Author Topic: Attics and their Use  (Read 37421 times)

Offline TheChronicR

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Attics and their Use
« on: May 04, 2011, 12:02:35 PM »
I have two questions.
My first question is very simple: how do you create an attic? Can anyone provide a small tutorial or link to one?
The second question is: if you have an attic in your Sim's house, how do you use it? What do you put in it?
Thank you.
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Offline Lilygirl

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Re: Attics and their Use
« Reply #1 on: May 04, 2011, 12:30:35 PM »
My "attics" in TS3 are essentially tall roof sections. Tall enough that I can create gables or delete sections of roof wall and replace with actual wall (for window placement). If you check out my Extraordinary Barn house build in the Swap Shop you'll see that it has an accessible attic. Juan Darer's house in Twinbrook has an attic bedroom. If you give me an hour or so I can put together a few pictures to illustrate.

I usually use my attics as "free" space for an extra bedroom or a skilling area.

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Offline TheChronicR

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Re: Attics and their Use
« Reply #2 on: May 04, 2011, 12:32:28 PM »
Thank you Lily. I'm not in a hurry so take your time. That would be very helpful. :)
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Offline Lilygirl

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Re: Attics and their Use
« Reply #3 on: May 04, 2011, 02:09:21 PM »
A Basic Tutorial on Building a Basic Attic

Once you know what the various tools can do for you, I encourage you to explore, possibilities are almost endless! I once built a 3-story A-frame house almost entirely out of roof sections! I would showcase it here except that game file got deleted in my very first attempt to play the downloaded version from EADM on Vista - I deleted everything before learning about DEP settings! It still pains me to think of all those houses and hours of game play I lost. I'm actually currently working on remaking those houses so a version of it will show up in my Swap Shop in the future. But, moving on.

Major tip: roof sections are free! Attic space can greatly expand the square footage in an average starter home for minimal cost. All you need is a staircase, couple wall sections, and a window or two.

Step 1) I built a basic shell for the bottom floor, 10x15 to be exact, and gave it brown siding. Size doesn't matter too much but bigger is better when learning so you can see how the different roof tools "behave". Then I added a Gable Roof across the entire thing. (Actually, this is the default auto-roof the game gave me but it works perfectly for illustration.) I added the brown siding to both sides to highlight the middle section, which is tall enough to be an attic Sims can live in (gray non-coloured section). Adjusting the height of the roof will increase/decrease this area.



Step 2) Now that we know where the attic can go with this roof pitch, I deleted the roof. Then I added my attic walls to the front and back on the second story. Note, I didn't add the side walls as the roof tool will provide these to me for free! I have covered these walls with white siding to highlight them.



Step 3) I added the side sections of roof using the Half Gable Roof tool. See how it created the inside side walls (brown) for me? Note: when using this and other half roof tools, length (runs perpendicular) must be greater than width (runs parallel) relative to the road/front of the lot. This caused me some grief in my Extraordinary Barn build. Now we have this.



Step 4) A simple addition of a Gable Roof to the top of the attic section completes the outside. Notice how it looks just like the first picture?



Step 5) The attic becomes easily accessible by placing a staircase to connect it to the first floor.



Step 6) A little re-siding and adding windows and a front door makes this a simple home with an attic.



Another tip: I find that creating an attic on top of an existing story is difficult for me. I plan for an attic if I think I might want one in the future by calculating how much space I'll need in the attic (usually at least 4 wide to fit a bed and have room to walk around) and then decide what roof pitch I want to use. This then determines the minimal width of the story below the attic. Needless to say, attics aren't usually very spacious.

Now, with the ability to change the pitch of individual roof sections, attics and almost-an-attic top stories can have very interesting architecture from the outside.
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Offline Juxtaposition

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Re: Attics and their Use
« Reply #4 on: May 04, 2011, 02:12:06 PM »
Oooh, I wanna make an Attic now, very cool!
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Offline catlover

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Re: Attics and their Use
« Reply #5 on: May 04, 2011, 02:34:00 PM »
My Sims have an attic but it is not accessible to them. I use it for storage of the paintings and skill award certificates and anything else that the sims create that I do not have space for. My Sim's have their own art museum up there. I keep them in case I decided to use them later in the architectural career or for decorating. I also use the space under the house to keep the rocks and gems that I collect. The items that my inventor's and sculptors create go there as well. It helps to keep their house and yard tidy and their personal inventory de-cluttered. It saves me time from having to switch back and forth between live and buy mode to access family inventory.

If you have a Sim with the neat trait, do not place any items that Sims would try to have access to in these spaces because they will detect the items and try and get to them. It drives them crazy and they will waste a lot of time having their Sim fit waving their hands and stomping their feet because they can't get to it.

In the architectural field, I like to use Sim's houses with accessible attics to make athletic rooms or study rooms.

Offline TheChronicR

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Re: Attics and their Use
« Reply #6 on: May 04, 2011, 03:31:09 PM »
Thank you so so much Lily! :D It's for my Legacy house, they are in need of money and space so I'm seeking a two-in-one solution. Lol I know it's desperate. ;D
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Offline Seabody

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Re: Attics and their Use
« Reply #7 on: May 04, 2011, 11:59:56 PM »
I think it's worth noting that on the default roof height, you must have 3 squares on a side for the game to recognise it as a wall.

Offline Lilygirl

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Re: Attics and their Use
« Reply #8 on: May 05, 2011, 12:06:45 AM »
I think it's worth noting that on the default roof height, you must have 3 squares on a side for the game to recognise it as a wall.

Absolutely! I've found that the best way to determine if your roof pitch is correct, is to simply place a wall section and then adjust the pitch. This way you can have a roof that is more or less than the default 3 squares wide to equal a wall height. Here's where your geometry class becomes useful! :D
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Offline Seabody

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Re: Attics and their Use
« Reply #9 on: May 05, 2011, 12:10:56 AM »
And another tip is that, along with roof sections, wallpaper placed on a roof section is free. I want to build a tent this way. 8)

Offline pallyndrome

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Re: Attics and their Use
« Reply #10 on: May 05, 2011, 04:33:15 AM »
I think that lilygirl's instructions are the best/easiest way to make an attic, but I think (not 100% sure) that I have done it a different way. Keeping the one big gable roof and putting walls on the inside. This requires the roof to be at the right height so that walls will meet the triangles at the right spot. I am a little rusty on this, but putting windows/doors on the triangle bits might require removing that bit of wall and replacing it with actual wall - I think it grows up to the correct height if the roof is still on. I will have to go back into my game to check all this (haven't played in ages cause of a headcold), and lilygirl's way is simpler in my opinion.

Offline Seabody

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Re: Attics and their Use
« Reply #11 on: May 05, 2011, 04:35:12 AM »
I've done it that way Pally. I always used to do it that way, until I think when I realised that the Goths have a half-wall balcony. And figured that out.

Offline Alexandria_

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Re: Attics and their Use
« Reply #12 on: May 05, 2011, 05:26:47 AM »
That was a great tutorial Lilygirl! I've never tried building an accessible attic, but I might now :)

Offline Lilygirl

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Re: Attics and their Use
« Reply #13 on: May 05, 2011, 11:21:46 AM »
In response to Pally's comment: The One-Piece Attic

There are 3 reasons I don't recommend this method compared to the first method: 1) Cost is higher because you have to pay for more wall sections, 2) Harder to apply any changes you desire because it's all in one piece, and 3) You have holes to fill by methods that are invisible, which increases room for error and confusion when renovating later.

Step 1) So I deleted the attic currently on my 10x15 box to start back from the beginning. On top of this box I placed the Gable Roof, all in one piece (default roof the game applies), and coloured it white.



*Step 2) I deleted the roof "walls" where the attic fits under the roof. You can see the remnants of my previous attic inside. Note that the triangle above the height of the walls is also deleted when you do this.



*Step 3) Place your walls to close off the front and back of your attic. Notice the triangular holes above the walls, this is what I was talking about in reason #3 above.



*Step 4) Fill the triangular holes by placing another Gable Roof section over top. It meshes in with the existing roof perfectly creating is a surprise for you to find when you're doing renovations weeks/months after forgetting about this part.



Step 5) Place windows, wall coverings, etc. to your heart's content. Notice, if you skipped from Step 1 to Step 5, the nifty extra brown siding in the top little triangle will be unavailable to you.



*Note:
Steps 2-4 aren't necessary as you can place windows on roof "walls" without cheats, placing doors requires the moveObjects on cheat. If you choose to omit these steps, simply place your inside side walls where they need to be (3 in from the edge), add windows, and decorate. The end. This does create a vaulted ceiling on the inside if you leave it as is.



You can create a ceiling on top of your side walls remembering that only one grid space on either side of a wall is accessible at a time. Therefore, a 2-square wide attic requires one pass of the ceiling/floor tile, while a 3-square+ wide attic requires more than one pass. Also of note, you can't zoom inside a roof section to see the ceiling in Build Mode (hence why my pictures are taken through a window) - I'm not sure how this would affect taking screenshots "inside the attic" in Live Mode.



Creating Gables is coming up next.
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Offline Lilygirl

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Re: Attics and their Use
« Reply #14 on: May 05, 2011, 12:01:29 PM »
What If I Want to Widen my Attic Space?

Step 1) This basically works the same as widening any existing room: grab the wall with the Hand tool and drag.



Step 2) But wait, now it doesn't fit under my perfectly pitched roof! The difficulty of changing this is directly linked to whether your attic roof is in one piece or 3+ pieces. If your roof is in one piece, click on the Roof Section Pitch tool and increase the pitch of your roof to cover the new wall. Note how this increases the space available on the other side? Feel free to increase your attic space to the left as well and remember to cover with a ceiling.

Step 3) Not quite what you wanted? No problem, simply delete your current one-piece roof (don't forget about the extra little Gable Roof piece you added on top) and continue reading. If your roof is in individual sections already, delete the section on the side where you want to increase your attic, mine is the right side, and add a section of Half Gable Roof that's only 2-squares wide. Don't forget to redo the Gable Roof on top.

Create the roof in the following picture using 2 sections of Half Gable Roof, one on either side of the attic, and a Gable Roof on top. I added the white wall to illustrate the gap in height.



Step 4) Using the Roof Section Pitch tool, increase the pitch of the roof section on the right until it meets the top Gable Roof. Remember to fill in any missing wall sections and coverings, and move/replace your windows and doors.

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