Whether you wish to build a community or residential lot by making an addition to an elegant mansion or for those community park cookouts, this tutorial will aid in building an attractive pavilion, atrium, lobby, foyer, reception area, vestibule or porch.

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This is a tutorial for the adventurous or those of youwho have done other build projects and have a feel for building.  Back when theSims 2 was fairly new it was my first journey into using building codes(cheats).  It took me a couple dozen times, a LOT of mistakes and several otherbuilders’ tutorials to find a combination of styles that worked for me.  I’dnever have made it work without those tenacious fellow tutorial makers, sothank all of you very much. 

Here you see me, CT, in front of the pavilion we will bebuilding.

You will be using the following codes:

·         move_objectson

·         boolpropsnapobjectstogrid true/false

·         boolpropconstrainfloorelevation true/false

Note: Don’t skip steps and read thedirections very carefully or your pavilion won’t turn out right.

Part 1. The foundations.

Step 1) You will need to decide at this pointwhere your finished building will stand. Place flooring 9 squares by 11 squaresin the place you will want the finished building. This works best with oddnumbers.  Even numbered squares won’t give you the gentle arch for which we arelooking, but you can still make them work.  A odd numbered square pavilionworks very nicely, too.  I like this cement flooring because you can see thegrid pattern.

 Step 2) You don’t need the flooring, but itcan be helpful initially. Surround your flooring with walls.

 Step 3) Put a 2nd floor on top ofthe 1st.

Step 4) Next we’ll place our “working” wallsin the front and back of your building (the 9 sq. sides). Each working wallwill be 1-sq. wider on each side if the building (11 squares) and 2 storieshigh. I like to allow at least 3 squares working space away from the buildingitself.  Here I have 5 because I chose a huge lot on which to build.

Step 5) Place flooring on the 2nd and 3rd floors. Any will due, but try to choose one that will giveyou a defined square.

Part 2. Building preparations.

Step 1) On the 3rd floor, or topof your building, place a low fence in a grid pattern. This will be your roof.You can be creative with pretty designs once you feel comfortable with makingpavilions. I chose this particular Short Mortar White Brick Wall because it hasnicely defined square corners, which you will appreciate very soon. Any lowfencing will do, however, and the color choices are a must for differentprojects.  J It is here that you can placelights on the grid. I didn’t, but they look beautiful in the dark.  If you wantit as an open air you can, or you can place any floor tile in any pattern. HereI’ve used a transparent floor by RGiles for a glass roof effect. The rest ofthe building will be open air.

Step 2) Delete all of the upper (2nd)floor wall and place the same fencing you chose, as shown, for the roof. Thisis VERY important: leave the corners open.

Step 3) Delete all of the 1st floor wall and place the same fencing around the bottom. Here I left a space,front and back, for entrance ways. This floor is more for a guide than anythingand can actually be erased completely once the building is complete, so you canplace entrances anywhere around the bottom.

Step 4) Time for the build codes to beentered. Press Ctrl/Shit C to bring up your dialogue box. Type in move_objectson (enter), boolprop snapobjectstogrid false (enter) and boolpropconstrainfloorelevations false (enter).

Choose a pillar that matches your fencing. Place onepillar on each square all the way around the lower floor. Take your time andline them up evenly. This becomes tedious but is extremely essential to thefinished design.

Step 5) At the end of one of your frontworking walls, with your lowering tool click one time. Note: It doesn’t reallymatter at this stage whether it is front or back, that’s just what I’m usingfor this tutorial.

Step 6) Lower the ground the entire length ofyour working wall using the leveling tool.

Step 7)  Go to the top of your 1st floor working wall, click and drag your leveling tool from the lowered wallacross to the opposite point of your far working wall.

This lowers the fencing so that it sits on top of thepillars instead of floating as before.

Step 8) Click up to the 2nd orupper floor and do the same as with the lower floor. Place your pillarsexactly. Take your time. The top and bottom pillars should line up as perfectlyas possible.

Step 9) Inside the spot you had previouslyclicked down once, click down 2 additional times.

Step 10) Even out the ground, using theleveling tool, from the lowered spot, to drop the wall again.

Step 11)  Go to the top of the working wallyou just lowered, click and drag your leveling tool from the a corner on thelowered wall across to the opposite point of your far working wall.

Step 12) That has lowered the upper fencingdown to the top of the upper pillars. Use the leveling tool to level out yourlowered ground.

Step 13) It is time to even out your workingwalls. On the top of your 1st floor working wall drag your levelingtool from one corner of the back wall to the far, opposite cornerof the front.

Step 14) Do the same with the upper level(back to front).

Everything is all evened out now and should look likethis:

Part 3. Forming the Pavilion’s Arch.

Step 1) From here on out our primary workspace will be the back working wall lower the 4th square from theright side one click. 

Do the same with the 4th square from the leftside.

Step 2) Click and drag your leveling toolfrom one of the lowered tiles to the opposite tile in the front.

Do the same thing on the other side.

And it will look like this:

Step 3) Level the 2nd floorflooring of the front working wall. This will also level the topwall.  It sounds silly, but you will be very happy you did this step. Don’ttouch the back one!

Here is the result:

Step 4) Lower the 3rd square fromthe end one click on each left hand corner and 2 clicks on each of the rightcorners -- so that the square is level.

Do the same on the opposite corner only in reverse (2clicks on the left corners and 1 each on the right corners).

Step 5) Level these rows as before.

And level the front working walls again.

Step 6) This time we lower the 2nd square by clicking down 1 on each of the left corners and 3 on each of theright corners (to level the square).

And the opposite corner is 1 click on each of the right 2corners and 3 on each of the 2 left corners.

And level those from back to front again …

… and on the other side.

Step 7) In order to level out the front thistime I like to add a couple of walls to the ends of the front working wall. You might notice that the working wall has a distinct pagoda look to it. J

Flatten the front working wall once again (which is soyou can delete them).

Step 8) Level the back working wall so that wecan delete it as well. Then delete all flooring on the working walls and thewalls themselves. Now flatten out the ground that was under your back workingwall.

Open your dialogue box and type in boolpropconstrainfloorelevations true.  You can stop here or continue forward withplacing pillars in each corner. If you are stopping here don’t forget to typein boolprop snapobjectstogrid true. Otherwise, scroll to the next page.

Step 9) Adding the corner pillars. This is notabsolutely necessary, but I personally like the look of it when finished. Makesure only your boolprop snapobjectstogrid false & move_objects on codes are active.

Here we have some interesting problems. I’ve found thatno two corners will allow you to add the 2 pillars (upper and lower) and stripof fencing in the same manner.  While you can add the lower pillar first on onecorner the opposite corner you may have to add the fencing or the upper post orany combination of the three. You will have to play with them individually. HereI’ve gotten the lower pillar lined up.

Then I put the fencing across and added the upper pillarwithout a problem.

As I said you will have to play with those 3 pieces indifferent sequence with each corner, but at last you will have your pavilion,which should look like this:

Now you can turn off the remaining cheats (boolpropsnapobjectstogrid true & move_objects off) and decorate.  I hopeyou have lots of fun with the different uses for this structure.