Does anyone else design Sims houses on graph paper?

[HordePrime]

OK, maybe I have way too much time on my hands, but I've always loved looking at house plans, so this game fulfills my nerdy house-planning dreams! I do draw the floor plans of some of my houses on graph paper before I create them. Does anyone else plan their houses?

Also, I've used the seven beach (double) lots in my main town to build a pastel rainbow. My far left beach house (which is also a near model of the home I really live in) is purple with the purple roof, the next one is indigo, then blue, then green, then across the waterway I have my yellow, orange (peach), and pink (well, I demolished the pink one in anticipation of the Teen Idol house, which I will build there and make pink). Does anyone else plan their communities in some way?

Yes, I do this too!

It means the first thing I do is have lots of empty rooms. I'm sure it looks weird for any visiting neighbours, but then I gradually fill up the rooms according to my plan when I can afford to.

I've also still got a few empty plots which I have planned out, but nothing exists yet in the game. - When it's all done it will be great though. I'm definitely playing the long game here.

[Mon789]

No, don't have time for that!!
Mine sometimes have a plan in my head but most of the time not. I re model my houses all the time too.

[boysnberry11]

I use an excel spreadsheet only to see how many squares I need for certain furniture items. Not all the time, but for a couple of the shared houses.

[PaQuilter]

Most of the time I use graph paper. When I first started playing I couldn't get things to fit the way I wanted them to so I printed a pic of half of a property. I used it along with graph paper and designing became easier. Now there's room for Sims to walk around the kitchen or dining room table and I have room to place plants around the houses.
( BTW, I don't think we can print anymore when we are in the home store mode.)

[ElsieD]

I use graph paper for house designs for the Sims 3, but I haven't done so for Freeplay because the inability to place doors near corners, the forced box shapes for the rooms, and the fixed length of a corridor, for instance, would mess with my plans.

Kudos to the OP for being able to successfully create floorplans in this way for Freeplay.

[katgames]

I use graph paper. But it was recently pointed out to me that you could save a game, design, make the mistakes and then download the saved version erasing your expensive experimenting and then build what you figured out and save it. I've never done this but it sounds great. My question is-- doesn't it automatically save at times? Often when I go to manually save it says what I'm saving matches the data already saved. It couldn't unless it was automatically saving???

[Lishws720]

I use graph paper. But it was recently pointed out to me that you could save a game, design, make the mistakes and then download the saved version erasing your expensive experimenting and then build what you figured out and save it. I've never done this but it sounds great. My question is-- doesn't it automatically save at times? Often when I go to manually save it says what I'm saving matches the data already saved. It couldn't unless it was automatically saving???

As I understand it, since the neighbors update, the cloud saves your game for you once a day, I think after you have collected your party boat goodies. But if you play after that and significantly modify your game, it would be wise to save it again. Then, you have 7 days after your last upload to restore that saved game.

My point with the graph paper is that I have a visual aid to help me design or modify houses. I mark off a boundary on the paper that is 18 x 18 or 18 x 36 and fit the design into that. It helps with placement of stairs for multi-story houses, and I can also get a sense of how much outdoor space I will have once I'm finished with the house.

[SIMazing]

I use graph paper. But it was recently pointed out to me that you could save a game, design, make the mistakes and then download the saved version erasing your expensive experimenting and then build what you figured out and save it. I've never done this but it sounds great. My question is-- doesn't it automatically save at times? Often when I go to manually save it says what I'm saving matches the data already saved. It couldn't unless it was automatically saving???

This method works if you have a second device where you can save your data.
For example, I would save the current data on my phone, and open my ipad. I would buy a pre-made house on my ipad to check out, modify, whatever. When I was done I would simply download the save data from the phone. Then I would do one thing to change the data on my phone (change a task, buy something...), and save again on my phone. Repeat as many times as I like, being careful when to upload and when to download. Using this method I checked out all of the pre-made houses that were in my budget.

I used to use a grid I made when I designed houses based on real life places I've lived in or visited (I deleted these when we got the neighbor update). The grid made it easier to make them as exact as possible. The rest of my spaces are created at will, or using the two device method above.

[katgames]

This method works if you have a second device where you can save your data.
For example, I would save the current data on my phone, and open my ipad. I would buy a pre-made house on my ipad to check out, modify, whatever. When I was done I would simply download the save data from the phone. Then I would do one thing to change the data on my phone (change a task, buy something...), and save again on my phone. Repeat as many times as I like, being careful when to upload and when to download. Using this method I checked out all of the pre-made houses that were in my budget.

I used to use a grid I made when I designed houses based on real life places I've lived in or visited (I deleted these when we got the neighbor update). The grid made it easier to make them as exact as possible. The rest of my spaces are created at will, or using the two device method above.

Wow! I'm not sure I'd do this because I'd probably mess something up. But thanks for explaining. It does sound like a good way to get the visual.

[katgames]

As I understand it, since the neighbors update, the cloud saves your game for you once a day, I think after you have collected your party boat goodies. But if you play after that and significantly modify your game, it would be wise to save it again. Then, you have 7 days after your last upload to restore that saved game.

My point with the graph paper is that I have a visual aid to help me design or modify houses. I mark off a boundary on the paper that is 18 x 18 or 18 x 36 and fit the design into that. It helps with placement of stairs for multi-story houses, and I can also get a sense of how much outdoor space I will have once I'm finished with the house.

I get the graph paper and agree. I use it. As for saving I save all the time both to FB and GC. I just wasn't sure about the automatic save. You set me straight-- after partyboat. Good to know. Thanks!