I am currently converting the Sims 4 Dream Home Decorator and looking for some advice.

One of the objects, the Tough and Tufted Chaise Lounge is more like a small bed than an actual recliner.
The width is also as broad as the whole floor space to allow it to link with other objects.
The seating height is also much higher than the recliner; however I have altered the slot values in order that a Sim is sitting on it and no parts of their body/shoes are underneath the cushion.

The problem is that all the recliners have arms and this item does not. When I test the item in game, the Sim's arms are out holding on to something that doesn't exist.
Here is a pic to show you:


I have had a look at the Behaviors in SimPE but there is nothing specific that I can see regarding the animation of arms.
I don't think I should clone a bed; and a loveseat (although the right size and good options) probably won't work as Sims will sit on the cushion with the headboard to their side plus another Sim might sit on it too.

Thank you in advance for any advice.

Unfortunately, that's how the animation for that type of chair is. Unless you're willing to mess around with making custom animations for the chair, or manually adjusting the arms in the CRES (I think that might be possible, but never done it, possibly quite difficult), you just have to deal with the animation being the way it is.

I think I've seen some variants that have the "relax on bed" animations instead. Those would look fine on this one, but not sure if the height is the right one.

Hello simmer22
Thank you for your reply and suggestion.
I think the height is a little lower than the standard height of beds but is the same height as loveseats and sofas.
I will check out what Sims do with their arms when sitting on a living chair - but then I would need to fix their legs.
Perhaps the sectional seats (without arms from Night Life) might work.
I will have another look at options.

You can adjust the sim position height via the CRES (and it's not that difficult), that's one of the reasons why I mentioned the bed/relax animation.

I think there are a few items like this already, with only the relax animations and not the rest of the bed animations, but I don't have any links (I can never seem to remember where things are when I need to find them...)

With the bed/relax, they have their legs out, but rest their arms in their lap, and sometimes read a book.

Hello simmer22
Thank you for your reply and advice.

I checked out what Sims do with their hands and arms when sitting on a living chair - unfortunately it varies as not all living chairs have arms.
I also tried making a second version of this recliner - this time with the mesh with side wood (both sides) and also I scaled the width.
The wood height is higher than the arms of any of the recliners; but to be fair it doesn't look as bad as the first version.

I think the answer is to clone from a bed as you suggest - will have another go.

Like I said, I think it's possible to get the relax function from the bed without all the other bed options, but I'm not the best at messing about with BHAVs and such (which I'm suspecting is what you'd need to do here), so maybe someone else can pitch in?

I think nothing could help here but create a new animation. Default bed animation is sweet but kinda complex and connects with back pillow.

The floating arms never wrancle me. Sims will sleep without arms on chair. I suggest you to leave it as it's now.

Hello Victor_tor
Thank you for your reply and advice.

I will need to have a real think about what to do as there is also a living chair/sofa that matches this and needs to be taken into account too.

I think the pillow-fluffing is a separate animation. Animations ingame are parted up into sections, so you can pick one animation from here and one from there, and mash it together via BHAVs. The "relax" is a loop, and the "sit down/fluff pillow/etc." is one and the "get out" is a third.

You could use the "sit down" and "get up" animations from the lounge chairs to get the proper transition into and out of the chair, but use "relax" from the bed (with some hight adjustments) when the sim is relaxing.

Might cause some small transition jumps, but would lok a bit better than arms floating for no reason.