Memph5

So I was busy with back to school but I should have time to get back to this now... I'm trying to detach my windows but when I select them the detach option is greyed out/unavailable. Anyone know why? Alnyways my to do list so far: -balcony railings -stairs -doors -a couple more windows -cornice -window sills -lintels (I guess that would be a texture since they don't stick out?) -columns connecting the balconies (ex: http://goo.gl/maps/0mCZT) And is it really 16m for a single sim city tile? My building is 8m but it seems wider than the typical half tile rowhouse in sim city. Plus 1/3 tile rowhouses are quite rare among BATs even though that would seem more typical than 1/2 tile ones (at least 5.3m/17.6ft is typical in Toronto, even 12-15ft is not that unusual).

Is it supposed to be here?

I have 3ds Max 2013, it looks like "make preview" was changed a bit in 2011, now it's create "still image/animated sequence file", but I can't find anything related to camera zoom and rotation there. It seems like the camera isn't too important, but do most tutorials use 3ds max 2010? Would it be easier to learn with that? edit: the polygon editting seems different, or at least I'm having a hard time replicating the results from the tutorial. edit2: nvm the tutorial was for gmax, I think this post can be deleted

I was looking at Jasoncw's basic poly modelling tutorial: How do you do a zoom 5 preview?

Another question regarding scaling. So if I make everything 1.33x taller, how should I scale the width of doors and windows? Like if the door is 0.9x2.0m IRL should I make the model 0.9x2.7m or would that appear too skinny in game and I should rather make it 1.2x2.7m. Anyways, this is what I have so far. Windows and doors (I used the AEC ones) are protruding, but if that's something that would be visible in-game I guess I can always change them to be inset. Next I plan to do balconies and railings, lintels, then stairs.

Looks like 3ds max has some sort of spiral staircase object, I'll play around with it once I get to it. Right now I'm checking out the window and door AEC objects.

I decided to try my hand at making BATs, and just downloaded 3ds Max this morning. The first BAT I would like to make is a pair of Montreal row triplexes on a 1x2 lot. They would look similar to these: http://goo.gl/maps/rW3C2 I'm going to use this thread to post questions and show my progress since I'm a complete newb at this... Q1: 1 square in Sim City is 50ft/16.67m correct? Q1b: How do real world units scale to pixels (photoshop)? Q2: Should I model walls as boxes? Q3: Will making spiral staircases (ex http://goo.gl/maps/6civh) be very difficult? Q4: How do I change the size of the background mesh/coordinate system? I changed units to meters and now it seems like its 14 squares across (0.254m per grid square). How do I make it say 17m by 17m with, say, 1m squares?

Thanks! Do I still need the BAT Tool if I can get 3ds Max?

I'm considering starting BATing. I'm mostly interested in low rise and midrise housing of North American cities (mainly East Coast and Great Lakes), starting with some of the row plexes of Montreal. How much time should I expect to take to learn the basics (very roughly) and then create buildings? There are the sorts of Montreal row plexus I'd be interested in making: http://goo.gl/maps/sZH0N http://goo.gl/maps/TkO8M http://goo.gl/maps/xErLd http://goo.gl/maps/Z8ySt Also would it be realistic to accomplish with only free software, especially with the brick textures and occasional ornamentation? (although I'm a Canadian university student so I might be able to get some things free?)