[QUOTE=eedgan]The garage door, driveway piece and driveway extension piece cannot be rotated with any keys incl. "<" and ">". Somehow when the paving on the opposite lot is remove the game rotates the pieces for you 90 degrees - left or right. I can't figure out why sometimes it goes left and why other times it goes right.


what do you mean opposite lot? and how to you pave it?

When you ask about an "underground" garage, do you really mean that the garage needs to be under the ground? Or, do you mean that you want the garage to be lower than the road, like a normal (above ground) basement?

The rotation of the driveway piece is determined by the internal rotation of the lot. The rotation of the lot is set when you first create the lot, based on the direction that the lot is placed in the neighborhood, and cannot be changed. The rotation of the lot also affects the direction of the sun on the lot, so many people use the sun direction to talk about the lot rotation.

When you create a new lot, you should immediately try placing the sideways driveway. If the driveway does not turn in the direction that you want, then delete the lot. Create a new lot which is rotated in a different direction in the neighborhood and test that lot. Repeat until you have a lot which is rotated in the correct direction. Obviously, you will only ever have to try a maximum of 4 rotations.

Note that rotating an existing lot is different than creating a new lot which is rotated in a particular direction. Rotating an existing lot will not change the internal lot rotation, sun direction, or direction of a sideways garage.

The road has two sidewalks, one on the side of the road where you build your lot and one on the opposite side of the road. You need to remove the sidewalk on the corner on the opposite side. To repave the sidewalk, just turn moveobjects on and place a piece of concrete tile. Alternatively, you can save your lot and exit to the neighborhood view, then pick up your lot and place it down again. This will regenerate the road and both sidewalks.

i've read on some tutorials that the orientation of the driveway has something to do with the building sun shadows, does anyone know if there is a cheat or a way to change the angle of the shadow so the driveways can rotate do different sides?

No, there is no way to change the internal rotation of the lot, which affects both the sun shadows and the orientation of the driveway. The only way to do this is to create a lot with the correct internal rotation before you start building.

I have tried everything everyone is saying about this Tut..but when I got to the lot, I cover the other side of the sidewalk on the other side of the house. I take the extension driveway, but it doesn't turn...is there something I am doing wrong with this or am I just blonde and can't figure it out?

You will need to create a lot with a different orientation in the neighborhood. Only two of the sun directions will result in a sideways driveway.

Start by placing a lot into your neighborhood. Follow the instructions for rotating the driveway. If it does not rotate correctly, go back into the neighborhood view and delete the lot; it is useless. Now, place a new empty lot into the neighborhood, but pick a new location where the lot is rotated from your original lot. Follow the instructions for rotating the driveway again. Repeat for all 4 directions in the neighborhood until you get the driveway the way that you want it. Finally, build your house.

Note that there is no way to fix an existing lot; if the driveway won't rotate for an existing lot, there is nothing that you can do.

Thankkss so much! i got it to work.

i have one question tho.. with having two garges next to them on the side, how do you do that ? :S

Once your driveway is turned, can't you just add more driveways before restoring the sidewalk?

I was able to make a sideways garage following this tutorial, but ever since I installed Apartment Life it will only rotate the driveway/garage door facing the back part of the lot. I also tried to move the lot...facing in different directions. Any ideas?

The lot rotation is set when you create the lot. Rotating the lot after it has been created will not affect the rotation of the driveway and garage door. Instead, you will have to create a brand new empty lot which faces in the right direction. There is no other way to do this.

It wont let me

This is not enough information for anyone to help you. You need to explain the steps that you tried, when things started to fail, what actually failed, what kind of errors you were getting, etc.

ok,i have tried to make the sideway garage but there is something wrong.the garage door is faceing the otheer way around. i have tried to turn it around but it isnt working.what shud i do??????????????????

Unfortunately, there is not much you can do. It is an aesthetics problem, not an actual game play problem. Everything will work as far as the door opening, cars leaving, etc. You do not need to have a door in order for your car to come & go. You can have a solid wall - just be sure to put in a 'normal' door somewhere so your sims can get to the car.

The best options (in my opinion) are:
1. Ignore it and get on with playing.
2. Don't have garage door at all. If you are good with making walls, you could make wallpaper that comes out looking like a garage door.
3. Use SimPE to make a new garage door that is either oriented right, or better yet, doesn't have all that door opening hardware so you don't face the same problem next time. Warning: garage doors are very complex. They are absolutely not a beginner project.

Eedgan, Sotalia, Dejay and Patul thank you. With the text and pictures the four of
your posted was finally able figure out why I couldn't get the driveway to rotate. Again
thanks.
Exsquid

I'm hoping that some pictures will help people to understand how driveway rotation is dependent upon the internal lot rotation, or sun direction.

First, here's a picture which I create some time ago which shows how the sun direction is related to the lot rotation when the lot was created. In all cases, a rotated driveway will have the car facing towards the bottom of this picture.

Next, I created a neighborhood with 4 lots, each facing in a different direction. Then, I used the rotated driveway technique to place a driveway and car. You'll notice that all of the cars are facing in the same direction. That's because the driveway rotation is completely determined by the rotation of the lot when it was created:

Finally, here are the 4 individual lots, close up. Default rotation with the sun at the back left corner of the lot:

Rotated so that the sun is at the front left corner of the lot:

Rotated with the sun at the front right corner of the lot:

Finally, the sun is at the back right corner of the lot:

You'll notice that in each case, the car is facing in exactly the same direction relative to the sun direction.

The sun direction is set when you create the lot. If your driveway will not rotate in the direction that you want, then you need to delete the lot and start over again with a new lot which was created facing in a different direction in the neighborhood.

In case no one figured out why the arrows point the wrong way, I removed the tile you said to put down on the opposite side of the street, then my arrows pointed the right way.

I have a fairly stupid question I suppose- I've downloaded a lot and tried and tried to get the circular drive or even the sideways garage to work but no matter how many tiles I take off it won't turn. I've tried moving the lot according to the cardinal directions and still nothing.

So my question is: Once an original lot is made does it KEEP the same cardinal direction no matter where it is placed afterward? AND if this is true, is there any way to change that? (I'm guessing that my assumption is true but want it to be confirmed since I've only been doing this stuff for about a week- I've had sims for two weeks)

You see the problem is I'm an idiot who cannot for the life of me make a 'swimable lake' BUT I've found a download that has a very good one. SO after a lot of work I've managed to remove everything off the lot but the lake and one very stubborn piece of floating foundation. But I want to add a circular drive way, but no matter what tutorial I follow- that piece of extension will not turn. Is it a lost cause or can it be salvaged?
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Well I believe I've found the answer...thanks to Mootilda a few posts up. -_-' Just not the answer I was hoping for. OH WELL...I guess I'll have to live without my driveway.

Yes, once an original lot is made it will keep the same cardinal direction no matter where it is placed afterwards. There is absolutely no way to change that at the current time. The solution would involve creating a program which would rotate every item and every array associated with a lot. This is on my to-do list (which is obviously already too large):
http://www.modthesims.info/showthread.php?t=328167

If you want to rotate a driveway, you must create the lot with the correct original rotation. There is no other option. This means that you take pot-luck when you download a lot; the original creator set the rotation and there's no way to change it.

I dont know how to make the extansion peice(driveway) to turn around the right way!!

HELPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPP!!

Read the entire thread. It's explained pretty thoroughly.

Thank you
I will definatly use this next time I build a house.
!!!No more lots too small to have a garage!!!

I did try everything that it said but it seems my garage won't turn at all.

Did you ensure that your lot rotation is correct? For any specific existing lot, you only have a 50% change of the driveway rotating and a 25% change that it will rotate in the direction that you want. There's no way to change the rotation of an existing lot, so if the driveway doesn't rotate the way that you want, then your only option is to rebuild the lot from scratch on a properly rotated lot.

This is all explained inside of the thread.

I Can't Do It. It Wont Turn.