Fellow builders, do you follow real life floor plans? If so, how do you do it? I bought two books FULL of floor plans and when I tried to build one, even the simplest one, I couldn't do it. I know I don't have to follow the floor plan exactly, and I know that I could just build a house inspired by it, but honestly I'd say that I'm like a mediocre builder, lol. I've tried eyeballing and guessing how long the walls would be, but the house would either be too big, too small or nothing would match up. I wish we could still see the dimensions of walls when we drag them. I feel like maybe it would make following floor plans a bit easier.
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All the sims err'day
I go by the idea the one grid/tile equals about three feet. A door is about three feet, most appliances, cabinets, chairs, etc. all fit in a three foot square.
Following the floor plan dimensions as a "guide", I redraw the plan in a simpler version. I might need to adjust here or there, but it works for me.
Try to avoid plans with anything other than straight stairs unless you can alter the plan to make the stairs work. Also remember, a stair in a house that is the smallest wall height will take up a total of five tiles. Three for the actual stair, one for the bottom open tile and one for the top open tile. For each height you add, add one tile in floor space as a taller wall needs a longer stair.
Good luck.
I only use plans and I usually replicate everything in them. I've come across some great house plan books at our local used bookstore and been thrilled every time.
This advice is very useful. Thank you.
Ok this wasnt the question, so im gonna try and answer it correctly:
I see everything visual in my mind and one tile in the sims seems like 0.75 meter to me. It depends which house im building and what the furniture contains, but usually thats a good number to start with
I also first imagine all the items in one room and then calculate how much sims tiles there would be for for example a table in the sims, i give all the objects tiles and then calculate how much the walking space in between would be according to the tiles I gave to the furniture. It's a bit of a scaling game, but it's fun too!
Start with something easy I had an older build as an example but I can't remember what plan I was using since I wanted to build anyways I did a new one I got close enough for my tastes.
All the sims err'day
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Bob Bobson (Updated August 12th 2019)
I've never used grid paper to map things out, but I think that's a great idea! I just build the outside shell first, place windows/doors, the roof, then work on getting the interior room walls set up as best I can and place items as I go along to make sure my measurements will work, tweaking as needed. Once that's accomplished, then I paint all the walls inside and out, add wall decorations (using MOO if needed), and finally, landscape.
I've found so many cute houses I want to build but end up not doing them for one reason or other like; curved walls (as mentioned above), fancy windows that don't have a comparable version in the game, different levels of stairs leading up to the house and split levels. Hopefully with the new terrain manipulation tools we'll finally be able to do split levels. I'm hoping so anyway. I want to build my in-laws old house, but haven't been able to do it since it's a split level and has a sloped side yard and also a walk-out basement.
It can be such a challenge building homes from floor plans in TS4, but when it works out, it's so satisfying! Sometimes it's a lot easier too than just trying to build something on the fly from one of my own hair-brained ideas. lol Although, I tend to build on the fly more often than from floor plans and it usually works out fine. Just takes longer since I don't have a real guide other than my own sense of creativity.
I don't follow any floor plans and never really even thought about it.
All my creations are CC free.
I find when trying to build a replica of a real life building, a grid unit is equal to 1x1 meters or 3x3 feet. Of course many real life houses don't follow the grid format. I've had difficulty trying to match stairs in the game, as many houses have steep or winding stairs. I've also had difficulty (more so in sims 3) to build garages with a foundation. Sims 4 is so close, but we just need a garage door that goes through the foundation. Sims 4 has also been much better than sims 3 with putting functional objects closely together, such as in a bathroom. Many times toilets are right next to a bath tub. It's also a nightmare trying to accommodate split leveling.
And there's no need to spend money on plan books when those same pans are on the internet. That's where I find my info. When I wanted to build Hogwarts Castle for the magic school, I found a good plan online that I could rework to fit on a 64x64 lot. It turned out pretty good, if I do say so myself.
Haha, thanks! I don't know why I've never thought of it before. The main reason I bought some was because like stated above, most of the time my builds are pretty mediocre and sometimes repetitive. I wanted a bunch of different homes I could build. I have seen another post here on the forums about the 3 feet thing.
About the garages, I do wish we could make proper ones! Hopefully one day. I've only made garages maybe one or two times, lol.
The books I bought do have a website, too. Personally I just feel that books are better because they're right there in my hands and I can just easily flip through the pages. I do have a strange feeling that in order to have different rooms on foundation, you can only to use the terrain tool to do that, but we'll see!
I understand that space is seen as a luxury, but when a sim takes one in-game hour to go from one side of their house to the other, I see it more as a hindrance.
The pathfinding of the game is surprisingly good in small spaces, and since I play in San Myshuno the most I have tested it thoroughly.
I.e, my favorite Culpepper apartments, a 2 bedroom and a 3 bedroom, that I find plenty big enough to play in but most sim players would consider them closet-sized:
I didn't have a floor plan but I had real life ref pictures to gauge the correct scale.
I don't worry about room dimensions very much. I mostly just look at the shape and try to get it to look as close as possible. But windows and doors are a good guide. I have also used beds and counters etc. to figure out how big I need the rooms to be. I usually I have some idea as to how I want to decorate the build before I put it down on paper. It is getting to the point now to where I know how big most beds and counters are so I don't have to spend as much time going into build mode.
I also look at the exterior of the house and try to copy it. I do that before I worry about how big the inside will be. You can always move things around. I even put in the closets at first. Sometimes I keep some of them and other times I want the space so they get deleted. I love building. Good luck with your floor plans. I hope they show how the house is supposed to look. That helps a lot.
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I bought a couple of floor plans books too. I never can get the outside or the roofs to look right; but for the interior, it really helps.
I don't always use the rooms one to one - for instance a plan might show a huge walk in closet where I'd rather put a half-bath, or vice versa; or there's some kind of thing I just don't see the need for (like a "mechanical room.") But my houses are definitely getting better by using them.
The information about scale here is really helpful, thank you.