Lot Tool with Precision?

[mallenuk 193]

Hi all,

I would like to arrange the ‘main street’ in my city, using the vanilla buildings/lots with minimal repetition and have each building complement its neighbours. I know how to pre-determine which buildings are built, thanks to this amazing tutorial by CorinaMarie. My challenge is the position of the buildings are very often different, some are set back, others further forward but I am hoping to have a single building line. Is there a lot tool that has X-Y coordinates that I can use to modify lots to achieve this? I really value that precision over eyeballing it.

Thanks!

[nos.17 5,120]

Hello! If you use PIMX it has a snap-to-grid feature toggleable with 's' that you can use to snap buildings/props to a grid. If that doesn't get you there it's possible the buildings themselves are modeled ever so slightly offset from their bounding box, so you can always use arrow keys to make micro adjustments to visually align. I don't know of any tool that shows exact coordinates in the lot editor portion. PIMX spells out the coordinates in the summary view for the lot, but you can't edit them here. To do that you would need to open and edit the lot in reader directly (though keep in mind manually changing this number must be done in a specific way).

[mallenuk 193]

Hey nos.17, that works a treat! I can use the snap-to-grid option to get it on the same line, every time! I have not been able to use the technique in anger just yet, I have a Mac and despite my best efforts I cannot install the Lot Editor. I am hoping to be able to use the Lot Editor to copy an existing lot, tweak it a little, save, then use PIMX to snap the building to the building line ...and then delve into the reader to confirm it is where I think it should be.

Hopefully I will be able to report back, when I have the Lot Editor conundrum solved.

Thanks,

[nos.17 5,120]

2 hours ago, mallenuk said:

I am hoping to be able to use the Lot Editor to copy an existing lot, tweak it a little, save, then use PIMX to snap the building to the building line ...and then delve into the reader to confirm it is where I think it should be.

Glad to help! If you didn't know, PIMX has it's own version of the LE which in most circumstances supersedes and allows much more functionality than the Maxis LE. I find making copies of, and especially making new lots to be much easier in PIMX.

  Edited November 19, 2023 by nos.17  

[mallenuk 193]

On 19/11/2023 at 4:46 PM, nos.17 said:

I find making copies of, and especially making new lots to be much easier in PIMX.

Thanks for the heads up! For the life of me I cannot figure out how to do this. I am taking an existing lot, I tweak it using the Lot Editor and then when I go to save it says I cannot, presumably because the lot is from the DAT file. I have tried making a copy of SimCity_1.dat but still it says I am not able to save. Where am I going wrong?

Thanks!

[mallenuk 193]

Looks like nos.17 has not been active since the new year! If someone else can respond with an explainer I will make a donation to the site 

[rsc204 21,808]

The Maxis LE can not save items in a DAT file, you can use Save As to make a copy with a unique ID.

As a rule it’s very bad practise to modify the contents of any of the game files directly. Better to make a copy of the file and modify those, which may require making a ‘Patch’ file first using Reader.

PIM-X has no issues saving items in DAT files. However trying to save SimCity_1.DAT could lead to problems, due to its size, in that scenario it’s not impossible for the file to get corrupted thus requiring a re-install of the game to fix.

The important question here is what exactly are you trying to do? Do you want to modify existing lots as an override of the originals? Then use Navigator in Reader to find the LotConfig and/or Buildings Exemplars in question and make a patch file. But if you just want to use an existing item as a template for making a new (additional) version, Save As (in Maxis LE) will suffice. However, it’s not always great as when you copy data, it may well include things you don’t want. For example, every lot named ‘open grass area’ is because the modder didn’t realise copying the Maxis Open Grass Area lot meant theirs was linked to the original LText files determining its name and description, among other properties.

This is another reason why PIM-X is superior, unlike the Maxis tools you can create a ‘new’ file, it still uses templates to fill in most properties correctly, but doesn’t keep things like LTexts and Parent Cohorts which can leave properties you don’t want in your work. 

[mallenuk 193]

Hey rsc20,

Thanks for your reply! I made the donation as promised ;-) Just to recap:

1. I had asked if there was a way to modify a lot and align objects to exact co-ordinates
2. nos.17 suggested to use the snap-to-grid feature in PIMX
3. It worked but without being able to install the Maxis Lot Editor, I was not able to copy a lot to modify
4. nos.17 commented that he found that using the PIMX LE to make 'copies of, and especially making new lots to be much easier in PIMX'
5. But I can't locate this feature myself

So to summarize, I am now able to make a copy of Maxis lots using the Maxis LE and then modify in PIMX but nos. 17 seem to suggest I can do the whole exercise in PIMX and if correct I would love to know how.

Thanks,

 

 

[rsc204 21,808]

PIM-X doesn’t include a Save As or Copy function as such. For Maxis content you want to modify you should always use a Patch file (or Lots made with Save As in Maxis LE). But that’s the only time this limitation should bother you.

For third party content, you can just modify the existing files. Never a bad idea to make a backup copy of the originals just in case. However if you want to keep the original lots and have new ones, again the Save As trick comes in handy.

PIM-X will however allow you to copy a lots Textures and Props to another. So whilst you will have to make a new Buildings Exemplar, it only takes a copy/paste operation to make your new lot resemble an existing one. See in the linked post instructions on how to do this.