No, the game forces the wall sections to 4 clicks when you use CFE to level the second level. It's not apparent to you that the lower wall has been lowered until you exit and reenter the lot, because that's when the game changes the cutouts in the wall. If you were to use the GridAdjuster to level the entire second level, then the problem wouldn't occur.

I have many many lots which have walls which are between 0 and 3 clicks and the game never forces them to 4 clicks unless I use CFE to level an area.

So, your technique was almost correct. There's only one change: use the GridAdjuster, rather than CFE, to level the top floor after raising the lower walls for the garage and doors; this will allow for 3-click walls on the second level.

Actually, there may be another issue: the game may also try to change the wall heights back to 4 clicks if you place individual floor tiles next to a wall. I tend to place flooring over an entire area using the <shift> key, which convinces the game to leave the walls where they are.

Since you used CFE, you now have walls which are 15-clicks high. The GridAdjuster can permanently fix those for you. The game will not adjust the level of walls between exiting and entering a lot.

Ok, after reading your post and seeing that it is possible to do what I wanted I had to try again. A few more hours later (trial and error and fixing the errors to try again...) I finally figured it out and it looks great.

I used CFE to attach the walls and GridAdjuster to level them. (pic 1) Then I added the doors, saved and re-entered the lot to double check the levels and everything still looks good. (pic 2-3) After reading your post again I went back in to add floor tiles--it was a non-issue for me, the walls stayed at 3 clicks. (pic 4)

It's actually really easy to do and since I like the 3/4 height foundation so much I can see myself using the GridAdjuster all the time just for this.

3/4 Height Foundation w/ Attached Garage
What I did that worked leaving out all the mistakes

1. Laid out the foundation including the wall sections for the attached garage. Used CFE to attach the walls to the foundation but didn't use it to level anything.

2. GridAdjuster:
level 1 to level 1
0 to lot depth
0 to lot width
clicks 3

3. Build the walls including walls for the attached garage. Delete the bottom sections of walls for your garage doors and using CFE replace those walls like normal. Don't use CFE to level the walls--leave them messed up.

4. GridAdjuster:
level 2 to level 3
from 0 to lot depth
from 0 to lot width
clicks 19

That's it--you're done. I think just using steps 2 & 4 on an existing house with an attached garage might work too but I don't have the time to check it out today.

ETA:
I can't believe I typed all that out and forgot to thank you! I really appreciate you taking the time to help me figure out what I was doing wrong.

I'm glad that we got it sorted out and I'm sorry that I wasn't clearer in my first post.

Did you sort out the problem with the fireplace?

I didn't bother trying to do anything with the fireplace. The gap has to be there because the foundation and walls are short a click--19 instead of the 20 it should be. I don't even know where to begin with something like that--that fireplace itself would need to be changed I'd think.

Hmm... I forgot this but I think it actually might be raised 1 click higher than it should be on the inside too but since a sim was able to light a fire and I liked the way it looked I was good with it. I'll have to check that and let you know.

I'm going to check out my GridAdjusted lots with fireplaces, to see whether I have anything comparable.

Ok, I figured out what was happening with the fireplace. First, there isn't anything wrong with the how the fireplaces appear inside the house (pic A)--that's just my imagination. I checked a fireplace on a normal foundation to be sure and they looked the same but they still looked like they were raised up a bit to me. Then I remembered that I installed Rugs - zMOG!! OFF Grid!! by HugeLunatic (which raises up rugs so they don't sink into the floor) so I removed that. The fireplaces actually still look exactly the same inside but the chimney outside is fixed. (pic B) Go figure!

I also took an existing house (pic 1) on and a foundation with an attached garage and was able to change the foundation to 3/4 in a couple of steps--very simple and easy to do.

1. GridAdjuster:
level 1 to level 1
0 to lot depth
0 to lot width
clicks 3
(pic 2)

2.
You need to turn on CFE and delete the lower wall sections and add them back again like normal for attaching a garage. Don't level the walls in game. (I tried to skip this step but it's needed)
(pics 3 & 4)

3. GridAdjuster:
level 2 to level 3
from 0 to lot depth
from 0 to lot width
clicks 19
(pic 5)

You need to redo any stairs and pick up and release anything that touches a wall including windows, doors and even fire alarms. In a fully furnished house that would be a PITA but it could be worth it depending on the build and if the foundation is exposed.

Edited to Clarify:
HugeLunatic's mod only effected the fireplace chimney when I lowered the foundation level. The chimneys were fine when placed on a standard foundation even with the mod.

2nd ETA:
Ok, I added the rug mod back into my game and the fireplace chimney still works fine. I have no idea why taking out the mod "fixed" it if putting it back in doesn't break it. It could just be coincidence but I'll leave my post as is just in case.

Thanks for all of the information and the tutorials. I'm so glad that the fireplace problem was simple and easy to fix.

I'm still looking into having the GridAdjuster move objects; the main stumbling block is my inability to determine the level for each object. I suppose that it might be better to have most objects move correctly, with a few problems, than to have no objects move correctly.

Hi Mootilda:

I've been playing with the grid adjuster all night tonight and I can't seem to get it to work correctly.

I've followed each of your steps, with counting the tiles from the front and from the side and every time I go back into the game after I've adjusted the lot, the sunken area is offset from where it needs to be.

I've attached an image of how the lot looks once I've adjusted it with the grid adjuster.

Can you tell me what I'm doing wrong?

Thanks in advance

You must remember that each road takes up 10 tiles. Restore from your backup and try again with an extra 10 tiles at the front.

Hi Mootilda - I am curious to know if it is possible to submerge a basement completely below the ground? I want to build a cemetary that has a catacomb beneath it, so I need the 'roof' to be the ground itself. From what I have read, most basements have a house built above them or poke above the ground as a foundation.

We've been doing some research on this, and the answer is "yes".

To see the discussion, view some test lots (including one with a completely underground basement), and pick up the object that you'll need to make this work, please see this thread:
http://www.modthesims.info/showthread.php?t=402863

If you have further questions on this technique, please ask in that thread, so that we can keep all of the information in one place.

I started building the house in the attached pics, and then I stumbled onto this tutorial. I was wondering if it would be possible to create a no slope basement, and then place a sunken driveway like I have in the pics attatched. I'm not familiar with the grid adjuster, and it's been almost 2 years since I've played, so I'm not sure I want to try this out on my own and mess up my game I have going now. Any comments/help would be greatly appreciated.

I have never tried this and I am not sure whether it can be done. Do you want the underground garage to be at the same elevation as the basement, or do you expect to have stairs either up or down from the garage to the basement?

If you want them at the same elevation, then you have the same basic problem as sunni9676 above. At some point, you will want to traverse two levels at the same elevation, going from the ground level (level = 0) to the basement level (level = 1). You cannot traverse two levels without stairs of some sort. Please see this thread for more information:
http://www.modthesims.info/showthread.php?t=402863

I can see several possible options available to you.

1) If you don't mind having the slope beside the underground garage, you could build the house with the underground garage, push the basement underground, then attach the two levels with stairs. If you want the garage and basement at the same level, and intend to use invisible modular stairs to bridge the gap, then you may need to do the basement in two steps, since modular stairs cannot be placed without a 2-click or more difference in elevation.

2) If you don't mind losing the animation of the car pulling into and out of the driveway, you could use the no-slope basement technique to add the outside driveway to the basement level, with retaining walls beside the driveway to hide the area under the ground. After using the no-slope basement technique, you would need to run the grid adjuster again to give the outside driveway the appropriate slope up to the ground level.

3) Another alternative might be to split the driveway into two sections. The driveway inside the garage is a part of the no-slope basement, the driveway outside of the garage is the standard sloped driveway. You would probably lose any animations associated with entering and leaving the garage, but it might be the most elegant solution, giving you a slope beside the outside driveway which sims can use, but removing the slope beside the garage which is unsightly.

Sounds like an interesting project. If you succeed, it would be great if you could document your technique in a tutorial.

There is a simple way to ensure that you don't muck up your existing neighborhood when you are trying something new. Make a backup of your save game and keep the backup until you are sure that you are happy with your new lot.

If you'd like more help with this technique, I'd appreciate it if you could start a new thread in the building forum, rather than continuing the discussion here. I'd be happy to join you there and I'm sure that you'll find other people who are interested.

[Update:]

I decided to try option #3 and it was fairly straightforward, although next time I might try making the sloped driveway before the no-slope basement garage. I've attached screenshots and a sample lot.

The proof-of-concept lot seems to work well, except for the lack of animations when driving into or out of the garage.

Hi Mootilda.

I apologize if this is answered somewhere. (As much as I love this, I haven't had a chance to play with this as much as I'd like. So I feel a little stupid for asking this.)

Is it possible to raise the pool level of -1 such that it would be above ground while still functioning as a pool? In the small amount of time I had this past weekend, I tried to raise a pool up 16 clicks. I could see the pool wall texture repeated vertically, but there were placement issues (I think perhaps it no longer saw the walls as pool walls or some other wall was confusing the pool ladder?) and the neighboring ground still sloped. It's possible that it's impossible and it's possible that I just goofed somewhere in the process.

I'm envisioning a raised pool somewhat like the "Aquarium" type pools, but where there isn't a sloped pool floor and the pool water animation and reflection aren't messed up...perhaps like a reverse No-Slope Basement?

If the pool bottom is above the ground level, then the pool walls will be turned inside out. This is the same thing that happens with no-slope basements; the wall between level 0 and level 1 is inside out and no longer usable. I imagine that the pool walls don't work correctly when they are inside out.

Sounds like what you really want is to add a new level underneath the pool, so that the pool bottom is at ground level and the pool surface is at level 1. You might be able to do this with my LevelAdder program, but I must admit that I'm not sure whether I allowed a new level to be added at level = -1, which is the normal pool bottom. You'd have to create the pool and add the new level before doing anything else on the lot, since everything will be raised.

I also seem to remember seeing a post (by plasticbox? by Inge Jones?) saying that pools are handled differently in later EPs, so the solution may depend upon your installation.

At this point, I just don't know whether this is possible. It really needs more research.

Looks like I should consider leaving the invisible flags on the ground level, rather than moving them up. Alternatively, perhaps I should just remove the ground level invisibility if a new ground level is added.

If you'd like to discuss this further, would you mind if we took this to the LevelAdder thread? It's pretty clear that you can't do what you want using the GridAdjuster.

Hi Mootilda!

I have been trying to build a modern 2 floor house.I want to create a ''fake'' roof which is 2 clicks high,by lowering the tiles of the 3rd floor.
But, when I edit in GridAdjuster and load the lot,the 3rd level walls look like they turned inside out!These are the options in GridAdjuster:

Level :3-3
Pattern: Flat
Elevation: -14

I tried it with other options:

Level: 2-3
Pattern: Flat
Add per Level: 2

But none of them seems to work!

I tried to make a wall 2 clicks high on 0 floor and worked.


Another thing, in the ''Ramps, Underground Basements'' post you refer to stairs that can be placed on a 2 click wall,you can do this with an EP or with a hack?

If you want to subtract 14 from the existing height, then you need to check the "Relative to current elevation" checkbox. Otherwise, you are specifying the elevation in absolute numbers (ie, 14 clicks below ground).

So, you could specify:
Level :3-3
Pattern: Flat
Elevation: -14
Relative to current elevation

Your second attempt looks correct, except that you haven't specified the elevation. Assuming that you have the ground level at 0, the first level at 16, and the second level at 32:
Level: 2-3
Pattern: Flat
Elevation: 32
Add per Level: 2

Usually, I don't have problems placing 2-click high stairs, even in the base game. If you are having problems placing stairs on a 2-click high wall, try setting moveobjects on before placing the stairs. If that doesn't work, try holding the <shift> key down while placing them.

Thanks a lot!I tried the first option and worked fine!The stair thing works perfectly too,without the use of moveobjects.

But,please,can you explain again the second option?The whole thing with the level range makes me sick,I can't understand it!

Level: 2-3
Pattern: Flat
Elevation: 32
Add per Level: 2

Here's how this is interpreted:
Change levels 2 to 3.
Elevation of the first level specified (level 2) is 32.
Elevation of each additional level is the previous level's elevation + 2
So, level 3 will have an elevation of 34.

If I specified level 2-5 above, then I would expect the following:
Level 2 Elevation 32
Level 3 Elevation 34
Level 4 Elevation 36
Level 5 Elevation 38

I hope that makes it clearer.

More clearer now,that makes a lot of sense!
So when the floor change is not the same number ,you actually not elevating anything form the "Elevation",there you only specify how high is the floor.
Correct?

That's right. The Elevation is the elevation of the first Level specified in the range. All other levels in the range are governed by the Add Per Level value.

Mootilda thanks a lot for helping me!

I have another Q ,maybe it is not the right place to post this!

Is it possible to make a skyscraper using the GridAdjuster?

It's not completely clear what you mean by this, but I suspect that this isn't the right area for this question. You probably want to post in the Create / Sims 2 / Building forum.