Using House Plans for Building

[Shewolf13]

I have numerous house plans from various sites that I love and that I would love to turn into Sim homes.  However... I have very poor visual-spatial ability XD  What I mean by that, is when I look at the plans, I have a hard time taking that vision and turning it into a reality, so to speak.  Or when I start working on it, I realize I did something wrong and so then I have to start all over again (for example, starting a house, then realizing I needed to mess with the terrain under it, or do something like that).

My question for those who use plans is this: how do you take your plan of a real house and begin to build in the Sims, what do you do?  how do you begin?  Along with this: what kind of "conversions" do you use?  What I mean by that is looking at a plan, they list the real life measurements.  Do you have some kind of an idea how many grid boxes that would be in the Sims or do you just wing it and use your own proportions? 

I'm looking for any hints/tips on basically "translating" a plan to a build because I seem to have such an issue with it.

[Twinmum]

As far as sizing is concerned, I look at things that are a set size in Sims. Doors, beds, bath tub, toilets, showers, fridge, sinks, stoves etc. Start with a room that has a number of 'set' items like the kitchen and work on that first. I find it helps to put those items I as you build even if it's just a cheap place marker item until you furnish and decorate properly. Of course, some spaces are going to be wider or narrower than the real thing, but once you get the sized things in, the rest usually falls into place. Also, I find it helps to actually plot out the house on paper (graph paper is excellent for that) so that you have a rough idea of size and where to place it on the block.
Hope this gives you a bit of an idea how to start.

[Shewolf13]

Thanks Twinmum!  Yeah, that helps a bit.  Out of curiosity, for you or for anyone else, do you work on the outside first or the inside?  Like, do you do a basic shell, then go inside and section off rooms, etc?  Or do you do the inside first and then match the outside to it?  I see all these beautiful builds and just have no idea how to even start to get the desired effect XD Somehow, when I try to use specific "styles", it never turns out quite right.

[Twinmum]

I usually go room by room adding where needed. Then when all the rooms are in place, I check to see if it will work on the outside. Sometime to get a style of roof or layout of windows, you need to add an extra square to the whole of the house. If that's the case, I just look and try to figure out what rooms could get by with it without looking strange.

[Shewolf13]

Hm, OK. Sounds like a lot of experimentation.  My only issue with experimentation for me is that when I do it, I find myself having to start over because I did something wrong XD. For example, I was working on something just today and found in testing what I did didn't work so then I had to dismantle most of what I had worked on.  I guess I'm just trying to find a more streamlined process for myself.

Thank you so much for the tips Twinmum.  I appreciate it.

[grimsoul]

I do like Twinmum and use counters, bed, doors and other items to help determine room size.
When laying out the house I will often use different floor tiles to get an idea of what it will look like before putting down the foundation or walls. Like the wood tiles. There are 8 different ones that are free to place. I about always do this if it is going to be on a foundation.
Like this shell I uploaded I forgot to delete the tiles before putting it up.
At floor level it looks like this.

If you was to drop down to ground level it looks like this.


It's easy to add or delete tiles as needed to get the room the right size. I then use the tiles as a guide to put the foundation and walls in one room at a time.

[jesirose]

When laying out the house I will often use different floor tiles to get an idea of what it will look like before putting down the foundation or walls. Like the wood tiles. There are 8 different ones that are free to place. I about always do this if it is going to be on a foundation.

Wow, what a great tip! Thank you for sharing!

I love looking at floorplans on various websites and building my houses after them, especially because I always have trouble with the kitchen and living room areas. I will definitely be trying this tip next time!

[Shewolf13]

Oh wow, Grimsoul!  Thanks!  That makes a lot of sense!  You guys are awesome!  I can't believe that I didn't think of that XD

[Dellena]

I use the floor tile method myself.  Something to think about when building a house for sims based on a real life house plan, is routing.  A house with a lot of single tile wide halls will cause routing issues for your sims.  So you might need to expand parts of the plan to accommodate sim routing or be prepared to watch while they start and stop trying to get out of each other's way in the hallways.   Open plan house plans are probably some of the best for sims as it removes a lot of the routing issues.

[Shewolf13]

Yeah, that's one thing I've definitely noticed XD It's funny... when I'm actually playing, I just build as I need things.  But the houses never seem to look right.  But then when I use plans, it doesn't look quite right either heh.  I've been watching far too much of the HGTV (Home and Garden TV) lately and looking at all the houses and stuff.  While it gives me ideas, I find myself having issues trying to recreate them, mostly because while you get to see the house as they walk through, you don't get to see how it all connects.  I'm trying to take all these lessons and combine them, though it seems like it's going to take a lot of practice XD