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LotAdjuster 2.8 (Updated Jan 31, 2010)

by Mootilda Posted 19th Apr 2008 at 4:40 AM - Updated 27th Nov 2013 at 3:31 PM by Nysha
 
488 Comments / Replies (Who?) - 479 Feedback Posts, 8 Thanks Posts
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Test Subject
#176 Old 13th Jul 2008 at 3:18 AM
Default Incomplete window
I downloaded this last night and on opening it this morning I am not seeing the full window the text on the right hand side is obscured. This is not a problem on the first screen as I just need to press Enter. The next screens are where I am not sure if I can miss a needed or important option
Forum Resident
#177 Old 13th Jul 2008 at 4:59 AM Last edited by Winterhart : 13th Jul 2008 at 5:06 AM. Reason: screenshots don't fit
Quote: Originally posted by Slypig
I downloaded this last night and on opening it this morning I am not seeing the full window the text on the right hand side is obscured. This is not a problem on the first screen as I just need to press Enter. The next screens are where I am not sure if I can miss a needed or important option


Hi Sly,

I had the same problem when I first downloaded this. The problem was in my display settings.

I was looking for the old thread where I posted my solution but I can't seem to find it.

So here it is again with pictures this time.

I have Windows XP. You need to know how to open Control Panel from whatever Windows version you have. If you have a MAC I'm sorry.

**Note: If you have never opened Control Panel you may want to have someone with more experience check this out for you.

1. Open Control Panel
2. Double click on the Display icon.
3. In Display Properties window click on the Settings tab.
4. Press Advanced button
5. Look at the General tab - Make sure DPI setting is "Normal size (96 DPI)"
If it is larger than that it can cause the problem you describe.

See screenshots

FYI that setting also effects SimPE
Screenshots

Sometimes the Dragon wins and I AM the Dragon!
Site Helper
Original Poster
#178 Old 13th Jul 2008 at 5:52 AM Last edited by Mootilda : 13th Jul 2008 at 12:05 PM.
Quote: Originally posted by Slypig
I downloaded this last night and on opening it this morning I am not seeing the full window the text on the right hand side is obscured. This is not a problem on the first screen as I just need to press Enter. The next screens are where I am not sure if I can miss a needed or important option
If you are just missing the Advanced Options, you need to click on the Advanced button for the window to expand.

However, if you mean that the right side of each screen is missing, like this:then please download the potential fix here:
http://www.modthesims2.com/showthre...375#post1960375

and let me know whether it resolves your problem. If it does, I'll include this fix in the next release.
Lab Assistant
#179 Old 17th Jul 2008 at 2:09 AM
First, thank you for your great tool. Second, I have a (probably) stupid question: when I expand a lot across the road, everything works fine when I load it, but it's not possible to move it in the neighborhood, since the game just spawns a new road in front and the lot snaps to it. Now, I know the LA clearly specifies that those lots might need special handling to move or share, and that is precisely my stupid question: what is that special handling?. I have not been able to find it in the threads. Thank you.
Alchemist
#180 Old 17th Jul 2008 at 12:12 PM
You'd need to inform people how to make the road appear in the right way - they would need to use Lotadjuster too. Mootilda probably needs to give you more detail about this.
Site Helper
Original Poster
#181 Old 17th Jul 2008 at 4:02 PM Last edited by Mootilda : 17th Jul 2008 at 4:10 PM.
Default Expand a lot "Over the road"
Quote: Originally posted by Man1968
I have a (probably) stupid question: when I expand a lot across the road, everything works fine when I load it, but it's not possible to move it in the neighborhood, since the game just spawns a new road in front and the lot snaps to it. Now, I know the LA clearly specifies that those lots might need special handling to move or share, and that is precisely my stupid question: what is that special handling?. I have not been able to find it in the threads. Thank you.
Not a stupid question at all. There are a lot of tutorials which need to be written and this is one of them.

Lots which have been expanded "over the road" cannot be moved or placed in a neighborhood within the game, and therefore cannot be shared using the normal Sims2Pack method. This is because the game doesn't recognize lots where the road is not at the edge of the lot.

Let me give you some hints as to how to handle these lots:

1) If you are going to be expanding such a lot to the left or right, as well as "over the road", then expand to the left or right first, including the step to snap the lot to the neighborhood road so that the game will regenerate the roads correctly on the expanded terrain.

Once you have the road correctly placed left-to-right on the lot, you can run the LotAdjuster a second time to expand over the road. This time, be sure not to move the lot in the neighborhood within the game, or the game will attempt to regenerate the road on the edge (as you've seen).

2) If you want to move an "over the road" lot within the neighborhood, then use the LotAdjuster advanced option "move lot" to do this.

3) If you want to rotate an "over the road" lot within the neighborhood, then you will need to edit the neighborhood package using SimPE. Choose "Lot Description (LTXT) in the left pane and choose your lot in the right pane. In the "Plugin View" at the bottom, you will see a field labelled "Orientation". Change this field to rotate the lot within the neighborhood.

Aside: hmmm, I wonder whether I should add this feature to the LotAdjuster?

4) If you want to share an "over the road" lot, you have to share the lot package file directly, rather than packaging the lot into a Sims2Pack. In order to place the shared package into a neighborhood, you have two options that I can think of.

Be sure to backup your neighborhood before trying either method, and keep that backup until you are sure that everything is working as expected.

I would also like to warn against copying occupied lots... the game doesn't handle duplicate or excess sims very well.

4A) Use the technique from my tutorial about how to copy an existing lot in Castaway Stories:

http://www.modthesims2.com/showthread.php?t=275135

This technique works because Castaway Stories roadless lots have the same problem as "over the road" lots: you cannot move or place a lot in the neighborhood while running the game. Questions about this technique should be posted in the tutorial thread, rather than here.

4B) Lot Package Replacement method:

This is an advanced technique which some modders use, but which may never have been documented. Let me see whether I can give you a brief synopsis:

- Create a dummy lot which is the same size as the lot which you want to copy. You also need to be sure that it has the correct U11 (sun direction) value. Usually, this just means that the dummy lot has to be facing in the same direction within the neighborhood as the original lot, but this is not always sufficient. If you go through these steps and find that your lot is obviously oriented incorrectly, then restore from your backup and try again with the dummy lot facing in another direction. For more information about the U11 (sun direction) value, please see my post:

http://www.modthesims2.com/showpost...32&postcount=10

- Outside of the game, determine the filename for the original and dummy lot packages. Make a copy of the original lot package and rename the copy to have the filename of the dummy lot, completely replacing the dummy lot.

- When you run the game, the dummy lot should now be a copy of your original lot. If the lot appears to be rotated incorrectly, restore from backup and try again with a different orientation for the dummy lot.

- Once the new lot looks correct internally, you can use the move and rotate hints above to place the new lot where you want it in the neighborhood.

------------------------------------------------------------------------
I believe that this covers the "special handling" required. Please let me know if you have further questions.

If you actually work out any of these techniques in more detail, I'm sure that people would appreciate a detailed tutorial with pictures. If anyone writes a tutorial, let me know and I'll include a link to your tutorial here.
Lab Assistant
#182 Old 17th Jul 2008 at 7:50 PM
Mootilda;
Thank you for your quick answer. I will try both methods, but after reading your answer, it seems to me that the best way to deal with them is to simply expand the lot in the desired location and leave it there. Once more, thank you for your tool. By the way, I had not used it before because my computer wouldn't install NET Framework 2.0. Finally I decided to try it anyway (I have NET Framework 1.1) and the LA works perfectly well.
Site Helper
Original Poster
#183 Old 18th Jul 2008 at 4:18 PM
How odd... .NET certainly has some quirks, doesn't it? Thanks for the info... this may help other people.
Mad Poster
#184 Old 19th Jul 2008 at 7:24 PM
http://www.digitallis.co.uk/pc/ResizeEnable/index.html

Just found this petite treasure...

May try to see if it helps solve the window size problem for some users.
Site Helper
Original Poster
#185 Old 19th Jul 2008 at 9:36 PM Last edited by Mootilda : 23rd Jul 2008 at 5:41 PM. Reason: add link to solution
I have a solution. No one who has downloaded it has confirmed that it works.
http://www.modthesims2.com/showthre...375#post1960375
Mad Poster
#186 Old 20th Jul 2008 at 8:37 AM
maybe, it can be a choice in the list to further avoid such type of problems.
but if the altered version is sufficient, may ignore this.
Site Helper
Original Poster
#187 Old 20th Jul 2008 at 2:19 PM
After someone confirms that this solution resolves the problem, it will be incorporated into the next release. There's no need for a choice. The solution that I implemented should work for everyone.

I don't want to force people to remove an accessibility option on their machines, just so that they can run the LA.
Forum Resident
#188 Old 21st Jul 2008 at 5:13 AM
Quote: Originally posted by niol
http://www.digitallis.co.uk/pc/ResizeEnable/index.html

Just found this petite treasure...

May try to see if it helps solve the window size problem for some users.


Better you than me. It looks a little scary, and my son won't fix my compter any more if I break it.

Sometimes the Dragon wins and I AM the Dragon!
Site Helper
Original Poster
#189 Old 21st Jul 2008 at 5:02 PM Last edited by Mootilda : 21st Jul 2008 at 5:11 PM.
Beside which, it would be silly to use an arbitrary program downloaded from an unknown company when there's a fix available right here, written by me:

http://www.modthesims2.com/showthre...375#post1960375
Test Subject
#190 Old 2nd Aug 2008 at 4:38 PM
Quote: Originally posted by rgdelta
Has anyone gotten this to work on XP x64 I have XP x64 I can run SimPE fine but when I run this and click start I get the same error as above I have no problem with SimPE and yes I am running .net 2.0

...

only way I know of is compatablity mode but the 32-bit .net 2.0 will not install on x64 only the 64 bit installs I tried it under windows 2000 and windows xp compatability mode same error


To chime in, I have the same issue. I run XP 64-bit, SP2, with the 64-bit version of .NET 2.0 (it refuses to install the 32-bit version, which I realized when I went to get SimPE up and running again, though SimPE runs just fine).

Compatibility mode does not help, and the error occurs via launch by shortcut or directly from the executable. All included DLLs are in the same folder. (And for fun and giggles, I copied the two LA files into the SimPE install folder and tried launching from there, and got the same error.)
Site Helper
Original Poster
#191 Old 3rd Aug 2008 at 12:10 PM Last edited by Mootilda : 3rd Aug 2008 at 12:18 PM. Reason: add link to LotExpander tutorial
Default Adjusting your lot when the LotAdjuster won't run
I'm really sorry about this, but Microsoft seems to have changed .NET so that it refuses to link to DLLs which it used to be fine with. I haven't been able to find any documentation which explains how to get around this problem. The most frustrating thing to me is that it has always been possible to ensure that .NET can find the correct DLLs by putting them in the same directory as the .EXE, but that no longer works.

I've been experimenting with various methods of trying to convince .NET to behave, so far unsuccessfully. I still have several ideas, but they will take a lot of work on my part. It could take some time to find a solution.

In the interim, it should be possible for your friends (or anyone here at MTS2) to help you. They don't even need to have the Sims 2 or SimPE installed, just .NET 2.0 and the unzipped LotAdjuster. Here's the technique:

You:
1) Give them your neighborhood package and the lot package that you want changed. No need for any of the other files in your Sims 2 save game. Be sure to tell your friend which LotAdjuster options you want selected. Don't play with this neighborhood until you get the updated files back. Otherwise, you may lose everything that you've done when you restore your updated neighborhood file.

Them:
2) Your friend creates a directory on their disk with your nieghborhood package in it and a subdirectory named "Lots" with your lot package in it.

3) They run the LotAdjuster, use the "Browse" button to find your neighborhood and lot packages, then use the options that you've specified. Then, they give you back the updated neighborhood and lot packages.

You:
4) backup your save game, then replace your neighborhood and lot packages with the updated versions. Run "Phase 2" of the modification process:

http://www.modthesims2.com/showpost...3&postcount=410

Be sure to keep your backup until you are sure that everything is working as expected.
Mad Poster
#192 Old 3rd Aug 2008 at 6:45 PM
Chisoni & rgdelta,

if you have or add SCSI/IDE/sata 1/SATA2 mobile racks for Hard Diks, you can easily switch OSes. you can run LA in a 32bit OS copy.
Lab Assistant
#193 Old 3rd Aug 2008 at 7:18 PM
I bought a new computer with Vista and the Adjuster stopped working. I have read the Expander thread suggesting that there might be a configuration setting that could fix the problem and I think I found something related to that: http://blog.crowe.co.nz/archive/200...-or-one-of.aspx

A blog entry with clear instructions how to enable 32-bit applications! The problem is, I cannot find the dialog (IIS Manager) anywhere on my computer. Has anyone solved this vista problem yet?
Site Helper
Original Poster
#194 Old 3rd Aug 2008 at 8:50 PM Last edited by Mootilda : 3rd Aug 2008 at 9:00 PM.
Quote: Originally posted by misukisu
http://blog.crowe.co.nz/archive/200...-or-one-of.aspx

A blog entry with clear instructions how to enable 32-bit applications! The problem is, I cannot find the dialog (IIS Manager) anywhere on my computer.
From Microsoft:
http://technet2.microsoft.com/windo...3.mspx?mfr=true

Quote:
IIS 7.0: Open IIS Manager
You can open IIS Manager if you want to configure IIS 7.0 settings by using the user interface (UI).

To open IIS Manager from the Start menu
1. Click Start, and then click All Programs.
2. Click Administrative Tools, and then click Internet Information Services (IIS) Manager.

To open IIS Manager from the Search box
1. Click Start.
2. In the Start Search box, type inetmgr and press ENTER.
Please let me know whether this works.

Update: I noticed that MTS2 changes the word "search" to point to the MTS2 search, but of course this actually means the Vista "Start Search" box.
Lab Assistant
#195 Old 4th Aug 2008 at 9:25 AM
Thanks, but I tried that already yesterday, no such application. I also found other instructions but in all cases the runnable just does not exist on my machine. Finally I found some instructions to download some application related to the IIS, but did not try that yet.
Field Researcher
#196 Old 4th Aug 2008 at 11:13 AM
hm..i downloaded the adjuster, and i already have the .NET for the Clean Installer (which no longer cleans me, unfortunately, since BV i think)

however, when i try to install it, the adjuster whines i have missing parts of the .net framework.

im using Win2000 (yeah yeah, i know, upgrade to xp, but BLAH i only have 1 gig ram on my sims2 machine and when i do use xp for sims2, since i got a shedload of everything, it slows like a man in a car looking at some large-chested bombshell ^^)

is it something related to my being on the old version of windows?
Site Helper
Original Poster
#197 Old 4th Aug 2008 at 4:02 PM Last edited by Mootilda : 4th Aug 2008 at 4:24 PM.
Quote: Originally posted by misukisu
Thanks, but I tried that already yesterday, no such application. I also found other instructions but in all cases the runnable just does not exist on my machine. Finally I found some instructions to download some application related to the IIS, but did not try that yet.
Which version of Vista do you have? (Home, Professional, Server, ...) Do you know that you actually have IIS installed? Doesn't sound like you do. Not all parts of the operating system are installed by default. This implies that IIS is not the cause of your problem and installing IIS will not help you.
Site Helper
Original Poster
#198 Old 4th Aug 2008 at 4:22 PM
Quote: Originally posted by Rayea
i downloaded the adjuster, and i already have the .NET for the Clean Installer [...] however, when i try to install it, the adjuster whines i have missing parts of the .net framework. [...] im using Win2000 [...] is it something related to my being on the old version of windows?
I have not received any other problem reports about Windows 2000, so I doubt that this is your problem.

The Clean Installer is pretty old and the download page doesn't mention which version of .NET it requires; I wouldn't be surprised if it is using .NET 1 or even 1.1.

If so, then your problem might be that you need to install .NET 2.0. The link in the original post will point you to the correct version.

Please let me know if this doesn't solve your problem.
Lab Assistant
#199 Old 7th Aug 2008 at 2:34 PM
Quote: Originally posted by Mootilda
Which version of Vista do you have? (Home, Professional, Server, ...) Do you know that you actually have IIS installed? Doesn't sound like you do. Not all parts of the operating system are installed by default. This implies that IIS is not the cause of your problem and installing IIS will not help you.


Vista Home Premium. That is my conclusion also. It still bugs me a bit that the instructions about the IIS Manager are available in Vista help.

Well, maybe the blog entry I found is unrelated even though it looks like the same problem.
Lab Assistant
#200 Old 8th Aug 2008 at 4:04 AM
Thank you! This sounds awesome.

Silly question, if you've added to one or both sides of the lot and retained the neighborhood terrain, would it be possible to make the whole expanded lot slope evenly?

Well, I'm off to play with rowhouses...
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