *In-game photographs (for decorating your builds)

    I have approached teachers for all these four, but no one has given me a hard yes or no. YET. I am known to nag when looking for a teacher for Zoo U. :lol:
    oow785m
  • nerdy3000nerdy3000 Posts: 5,520 Member
    edited January 2013
    nerdy3000 wrote:
    Yay, I'm so excited! And I finally remembered to bookmark this thread! That took about forever.
    My Saturday will be awesome! I can't wait.
    Just wondering Zoo, have you got any plans or ideas for the next course?
    For a course can I suggest apartments and all that stuff. I still haven't figured out how on earth these elevators work. The high-rise building shells look cool but I am scared to even attempt to do something with them. And If you do this then I've got plenty more questions to bug you with...
    Thank you in advance for doing this excellent course, it will be a huge help to all of us :)
    Yay, I can't wait, I'm so excited!

    Hi, nerdy! I have many plans for upcoming Zoo U courses, but I am happy to take all suggestions. I have approached a few different possible guest professors.

    Tentatively (depending on my being able to get a teacher), I have the following topics in mind:
    *Apartments
    *Landscaping
    *Photography (for showcasing your builds)
    *In-game photographs (for decorating your builds)

    I have approached teachers for all these four, but no one has given me a hard yes or no. YET. I am known to nag when looking for a teacher for Zoo U. :lol:

    These are all such excellent ideas for future courses! All these courses would help me so much! Thank you so much for doing these courses and for spending time helping all of us :)
  • priscapuppriscapup Posts: 1,670 Member
    edited January 2013
    I'm so excited! It's Thursday evening, and we haven't left to go anywhere yet! Meaning, I can probably find a way to delay any trip by at least a few days now, so I will be here for class on Saturday for sure! WOOT!! :mrgreen:

    OK, carry on.
  • CrescentMoonPyeCrescentMoonPye Posts: 2,080 Member
    edited January 2013
    Zoo, I hear ya, baby! Some sims are prodigies in our heads and it's so frustrating to not make that so in-game by starting out with natural talents at a high level. Oh well.

    (MODS scare me cuz they bo.ogered my TS2 game something awful. So I avoid them too, even though I understand the added features they create are definitely cool.)

    Here comes first day of class... Woot!
  • nerdy3000nerdy3000 Posts: 5,520 Member
    edited January 2013
    Yay! Saturday is tomorrow! :D I can't wait! I'll make my tester sim as soon as I finish my RS homework.
  • ZooProfessor3ZooProfessor3 Posts: 9,847 Member
    edited January 2013
    Just checking in! I have a lesson to finish so I'm off in a second, but I wanted to make sure anyone who was free tomorrow knows that it is not too late to join us!
    oow785m
  • ZooProfessor3ZooProfessor3 Posts: 9,847 Member
    edited January 2013
    Hi! Here’s hoping this goes off as planned because NOTHING else has done that this week! : )

    SOME DEFINITIONS WE WILL USE FOR CONVENIENCE
    Basements done “the old way” refers to basements made WITHOUT using the basement tool that came with World Adventures (and I think also came with the associated game patch).

    World Adventure (WA) basements refers to basements made using the basement tool.

    Walkout basement is intended to mean a basement with one or more exterior exits via the basement while the rest of the basement is buried inside the ground.


    SOME HANDY ABBREVIATIONS YOU SHOULD KNOW
    1. MOO refers to the moveObjects cheat (it is moveObjects on to turn the cheat on and moveObjects off to turn it off). This is an incredibly useful cheat, BUT DO NOT PLAY WITH THIS CHEAT ACTIVE. Build with it, then turn it off to go into live mode. If you don’t you can cause routing errors on the lot. Sometimes these errors eventually go away once the cheat is off.

    2. CFE refers to the ConstrainFloorElevation cheat (use off to make the cheat work and on to make it stop). Yes, the off and on seems backwards at first glance, but this makes sense if you think about it. Usually the floor elevations ARE constrained and we don’t want them to be if we are using the cheat. This cheat is very powerful and very dangerous. Few things can so mess up a build, so ALWAYS save right before you use it and take care when using it.


    There are a few preliminary steps that I always do to make my building experience less annoying. Some of these are optional, but highly recommended. If it is optional, I will mark it as such.




    BEFORE YOU OPEN YOUR GAME (optional)
    1. If you have been playing for a long time, or just had your game open for a long time, then it isn’t a bad idea to close everything down and reboot your machine before you start an extended gaming (or building) session. This is especially useful if your machine often has problems with too little virtual memory after a long gaming session.

    2. Before opening your game, clear your caches. In order to do this, go to Documents, choose the Electronic Arts folder, then the Sims 3 folder, then delete CASPartCache, SimCompositorCache, compositorCache, and scriptCache. These are reproduced by the game each time you open it and I have been told (though I do not profess to understand how this works) that the game can sometimes become confused if you already have these files when you open it and it makes fresh ones. All I know is that I seem to have fewer glitches and crashes and problems in general if I do this each time right before I open my game.


    Post edited by Unknown User on
    oow785m
  • ZooProfessor3ZooProfessor3 Posts: 9,847 Member
    edited July 2014
    ONCE YOU OPEN YOUR GAME
    1. Load your game.

    2. Before choosing the game you wish to play (while still on the opening menu), open the cheat window (by pressing CONTROL + SHIFT+ C) and type in “testingCheatsEnabled true” (without the quotes). Then open the cheat window a second time and type in “buyDebug on” (without the quotes). It is important to do this BEFORE going into your home lot for full functionality of these cheats.

    3. When choosing the game you wish to play, either choose a new game (and choose Sunset Valley as the world you wish to use) or, if you made the recommended Builder’s Blank version of Sunset Valley, load that game.

    4. We don’t want to mess up our Builder’s Blank world, so use the Save As option while still in Edit Town mode and then choose a name for this game that you will recognize.

    5. If you have Supernatural loaded on your machine, then go to the Options menu and choose to have the moon set at one phase (and choose any phase except full moon). We don’t want to be pestered with periodic zombie attacks as we are trying to build.

    6. If you have Seasons on your machine, it would be helpful to build during summer, with no weather, but TEST with winter and snow. This is especially important when building basements as there are problems with snow and frosty floors (if you don’t do it correctly) in basements made “the old way”.

    7. Choose a Sim to use as your Tester Sim. This is your building partner and it is really handy if he or she has certain skills at high levels. For detailed information on what makes a good tester, you can view the thread in the recommended reading, BUT any Sim at all will work.

    8. Choose a large, flat lot of any kind and have your Sim buy it. For my own lot I will be using one of the 60 X 60 lots that would usually be occupied by one of the pre-made Sunset Valley households, but they are gone in the Builder’s Blank version. Keep in mind that I can move the finished build anywhere I wish, so it doesn’t matter which lot you choose EXCEPT it will be bad news to start with a hilly, uneven lot. A nice flat area around a nice flat lot is what you are looking for. You can choose the terrain tools and hit the button to flatten the entire lot, but if that causes buckling of the lot near the street-side edge then you are asking for trouble later.

    Screenshot-4.jpg"width=600"

    NOTE: I chose 10 Summer Hill Court in Sunset Valley for my build. If you don’t use a lot that is the same size, you may have to do the parts of this lesson on different lots (which will be a pain as you will have to do a lot of the introductory steps again for each lot you use). If you choose a lot that will allow you to do all the basement lessons on one lot, you will have a lot when you finish the class that you can actually decorate, landscape, and play on.


    9. Shift-click on the mailbox and you should see a menu with the option to “Make Needs Static”, choose that. We aren’t playing, we’re building. We don’t want to hear a Sim whining that they need to eat or sleep or use the bathroom we haven’t even built yet and this cheat makes sure they are nicely content.
    Screenshot-6.jpg"width=600"

    10. Go to the Options menu and turn free will off for your Tester Sim. We don’t care that they want to be a singer or meet someone or have babies, we have a job for them to do.

    11. Also turn off aging and turn off Story Progression. We don’t want our Tester Sim to die on us and we don’t want the game to keep trying to repopulate the town that we went to all the trouble to depopulate in the first place.

    12. Open the cheat window and give your Tester Sim a huge pile of Simoleons (either use “motherlode” a bunch of times or use “FamilyFunds LAST NAME HERE AMOUNT THEY NEED HERE” (example FamilyFunds Tester 1000000).

    13. Turn off Auto-roof. Auto-roof is evil and should NEVER be used. Make friends with the roofing tools, boys and girls.

    14. Have your Sim call for services and ask that the newspaper be discontinued. You can turn it back on later if you play this lot, but we don't want a pile of old papers littering up the yard as we try to build.

    15. NOW we are ready to build.
    Screenshot-9.jpg"width=600"

    16. If there are still skills for your Tester to learn, have him or her sit in a corner of the lot and work on the skill until you need them for something. Better still, if they have a high painting skill, buy an easel and put them in an out of the way corner to paint while you build. As you can see, my Sim's cat, Helix, is just about as helpful as my cat, Bosco.
    Screenshot-10.jpg"width=600"


    Post edited by Unknown User on
    oow785m
  • ZooProfessor3ZooProfessor3 Posts: 9,847 Member
    edited January 2013
    LET’S MAKE A WALK-OUT BASEMENT “THE OLD WAY”

    1. Go into Buy/Build. If it isn’t daytime, choose the icon that looks like a half a sun and half a moon to make it daytime. Go to the back right corner as shown here and lay out a 20 X 10 layer of red tiles. This is just to map out the area.
    Screenshot-14.jpg"width=600"

    2. Delete the red tiles except for a one-tile wide border along three sides as shown.
    Screenshot-15.jpg"width=600"

    3. Lay foundation as shown. This is actually one square bigger than we want it all the way around the perimeter.
    Screenshot-17.jpg"width=600"

    4. Take out the section shown.
    Screenshot-18.jpg"width=600"

    5. Drop the screen down to the lowest level (so you can see inside the foundation pieces. Use a set of stairs three times to dig down into this area. This, if you did it correctly, is exactly the height of a wall section and we are only using the stairs to get the exact depth we want.
    Screenshot-20.jpg"width=600"
    Screenshot-21.jpg"width=600"
    Screenshot-22.jpg"width=600"

    6. Delete the stairs. Find the very lowest level of terrain that the stairs made and use the terrain tool to lower all the dirt to this level inside the foundation pieces.
    Screenshot-24.jpg"width=600"

    Screenshot-26.jpg"width=600"

    7. Test to see if you can put in a wall as shown.
    Screenshot-27.jpg"width=600"

    8. Put up walls for the basement (we do NOT just want to paint the interior of the foundation sides and use those as walls as that would cause lighting errors (as the game would read it as if you are inside the foundation and not in a regular room) AND you would also get “frosty floors” and interior snow if you have Seasons installed. That is less than optimal.
    Screenshot-31.jpg"width=600"

    Notice that we did NOT put up a wall along the front edge? That is because this foundation is going to be completely replaced with wall sections so that we can make a walk-out basement. If you wanted a regular basement, just make a wall one tile in across the front just the way we did across the back and sides.

    9. Use the flatten terrain tool, go inside your basement, click on a tile, and flatten an area out in front of the basement.
    Screenshot-32.jpg"width=600"
    Screenshot-33.jpg"width=600"

    10. Delete the foundation piece and add a wall section all across the front as shown.
    Screenshot-35.jpg"width=600"

    Screenshot-39.jpg"width=600"

    11. What we have right now would work, the game will read this as a room and not as a weird area inside a foundation, but if we were stuck with this it would mean that we could never have basements that went nearly all the way to the edge of the interior of the foundation, there would always be a tile-wide space and then the tile-wide foundation.

    That isn’t the best we can do. If we do it carefully, we CAN have a basement that reads as a room but still only have one tile of foundation between our basement room and the exterior of the building.

    12. Drop the view all the way down (so that we see inside the foundation pieces and add foundation as shown, ALWAYS building FROM the existing foundation TO the walls. It won’t work if you try to do it the other direction. You will likely have to keep dropping the level after each pieces of straight foundation laid.
    Screenshot-40.jpg"width=600"
    Screenshot-41.jpg"width=600"
    Screenshot-42.jpg"width=600"
    Screenshot-43.jpg"width=600"
    Screenshot-44.jpg"width=600"

    13. Delete the red tiles we used to map out the space and delete the extra edge of foundation so that only one square of foundation is used around the basement, but leave the wall at the front of the lot without ANY foundation in front of it (there will be one square of foundation on each side of the front wall that sticks out past it, delete those so that you have a nice rectangle).
    Screenshot-49.jpg"width=600"

    Screenshot-53.jpg"width=600"

    14. Yours should look like the last photo if everything is okay. There are some dips in the ground near the foundation along the back and two sides. We don’t want that, so use the flatten terrain tool to drag the ground level over to the foundation (that way the dips are hidden inside the one square of foundation we have left). Do this around all three sides where there is foundation.
    Screenshot-55.jpg"width=600"
    Screenshot-56.jpg"width=600"

    15. Add flooring (I like to use the free wooden plank flooring to start as I can easily change it later) and stairs now.

    Screenshot-64.jpg"width=600"

    16. Put a floor down over the basement area (so it is the basement’s roof/ceiling) and let’s do the “walkout” part by adding windows and doors.
    Screenshot-65.jpg"width=600"
    Screenshot-68.jpg"width=600"

    17. Let’s test to make sure it won’t snow in our basement.

    18. Go to live mode and Save now.

    NOTE: Some of the best building advice I can give is about saving. Save OFTEN and use the “Save As” command so that you have a minimum of two (and I prefer three) versions of your building game saved.

    I rotate which name I save under (so I use Save As GameA the first time and Save As GameB the second time and so forth). It will ask you if you want to replace the file that already exists, tell it you do. Then, when you are finished for that session of building, take the time to save all your work under each of the names you have used. I can’t tell you how often this has saved me tears.

    19. Shift-click the ground and Choose Seasons—Change Season—Winter.

    20. Shift-click the ground again and Choose Seasons—Change Weather—Snow--Heavy.

    21. Is your basement weather tight? If not you should see frosty looking floors (maybe even snow on them). If it is, then you shouldn’t notice any large changes in the basement interior despite the snowy surroundings. Once you know it is weather-proof, shift-click to turn things back to sunny summer.

    IF YOU HAVE FROSTY FLOORS, YOU SHOULD JUST BACKTRACK AND DELETE UP TO THE POINT WHERE YOU ARE ADDING WALLS INSIDE THE FOUNDATION EDGES. I know what a terrible pain this is, but it is NOT as big a pain having a whole house with one room that has snow on the floor for some reason that you can’t figure out. Once all the walls are painted and such, it can be really tricky (and labor intensive) to fix a mistake. Better to check early and fix early.


    Post edited by Unknown User on
    oow785m
  • ZooProfessor3ZooProfessor3 Posts: 9,847 Member
    edited January 2013
    BONUS: I just hate to waste a perfectly good set up for a building. Let’s use our new walk-out basement for something, shall we?

    1. Build walls for the first floor as shown.
    Screenshot-69.jpg"width=600"

    2. Cover the walls with floor tiles for a ceiling.
    Screenshot-70.jpg"width=600"

    3. Add Roof Pieces as Shown. Look at the back to make sure that the two fake dormers don’t extend through the back of the main roof.

    Screenshot-75.jpg"width=600"

    Screenshot-76.jpg"width=600"

    Screenshot-78.jpg"width=600"

    4. Add Windows as Shown.

    Screenshot-77.jpg"width=600"

    Screenshot-80.jpg"width=600"

    HOMEWORK ASSIGNMENT NUMBER ONE: What is this building used for? The flat area is going to lead into the pool/swimmable pond that we are going to be building in a later lesson, so keep that in mind when you make your choices, but it is up to you.

    You are to put up wall and floor coverings and furniture of your choice. You may add rooms, you may change anything you like as long and you don’t use any more of the yard than the building currently occupies. You may use whatever decorations you wish. It’s your baby, what will it grow up to be?




    Post edited by Unknown User on
    oow785m
  • ZooProfessor3ZooProfessor3 Posts: 9,847 Member
    edited January 2013
    LET’S MAKE A BASEMENT GARAGE

    1. Pull back to look at your lot.

    Screenshot-81.jpg"width=600"

    2. We want to map out an area in red tiles on the left front corner of the lot. The size should be 40 tiles across the front and 30 along the side.

    Screenshot-82.jpg"width=600"

    3. Mark out a 7 X 20 section inside the red (this is just to help visualize about where the driveway will go). Delete red tiles as shown (32 X 14 and then 16 X 6)

    Screenshot-83.jpg"width=600"

    Screenshot-84.jpg"width=600"

    4. Add in the foundation as shown. NOTE: It should be ON TOP OF our marking tiles.

    Screenshot-85.jpg"width=600"

    Screenshot-87.jpg"width=600"

    5. Do the trick with the three sets of stairs to dig the hole the correct depth.

    Screenshot-88.jpg"width=600"

    6. Level the ground to the lowest level that the steps made by using the flatten terrain tool. Notice how we CANNOT get all the way to the foundation pieces as we flatten this time? That is because of the floor tiles that are under our foundation pieces. We will handle that in a second.

    Screenshot-90.jpg"width=600"

    7. Go up one level so that you can see the foundation and turn your lot so you are looking at the side. Delete the piece of foundation shown. This is where our garage is going to go.

    Screenshot-92.jpg"width=600"

    Screenshot-93.jpg"width=600"

    Screenshot-94.jpg"width=600"


    CONTINUED NEXT POST


    Post edited by Unknown User on
    oow785m
  • ZooProfessor3ZooProfessor3 Posts: 9,847 Member
    edited January 2013
    8. Add wall sections as shown. See how the tilted pieces of ground are behind the walls and all the ground inside the walls is nice and flat?

    Screenshot-95.jpg"width=600"

    Screenshot-96.jpg"width=600"

    Screenshot-97.jpg"width=600"

    Screenshot-98.jpg"width=600"

    Screenshot-99.jpg"width=600"

    Screenshot-100.jpg"width=600"

    Screenshot-101.jpg"width=600"

    Screenshot-102.jpg"width=600"

    9. Drop down a level until you can see inside the foundation. We are now going to add foundation pieces up against our walls (except for the wall where the garage doors will be). Remember that you must drag the foundation tool FROM the existing foundation pieces TO the wall sections, never the other way around. Remember that you will likely have to keep dropping the level after you add a section of foundation so that you can add the next section.

    Screenshot-105.jpg"width=600"

    Screenshot-106.jpg"width=600"

    Screenshot-107.jpg"width=600"

    Screenshot-108.jpg"width=600"

    Screenshot-109.jpg"width=600"

    Screenshot-110.jpg"width=600"

    Screenshot-111.jpg"width=600"

    Screenshot-112.jpg"width=600"

    Screenshot-113.jpg"width=600"

    Screenshot-114.jpg"width=600"

    Screenshot-115.jpg"width=600"

    10. Delete the foundation as shown. You have two little “wings” to delete on the sides of your wall section where the garage doors will go and then you have one tile of foundation to delete the rest of the way around. If you’ve done everything right, you should have a single tile of foundation everywhere except on the side where the garage doors are going to be.

    Screenshot-122.jpg"width=600"

    Screenshot-124.jpg"width=600"

    Screenshot-125.jpg"width=600"

    Screenshot-126.jpg"width=600"

    Screenshot-128.jpg"width=600"

    Screenshot-129.jpg"width=600"

    Screenshot-130.jpg"width=600"

    CONTINUED NEXT POST



    Post edited by Unknown User on
    oow785m
  • ZooProfessor3ZooProfessor3 Posts: 9,847 Member
    edited January 2013
    NOTE: If ever you can’t add wall sections, can’t put in foundation pieces up against wall sections (provided you are trying to drag FROM foundation TO wall), or if you get a message about something being “covered by floor tile”, that all means that you made an error somewhere. The most likely culprit is that your depth is wrong and you need to go all the way back and redo the three stairs trick again.


    11. Now delete all the red and gray marking tiles.

    Screenshot-137.jpg"width=600"

    12. Flatten from inside the basement out a little ways from where the garage doors will be.

    Screenshot-143.jpg"width=600"

    13. Add two garage doors as shown.

    Screenshot-144.jpg"width=600"

    Screenshot-145.jpg"width=600"

    14. Add garage flooring and some sort of room flooring (again, I choose the free wooden floor often since I can always change it later) to block out our spaces.

    Screenshot-150.jpg"width=600"

    15. Add an interior wall for the garage/workshop area. Also add stairs and a door.

    Screenshot-151.jpg"width=600"

    Screenshot-155.jpg"width=600"

    16. Put floor tiles on top of our basement.

    Screenshot-159.jpg"width=600"

    17. Go to Live Mode and save (again, I favor multiple saves).

    18. Let’s test for weather-proofing in exactly the same way as before (shift-click the lot, choose Seasons and make it winter, then shift-click again, choose Seasons and make it snow).

    19. If you don’t have frosty floors, then go back and make it summer and sunny again. If you do have frosty floors, backtrack to the spot where you added interior wall sections to your basement.

    20. Now let’s do our driveway. This can be one of the tricky parts. SLOW AND CAREFUL is the idea here. We are going to cover our driveway area with floor tiles FROM the garage doors TO the street. It is important that you do it in this order.

    I COULD use terrain paints here, and I might get the same effect as I am going to have without having to use CFE, but I never think the effect is quite as crisp-looking. Maybe other people get better results than I do with that. For me, this works very well and floor tiles give me much more variety than terrain paints.

    21. Here is the driveway before I do any work on it. I just laid it down.

    Screenshot-165.jpg"width=600"

    Screenshot-166.jpg"width=600"

    22. See that big car-killing drop off? We definitely don’t want that!

    Screenshot-166.jpg"width=600"

    CONTINUED NEXT POST





    Post edited by Unknown User on
    oow785m
  • ZooProfessor3ZooProfessor3 Posts: 9,847 Member
    edited January 2013
    23. Save your game because we are about to use CFE.

    24. Open the cheat window and type “constrainFloorElevation off” (without quotes).

    25. Flatten the first two rows of driveway tile nearest the road to the same level as the road.

    Screenshot-168.jpg"width=600"

    26. Go to the terrain tools and CAREFULLY use the tool to smooth out the ground to give a nice, gentle slope for your driveway as shown. You will want to use the smallest brush size and the softest brush available and you will want to aim for the very edges of the driveway on both sides (the spot where the ground meets the driveway tiles).

    Once you get the edges nice and smooth with the slope you want for the driveway, you can worry about smoothing the middle. The only thing the CFE cheat is doing for us here is allowing us to work on floor tile as if it were bare ground.

    Screenshot-171.jpg"width=600"

    Screenshot-175.jpg"width=600"

    27. Before turning off the cheat, carefully observe your house and make sure that you have no weird dropped areas in your floors and no oddly distorted walls (this can happen if you get a little too close to the walls of your house as you are smoothing the terrain).

    28. If you DO have any spots like that, go to the lowest floor and use the terrain tool to level the ground and flatten your floors, one at a time from the lowest to the highest.

    29. Turn off the cheat (constrainFloorElevation on).

    30. With the cheat off, smooth the ground near the driveway. The point of turning off the cheat first is that if the driveway suits you, then you won’t be able to mess it up when using the terrain smoothing tool on the ground near it.

    Screenshot-176.jpg"width=600"

    31. I really didn’t like how squared off everything looked in my driveway, so I used Control F, which lets me have triangular floor tiles, and I made these little areas of the driveway angled.

    Screenshot-177.jpg"width=600"

    Screenshot-178.jpg"width=600"

    32. YAY! We now have a nifty basement garage to play with!



    Post edited by Unknown User on
    oow785m
  • ZooProfessor3ZooProfessor3 Posts: 9,847 Member
    edited January 2013
    CAN WE HAVE AN “OLD WAY” BASEMENT AND A WA BASEMENT? YES, WE CAN!

    1. Let’s add a lower level of basement to our house under our garage.

    2. Use the Basement Tool and you will see that you can add a basement area under our existing basement. As soon as you choose the tool and bring it over to your current basement it will make a blue area for where the new level of basement is going to go.

    Screenshot-181.jpg"width=600"

    3. Add stairs right away because this step can sometimes be challenging later on.

    Screenshot-182.jpg"width=600"

    Screenshot-183.jpg"width=600"

    4. Add some parking spaces inside the garage. Add some walls and a door to enclose to stairs for the lower basement we just built and let’s add some garage lights since it is so dark in here. Remember that you can change lights later, so just pick something for now.

    Screenshot-197.jpg"width=600"


    Some Fun Facts About Basements:
    1. You can make tunnels from one basement area to another when you have basements made using the basement tool PROVIDED that the two sections are EXACTLY the same depth. If you know ahead of time that you want to do this, it is best to draw the basement section, then the tunnel, then the other basement section (all in the same step using the Basement Tool).

    2. You can have up to five “floors” of house, but a foundation would count as a floor of the house (as would a frieze).

    3. You can have up to four floors of basement as well (the one inside the foundation counts as a floor of the house, not a basement).



    Post edited by Unknown User on
    oow785m
  • ZooProfessor3ZooProfessor3 Posts: 9,847 Member
    edited January 2013
    HOMEWORK ASSIGNMENT NUMBER TWO: You have a large base for a house, build one! Again, please don’t do anything that will use any yard space as there are some plans that that could interfere with in the coming lessons.

    This IS going to be a large house, it is hard to avoid that with the large footprint I’ve given you to start with, but try to avoid “Big Honkin’ Box Syndrome”. Don’t just build wall all the way to the edge of all the foundation area you see. Experiment with roofing and with having things at different heights.

    Keep in mind the style of the other building we made on this lot. Don’t let the new one be in a vastly different style or it will look odd. We have a fairly contemporary façade on the first building, nothing ultra modern though (this is not the “stack of boxes” style with flat roofing everywhere, so you should be using the roofing tool).




    This homework is all just supposed to be FUN. No one is getting a grade, no one is getting fussed at and you don’t have to show yours unless you want to. If you want to post a link to photos of your assignments (PLEASE DO NOT POST MORE THAN THREE PHOTOS ON THE CLASS THREAD) then I would LOVE to see them.

    I will also be happy to give you advice and help IF you ask for it. Why not make a Work in Progress (WIP) thread in Creative Corner with photos of your work? It is good for any builder to learn how to make such a thread and I would be happy to help if you need for me to. HAVE FUN and GOOD LUCK!

    Thanks so much for your kind attention on today’s lesson! I hope you found it useful to you. See you in another week for part two! PLEASE REGISTER FOR EACH PART OF THE LESSON TO HELP KEEP MY THREAD BUMPED! Registration for lesson two will open shortly after lesson one ends.

    Zoo
    Post edited by Unknown User on
    oow785m
  • ZooProfessor3ZooProfessor3 Posts: 9,847 Member
    edited January 2013
    Dearest Students,

    The forums are PAINFULLY slow today, so I am going to start adding stuff just a little early. I don't trust it and I'm afraid of some sort of crash in the middle of class as I am trying to upload my lesson.

    I won't be taking any questions until 2:00, but you may begin as soon as you would like.

    By the way, one of my former calculus students got arrested FOR BANK ROBBERY this week, so hopefully none of you will stray into a life of crime! If you do, keep your stealing confined to Sims, okay?

    Zoo
    oow785m

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