Standard Dimensions and Heights?

[Mr_Maison 2,426]

Hi all. I am creating a transit hub but I am having trouble deciding what measurements to use especially when it comes to height. I want to know how wide to make the platforms so that the tracks will fit perfectly. The main thing I would like to know is the height of a Sim. Just like in learning architecture, from that data I can better determin how high and wide to make things. What is the best way to go about finding out these things as a beginner in the BAT? Are there any standard tools or techniques?

[T Wrecks 10,209]

You shouldn't base anything off the height of a Sim because unfortunately the Sims in SC4 are hopelessly out of scale. I think in real-world terms they'd be somewehre between 2.5 and 3 metres tall!

 

Concerning width and depth, you can take a SimCity grid tile as a basic measurement - it measures 16 by 16 metres in real life. You could take any base texture and overlay it with a metre grid (pixel size of the texture divided by 16) to ascertain things like the remaining free space alongside rail tracks. Another helpful element is the standard Maxis pavement/sidewalk base texture - the one that exists in three colour variations depending on wealth: neutral grey (low wealth), light grey (medium wealth) and slightly pinkish (high wealth). Count the number of individual pavers (the joints between them are best to see on the medium-wealth version of the texture), and together with the knowledge that a tile is 16 by 16 metres, you'll be able to calculate the width and depth of a paver. Then you could put the rail overlay texture on top of the pavement texture and count distances in pavers - the result could then easily be converted into metres, which can be used in gmax. (Don't forget to set the grid in gmax to metres, too!)

 

As far as height is concerned, the best bet usually is to go by real-life height (a 50 cm high platform would be 50 cm high in gmax) and stretch all heights to 133% - this scaling factor will compensate for the perspective distortion in SC4 which causes everything to look a bit squashed and stumpy when you model it to 100% real-life height.

 

I'm not at my SimCity PC right now, that's why I can't give you precise numbers, but I hope this post is helpful to some degree at least.

[Mr_Maison 2,426]

Thank you T Wrecks, very helpful. I should of mentioned I'm modeling in Sketchup because I'm very familiar with it. I downloaded a template skp. file from

I was able to successfully get one of my buildings into the BAT and make a building file but I had texture issues after exporting so I will only be using Sketchup for modeling and do the rest in gmax.

 

Here is a pic of the template. I think the building is out of scale but it's just an experiment in this shot.

 

How do I get to those base textures to use while modeling? I would like to bring them into the template and overlay them on the tiles for visual reference. And while we are on this subject, I would like to know if it is possible to get a visual base texture of the wide radius curve rails from NAM? I"m thinking of making a curved station after this one to go with those tracks. Thanks again.

 

 

Edit:

I see I also have to get used to working in meters. I'm so used to working in feet and inches.

[darn42 1,268]

For working in feet and inches, that's fine to do. Just set basic outlines in meters. You can create a plane that is the size in SC4 blocks as just a rough guideline to how big you want your BAT and the footprint it should fit, then you can switch to feet again. That's what I do a lot of the time because it's much easier to judge distances for me in feet and inches than metric.

[Francis90b 748]

For working in feet and inches, that's fine to do. Just set basic outlines in meters. You can create a plane that is the size in SC4 blocks as just a rough guideline to how big you want your BAT and the footprint it should fit, then you can switch to feet again. That's what I do a lot of the time because it's much easier to judge distances for me in feet and inches than metric.

 

Being from the other side of the pond, i am more familiar with metric system - and i use some approximations to get as rough idea of dimensions, too.

So, i use 2,5 cm for an inch (that would be 2,54 cm) and 0,3 or 0,305 for one foot.

 

So, if i know that one floor is 11 foot tall, i would quickly know that this would roughly mean something taller than 3,3 mtrs, but not by much....then, of course, i use a calculator to get the exact conversion.

 

The approximations i use might also easily work in reverse, too.