http://www.sims2wiki.info/wiki.php?...ng_an_Apartment

Basic instructions are there. If you have further questions, tips, info, or anything related to building an apartment, please post here. The tutorial will be updated based on information posted here.


Other previous threads with apartment-building info include:

http://forums.sims2community.com/showthread.php?t=61116
http://www.modthesims2.com/showthread.php?t=299120
http://www.modthesims2.com/showthread.php?t=299233

Carrigon over @ the Sims2Workshop has enabled the Rent furnished apartment option, but along with 2 debug and a "Recalculate rent" option.

http://www.sims2workshop.com/viewtopic.php?t=2900

Also forgot to mention that, if you put an apartment in the lots bin and take it out, the apartment will APPEAR unfurnished, but not until you "Rent Furnished" will the other objects show up.

I entered one of the pre-made apartment buildings in build mode (also tried it in play mode) entered the cheat to enable build/buy added some walls redid the kitchen. i didn't change any of the exterior walls or add doors or stairs or anything like that. then i turned off the cheat went back to normal mode (tried exiting and reentering the lot) and when i go to place objects in the new kitchen it says "location out of bounds" and won't let me place anything there. and if i use moveobjects on and place the objects my sim is unable to use them. any idea what's up?

It appears that it's not only beach lots that are unsuitable for apartments, I tried building apartment un an uneven lot and everything went fine until I moved in my sims!

It seems like only flat lots works 100% when converted to an apartment lot - At least in my game!

And yes!! I have no hacks CC or anything else whatsoever in my game, I had the game create an entirely game-folder to ensure that it would be 100% clean!

Well the below picture shows very well what I'm talking about...

Well, the first (of many) problems I seem to have run into is that the mailbox doesn't want to change over to being one of the multi-slot mailboxes. Everything else (rental, furnishing, etc.) seems to function as normal, I do not get the error dialogue, but I also don't have the right mailbox. Hmm...

ETA: Got this. If you're having this problem, remove your buyable mailbox.

Does anyone know if those floor dividers are okay to use in common areas? I don't see why not, but I figured I'd ask.

You can safely use any kind of high or low fence in the common areas, it won't give you trouble there, but as a side note it's not only the floor dividers that doesn't work inside apartments, all stepover fences used there will be considered as common area by the game (Hopefully they'll fix this in a patch)

it'll be interesting to see what they have to fix for the fences and floor dividers.. :D

hopefully, by then, it won't break yet another piece of cup in the board just in the sake of a "fix" .

Update for the broken buyable mailbox and trashcan is available:
http://daydream.etowns.net/

Alrighty then, Carrigon's apartment door mod isn't very good afterall, until she fixes it I'd suggest anyone who downloaded it from here to remove it.


You can see here what it did:
http://i281.photobucket.com/albums/...17-19-17-96.jpg

You can have patios/decks with stairs leading down to gardens/yards
as long as access to the garden/yard is through a common area.
Meaning both front and rear entries to the building have normal,
non-apartment doors.

However 2 things I have noticed is that your
landlord/lady will water your harvestable gardens to death AND if you have
Pets Exp., strays will wander in and run amok in your yard/halls.

After reading, I think I've got it now....can anyone tell me if this is right: You can build an apartment building that has a garage for each apartment as long as there is no access to the garage from other apartments or a common area...and there are no custom doors or arches? If so, this explains why mine wouldn't work- there were custom arches, but I had made sure that there wasn't any access to any of the garages except from the apartment I wanted it to "belong" to. Would the custom arches also explain why I kept getting the "invalid apartment" error? I'm hoping I'm right as I'm working on a building that I love!

It's not restricted to apartment lots. I had one slightly uneven spot on my terrain. I placed one prebuilt flat lot (my creation) on one side of the road and another prebuilt flat lot (not my creation) on the other side. Terrain appears perfect from 'hood view. From lot view, I have the same sort of big gaping hole you are seeing. Needless to say, that section of town has now been flattened.

If I rezone the lot to residential and move in a sim there's no graphical glitch at all, this happen only if I rezone to apartment lot and move in a sim - Very weird indeed
In both cases the lot looks normal from neighborhood view and from lot view as long no sims are living there!

I am getting frustrated here. I cannot get my mailbox to change. Although the game plays fine without it. I have removed all my custom arches, moved the mailbox around, checked all the doors. The only think i can figure is maybe the onside workout center that is a common area? I have seen people with this issue but no one has mentioned if they had anything like a gym. The gym isn't on the same level as the apartments which are one story(2 twobedrooms and 2 one bedrooms) But it does have a mens and womens locker room. could this be an issue?

I have built an apartment lot and rezoned it but it keeps telling me my apartments have errors. ive tried everything, they have those special divided doors, ive even added fire alarms and toilets and nothing seems to be working, is there any way i can make this lot downloadable for someone smart to look at and fix?

because im stumped, thanks x

I'm currently building a very large and very expensive building with 5 apartments;

First floor: 3 communal rooms and 2 2-bedroom apartments.
second floor: 1 3-bed apartment and 1 4-bed apartment, both can be reached through stairs and an elevator.
third floor: 1 huge 5-bedroom apartment with acces to 2 helipads on the roof. The helipads can be reached by an elvator. The door to the apartment is on the first floor and the elevator doesn't stop anywhere else then on the third floor. The roof is enclosed by the 'belladonna beautiful balustrade'.

My question is, is this going to work or not?

So...Are we not supposed to be able to build apartment buildings regularly in the game, since you have to use a cheat to make it so? Why would that be?

im not a sims expert, but i think the apartmentsublot cheat would be if you build it in a sublot, like downtown or bluewater village, i haven't tried it because i don't want to take a lot of time for it to dissapear, but just thought i'd try to help out, even if i am wrong

i am converting a duplex into an apartment... and although i have seen this question asked, i either missed the answer or one hasnt been posted...

i have 3 units, one apartment door as an entrence for each, a back patio door that leads down to a completely fenced in yard for each one (each fence has NO gate and four sides for each unit, if you count the patio deck as a wall)

when i use the cheat to change the lot into an apratment, i get that invalid apartment error... what am i missing?

on my last conversion, i had to take the basement and stage (landings) out of the apartments to get it to work, but it worked.... now on this one, after reading the so called tutorials, i fenced it all in to make sure it worked, and it still doesnt work... i would post an image, but i cant seem to make it work.

any ideas?

evile420 - Are your apartments on foundations, with a fenced in yard accessible via stairs? If so, that doesn't work.

thanks.... am i the only one that feels like Apartment Life was released way to early?

I can now answer my own question.

It does work after i removed the door downstairs and moved it upstairs. Of course i would rather give my sims a private elevator, but somehow that doesn't work. However, you can have a private roof with helipads!

Okay I forgot to add something to the common area of my apartment, is there any way to add this now that I've moved people in the apartment building?

The cheats should work ( one or the other or both)

boolprop aptsublotspecifictoolsdisabled false/true
boolprop aptbaselotspecifictoolsdisabled false/true

These should open up build/buy mode.