Interchange Mini-Tutorial

[Rochefort 13]

Hi everyone.

I've just been playing around with some interchange ideas and one of them turned out rather well, so I thought I'd share it with you.

 

I've used the NAM, smoncrie's hole digger tool and Bones1 slope mod. Decorative itmes are mainly by Siqueira_scb.

 

Step 1. Draw a one way road loop (nearest we can get at present to a large roundabout)

 

https://www.simtropolis.com/idealbb/files//Step%201%20IMT.JPG align=baseline>

 

Step 2. Using the ground lifter tiles, raise up a stretch of ground either side of the loop.

 

https://www.simtropolis.com/idealbb/files//Step%202%20IMT.JPG align=baseline>

 

Step 3. Using the avenue puzzle pieces, span the loop and create the overpass. At this point, extend out by two tiles from either side of the avenue as shown in the picture below. These will be used to produce on/off ramps.

For a smooth on/off ramp you'll need to leave 3 level tiles from the edge of the one way road.

 

https://www.simtropolis.com/idealbb/files//Step%203%20IMT.JPG align=baseline>

 

Step 4. Draw roads down to the one way loop, but do not connect them to either the avenue or the one way road. Demolish once you've established the slope. Using the slope mods available on the STEX allows you to get this smooth gradient.

 

https://www.simtropolis.com/idealbb/files//Step%204%20IMT.JPG align=baseline>

 

https://www.simtropolis.com/idealbb/files//Step%205%20IMT.JPG align=baseline>

 

Step 5.  Draw the ramps using streets....there's a good reason for this...streets do not form junctions in the same way as roads, so the traffic should flow better.

 

https://www.simtropolis.com/idealbb/files//Step%206%20IMT.JPG align=baseline>

 

Step 6. Extend your road system away as you see fit.

 

https://www.simtropolis.com/idealbb/files//Step%207%20IMT.JPG align=baseline>

 

Step 7.  Decorate and admire.

 

https://www.simtropolis.com/idealbb/files//Step%209%20IMT.JPG align=baseline>

 

 

 

Well bye for now and thanks for reading.

 

Rochefort.

 

See this and my other interchanges at Rochefort's Interchange Showcase

 

 

[Sam 163]

That's a very nice tutorial Rochefort. I will have to try that in my latest city. Thanks for sharing.

[rhino120 2]

Well done Rochefort...thank you!

[GMT 389]

not bad. really cool thing. maybe I'll have a use for it

[MiniMark 7]

Great Job Rochefort. I will for sure use this in my cities.

[Constantina 5]

A quite good tutorial, for the slip roads and the roundabout, I would use one-way roads for more realism.

[aaronperry 0]

very nice i would prohably use a smaller roundabout in my next city. Those grass banks i used to have them before i re-installed where can i get them i did a search but of course i got millions of results from park and park textures... can u help? also can i get some replies on my cj i keep updating but never get and feedback. find the link in my sig or search forums for tazious and click archeiving realism. ty.

[profecy 2]

das pretty good, but y dont my avenue puzzle peices look so smooth,

[Swamper77 90]

@Aaron: The grass with chainlink fences was done by Marrast. His set also includes paved surfaces with fencing and lots that sit on top of tunnels.

@Profecy: Use Smoncrie's hole diggers from the STEX. His set contains the ground lifter. It also helps to have a slope mod installed.

-Swamper77

[dev 47]

Great tutorial! I love the way the interchange looks! Good job!

[Zugtroll 3]

GREAT TUTORIAL!! Very easy to follow. Do you use the normal God's mode tools to get such a perfect rising, or is there a trick to get those very sharp lines. I usually make a mess and then use rails to straighten things out. It works but its expensive, and I know there must be a better way.

And can you drop another word or two on the principles of road connections? Eg. How would your ramps work with real road, one ways (as Constantina suggests), and so on..  (Do you have other nice examples as explainatory as this one?)

 

Thx.

[aaronperry 0]

I have made my own version off that interchange and can be found in the latest update of my cj (link in sig) i hope u like it mate...

[rufusleeken 2]

thanks!  very nice.

[calm_blue_sea 3]

Very nice!

[Rochefort 13]

Thanks to everyone for the posts and just because I've not replied personally to each one, please don't think I value them any less.

 

Some personal replies:

 

Constantina:  You are of course correct that one way roads for the on/off ramps look better and are more realistic, but the down side is that they create junctions which hinders traffic flow whereas streets do not have quite the same adverse affect. In a city with few traffic problems though, one way roads would be the way to go.

aaronperry & Swamper77:  The grass lots I use are actually by morifari as they accept plopped trees and there are one or two others I liked in the set, but marrasts will be just as good.....apologies for not crediting morifari in the first place, genuine oversight.

I've also got your industrial filler lots swamper77, so now's my opportunity to say thanks !!

Zugtroll: The perfect rising you mention is made using Bones1 slope mod although there are others available on the STEX that will also work. I made a short tutorial about experimenting with slopes which you can read here Another Slopes Mini Tutorial .

 

As for the principles of road connections, much is dependant on the traffic volumes of your city. Where traffic is not a problem then the junctions you create connecting different types of roads is not really an issue (although in saying that, you could be contributing to the growth of congestion by putting them in). Later, as the volume of traffic increases, these junctions will have an adverse effect on congestion..i.e. the more junctions, the more stopping and starting at traffic lights, the slower the traffic and subsequently the higher the commute time. I've experimented alot trying to produce more free flowing connections and the jury is still out as to whether they make the kind of difference I'd like them to. One thing for sure though is that they quite often produce good eye candy !!

 

Also we have to take into consideration the limitations of the game. I'd love to produce more realistic highway junctions but the on/off ramps I'd like are just not available. Also on my wish list is a filter lane puzzle piece which would enable us to take a road off in another direction without creating a junction. Perhaps the clever chaps working on the NAM may come up with the goods, but I am nowhere near intelligent enough to do so.

 

 

So thanks once again for commenting and until the next time, bye for now.

[joeynymets 19]

Great tutorial!! is there anymore tutorials coming up?

[SamFlash 0]

Very nicely done.  I never knew there were lifter lots.

[Rochefort 13]

Thanks Joey & Sam and yes, I think there's another tutorial on the horizon.

[Cjah 15]

Awesome...I had no clue you have another tutorail series....

Great idea and I'll probably use it often in my more european cities...actually I think I may just build this in Bostalk.

 

[Rochefort 13]

Thanks Cjah, I'd be honoured to see my interchange in Bostalk, I'm a big fan of your style.

Hey, I made Dweller !!! Another step up the ladder !!

[Prophet42 1,500]

I like your interchange idea.  It is visually appealing.  Have you tried it in a city yet?  It would be interesting to see the routes the sims take through it.

[Rochefort 13]

Prophet42: I've not tried it in any city as yet, but I have a spot planned for it in one of them...knowing the sims, they'll take the most rediculous route possible.

[Rochefort 13]

OK, I decided it was rather lazy of me not to at least test the routes, so I've done so.

Also, as suggested by Constantina, I've changed the street on/off ramps to one way roads. I was worried at first about creating a junction, but I'd forgotten that you could link them to only one side of the avenue. Constantina was right, they not only look more realistic, but they actually work better as well.

 

https://www.simtropolis.com/idealbb/files//One%20Way%20Ramps.JPG align=baseline> 

 

Now the sims took the logical route to work, but the darn freight trucks kept ignoring the one way system and travelling straight down the avenue, turning round and coming back to the junction....no matter how far away I made the turning point on the avenue. So, I had to put No Truck traffic controls on to force them to go the quickest way !! Even with the better pathfinding mod, the game still finds a way to annoy me !!

 

So here's how it worked out.

 

https://www.simtropolis.com/idealbb/files//Res%20Routes.JPG align=baseline>

 

https://www.simtropolis.com/idealbb/files//Routes.JPG align=baseline>

 

Hopefully that has answered your question, Prophet42.

 

Rochefort

[aaronperry 0]

Very interesting but i must suggest that in europe, especially the uk, these junctions are nomally alot smaller what im saying is a round about, but bigger than the current say taking up a 4x4 size grid, i can see yours is about 6x8 give or take could u show me what a good 4x4 round about bit would look like, the junction itself is bril, but the round bit at the bottom is two big. imho

[Rochefort 13]

This is true aaronperry, but we have to work within the limitations of the game. 4x4 roundabouts just look square and the idea is to create something interesting to the eye and not necessarily 100% accurate.

Besides, I like big !

[Keiran Halcyon 0]

There was at one time a big initiative to create a 4x4 roundabout, but the project fell apart.

Looks to me that your fix for trucks broke the residential commuters. Something you might try doing instead is end the avenue as a pair of one-ways. The NAM allows you to drag one-ways off the end of an avenue, e.g. to split it into two diverging one-ways without an intersection. If these one-ways dead-end, there's no loop around path for the trucks to take.

[Rochefort 13]

Thanks Keiran, you were absolutely right about the traffic controller.

I'm experimenting with allsorts of configurations at the moment so I'll no doubt give your suggestion a go as well.

 

 

[aaronperry 0]

er sure i understand the square roundabout problem but... maybe a three lained one, eg, an avenue looking roundabout but two lanes goin the same direction and the third a turning lane. any comments?