Hello!

Here is a tutorial I have made to show people how to rotate saved lots. It's in PDF format, and there are lots of pictures. Hope this is the right place.
Have fun!

Updated - revised version.

Update April 2008 - Mootilda has released a shrink-enabled version of the LotAdjuster. Now, if you rotate a lot, you can trim off the old road space afterwards, returning the lot to its original size. Hooray!

Update September 2008 - Tip - If you are experiencing unexpected behavior, run the game and make a structural change to the lot after each step. This will update the lot package, including the view of the lot within the neighborhood." Thanks Mootilda.

Edit by HP: Adding keywords: lot rotation, lot rotating, rotate a lot, rotate lot, rotation of lots, change orientation of lots, lot orientation change, change door direction, change lot direction, change lighting direction, rotate lighting direction, change light orientation, change light direction, change light angle, change lighting angle, rotate lot lighting, light lot lighting lot change rotation rotate omg brainz

It is ...
Thanks for all your efforts to make this...
Hope the approval comes soon.

Ah thank you very much for sharing this with the community! I am sure there is a great demand for this.

I'm going to take down the file in a couple more days if it isn't approved - pointless having the thread with no tutorial.

For those who want to find the tutorial in its latest, approved-by-Mootilda version, or who want to know more about lot modding, go to the lot research thread here.

aelflaed, have you tried checking in with one of the moderators to find out *why* it's not approved? Maybe nobody has seen it -- I would think if there was anything wrong with the tutorial itself, they would have let you know?

No, I assumed they were holding back in case it wasn't 'safe', but guess I can ask someone.

The tutorial is perfectly safe (You have already put the stress on the importance of creating a backup before doing anything, so there's no need for me to repeat it).

A PM to a moderator is advisable, when posting a tutorial, because new tutorials are not very frequent, and therefore moderators may overlook it. Sorry for the delay (BTW, I've found in the attachments queue some attachments waiting since last august, lol! )

Thanks Numenor! I was getting pretty frustrated after several attempts to contact someone.

Astartiel tried to use your tutorial for The Mayfair Mansion:
http://www.modthesims2.com/showthread.php?t=299123

However, she ran into some problems and asked for my help:
I downloaded and installed her lot, then followed your tutorial without any problems. I'm not quite sure what her problem was, but I automatically added a few steps that aren't documented in your tutorial: primarily running the game and making a build change on the lot after each step in the tutorial. I don't know whether these extra steps are necessary, or whether the lack of these steps caused Astartiel's problem, but they can't hurt.

Here are the steps that I followed. Obviously, I'm using your second technique (Section B):

1) It's important that the new road be flat and at the correct elevation. So, I used the LotAdjuster to expand the lot on the left, and specified the advanced option: Lot Edges = Flatten. Then, I ran the game, edited the lot and flattened the rest of the expanded section, so that the entire new road area is at the same level as the existing road. This also serves as the "build change" step required by the LotAdjuster.

2) As in your tutorial, I used SimPE to change the U10 and U11 values, commit and save the change. However, I then ran the game again to make a build change to the lot. This fixed the "blue tear" which had formed as a result of the edits. I believe that this may also resolve any inconsistencies in the lot package which arise because of the rotation. After saving the lot, I snapped the lot to the neighborhood road, to generate the road in the new location.

3) I used the LA to move the portals, as you suggest. Then, as the build change, I removed the fence along the edge of the old road, in preparation for shrinking that side of the lot.

4) I ran the LA a final time, to shrink the lot on the right side, where the old road was. Then, I ran the game and put the fence back on the right edge of the lot.

Again, I'm not quite sure what caused Astartiel's problem, but I just wanted to document what worked for me. If someone else has problems, perhaps they can resolve those problems by ensuring that the new road is completely flat, and by making a build change in-game after each step of the tutorial.


Thanks again for this wonderful tutorial.

could that be the difference between how the tutorial defines left and right and how a user defines them?

I'm hoping that Astartiel will look over what I did and spot something that she did differently. That might help us to determine what went wrong, and whether the tutorial can be improved.

I definitely did not make a structural change in the game after every step, so I think you've hit on something Mootilda! I'll try doing it again myself just to see if that makes a difference. It may be a few days till I get back to you on this because I have a really super busy week this week. ;-)

In general, I just pick up a window or door and then place it down in the same location. That's enough to convince the game to regenerate the entire lot package, including the lot imposter (the neighborhood view of the lot). This step allows me to follow exactly what's happening to the lot at every step. I guess that I'm super-cautious... I like to see that the results of each step match my expectations.

It's quite possible I was taking some of those 'structural change' steps for granted, I'd done so many of them by the time the tutorial was written!

Also, I haven't updated the tutorial to reflect the most recent LotAdjuster facilities. Some things are probably easier than they were, as well.

Astartiel, hope it all makes sense now!

At least it's documented here; hopefully this is where people will come with their problems. You might want to add a note to the tutorial:

"If you are experiencing unexpected behavior, try making a structural change to the lot after each step. This will update the lot package, including the view of the lot within the neighborhood."

Or something like that...

The "flatten lot edges" feature should also be helpful for this tutorial... the game is so much happier with flat roads.

Thanks Mootilda, I've borrowed your words for the present.

Oops, I should have said "..., try running the game and making a structural change to the lot after each step. ..." (just to be clear)

you know, I nearly added that bit, then decided not to rewrite for fear of confusing people again! I assumed you knew what you meant. And of course, you did!

actually, a structurally change may not be necessary but it ensures at least a question pop-up asking whether to save the lot when it wasn't done with the "save" button before

The structural change is not always necessary. However, a structural change does update the lot imposter. This allows people to track their progress through the tutorial, and ensures that what they see is what they get.

Plus, a structural change at any point during the tutorial cannot actually hurt the lot.

If people are noticing odd behavior, such as what Astartiel was seeing, it may just be a mismatch between the actual lot and the lot imposter. A structural change resolves this.

Can this tool be used to physically move a house on the lot?

I've changed a Maxis lot and want to move a sim into it, but there's far too much space on either side of the house itself. If I move the whole thing one tile to the left I can use the lot shrinking tool (in LotExpander) to shrink it to a good sized lot, but manually moving every wall and object seems arduous. Is there a way using this tool, or any, to do this?

Hi all, I was wondering if anybody could help me with my house. I used lot expander to rotate my house and I "think" all the portals are ok it's just that when I have modular stairs on the back porch, everybody is thinking of that as my front door!

Sorry that I didn't see your question earlier; I've added this forum to my quick links.

At this time, there is no way to move everything on a lot over by one lot-sized tile; things can only be moved in increments of neighborhood-sized tiles. Adjusting a lot in lot-sized tiles is on my to-do list, but is a fairly major change to the LotAdjuster.

The Portal Revealer will allow you to see whether your portals are correctly placed.

However, I believe that the "front door" issue is a completely separate issue. My understanding is that the game will always use the (external) door with the lowest ID as the "front door". You may be able to solve this by deleting the door to the back porch and then replacing it; this should give the new door a new ID.

As well, I believe that there is a mod which will fix this problem. I'll do some searching and see whether I can find you a link.

[Update]

Try this and see whether it helps:
http://www.moreawesomethanyou.com/s...pic,1483.0.html

Thanks Mootilda, I'll try replacing the door first since I really don't like to have any hacks in my game. I'll let you know what happens...

Ok well the problem was that I was using a garden center door and not a real door...who would have figured?

Anyway at least people are coming to the right door now but my newspaper is being left in the middle of the road!