Lot Editor - Help

[fosterk 4]

Please use this thread as an index to knowledge using the Lot Editor, or LE, for short.

If you have any troubles with the program, please post here with information on what's gone wrong, or what you need help with. There is a similar system in the BAT - Workshop forum, so if you need to see a few examples of how to post here, please take a look there at the pinned threads.

These threads will help people have easy access to information, and using them is keeping the forum tidy.

[kingofsimcity 5,739]

Dang, I was going to start a thread like this but you beat me to it...

Anyways...Here are some basics.

 

Building: Color Code- Grey

 

A building is what represents a lots, usually a RCI, civic, etc....Sometimes,

on parks, a building is there but its not actually visible. They can be replaced by another dependant on lot size and type.

 

Prop: Color code- Blue

 

A prop is basically something that is used as design, and other stuff but mostly, they're just for looks. It Can be Moved upwards or down by holding Ctrl- Arrow Key to move it up or down.

 

To view props represented as buildings, you need bldprop_vol1.dat from the original maxis site at www.simcity.ea.com

 

A prop family is a group of props set together as a specific area. For example, in a prop family, you might have something like this:

 

Props Family- Unamed

 

Tall Topiary

Lombard poplar Tall

Lombar Poplar

 

That means when you place the lot in-game, maxis will randomly generated either one of these 3 props so its a 33.3% chance.

 

Flora: Color Code- Green

 

A flora is just considered any bush, trees or anything. In the begginning, your folra list only has about 5 to 6 basic trees.

 

Water/ Land: Color Code- Light Blue for water, brown for land

 

These tiles can be placed anywhere on the lot to determine where it goes. For Example, a all water filled lot can be placed in the middle of the ocean, while a half and half results in a seaport style.

 

Lot size: The lot size is basically, how much grid tiles will the lot take up. The Max size is 64x64 for all civic and miscellaneous while RCI can only reach 6x6.

 

Foundation/ Retaining Wall: A few selections will be given to you for what kind of lot base or wall will be used on sloped terrain.

 

Road Access: You may have seen a little L curve, a striaght roas, and a opposite L curve. This determines how the lot will be built according to road access.

 

For Example, a C lot on an L curve will only be growable if you build a L Curve Road.

 

--------------------

 

 

Hope that helps.

 

Happy lot building!

 

 

 

 

 

[robotic_minotaur 0]

Hi justa  quickie was wondering if it was possible to make a lot which has two functions e.g. a dual fire/police station or a train station for both passengers and freoght or a dual monorail/elevated rail station. Correct me if i have got this wrong but from what i understand the building on the lot is what decides what the lot does and you can only have on of these?

Cheers

[Equinox 1,209]

^ Excellent question. ^

You are correct - the building is what determines the lot's functionality and statistics.  Unfortunately, no, you canot have more than one building object per lot.  Now, if you are a bit familiar with the Reader, I'd advise downloading some of RalphaelNinja's old MMTS (multi-mass transit) lots and taking a look at them (even better, try his last BATs - the utility ones).  If you look at the Building exemplar in the Reader, you'll see that he added different OccupantGroups of the various functions he wanted the lot to have, and then added the appropriate statistics, e.g. water capacity, or train station passenger capacity, or whatever the associated properties would be.  You have to know a bit about the way the Exemplars work and how SimCity 4 deals with functionality, but it's not too hard, especially not when you have other lots to look at.

I should warn that Vlakhaas has told me in the past that several of the multi-function lots the BSC has tried to do have been failures, as the dual functionality ends up crashing the game.  I've never had that happen to any of the dual-function lots I've made, so maybe the BSC's projects were more complicated.  Either way, if you're not really helped all that much with this post because you aren't familiar with the Reader, reply with some specifics as to what you're trying to do and I'll write you a step-by-step procedure - as best as I can.

This version of SimCity was not built for multifunction lots to be implemented, but you can make it work.
Thanks for using this thread rather than starting a new one!

[robotic_minotaur 0]

Hi thanks for the fast response and i'm afraid i'm a total $%&^! and have no clue what the reader is but am somewhat intrested by the information about it in your post. If you can tell me what it is and where i can learn how to use it i would much appreciate it (thanks in advance) and secondly i am currently (or rather was) attempting to make a joint freight, passenger station with access to either subway or el railway so i can use one station for both intercity and out of town rail traffic. If you can help in either way i would much appreciate it.

 

I'm more than happy to use this thread it makes sense to me having a central place for help then anyone else who gets stuck knows to come here and dosn't have to search through endless questions just to find an answer.

 

Cheers very much!

[Equinox 1,209]

Before I start, let me emphasize the fact that I'm not 100% sure what I'm telling you is guaranteed to work, so make a backup of your files before you start!

[link to Reader download page]

For learning the Reader ... There are a few guides around on the general basics of the Reader.  Unfortunately, I'm not too familiar with them - I just figured out the program with some logic and experimentation.  For the tutorials that do exist, I'd check the Modding - Open Discussion forum.  I bet there's one stickied in there.

Once you learn your way around a bit, use the Plugin Manager to make a freight station.  Then open the Lot Editor and make a lot for it.  Now, delete the SC4Desc file (when you saved from the Lot Editor, the SC4Desc was embedded into the SC4Lot file - the SC4Desc file is just a waste of space from then on, for ploppables anyways), and load the SC4Lot file in the Reader.  Click on the Building Exemplar (the one without all the LotConfigObjectData property lines) and you should see a bunch of properties.

Look at the OccupantGroups property and what the Reader shows as the descriptions.  You'll probably see something about freight train functionality as the last value of the property.  Well, we logically want to make it support freight AND passenger rail, so, we'll add the property 0x00001305 to the end.  Now you'll want to right-click in that window, and hit Add Property.  Find Transit Switch Traffic Capacity, add that, and set a value corresponding to how many people you want to be able to ride the station (per day).  To be safe, I'd open another passenger rail lot and locate the properties Transit Switch Point and Transit Switch Entry Cost, select them both, right-click, hit Copy Properties, and then go back to your lot, right-click, and hit Paste Properties.  I *think* that's all there is to making the functionality for a hybrid freight-passenger station working ... however, we do have one issue: the query.

When you query what you have now, you won't see anything related to the number of passengers flowing through.  To fix that, you can do one of two things: change the query to reference the default passenger rail's, or create your own.  For now, we'll change the query of your lot to a passenger rail (if you don't want that, then just stop here - you're done).  Double-click on the property Query Exemplar GUID.  This is the Instance ID of a query window the lot uses - we'll change it to 0x012345FF and then hit Apply and save the lot, exiting the Reader.

 

[robotic_minotaur 0]

Hi firstly thanks eqiunox really helped, i just have a couple of other questions, first would i be right in thinking i can just create a lot in the lot editor save it so it's in plugins folder then alter it in the reader and only it will be affected i wont screw up the default things like the normal passenger train stations functions by altering my saved lot to do both freight and passenger traffic.
  
    The second question is this i have been attempting to make a station that has bus, rail, elevated and subway access. To do this i have altered the default Elevated sation (LightRailStation)  lot in lot editor i then changed the building to the subway building as i coun't find it as a prop and added the el station prop where the original building was i then added a set of train track overlay texture and some platform props and other bits to make it look nice. I then altered the occupationGroups property to add the functionality for the above and here are the occupationgroup properites entered:-

 

 

Building: Transportaion, Building: Rail, Building: Subway, Building EL Train, Building: Bus, Building: Strikable Transit, Building: Taxi_Marker, Building: Misc Transit, Building: Passenger Rail, Building: Bus Stop

which are the hex numbers:-
0x00001003
0x00001300
0x00001302
0x00001303
0x00001301
0x00001A04
0x00001903
0x0000130A
0x00001305
0x00001926

I have then copied the properties for Transit Switch Traffic Capacity, Transit Switch Entry Cost, Transit Switch Point, for each form of transport from there respective stations in the game. The problem is the only parts that seem to work are the subway and the el rail. The normal rail complains whenever i try to link it to the lot on the points where i have the rail overlay which i have seen being done in other lots and the bus system just does not seem to start functioning at all yet if i place a normal bus stop next to the station people start to use it.

Any ideas i though perhaps there's a special prop you need ot use i have tried putting on platforms for the rail but to no avail and these are the only properties i have altered in the lot.

The third and final question is how do i change the name of the lot and the description given when you highlight the option to plop it down in the simcity men system.

Any help is greatly appreciated and if you need anymore info just ask and i will try and add it.

Cheers

[robotic_minotaur 0]

Just a couple of additions firstly i have tried doing this by editing the subway lot direclty and adding the rest but found that this made only the subway system work. I then noticed some purple squares over the track of the el section and on some other lots i have download that have rail on them noticed similar things but do not seem to be able to alter them or add new ones would this be why i can't connect up the rail system etc. if so how would i add them. (if you don;t know what i mean by the purple squares just edit the default lightrailststion in lot editor and you will see them over the place where the track or station is)

Cheers!

[the Monkeys Uncle 35]

Could someone attach their custom transparent base texture here? I'm not good with the reader...

[robotic_minotaur 0]

I dunno if this is what ya lookin for but i have come accross this topic in the forum which i think may help it goes on about removing the base texture but the link given links to a texture that is not drawn in by the game so effectively is transparent anyway hope this helps the link is:-

https://www.simtropolis.com/idealbb/view.asp?topicID=60766&forumID=41&search=1&searchstring =

 

oh yeah and still need help with above if anyone can!

 

[Equinox 1,209]

Yes, you can edit custom lots without interfering with the game in any way.

To allow railway to be drawn into the lot, you're going to need to learn how to transit enable.  The easiest way would be using a tool called SC4Hex, for which you can pick up a tutorial here .  To be honest, I think you'd have the best chance for success by looking at RalphaelNinja's multi-function lots on the Exchange.

Here's almost exactly what you want (minus the el-train):
RalphaelNinja's MMTS, updated for RH

To alter the name and description, in your custom lot, add the property Item Name and Item Description, add a string rep to each one, and just type in what you want to see in the menus.  Alternatively, you could import two LTEXT files and give them each a unique TGI, then adding the properties User Visible Name Key and Item Description Key, setting those properties equal to the TGI of the respective LTEXT files.

[vadvaro 2]

the BDS Stupid Texture seems to work fine.

https://www.simtropolis.com/stex/details.cfm?id=4059

 

i use it, then remove the texture when running the game.  sometimes i get an overlay visual error, but it goes away with zooming in or out.  i haven't tried any other method though, this one seems the easiest.  i used it on the ndex/dev billboards since i was using them ona hillside and the grass texture looked out of place.  the result was for the most part perfect after replacing the grass texture with the stupid texture.

 

(as an aside, i don't see how making one super long, completely diverse thread on a zillion topics with a billion comments that may or may not have anything to do with the problem at hand is a greater asset than well named threads pertaining to specific problems, i.e. transparent textures, transit enabling, dual use buildings, etc.)

 

edit - found this thread as well.  of course i was looking for info on prop family names, but finding stuff on this site is hell with such a finicky search tool.  anyway, read this https://www.simtropolis.com/idealbb/view.asp?topicID=62208  thread about transparent textures.  when i am done fixing all the plugins i have downloaded (yea right) i will have to go back and do this to a few lots that i used the stupid texture on.  i just wonder which technique is the way to go.

[Equinox 1,209]

If I were learning the Lot Editor over, I'd much rather have a massive compendium of knowledge I could work my way though.  By the end, I'd know pretty much everything I could ever need to know about the LE!

Anyways, for the prop family names, I don't know if there's a tutorial around on that one, but I do know GrampaAl is the one who figured that out.  I'd send him a PM and see if he'd be willing to post a tutorial in this forum.  I've done it for the few lots I've uploaded that are ploppables and have families on them - e.g. the Colonial Oaks, and the NDEX Urban Billboard Set.  You could take a look at those and see what I did (that's how I figured it out - by looking at what GrampaAl had done in his DAT file, but admittedly it is rather confusing).

[robotic_minotaur 0]

Hi i have just tried adding a item name and item description property to the building section of my lot and it seems to just remove the lot from the menus completely i then tried doing it to the lot config section instead and the same thing happens was just wondering if you had any ideas. Oh yeah whats and LText file and how do i make em might give that a try instead?

[vadvaro 2]

simgoobers bus stops are another good example to look at.

[MrGScoTT 3]

Ok, go easy on me as this is my only my second post.  I'm having a problem getting customized lots to appear in the game.  I have SimCity 4 DE with patch 1.  I'm using the lot editor that downloads with the BAT. 

 

I modified in-game lots, changing the base texture on R$ lots from dingy green lawn to the richer green lawn seen on R$$ and R$$$ lots.  I selected stage 1 and 2 lots, hoping to see the results immediately.  Of note, is that the every R$ I changed reflected a building from the Euro-Comtemporary set. 

 

After saving the changed lots, exiting the lot editor, restarting the lot editor to verify the changed lots, I started a city only to find that original lots were still being used.  At first I thought it was because I of the building set I had selected.  I changed the building style to the Euro-Contemporary set, demolished all buildings, and waited for redevelopment.  The Euro-Comtemporary buildings that were built were still the originals, not the modified lots.

 

I checked on simcity.com and discovered that custom lots in the user plug-ins folder have priority over in-game lots.    That is the situation.  Here are myquestions:

 

Is a lot universal, for example, is a R$_1x2 lot the same regardless of the building style being used on the lot within lot editor?

 

If this is not the case, how do you modify lots with a particular building style?

 

Finally, how do you get an RCI lot to appear in the game?

 

Thanks

 

 

[Equinox 1,209]

You alter tilesets by altering the property called OccupantGroups.  For fiddling with default ingame growable lots, this is not of concern, as those files that determine the occupancy and the tilesets and all of that stuff of the default game buildings are saved in the SimCity DAT files.  Even when you save a custom growable lot that uses one of Maxis' buildings, the lot file points back to the original DAT files.  Now, with that said ... you'd have to alter those originals in the DAT files to see changes in tilesets, occupancies, or anything like that.

However, you say you are seeking to change the lots' base textures.  This involves nothing but the Lot Editor, and what you have described sounds accurate and good, save one point: you don't use the Save As button, you use the Save one.  The Lot Editor does not allow modification of the default game DAT files where the growable lots are stored, so when you press Save, a new .sc4lot file is created in the My Documents plugins folder, and when the game loads, it loads the default lot files, then loads all the files in the My Documents plugins folder.  Thus, it encounters the lot you just saved and overwrites what was already in memory from the original DAT files.

If you use the Save As button, on the other hand, new IDs are generated and that growable lot you saved is added to the game's selection of lots to grow, not replacing the original.  I suspect this is what happened with your texture-replacement lots.

Unfortunately, your question about the lot files being universal is not very straightforward.  It depends on the Building placed on the lot.  Sometimes it's not even a building, but rather a set of them with similar occupancies, a.k.a. a Building Family.  This allows multiple different buildings to be made with just one lot.  Those buildings don't nessecarily even have to have the same tileset properties; e.g. you can easily have a building family with a Houston, a Euro, and a Chicago building in it, and see each one of them in the game without any problems.



As for the Item Name property, yes, it should be added to the Building exemplar.  I have no idea why adding that would remove the lot from your menus ... again, I'd advise downloading EasyTweaker for easy modification of lot names and descriptions.  It automatically adds LTEXT files to the lot for you.  However, if you want to do it with the Reader, right-click somewhere in the file list of your SC4Lot file, and pick Insert File.  Then browse around your PC and find a text file.  Double-click on it and then a dialogbox will appear, asking what type of file you are importing.  Pick XA file.  Don't ask why; just do it ... then give that file a unique instance and group ID, using the type ID given by default.  Then, in the Building exemplar, add the property Item Description Key, or User Visible Name Key, depending on which function the text file serves as (either the menu description text or the lot name, respectively), then add three reps, and set them equal to the T, G, and I of the LTEXT file, respectively.

[starrdarcy 4]

Yes, i need help. I did all the right suff for getting the bat building ready, i have it even lot editor and the plug in manager. But when i sart replacing buildings, in the le, i can never see them in the game!

I have reason to suspect that this has something to do with the building style sets and how the game chooses the buulding. I am curently editing the r1$$ 1x2, and i have replaced quite a few buildings with one of mine, but i have not seen any of them in use. Could someone help me?

Also, is it possible to make your own complete set? i'm interested in creating a suburban or wealthy feel.

Thanks.

[redan 0]

Hello,

Its my 2nd post, although i have been lurking here on and off for the past 2 years.

I find this site amazing.

 

I just started using the lot editor and the PIM to turn some of the landmarks into growables for my own use. my problem is that whenever i change the building in alot to the one i downloaded the lot editor changes the growth stage to a higher value than i wanted.

 

I have been looking evrywhere in here for an answer (i now know that the downloaded building being bigger than the original in the lot im editing changes the stage) of how to stick with the stage i want.

 

alternatively, in the ilive reader looking in the SC4lot exemplar file there is a field called growth stage but it gives me a value 0x07 and this has no meaning in hex vs dec numbers.  How can i edit this number so that my lot appears in game at the stage i want.

 

Thanks for the answer

Redan

[the_SIMtastik_One 3]

I'm not sure if this is the right forum for this question, but I have searched and searched and found nothing that answers my particular question. Here it is. I finished my first BAT (a small house), made it a stage 1 growable R$ 1x2 with PM, and put it into a lot with LE.

When the Model, Desc, and Lot files are in the plugins folder (my docs/sc4/plugins) the game uses them, the house grows. If I put the files into a subfolder in the plugins folder they don't work anymore. They don't show up in the game and I can't find the model in the PM either.

 

I have a ton of plugins downloaded from STEX. Almost all of them are in subfolders. Why doesn't my homemade plugin show up when its inside of a subfolder? Could someone please explain how to get SC4 to use my plugin even when its inside of a subfolder? If this has been discussed in a different thread please point me in that direction. Thank you in advance.

[redan 0]

Hi the_SIMtastik_One

I don't know why your lot doesn't show up in game (it might have to do with not enough demand for that particular lot, as it might have to do with the fact that there is a lot of lots that are 1x2, and you'll have to wait for it), but i'm fairly sure that for your model to show up in the Plugin Manager it has to be in the game's Plugins folder and not in a subfolder.  As i understand things, the PM only reads stuff that are in the plugins folder directly.

But wait for some one more experianced than me to confirm this.  I'm almost a $%&^! in this regard as my post just above yours proves it :-)

 

=<shameless plug on>= Gods of simtrop, please consider answering my question two posts above =<shameless plug off>=

Redan

[the_SIMtastik_One 3]

First of all, thanks for the reply Redan. I think you're probably correct about the plugin manager only being able to detect things directly in the pluign folder.

I finally got my issue resolved. What I did was placed the three files (model, desc, lot) into the plugins folder (no subfolder). I started the game and waited for my lot to grow. I paused, saved, and exited the game. I then placed my files into a subfolder in the plugins folder. I restarted SC4 and everything seems to be working fine now.

[redan 0]

Your lots should work normaly even if in subfolders, it's just for the PM that you need them out of subfolders.

[Pheonix Rising 2]

heres a question i cant find an answer to.. (other than use search which DOESNT GIVE ANYTHING)...

how do you get LE to read a new model in as a prop?? And the model has already been scrubbed by PIM.

[Starmanw40 6]

First, I like to say thanks to forestk for helping me to find the right thread for this topic, I've been asking for help with with my Lot Editor program. What I would like to do is create a what you might call a mega parks and recreation idea. I want to know where to begin and what size I need to make it. Or if someone can make it for me? Here's what I want on my park and recreation lot ok.

 

4 Tennis Courts

4 Basketball Courts

1 Large Plaza

1 Large Green Park

1 Ranger Station

1 Gazebo

1 Small Flower Garden

1 Community Garden

1 Medium Size Playground

2 Skate Board Park

1 Soccerfield

1 Baseball field

 

Can anyone assist me with this? I want to see if I can create this lot and try it on my game and see

if it works. If it does work on 1 lot. I'll upload to the community for trial. I know you guys seen this

question before sorry for repeating myself. But that is what I would like to have on my first attempt

in creating a lot. And also, If I upload this for you guys to use. What plugin program would I need to

upload lots with? Thanks in advance.

 

Your Friend;

Mayor Steven Whitehouse

[simzebu 19]

While working on my floating airport, I noticed that when I tried to save the medium international airport in LE, it said that I did not have base textues on all tiles. I had not touched the base textures OR overlay textures, and I want to know which tiles to replace. Can someone help?
I found the problem. there are missing base textures under the parking lots of stages 2 and 3.

[vadvaro 2]

Propfindinglots

Propfindpart2 ver. 1

two very helpful lots for builders.  load these and make picking props much easier when you know what they look like.

 

starman, take a grass lot, change the size to whatever size you like, and use the above lots to help pick your props you need.

[jeronij 13]

Hi there,

Problem 1.

 

I

[deadwoods 542]

I don't know what the prop # limit is. You're certainly under the size limit (64x64). If you have iLives reader handy, you can look at the Lot Exemplar. All the LotConfigProperty entries are the props (mostly, there are some other things in there) so that will give you an idea of the upper limit of props.

[6459978. 106]

Hey jeronji! I've experienced that same problem in the past also when working with large lot sizes, and from what I hear, its a bug in the lot editor: if the lot is too large, then it won't save correctly after the first time you save it. I believe there is a way to get around this problem, though. If you delete the lot file that is created in your plugin folders before trying to save it should work fine. Also another solution may be to use the save as button instead of save.