This just comes up today when I visited Starbucks. (Edit: I thought about this since TS2, but the idea of discussing this with someone just came today).

I actually tried to estimate the measurements of the building, in Sims measurement, from the inside while waiting for my drink. I am not sure if I am that much of a Sims enthusiast, or someone out there sharing the same habit or interest.

I give one Sims' block about 3 feet in real-life. About 91.44 cm, or 0.9144 m in metric, almost a meter. I have given this quite some thoughts whenever I find myself measuring real-life structures in my head. I get this number from my office: they have floor tiles that is exactly 1 foot, 3 of these tiles match up to the office door. Then I try standing in this imaginary Sims square, I find myself fit somewhat proportionally to a sim standing on a square inside TS3. There are a lot we can argue about this. Such as we do not know sims' height, or size; real-life architectures come with all shapes and sizes, not conforming to the limitation and standards of the Sims. So I guess we just do some compromising and keeping the imagination alive.
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I peep in their restroom. It is about 2x2, but it feels a lot roomier than a 2x2 restroom we make inside The Sims. The little hall way is 1x2, and again it feels very roomy. I am not sure if it is the matter of perception when we look down from above in TS3, but I would never make a hall way that is only 1 block in width. Maybe it is a habit since TS2 that 1 block hallway usually causes "traffic jam", although they made some improvement in TS3 that sims can slide by each other, although they have to stop and "coordinate" the exchange.

I often try to replicate some of the buildings in my real world, such as my bedroom, my office, my usual Starbucks store, or whatever building I find interest in knowing what they would look in The Sims game. Without better information, I just use my height as standard height for a sim. I am 5'7", or 169~170cm. I am not that skinny nor chubby. These are my observations:

- My bathroom is a sad 2x3. Bathtub+shower head in the back, toilet in middle, and a counter with a sink right next to the door.

- My bedroom is a sad 4x4, or 4x5. But it is a lot better in real-life because my double bed does not exactly take up 2x3, it feels more like 1.5x2.5 .

- My parking space is 2.5 in width, instead of 3. Somehow this is already very roomy.

- Starbucks store counter area is only 3 blocks in depth: counter in the back, counter in the front (with cash register and display shelves) both take up 1 block each, leaving only 1 block for employees.

- Restaurants and convenient stores: I don't even bother replicating them. They pack in way too tight that no sim would ever be able to sneak through, let alone enjoying a good shopping experience. For instance, they pack in twice as many bar stools for all the bars I have seen: something impossible to do in The Sims that still keep the bar functional. Seven-eleven, the entire isle including shelves on both sides are less than 2 blocks. Entire store is 5 blocks in width with 3 isles. You would need 9 blocks to do that in The Sims.
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Let me know how you like my observations and conversion value (1 block = 3ft). Or tell us your observations of objects/buildings around you. I am not getting into height yet, unless I use my height as standard, there are just way too many variations.

I've done the same thing. I even went as far as to build a house in the Sims based on one IRL and my partner, who is a real estate appraiser, "appraised" it so we could figure out what property values were like in the Sims. (And the approximate exchange rate between a simolean and a US dollar.)

Yes. I'm that lame. ^^

since i started with sims 2 (roughly 4 years ago) i have been trying to create my real life house into sims. I've never got it completely perfect, in fact i never even built it in sims 2, well not fully anyway, but i have built it in sims 3 and it works pretty well, if i do say so myself.

I use furniture as a guide. All 3 non-master bedrooms in my sims version of my house are 7x7 because to make my furniture work, and change my single bed to a double i had to make it that big, and then the other two are that because IRL they are all the same. Some other ones ened up really big though to make the layout work with the furniture-judged rest of the house...
my big kitchen/living/dining area ended up being 16x11, and divided into 3 areas, the kitchen and dining each 5x11 and the living 6x11...
IRL it would probably be 16x7 or something about that... sims measurement just doesn't seem to work against real life measurement.

Girlgeek19 - And by the way, what did you work out would be the exchange rate for simoleans and U.S dollars? that sounds interesting...

Used to do it with ts 1 and 2, but haven't done it in a long time. Would try and size up friends houses and my house and several other locations. Never really tried to build though.

I tried... Once. I tried building my house, it ended up FREAKING HUGE and failed miserably when I realised I was missing the main bathroom. I got so annoyed a deleted the whole lot and never tried again.

I did build the house we lived in when I played the original game in the original game and it was nearly spot on. I say nearly because, as mentioned, there are just some things that don't measure up.

For example, real kitchen counters are 30 inches deep. A bathtub is wider than that. In game, the bathtub takes up exactly twice what a kitchen counter does.

I agree that hallways are a real pain. I recreated my grandmother's house once, which had a long hallway down the center with bedrooms on each side and a bathroom at the end. I am thinking that hallway was probably 45" wide, wider than some hallways, because she had dressers and such in it and there was plenty of room to get down the middle.

Another house I built was designed after one that my aunt and uncle lived in when I was a kid. The house would have been built during the 1950s, and was of a squarish design so it only had one short hallway. The front door opened into the living room, which was situated so that most of it was left of the door, and a small part of it was right. Going forward and right would send a person to the main bedroom, then to the bathroom, then to another bedroom. On the left across from the bathroom was the stair to the basement. Behind the stair to the basement was the entry to the kitchen, and through the kitchen was a nice-sized dining room that also led back to the living room. It also translated extremely well.

Then there is the Viking Haus. I built that and put it up for download for The Sims 2. It's a hexagonal-shaped house we rented while on vacation one time in Oregon (renting a house is way cheaper and so much more comfortable than staying in motels). Again, I was able to translate it without too much trouble.

I have also converted many floor plans I've seen in magazines and ads to Sim houses without any problems.

One of the places I have learned to watch out for is the kitchen. Because of the difference in counter sizes, most real kitchens are smaller than they need to be made in the game. Generally speaking, a kitchen requires at least one additional tile of space in all the way around it to make up for the counter sizes.

Building structures based on real buildings takes a little practice at first, but once you get everything firmly implanted into your mind it's a pretty simple process.

You went from 16x7 estimate to 16x11 in game. That is a lot of extra room you got for yourself. Did you try using moveobject cheat? It does not work very well with Sims' functionality though (like requirements for desks, tables, chairs, requirements for sims to walk through), not all the time anyway. But moveobject sometimes helps out a bunch.

My 4x4 bedroom may need to be a 5x6 if I have to include all furnitures in. But I guess I care more about keeping the ratio and perspective as proportional as possible. I am more interested in getting the feel as if I was a sim living there. In a way, I feel pitiful for myself living in such tight quarter that I would never allow my sims to endure, not even starters. But honestly, what can you place in a 4x4 bedroom (without cheat)? A double bed, 2 night stands, and that is the end of it.

Misty_2004, the reason hallways are real pain because, if you haven't mentioned yet: hallways IRL are larger than 1 sim block, yet smaller than 2. According to my conversion, 1 sim block = 3ft = 36 inches. Your grandmother's hallway as you mentioned is 45" which is 11" more. This means to accurately portraits your hallway, you need 1.3 sim block. Too bad none of the Sims games allow you to do more than building walls on grid. I just measured my hallway, it is 44" wide.

This apartment complex was built in 1950s. With a ruler in hand, I started to measure everything: this ruler is exactly 36", aka 1 sim block. My counter is only 28" in depth, both kitchen and bathroom. And, blatantly, my bathroom's width is only 56", roughly 1.5 sim block, which is also how long my bathtub is. God, I am living in such small quarter!

Btw, while at it, I measured my ceiling height: 98 inches. I am staring at this door and this sim, I would say in TS3 the ceiling is roughly 100~110 inches high. This is roughly 3x the width of a sim block. 36" x 3 = 108". So a Sims' 3D block has a ratio of 3x1x1. Which means, since foundation is 1/3 height of the wall, foundation block is a cube of 1x1x1. It does not quite look like a cube, maybe my math is wrong, or just a matter of perception? Actually, paying closer attention, foundation (although takes up 1 block) has surrounding walls that make it bigger than itself. And wall looks like 1/8 of a block. So Sims' wall is about 4.5"

Recap:

- Sims' block = 36" x 36"
- Wall height = 108"
- Foundation height = 36"
- Wall thickness = 4.5"

These numbers are my estimates only, I hope for more feedbacks. Anyone cares to disagree or add some thoughts?

This seems helpful for those who try to build houses and still want it look reasonable IRL. The reason some houses (especially EA ones) look ugly or weird because they just don't look "right" or realistic/practical enough.

the way the house is, it doesnt look too bad with a heap of extra room, but it still makes the kitchen very big and leaves space for a soccer table thingy behind the couch, which i don't know is good or bad... anyway, it had to go that much bigger to make one of my brother's bedroom the right size, and the hallway too...

by the way, i may upload the house tomorrow if i finish it today so you might be able to see what i mean... may! i wont definetly upload it because of various reasons but anyway...

You have to enlarge your house so one of the room is "the right size"? I don't mind keeping all the functionalities of your house. I just wonder if that is even your house anymore when it is so much bigger. But upload it anyway, or attach it in the reply. Ah don't worry, it is not like we can see your house layout and plot to rob your house. Screenshots would do fine, too.

I have always used the ratio from the loveseat/double bed for converting real life houses. A loveseat is about 5 feet wide, as is a full size bed, both of these in game are 2 grid squares wide, so I figure each grid to be 2.5 ft x 2.5 ft. Most of the houses that I have built from plans actually turned out pretty close using this method. With TS3 it seems to actually work better because of fewer route failures and the fact that you do not need to have a complete tile in front of something for sims to use it.

the way the layout is, it doesn't actually make it look that much bigger... i'm sorry to say i cant atatch/upload it just yet, but i've decided i will upload. soon. I have to redo some stuff and whatever so yeh...

Pay attention: if you notice, most beds (if not all) do not exactly fill up 2 entire grid squares (I refer to as "sim block"), did you account for that? Because I figure, if you go with beds and love seat (both of them leave out some rooms on both sides within the 2 blocks), from 2.5ft adding some space can come close to 3ft. I am glad our measurements do match up closely.

You mention "you do not need to have a complete tile in front of something for sims to use it." Can you elaborate? I notice better routing, but I don't believe sims can access a dresser with half a tile. Tell me more

Update: WOW! I just can't believe my eyes. I can access the dresser from given only half a block. Basically my sim can sneak between anything with only that much room and still access the dresser. Exception would be between the wall and dresser with half a block in between, that has no path. But everything else works. Look at my screenshots, she is able to use the stove, dish washer, fridge with only half a block of space. And for the sink, she does not even need any official room in between. I am running with awesome mod on, not sure if it can affect pathing.

Although, there must be a full tile in front of table for a chair to be functional. For restaurant lot, I still have to leave 2 big blocks between 2 tables. IRL this looks like a big waste of space. Look at the attached screenshot. The bottom configuration for tables is more ideal with half a block overlap. But the result is only 1 sim can sit. Nevertheless, I did not know TS3 improves this much on pathing. Look like I am going to do some remodeling to pack in even tighter.

Looks like you figured it out on your own. I also noticed that tables/chair combo is an exception. One of the ways I realized how much improved routing is with TS3 is by using move objects. I have overlapped bookshelves and sims can still use both of them. I have also done some crazy things with counters and desks, both remained usable.

If you look at my La Park Bunker there is a picture that has 4 shots the top right being of the kitchen. The kitchen is 3 1/5 tiles wide, but there is no gap between the regular counters and the seating counter. That sink is in a cabinet that has another one overlapping by a half a tile and the sink is still usable. Next to that is an office picture. Notice the bathroom cabinets butted up to each other with bookshelves on each side. Well I used the alt key and placed those bookshelves to where the whole thing looked like one piece of furniture and both bookshelves and the desk are usable.

You can also use alt to place a loveseat at the end of a bed and the sims will still sit on it. So all in all houses in TS3 do not require as much space to be functional as they did in TS2.

In TS2 none of those things would have been usable by sims.

As to the grid size thing, I do not worry so much about the foot measurement as much as furniture placement in a room. Most know how a 10x10 room feels, so if I make a room 4x4 in TS3 and still place the same furniture I would irl, it has the same feel to me, so I am happy.

I care to disagree! In case you didn't know it, the EA/Black Box programmers are on the metric system! so your numbers are totally invalid, lol. I mean, 108", what the hey is that? In all seriousness, all over the place in the Gameplaydata they use the term meters. Your sim will try to 'push' the other sim 5 meters, or sim will route to the door 2 meters maximum, 1 meter minimum.

It appears to me that the word meters is interchangeable with tiles, so that a floor tile is supposed to be 1X1 meter, approximately 3 feet, yes, but this is only approximate as a meter is a tad larger than 3 feet. I haven't seen anywhere though that it is stated in the game files that 1 tile=1 meter, that they have figured this out from engineering or architectural principles and the game physics (or whatever) are based on this and the sim is constructed to be the correct size in comparison to these tiles. If their term 'meters' is intended to be exact, or they just use it as a generic term, sim routes 3 meters or routes 3 tiles, I really don't know.

Just from eyeballing the game the tiles are about 1X1 yards or meters compared to the height of an average sim, so I see nothing wrong with your numbers.