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Field Researcher
Original Poster
#1 Old 6th Nov 2021 at 3:52 AM
Default WCIF A gate for a fence that works like an apartment door?
I think this would be great but I've never seen anything like it. That way you could have a small collection of houses on a lot, each with its own yard. Then presumably you could plant stuff in your own little garden, etc. Is there such a thing?
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Alchemist
#2 Old 6th Nov 2021 at 6:23 AM
If you just want to block off an area for an apartment, but have it look open, you can do it with the Great Divide. These pictures show a working apartment. I made an invisible recolor of the Great Divide (it's so small, you can use it without it being invisible and it would be fine) and it's placed on the back porch outside the door. The game sees that as a wall so it works, but the sim can step over it off the porch and out to the yard. you could put this between the back door and inside your fence, then use regular gates.
Screenshots
Former Hamster
retired moderator
#3 Old 6th Nov 2021 at 7:52 AM
If you enclose a garden with the great divide fence it'll become common area and any sim on the lot will be able to enter the garden. So I don't think that would work for what they're wanting to do - which is have little separate apartments with their own garden for each one. I think.

You can have an apartment - NOT on a foundation - with a fenced in yard as long as there is no gate in the fence. If you want an apartment ON a foundation to have a fenced in yard, there's a trick to doing it but it can be done.

Handy-dandy thread here with questions and suggestions from the early days of Apartment Life - also has link to apartment tutorial. https://modthesims.info/showthread.php?t=299623
Post at MATY that explains the trick needed have an enclosed backyard with an apartment built with foundation: http://www.moreawesomethanyou.com/s....html#msg367457
Field Researcher
Original Poster
#4 Old 6th Nov 2021 at 6:01 PM
@Sunrader and @mustluvcatz, thankyou for your quick replies! Yes, mustluvcatz, you're right: I want the single point of entry to be the front gate, not the apartment door, but that is a great tutorial at MATY about using the invisible fence to make a usable backyard for an apartment on a foundation! Seems to me I read that a long time ago, didn't bookmark it and then forgot how to do it or how to find it again. So thankyou for that!
So sad, a lot of those links are so old they don't work anymore, but reading that stuff is a good reminder of what a steep learning curve was involved in building apartments back in the early days. I've got to think a lot of that stuff has been fixed now through patches and whatnot.
I too have suffered from the common misery of building a fabulous apartment block, furnished the whole thing, remembered the trash-hatches, lights and roof, only to get the message "One of your apartments is invalid". GRRR, I hate that! If the game knows what the problem is, why doesn't it just tell us? It's cruel! I had no idea that custom doorways could render an apartment building invalid, so that's something I just learned.
Hey, how about an invisible apartment door? Is there anything like that out there? Nah, forget it, then we'd need an invisible wall to put it in.
I did, years ago, build a bunch of little separate houses on a lot, each with a front yard and a surrounding fence, but I made a little 'gate house' at the front, with an apartment door, so they'd walk through the teeny little gate house (which was really just three wall sections 1x1 with fences keeping the apartment enclosed) and then they'd have their front yard with flowers and patio furniture and a walkway up to the actual house. So that worked, at least, but it looked kind of odd to have an apartment door on the gate house.
Alchemist
#5 Old 6th Nov 2021 at 6:24 PM
Quote: Originally posted by mustluvcatz
If you enclose a garden with the great divide fence it'll become common area and any sim on the lot will be able to enter the garden. So I don't think that would work for what they're wanting to do - which is have little separate apartments with their own garden for each one. I think.


Ah, I see what you are saying. I'll have to experiment. I was imagining the GD just outside the apartment's back door to make the apartment work, not surrounding the garden. I was imagining the garden would be protected by a regular fence and lockable gate. I thought I had this work in the past, but maybe not. Thanks for the links!
Alchemist
#6 Old 6th Nov 2021 at 8:49 PM
I've done a tutorial on building private backyards when apartments are built on foundations https://modthesims.info/t/437141

Rome wasn't built in a day

Need help finding building items, check out my building blog https://bestbuilditems4sims2.wordpress.com/
Mad Poster
#7 Old 6th Nov 2021 at 9:24 PM
I've built apartments with fenced terraces and placed a gate in the fence with a room divider surrounding the gate and it works like a second entry point to the unit and it can be done with the room divider surrounding an outdoor area outside the second door to the trailer to close it off withoug blocking the sims from being able to walk out of the patio.I've got two pictures of my builds with these features in the aprtments and I've played with them before and both designs work.Both of the apartments lot pictured alow sims to use two entry and exit options to get into or out of their unit and stops routing fails when two or more sims try to race for a carpool or school bus.
Screenshots
Field Researcher
Original Poster
#8 Old 7th Nov 2021 at 3:00 PM
Quote: Originally posted by TadOlson
I've built apartments with fenced terraces and placed a gate in the fence with a room divider surrounding the gate and it works like a second entry point to the unit and it can be done with the room divider surrounding an outdoor area outside the second door to the trailer to close it off withoug blocking the sims from being able to walk out of the patio.I've got two pictures of my builds with these features in the aprtments and I've played with them before and both designs work.Both of the apartments lot pictured alow sims to use two entry and exit options to get into or out of their unit and stops routing fails when two or more sims try to race for a carpool or school bus.


Thanks @TadOlson. I think I get what you mean and I'm going to try it!
Mad Poster
#9 Old 8th Nov 2021 at 8:59 PM
I would make sure to put the walls up to lock the second door into the trailers for the trailer park and lock the fence gate in the case of a fenced outdoor area and any gate or door leading out of a unit besides the apartment door needs a room divider surrounding it or surrounding the gate if it's fenced to make the gate a part of the unit as room divider counts as a wall or fence to mark the boundries of the unit.
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