Supported
About This File
This mod improves the Lot Editor UI to support a wider width of the preview panel.
Long ago Maxis developed and released the LE tool for SC4 custom content creation. One thing has remained the same though in how the lot preview shown is in a tiny narrow letterbox gap, making it difficult to actually see what it looks like while adding props and textures.
For many lotters (myself included), we've adapted to this limitation, and it's become just the way it is.
Until now anyway... 
My mod is comprised of a small yet significant user interface tweak which makes the left hand panel wider, and then re-positions the rotational controls, the pan hand, and the zoom function.
Here's a Before / After comparison:
The technical difference is 335 pixels originally, compared to the new expanded 800 pixels wide of this mod. Also if looking closely, on the left side panel you'll see I corrected some very small alignments with the UI elements. Not that those matter, but I figured to fix them up while I was in the process of editing.
Alternatively, you may prefer to use a slightly narrower width with a 500 pixels wide version:
Lot Editor Expanded Preview Panel v1.0 (Medium Width 500px).dat
Of course, the PIM-X tool has helped provide a more powerful and feature-rich lot editor for the game. As such my modification is by no means a replacement for what PIM-X provides in abundance, with its own full screen editing capability and various other advantages.
Although for those of you like myself who are still used to the tool Maxis made as a comfy pair of shoes, then it might be a highly beneficial enhancement. 
Installation & Setup
This mod uses the standard process of installing SC4 content.
There are no dependencies.
(Of course, other than the Lot Editor itself, available to download from the Maxis Files index.)
Simply copy the included .dat file into your Plugins folder.
This will be loaded up by the LE and apply the custom UI modification.
The important step is to edit the target shortcut for what the Lot Editor uses. To run in full screen, find (or create) a shortcut to the LE itself, then go to the Target box and apply the -f parameter, followed by the desired screen resolution to set.
For example, here on my 1600x900 monitor I use:
In the form of:
-f -rWIDTHxHEIGHTx32
Alternatively it can be run in Windowed mode with the -w parameter instead:
Such as using:
-w -r1366x768x32
It'll be worth experimenting with the width and height to find what fits best for your own monitor.
Compatibility Note
You may also find adding the -d:soft parameter is needed depending on your system's graphical capabilities. This enables software rendering, much like the equivalent -d:software option for the game itself.
For example:
-f -rWIDTHxHEIGHTx32 -d:soft
You may also find enabling a compatibility mode on the shortcut tab could help. See the comments below for more info about this, and how surprisingly using Windows 95 compatibility was found to help.
Using a graphical compatibility wrapper such as DxWrapper is useful for additional configuration options, especially on wider screens. More info on this can be found in the thread @Durfsurn posted.
As follows:
Special Mention
Thanks to @Raymond7cn for inspiring me to reinvestigate this from his thread. Your idea made me look into this again, and sure enough here it led to this mod being created for anyone who might find it useful. 
Also for Maxis who made the Lot Editor in the first place, which paved the way for early inspiration of custom content as we know today. The ability to create lots is something I remember being in awe about when I first read the Prima guide, and none of this would be possible without those initial stepping stones the Maxis developers laid. We are so very grateful.
And last (but certainly by no means least), thank you Cori for helping proofread and test the upload prior to this release. I so greatly appreciate your kind and caring support as always. 
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