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Posted by BlackGarden on Jun 9, 2009• Creating L-shaped stairs in The Sims 3
This tutorial will show you how to create a simple L-shaped staircase on either a foundation or straight on the ground. The method is not without its problems, and it's certainly not the only method for doing this either, but this is a method I think is quite easy to pick up.
The main issue with this method is that it will put a ceiling tile above the corner of your staircase at an odd level, so screenshots must be taken carefully near the staircase, however for the increased flexibility in house design, both for looks and playability, I think it's worth that small inconvenience.
I'll start by explaining how to do this on a foundation, skip to page 2 for the method if you're building straight onto the ground.
On a foundation
- Create your foundation and walls. I've created this small room to demonstrate the technique. You will need to create walls on the ground floor and the second floor.
- Decide where your stairs will go. Here's where I'm putting mine (marked by the red carpet on the ground floor).
- Outside the house, straight on the terrain, create two small staircases, like this. It helps if the bottom level of the second staircase is near the corner where your stairs will be.
- Remove the stairs, by ctrl+clicking on them with the stair tool. The terrain will stay where it was. On the lowest level of this newly adjusted terrain, place one square of foundation, and on top of that, a square of walls.
- Now we need to enter a cheat. Hit ctrl+shift+C and type into the box constrainfloorelevation false and press enter. Make sure you're on the first floor ("upstairs") with the walls down. Go to the terrain tools, and choose the level terrain tool. Now drag from the top of your outside wall to the corner where your stairs will go. Now you see why it's necessary to put the outside foundation and wall near this corner!
- Place two tiles of floor: one for the corner of your stairs, and one at the top of the stairs. There should be two empty tiles between them when you look at them top down to ensure there's room for the stairs.
- Now place your stairs as normal. **IMPORTANT** You must place the top half first, then place the lower half - every time I've tried this, placing the lower half first meant I was unable to place the top half.
- This is all looking pretty good, but if you go to the very top level (above the "upstairs") you'll see this problem.
- This is easily fixed by dragging from the high corner to the lowered corner using the level terrain tool, as shown.
- Don't forget to turn off the cheat by pressing ctrl+shift+C, typing constrainfloorelevation true and pressing enter. You can remove your outside wall and foundation now. You're done!
On the ground
- Create your walls. I've created this small room to
demonstrate the technique. You will need to create walls on the ground
floor and the second floor.
- Decide where your stairs will go. Here's where I'm putting mine (marked by the red carpet on the ground floor).
- Outside the house, straight on the terrain, create two small
staircases, like this. It helps if the bottom level of the second
staircase is near the corner where your stairs will be.
- Remove the stairs, by ctrl+clicking on them with the stair tool. The terrain will stay where it was. On the lowest level of this newly adjusted terrain, place a square of walls.
- Now we need to enter a cheat. Hit ctrl+shift+C and type into the box constrainfloorelevation false and press enter. Make sure you're on the first floor ("upstairs") with the walls down. Go to the terrain tools, and choose the level terrain tool. Now drag
from the top of your outside wall to the corner where your stairs will
go. Now you see why it's necessary to put the outside
wall near this corner!
- Place two tiles of floor: one for the corner of your stairs, and
one at the top of the stairs. There should be two empty tiles between
them when you look at them top down to ensure there's room for the
stairs.
- Now place your stairs as normal. **IMPORTANT** You must place the top half first, then place the lower half - every time I've tried this, placing the lower half first meant I was unable to place the top half.
- This is all looking pretty good, but if you go to the very top level (above the "upstairs") you'll see this problem.
- This is easily fixed by dragging from the high corner to the lowered corner using the level terrain tool, as shown.
- Don't forget to turn off the cheat by pressing ctrl+shift+C, typing constrainfloorelevation true and pressing enter. You can remove your outside wall now. You're done!
The next level
Following the step-by-step methods above will create a very simple staircase for your house. With a bit of imagination and lots of practice, you will be able to create lots of beautiful and interesting staircases.
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