How to make angled sidewalks / rotate the square brush ...?

[Tiinii]

Dear all,

there's two things I can't seem to figure out for the life of me, can anyone help?

1 - In Champs les Sims, the town center is laid out as a straight, geometrical octagon, created by sidewalks - meaning, the sidewalks form the octagon (sorry, don't have picture at hand, but you know what I mean, right?), and in the octagon, there's the central square lot where you can play chess and such. These sidewalks are properly connected to each other, I've checked that in the Champs les Sims homeworld version that is on the exchange. But when I try to replicate the effect, sidewalks just won't do that! They always make curves instead of straight lines, they just won't stay straight and won't let me create the sharp 45 degree angle that is necessary for an octagon. How in the world does one do that????

2 - How does one rotate the square brush for terrain sculpting? I want to align it to the grid, but I never get it to rotate properly to line up. Does anyone know? Am I just being blind or what?

Thanks for helping as always!

[auntielynds]

I'm replying to the octagon sidewalk question, don't know about the square brush, never used it.

I was curious about the sidewalk so I just happened to have a copy of the France caw files sitting on this pc, so I opened them up to take a looksie.

before mentioned octagon town square.http://thumbs.modthesims.info/getimage.php?thumb=1&file=1293796


Close up of the corner shows it's connectedhttp://thumbs.modthesims.info/getimage.php?thumb=1&file=1293797


Notice the swing arms used to curve the sidewalk are pushed all the way to the ends?http://thumbs.modthesims.info/getimage.php?thumb=1&file=1293798


When I moved the piece out entirely, the ends are clipped at the correct angle for an octogonehttp://thumbs.modthesims.info/getimage.php?thumb=1&file=1293799

You'll have to play around, and report back if you get it to work, but there must be a way to accomplish this, maybe by using the alt button?

[Tiinii]

auntielynds, thanks a lot for posting the pictures!

Yes, I've noticed the clipping of the sidewalks, but I'm just not able to reproduce the effect. I can also not move the two middle handles of the sidewalk (the light blue ones in the last pic) to lie over the two end handles (dark blue). I think both things might be interconnected, like, one needs to get these handles to match on either side, and then the clipping will perhaps automatically happen.

Unfortunately, I've not seen anything like this in any custom-made world yet ...

So, anyways, my report is: can't get it to work, grrrrr! ;-)

[auntielynds]

I was thinking the same thing. If you get everything lined up, and positioned correctly, the clipping would automatically happen.

If you figure it out, share with the rest of us. :beer:

[Tiinii]

Haha, wish me luck then! ;-)

[Sococo.]

not sure about the sidewalk thing. O__O

for the brush though i think you'd have to rotate the grid. when you turn grid on an option palette opens up at the bottom of the screen with rotation options. i don't think you can rotate the brush itself but if anyone else knows feel free to correct me. i'm just guessing by what i've seen XD

[Tiinii]

Sococo, yeah the grid rotates, but the square brush doesn't rotate along with it. So it's sort of useless, in a way ...

No success so far concerning the sidewalks also, unfortunately. Grrr! I think there should be some SimGurus somewhere who also answer such technical questions concerning CAW ...

[Jacen000Solo]

Don't know about sidewalks, as for rotating brush it's not possible, paint is saved as a matrix 2048x2048 large world for a texture where a cell is opacity.
But you can make an angled straight edge for paint by placing a sidewalk with visualy the same paint. Works best for asphalt.

[Tiinii]

Jacen, thanks for the info, it's rather depressing though. What do I need a square brush for if I can't rotate it to fit the grid?! Ah well ...

[simsample]

Not sure if it's possible to make a custom brush for that, it's one thing I've never thought of!

[Tiinii]

I really think it's sort of annoying. The grid is such a useful thing, would be a great help with making straight edges and straight routing lines. But ah, well ...Thanks for taking the time, everyone!