How would I go about creating this sort of roof? Unlike a gabled or hipped roof, which can only by definition be as tall as its lateral size and pitch dictate, a mansard roof has a level top, which could in theory be any sort of height above the roof base, as well as any size. Is it possible to control this? The roofslopeangle cheat is the only way I know to alter roof shapes, and that doesn't really cover this situation fully.



As seen in this photo, the pitch is approaching vertical, but the rise of the roof is also fairly small, making for a large, flat top. My experiments with roofslopeangle and mansard roofs don't seem to be able to replicate this. Any ideas? Am I missing something obvious? It's the height of the rise that would seem to be the key factor here, and it may very well be the case that it's not possible without Mansion and Gardens or something, which I don't have.

Thanks for any assistance you can render. I'll admit to NOT having scoured the internet for the appropriate tutorial, if such exists, but I'd rather let the experts point me in the right direction.

I'd do the 'Shed Hipped Roof' to make the tiled bits (put them along the edges of the roof area, around 60 degree angle or so- use the individual roofslope angle cheat if you don't have M&G) and then build a square room with tiles on the roof in the center, and constrainfloorelevation false to bring that to the level of the top of your sloped roofs.

Right, floor elevation. Makes sense; I'll try it. I think what was happening with the mansard roofs was that they were by default a full story high, no matter what slope angle I set. Maybe that wouldn't happen with your idea. I don't suppose setting half-walls one tile back from the top edge of the outer walls would do anything? I'll try the CFE method, though, before I start messing around with sillier ideas.

Oh, shoot: constrainfloorelevation... I guess I forgot to mention that I already have this building built, and am just trying to change the roof style to match what's in the picture. That might change the situation here. Well, if it destroys the whole building, I just won't save it, that's all.

On second thought, I'll just try it out on a sample building first, on a DIFFERENT lot.

Just to clarify- don't use the mansard roofs, use the 'Shed Hipped Roof'. Also, use the CFE on your roof storey- the very top of the building. Won't affect anything else. backup your hood first and youcan experiment!

Okay, here's what happened - basically, the CFE command had zero effect on what I built, no matter which storey I used it on. Since, as you know, the hipped shed roof doesn't create a floor above it, like the mansard does, there's nothing to put floor tiles on unless you build walls on top of the existing first top floor, or put in a dormer (a feature which I find otherwise completely useless). I also built a mansard-roofed structure on the lot, for comparison.
<-- adding dormer &/or walls to create a floor

This NEW top floor is going to be the standard wall height above the floor below, and depending on what the roof pitch is, will either fall below the top of the generated shed-hipped roof, or stick out above it.
<-- the view both before and after invoking CFE (I didn't want to include two identical pictures)

I tried both demolishing the walls I created to make the artificial flat "roof", and also leaving them in, before using CFE; both times, the new "roof" tiles still were at the same height as when they were placed; CFE lowered nothing. In the end, I got rid of the second storey, and built a stage on top of the first-floor walls, then adjusted the roof angle so that it sort of met up with the edge of the stage. Whether this will translate to the floor below being safe from the weather, I have no idea... but it looks halfway decent. Still not the steep-angled roof hips as in the photo, but at least it's not a full storey tall like the mansard roofs... which is why there's no way to place floor tiles on top of it, I guess.
<-- building stage (roof view removed)
<-- new fake roof on top of stage (roof view restored)

After using CFE, I WAS able to manually lower the "roof" tiles to the requisite height, but not without also lowering the floor tiles at ground level. I suppose if I turned the floor constraint back on, those might revert to their former level? I'm glad I went to my testing neighborhood to try this, rather than wreak havoc on my existing building!

Let me know if this is consistent with what should've happened, or whether maybe I made a mistake somewhere. I did make sure I was at the uppermost floor level before entering the cheat code.

I don't think I explained it too well; here are some pictures:

1) Build a wall where you want the roof to be, I did mine 2 tiles in from the edge all the way around but you can experiment with this, to make your roof different.


2) Make a hole- I did mine around 8 clicks deep I think but again experiment- and build dummy walls on this hole. My building is foundation and 1 storey so I did a foundation block and a 1 storey square of wall on top, plus another 1 storey square to match the roof level. Constrainfloorelevation false, and click on the square at the top of the dummy walls and drag over your roof room.


3) Constrainfloorelevation true, then select the shed hipped roof. Drag a roof from the outside corner of the top storey, to touch up to the roof room, all the way around.


4) Now, you have to decide- do you like the height of the flat bit? If not, change the height of your dummy wall a bit and repeat step 2. If you are happy with the flat bit, then tweak the angle of your hipped roof to match the height of the flat section.


5) For people with M&G stuff, we have a handy-dandy tool to change the roof angle, but for lower EPs you need to use individualroofslopeangle:n (where n is the angle you need) then ctrl+Alt-click on roof.


That's how mine turned out, but you could vary the size of the roof room and change the height of the roof room to make the angle of the hipped roof different. For example, this one was done with the same roof room height but one tile from the edge, so the hipped roof was one tile wide.


Edit: This one was a one tile wide, slightly taller than standard roof room height-



I hope this will get you the effect you want!

[QUOTE=simsample]
2) Make a hole- I did mine around 8 clicks deep I think but again experiment- and build dummy walls on this hole. My building is foundation and 1 storey so I did a foundation block and a 1 storey square of wall on top, plus another 1 storey square to match the roof level. Constrainfloorelevation false, and click on the square at the top of the dummy walls and drag over your roof room.


So what you're saying is, the depth of the hole "in the basement" will lower the height of the upper storey by the same amount, which should bring the level of the roof to where I need it. I'll try again and see what I get. I'm guessing, though, that it won't be easy to do this to an existing building... I may have to move the contents of the Police Headquarters out into the parking lot while I re-build... There's not really a blueprint that I'm going from, though, in terms of the interior of the building, and frankly it could probably have been designed better.

Well, stay tuned! And thanks for the help.

Phew! After getting something resembling Snoopy's doghouse, I realized that the dummy wall "column" planted in the hole had to be two stories tall, to leave room for the outside ground level wall to look normal and have room for doors and windows. SO that's all good now; I think I can figure it out from here.
Here's my trial cop shop. A leeeetle more wall height under the eaves would be better, but this is starting to resemble what I want. I'm guessing, the deeper the hole, the closer the eaves will be to the ground?
Thanks, SimSample!

I moved your thread to building, since this was mostly about roofing wizardry skills :p

Thanks Lyralei!
@chitownriverscum Yes, you've got it! If you fiddle around with the area and height of the 'roof room' and the angle of the hipped roof, you should be able to get some different results.

Hello! I have a question about the chinese roof. Can i ask in here or should i open a new thread?

@blackSoul I would start a new thread in this section, just because that roof works a bit differently.

And, if I do it right, it should just change the roof level, and not affect anything else, right? So theoretically, I should be able to change an existing roof. My "cop shop" only has one storey, so it ought to be OK to work on it, without moving everything outside.

Also, I have a couple other buildings in town that have signs on the front, where, thanks to the slope of the roof, the bottom gets cut off. Maybe I'll experiment on one of those, which are straight-up rectangles, before tackling Police HQ, which is oddly-shaped.

Yes, that's right! And you should be able to work on your other buildings too.