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Test Subject
Original Poster
#1 Old 13th May 2017 at 5:23 AM Last edited by UsernameNotAvailable : 15th May 2017 at 2:27 PM.
[Building Tutorial] How to Raise Terrain in Exact Amounts
Sorry if someone's already posted this method somewhere

I'm sure everyone who's used the Raise Terrain tool in Sims 3 has experienced frustration with it at some point. I know I have For those of you who like to make split-level housing or intricate garden designs, the fact that there seems to be no easy way to raise terrain by exactly one stair-height (as in the Sims 2) has probably caused you a lot of grief.

It's easy enough to lower terrain exactly one stair-height - you just hold the ALT key and fiddle with the stair tool until you get a single stair going downwards, like so:



But as for raising the terrain? I've seen a lot of different methods to do this, none of which have been to my liking. Generally they work by raising the terrain under a floor tile that's exactly a floor up, so the ground is 16 stairs high. Unfortunately, these methods tend to leave the tiniest margin of error, which causes it to be about 15.5 stairs high instead of 16.

So I decided to fiddle with it, and I think I've found a solution! Using the "constrainfloorelevation false" (CFE) cheat, I have found a way to raise the ground by exactly 15 stair-heights (or 31 stair-heights, or 47)!

TUTORIAL START

First, flatten out your lot completely, and turn off auto-roof so it won't get in the way.

Then, create a 5*5 room and use the biggest raise terrain tool at the highest intensity to raise the ground on one side (make sure to put the centre of the brush on the outside of the room). The ground has to be higher than the top of the room.

If you'd like to make the platform higher, just make your room two or three stories high. Be warned that there is a limit to how high you can raise terrain, so you probably won't be able to get it up to 47 clicks using this method without also altering how high the terrain can go with other cheats. Sadly, I do not know how to do this.





Flatten an area on top of the raised ground and put a little square of foundation on top of it.





Now it's time for the CFE cheat! Open the cheat window using CTRL+SHIFT+C and type in this phrase EXACTLY: "constrainfloorelevation false". Now use the leveling tool to drag from the top of the room over the top of the foundation.





It should look like the picture below. Delete the foundation and the room.





Use the leveling tool to make the area where the foundation was bigger, and get rid of the rest of the elevation. This new platform will be exactly 15 stairs high, one less than the height of a room which are 16 stairs high. If you want a platform that is 16 stairs high you'll unfortunately have to do it the long way by making your room two stories and then lowering the platform until it's the right height.





Turn off the CFE cheat by bringing up the window again, pressing the up arrow, and changing the "false" to "true". You can now use the stairs to lower the platform to the exact level you want, for instance if you wanted a platform that was exactly four stairs high, you'd use two sets of four-stairs and then three sets of one-stairs. A 16 stair high platform would be a 31 stair-high platform with three sets of four stairs down and then three sets of one-stairs.





And you're done! I hope this helped some people, happy building guys!
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Scholar
#2 Old 14th May 2017 at 7:10 AM
Thanks very much! This looks really helpful! I'm anxious to try it out.
dodgy builder
#3 Old 14th May 2017 at 9:05 AM
A regular wall is 16 clicks high and when you remove the foundation the ground will be 1 click lower. You might want to tell how to open the cheat window, just to make it complete
Virtual gardener
staff: administrator
#4 Old 14th May 2017 at 1:56 PM
I agree with Volvenom!

You can also check out our BBcode guide to adjust the post presentation some more if you want to, like using bold, italics, headers, etc: http://modthesims.info/misc.php?do=...styleid=65#size
(it does reset your theme, so I'd scroll down and change it back to the one you're using in case you are using a different bootstrap theme )
Test Subject
Original Poster
#5 Old 15th May 2017 at 2:29 PM
Quote: Originally posted by Greenplumbbob
I agree with Volvenom!

You can also check out our BBcode guide to adjust the post presentation some more if you want to, like using bold, italics, headers, etc: http://modthesims.info/misc.php?do=...styleid=65#size
(it does reset your theme, so I'd scroll down and change it back to the one you're using in case you are using a different bootstrap theme )


I've made some slight edits so it's now more clear how to open the cheat window and why the platform is 15 stairs high.
Test Subject
Original Poster
#6 Old 15th May 2017 at 2:30 PM
Quote: Originally posted by Volvenom
A regular wall is 16 clicks high and when you remove the foundation the ground will be 1 click lower. You might want to tell how to open the cheat window, just to make it complete


Thanks for the tips! I've changed it now.
mature minion
retired moderator
#7 Old 18th May 2017 at 12:18 PM
You can accomplish this in a few less steps than illustrated. After building your room and turning cfe off, just raise the ground inside the room, then use the level terrain tool on the "ceiling" to flatten the floor again. The ground inside the room will be, at it's highest 15 steps as it has to remain 1 step below the floor above it.
Field Researcher
#8 Old 8th Jul 2017 at 8:51 PM
I'm confused how you can change how many steps are placed at once?! How, in 8 years, did I never know you could do that?!
Top Secret Researcher
#9 Old 11th Jul 2017 at 7:16 AM
Quote: Originally posted by pjsutton
I'm confused how you can change how many steps are placed at once?! How, in 8 years, did I never know you could do that?!

The OP stated this right before the first picture:
Quote: Originally posted by UsernameNotAvailable
It's easy enough to lower terrain exactly one stair-height - you just hold the ALT key and fiddle with the stair tool until you get a single stair going downwards, like so:

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