[2014] Lot Editor and Plug-in Manager - Forum Archive

[Golhbul 135]

Lot editor and dependancies

Hello everyone ....

I play with many plugins ... Of course it is very good even just great how you can customize the city ... But some are lacking me to approach what I want ... So I put the THE ...

I like my LOTS and I'd like to share with you ... But I have a question .... Considering the amount of lots and other props in my file how to quickly find the dependencies you need?

[Cyclone Boom 17,031]

There are tools that can find required dependencies, such as the SC4Tool. But it's not always the best method to rely on.
 
When creating lots you wish to share, I'd always recommend starting out with an empty plugins folder. Then only copy in the dependencies you'd like to use. Not only can this help with reducing the list of dependencies, but it makes it far easier to find them and add to an upload's description.
 
This also makes more efficient use of the props & textures. For example, instead of using a few props from many different packs, more props could be used from a smaller selection.

[MilitantRadical 2,844]

LOT Editor weirdness

When I try to use or install the LOT Editor I got from http://roe99.weebly.com/sc4-tool-essential.html on my Windows XP computer, my avast anti-virus says the .exe is infected with Win32: Evo-gen [susp] and it quarantines the file rendering the program unusable.

 

When I try to us the same LOT Editor on my computer with Windows 7 with the same anti-virus program I get no such message but the LOT Editor continually blinks or strobes in and out. It seems to be functional but due to the constant flashing/blinking it isn't at all practical to use.

 

Any idea what is going on?

[Thin White Duke 4,072]

I don't know what's going on with your Win7 computer, but for the winXP one, try temporarily disabling the antivirus software while launching. Hope it helps.

[A Nonny Moose 8,262]

Try getting the lot editor and friends from SC4Devotion at https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/index.php?page=9.  I know this one is safe.

[rsc204 21,866]

The lot editor will probably work on Win7 if you enable software rendering, this requires you to add the switch -d:soft to the target line of the shortcut.

As for the Anti Virus, disable it whilst installing the file, if it's the one from the SC4 Disk it is safe. However, there is an update, so probably best just to re-download from the links given above. If you get the same error, it's probably a false positive, which literally means because of how the file appears to work, the software has misrecognised it as a threat. If you trust the file, then just tell Avast to let it through, or disable it during startup if that's not an option using MSConfig. Remember to turn it back on again afterwards and perhaps (Because XP has no patches anymore) disconnect your internet whilst it's off just to be safe.

[MilitantRadical 2,844]

I temporarily disabled my anti-virus while using the LOT editor and it seemed to do the trick. Thanks for the help.

[rsc204 21,866]

Actually I meant whilst installing, but if it's bothering you when it is running there should be a way to mark it as a "trusted file" in Avast, that way it will just work without bothering you in the long term. Plus anti-virus is a must on XP unless like me you don't care about the data and are willing to format a drive should something happen (I only use XP on some old systems I have around, my main PC is Win7).

[A Nonny Moose 8,262]

Anyone using XP these days should probably run with the Internet disabled except when watching carefully.

[BrandonThomason 0]

How to Save in Lot Editor Without a Building

I'm trying to save a custom lot without it's building. This way, I can instead place a prop for that family of buildings. However, this yeilds the result of not being able to save the SC4lot file or reclaiming the Building after pressing "ESC" when placing the building.

 

I find this very frustrating because there are some buildings that are too big to place something on top of it for a smaller version of itself.

 

Say, you wanted to create a small jail using only the Prop called CS$$$30x22_4NYLuxuryStore6_CC073FAE, along with some ground tiles and parking lot tiles. The land area is only 2x2. This is impossible because you have to place the building with it in order to save the file.

 

I don't know, but I believe this is somehow connected to the catagorizating and settings of the SC4LOTs. When you place a certain building, it will make the SC4LOT behave just like that building, even if you tweak the settings. Tweaking the settings doesn't help because the SC4.exe file overwrites the settings in ILivesViewer, and thus, all that hard work was for nothing.

 

Say, you tell the Exemplar of a Deluxe Fire Station you created (and it looks like a deluxe fire station, not a Landing Strip) to program the in-game building to have a Fire Station Radius of only 685, while the Large Fire Station is programmed (by you) to have a radius of 585 (and the small fire station is 384, by default.) [685 is Deluxe Police Station's Radius, 585 is Large Police Station Radius, ect.]. When you open the game, Nothing is changed, and the radius of the Deluxe Fire Station is still based on the original "building" you used in the SC4LOT Editor. I think that somehow the game overwrites the Exemplar settings based on the "Building" that was used. Thus, your Deluxe Fire Station you worked on will now have it's original "building" settings you had just edited out.

 

Is there a way to fix this glitch, as well as be able to place a Prop without a building. Not sure the game will understand it, though, if you do.

[BrandonThomason 0]

I tried SC4 PIM-X, but I got this error when moving a building:

 

I got this error when moving the files:

Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "SC4PIMApp.pyo", line 3136, in OnBeginDrag
  File "SC4Data.pyo", line 50, in __getitem__
KeyError

I don't know why this is happening. I tried Running in Compatability mode and as Administrator. I also tried replacing the MultiArray.pyo file. No dice.

[rsc204 21,866]

The building on a lot contains the building exemplar for the lot, it's not really an optional thing, I would expect that's the start of your troubles here.

If you want a blank lot, you still need a building, only you can use an invisible one that is there (so you have your building exemplar) but doesn't appear to be in-game.

SC4-PIM (PIM-X) has you covered here, you will find one under Resources/Other Models called Blank, drag this to Descriptors/All/Buildings/Park/With Invisible Building (you can pick any of the options here) to create your new lot, then it will show no building as you desire.

[BrandonThomason 0]

The building on a lot contains the building exemplar for the lot, it's not really an optional thing, I would expect that's the start of your troubles here.

 

If you want a blank lot, you still need a building, only you can use an invisible one that is there (so you have your building exemplar) but doesn't appear to be in-game.

 

SC4-PIM (PIM-X) has you covered here, you will find one under Resources/Other Models called Blank, drag this to Descriptors/All/Buildings/Park/With Invisible Building (you can pick any of the options here) to create your new lot, then it will show no building as you desire.

 

Well, I get that error when I drag the SC4 PIM models/resources.

[rsc204 21,866]

Well I wouldn't like to say you should re-install SC4-PIM or muck about with it, although what you've just said would mean something is pretty wrong with SC4 PIM if you couldn't create a lot in the first place.

I think you need to take this one step at a time, first off are you able to create a lot and get to the lot editor in SC4 PIM (your first posts would suggest you can)?

Secondly what exactly is it you want to create?

Just checked myself in SC4PIM, and the error you have comes from dragging the building into the LE from SC4-PIMs main interface, this is not the correct way to use the program. You need to find the "LE Tools" window and do that from there using the props folder on the left side.

[BrandonThomason 0]

Where is the LE-Tools window? My SC4 PIM Extended 2009 PC8 doesn't seem to have one. Unless it's the one that says "Sim City 4".dat

 

I am able to create a lot, but where exactly is the lot editor?

 

I'm confused...

 

I'm Trying To Drag a File called CO$$$30_4NYBuilding1_0577 from the CO$$$30x22_5_5000008C in the Named Families (Families) Folder to the Jail Folder.

Is this right? Or am I doing something wrong?

I'm trying to create a ploppable jail custom lot with this file.

[rsc204 21,866]

The process above shows how to create a Building Exemplar with the properties of the Maxis Jail with a blank object as the actual building. The first step of creating any lot is to have a Building Exemplar, all of the possible items in the list have the same properties as their Maxis equivalents (so you can recreate any type of lot easily). For now don't worry that you want a different radius and such, that will need to be edited later.

Once you've done that and named the building exemplar, then you can create a new lot by right clicking where all the data for the building exemplar is shown and selecting "Create a plopable lot using this building". Select the size of the new lot (note with SC4-PIM I don't think you can change this later). Now appears a Lot Exemplar (the settings for the lot, usually you should only change the Exemplar Name property here). Right click once more and select "Lot Editor".

Now you should have two new windows, one just like the Maxis LE, with a preview and a lot to edit. The second "LE Tools" is where you can select Textures, Props etc to place onto the lot. As with the rest of SC4-PIM these must be dragged into the LE window - onto the right part with the pieces of the lot, not the preview. It is from this windows you must place props, not from the first screen where you select exemplars, I think that's where the confusion lies here. Also note that at some point the Building Exemplar becomes part of the Lot file itself, you can then discard the original Buildings Exemplar (the SC4 Desc file) that is created along with the SC4 Lot file.

[Cyclone Boom 17,031]

(honestly I can't link a JPEG here???)

 

You'll need to embed the direct link (with just .jpg at the end):

 

i.e.

 

Insert this using the icon on the editor.

[rsc204 21,866]

On 30/08/2014 at 5:42 PM, Cyclone Boom said:

 

(honestly I can't link a JPEG here???)

 

You'll need to embed the direct link (with just .jpg at the end):

Now do I feel stupid, I didn't even think to check that Photobucket was adding that on the end, thank you for your assistance.

[BrandonThomason 0]

How to Fully Edit a Lot

I want to know how to fully edit a lot. For example, place a building in the air, edit road transportation in the building, ect.

 

Is there a keyboard shortcut that only allows this? Or does it come with a certain sim city editing tool? Or is it developer-only?

 

I know the NAM team can do it, so... why not me?

[Cyclone Boom 17,031]

In the Lot Editor, props can be raised / lowered by holding Ctrl and the ↑ or ↓ keys. This moves them in 0.1 metre increments.

To speed this up, holding Ctrl+SHIFT while using the arrow keys will change it to 1 metre, which can be useful for placing objects on tall buildings.

 

The Lot Editor's manual covers most of the tips and tricks, including keyboard shortcuts. Check your start menu or in the game's installation folder.

 

As for transit enabling, this requires a capable editing program such as SC4 Tool. There's a tutorial over at SC4Devotion which covers the basics: Transit enabled lots - the easy way.

[BrandonThomason 0]

Another thing. Does editing the Parent Cohort of a self created object do anything? I keep getting 0 cohorts, and there are some properties missing on this lot where SC4 original lots have.

 

The reason I ask is because the preview in SC4 PIM-X and in the Game don't show anything when you are about to plop. But when you plop, it comes up anyway

[rsc204 21,866]

Cohorts are settings that can be applied to more than one object contained within the same dat. If you are only making lots right now, I don't really think it's necessary or even helpful to be mucking around with them. If you make a set of items that are related (i.e. a set of park lots) then in such a scenario making a cohort can save a lot of work editing the properties of each individual item. If you want to know more there is some useful information in this thread.

As for the preview problem, I'm pretty sure that's not related to cohorts as the absence of them is very normal, although I don't know why this would happen.

[BrandonThomason 0]

How to flip an object? I cannot seem to open the help file since i'm using Windows 8 Pro.

[Cyclone Boom 17,031]

How to flip an object? I cannot seem to open the help file since i'm using Windows 8 Pro.

PgUp / PgDn will rotate buildings & props.

 

M mirrors textures (after selecting them individually, or in groups).

 

By default, the manual is usually found at: "C:\Program Files (x86)\Maxis\SimCity 4 Deluxe\Lot Editor Manual.htm".

This is a web document that should open in your default internet browser.

[BrandonThomason 0]

Exemplar Error: Width, Height, and Depth

The Exemplar doesn't seem to fix this in SC4 PIM... I can do virtually everything in there and more, except edit everything in the exemplar (Only a few items can be edited).

 

I don't know how to set the boundaries of the Buildings... like... what is the actual size?  is there a tool that can measure it? And why is the SC4 PIM-X model preview and Sim City 4's plop preview not showing?

 

I think the resource key generator is bugged, because when I create a model, it can't find it.

[BrandonThomason 0]

SC4 Tool seems to have a menu problem. It keeps opening up windows when you access the menu.

[Turjan 1,048]

I'm not exactly sure what you want to achieve, as you seem to tackle lots of different issues. I'm not sure either what "creating a model" has to do with PIM-X, but maybe I just misunderstand.

 

I don't know the answer to all your questions, but you should have a look at the PIM-X's user guide for all the key commands, which is a separate download. If your building is a prop, you won't see it in the preview window of the building exemplar (the "building" in that case is probably just a two-dimensional square), only the prop in PIM-X's lot editor.

 

If you change the size of a building with, for example, Model Tweaker, you have to right click on the lower right panel and select the "Rebuild OccupantSize from model" command. I just judge building sizes from tile borders (a tile is 16m wide) or from the grid that you can overlay the lot with, and the mesh size of which you can define yourself.

 

And yes, you cannot edit all properties in PIM-X. The tool was primarily thought for being usable for people who don't know what they are doing, mostly to correct the stats of a building, like value, number of workers, garbage produced etc. from the size of a building and the size of the lot (there are many buildings on the exchanges with quite vast errors). That's what the "Recompute properties as (I-m) Manufacturing Industry Anchor" command is, or whatever applies to the kind of building you are tweaking. Another caveat is that the tool was developed for use with the CAM (Colossus Addon-Mod), which means it may give your building/lot a building stage that the base game cannot use. This has to be edited in iLive's Reader afterwards.

[rsc204 21,866]

The resource key is not generated as a file, think of it as an ID that links together the actual model and the lot is is displayed upon, all this is setup for you automatically by PIM-X.

You can edit the occupant size, but if a model has been created well it's not helpful to do so. An example of when you might want to change this would be for making items overlap without taking up the same space (this is known as the bounding box). Say you place a small flower on a lot, but the occupant size means it took a whole tile of space (the yellow boxes around props visualise this), in theory SC4 would not allow another prop in the same space, even though a flower would not use a whole tile in practice. In such a scenario you might want to change it, but you can't change this as part of the lot, you need to edit the settings of the model when you create it's building exemplar in SC4-PIM before making the lot from it.

Far be it from me to try and dampen your enthusiasm for modding - the more people making stuff the better - but I also think from all your posts you are maybe trying to rush through everything a little. It took me about 6 months to go from starting with the Maxis LE to really understanding how most things work under the hood. A lot of time reading tutorials/readmes and learning from mistakes, of which there were many, was needed along the way. Eventually it will all make sense if you stick at it, but it's not something many will learn in a day - and I'm still no expert.

The one thing that changed my understanding of everything was the moment I understood what exemplars were and got comfortable with the concept of ID's (IID's/TGI's). Once that all makes sense, you will begin to really see how SC4 puts pieces together and that everything is just linked via ID's and small settings files.

Start simple, make some lots and have realistic goals, when you've managed to get these things working, then the more advanced stuff will come a lot more naturally.

[Nique 291]

TAB function on your lot?

Hi there,

I was wondering, before i fill up another 10 slots in the menu.. Is there any guide on how to make your lot/bat building having a tab function like the NAM has?
For example, i want all 'bridge' pieces under one menu entry and let the user tab between the length of the bridge pieces. Then i want also put diagonal pieces under the Home/End keys so the user can rotate not only 4 angles but 8. 

Thank you

[BrandonThomason 0]

Anyone?