A Quick Question on my Dynasty House

[Metropolis Man]

Okay, all of you builders... 

Here's what I'm envisioning for my main Dynasty house on 15 Summerhill Ct — I want to revisit an old thing I did way back in the day with Sims 1, an Octagon. I want this house to be dead center in the lot and obviously have 8 equal length sides. I want it really large, but there still needs to be room around it on other sides for mini houses/museums. So, I'm thinking no more than 1/3 of the size of the lot — i.e. 20 squares top to bottom and 20 squares across. So, I tried this out (20 squares) and the very bottom side (at 6 o'clock) ended up needing to be longer than the other 7. So, what's the magic length for the sides I'm looking for where everything would be balanced? 

[wildredchild]

Tom, make it 21 squares by 21 squares first of all.  The even numbers for the octagon don't work out, at least for me.

[Saltypaws]

I built this a while back, was just experimenting and after looking at it, I can totally see what you are going to do, awesome.  One side is off, but you get the jist of it. 




I had built the kitchen upstairs, for more room downstairs, but it would look awesome alot bigger and rooms coming out the side.  Good thinking Metro.

[Joria]

Okay, all of you builders... 

Here's what I'm envisioning for my main Dynasty house on 15 Summerhill Ct — I want to revisit an old thing I did way back in the day with Sims 1, an Octagon. I want this house to be dead center in the lot and obviously have 8 equal length sides. I want it really large, but there still needs to be room around it on other sides for mini houses/museums. So, I'm thinking no more than 1/3 of the size of the lot — i.e. 20 squares top to bottom and 20 squares across. So, I tried this out (20 squares) and the very bottom side (at 6 o'clock) ended up needing to be longer than the other 7. So, what's the magic length for the sides I'm looking for where everything would be balanced? 

Metro, check in the showboat thread!  Aiwe has posted a really cool octagon house with multiple rooms, then carried the theme even higher by starting one as a tree house.  Really cool. 

I built one way back when I did my first legacy and it was so much fun, and way easy to grow even larger.  I had put my kitchen area, a visitor lounge, dining room and library downstairs and bedrooms/bathrooms upstairs with big decks and patios all around.  I even had a ghost bedroom and bathroom so they'd stop sleeping the other family members beds.

[Aiwe]

If you want the eight sides that are the same length (as opposed to the same number of pieces of wall) you have to remember that the diagonal walls are longer than the straight ones, and the maths on it is pretty simple, it's just Pythagoras's theorem (the square on the hypotenuse etc... that one) basically the diagonal walls are the length of the straight ones multiplied by the square root of two, working out how to get a given size is trickier, if I've rearranged my equations correctly you need to multiply the desired size by root 2 and then divide it by root 2 plus 2 to get the number of wall sections on a straight side and then divide that number by root 2 to get the number of wall sections on a diagonal side. So for a target size of twenty squares the closest whole numbers turn out to be 8 pieces of wall on the straight sides and 6 on the diagonal sides.

Alternatively you could do what I normally do and place an octagonal roof directly on the floor where I want my house to be and count.

Also thank you Joria, glad you liked them.

[Metropolis Man]

If you want the eight sides that are the same length (as opposed to the same number of pieces of wall) you have to remember that the diagonal walls are longer than the straight ones, and the maths on it is pretty simple, it's just Pythagoras's theorem (the square on the hypotenuse etc... that one) basically the diagonal walls are the length of the straight ones multiplied by the square root of two, working out how to get a given size is trickier, if I've rearranged my equations correctly you need to multiply the desired size by root 2 and then divide it by root 2 plus 2 to get the number of wall sections on a straight side and then divide that number by root 2 to get the number of wall sections on a diagonal side. So for a target size of twenty squares the closest whole numbers turn out to be 8 pieces of wall on the straight sides and 6 on the diagonal sides.

Alternatively you could do what I normally do and place an octagonal roof directly on the floor where I want my house to be and count.

This is the info I was looking for. Thanks.

EDIT: Yep, the Octagon house looks perfect. Unfortunately, I can tell it's not perfectly centered on the 60 X 60 lot. Probably no way around that because of the way the wall tool snaps to grid lines. The whole house looks like it needs to be pushed one way like a half of a square. No biggie.

[Joria]

OMG!  I can't imagine doing all that math, (which I couldn't/wouldn't do to begin with), to get a "perfect" octagon.  Metro, you truly are a perfectionist.  I bow to your perfection. lol  I just did the rather uneven sides and I'm happy with it, but I just might try for perfection myself.  I put my not quite so perfect one up on the showboat thread if you want to see how it looks so far.