I got a bit confused when it came to building my own apartment in Apartment Life, even having built dorms in the past therefore I thought I'd write a quick tutorial for anyone having trouble.

Create a new residential lot and build an apartment that suits you. When you have finished building your apartment and have added all windows, doors etc. bring up the cheat menu (CTRL + SHIFT + C) and type in "changelotzoning apartmentbase" (without the quotes) and then save and exit to the neighbourhood. Now move a family into the lot you just created. When the family arrives on the lot, you will notice that the old residential mailbox is now a multi apartment mailbox. You can now play the lot as you would any other apartment lot.

(It's quite simple when you come to think of it lol)
NOTE: changing the lot back to residential from apartmentbase after having moved in a family may cause problems (not advised)...

Hope This Helped

(Sorry If this small tutorial isn't in the right place, I wasn't sure where to put it...don't kill me Delphy lol)

Ok I'm assuming you have apartment life...ok
Just to test if there is a problem, make a new residential lot and create a simple square with one of the new doors for apartments. Then do the cheat "changelotzoning apartmentbase" and save it and go back to the neighbourhood. Then see if you have the 'Apartment Plumbob thing" above the lot. Move in a family and see if the mailbox changes...if it hasn't then I guess we need more people to help out lol...

Good Luck

is there more than one apartment door on any of your lots...if not, there is no need for a multi mail box...if you have like 3 doors...the mailbox should in theory appear...but like I said...if you have one apartment door, hence one sim living there...there will only be a normal mail box...

If you are using multiple doors...try moving in another family and then see what happens...

Do we know what apartmentsublot is?
ETA: I changed mine to sublot and it disappeared. Love it!......

lol...yeah, I have no idea what sublot is to be honest, but everytime you chnage a lot to sublot...it disappears!...I had a lot of trouble with it when I first started making apartments...EA/Maxis really should make things easier and allow us to create dorms and apartments without having to use cheats and stuff...it's just madness.

Anyways, have fun

hey this worked for me thanks!
but one thing is how do we edit existing apartments?
Being the genious that i am i forgot a roof lol!

You could change it back to a residential lot by typing in "changelotzoning residential" (though this may cause problems if you have a family living on the lot)...when you change it back to residential it will not have any effect until you save back to the neighbourhood...and then when you have finished modding the apartment...simply do the "changelotzoning apartmentbase" cheat again.

Try That...Good Luck

Ok so i built my apartment building and etc, BUT i have driveways and for some reason i get a message saying something like "this is not a right apartment lot" or something like that but i think its because i have the driveways then after i go back to the neighborhood it says there is no apartments in my building...HMMMM whats going on!!!

Whenever I make one... It converts alright, but it reads only the apartments on the ground floor... And it was a three floor place!

Any help?

ugh so every time i make an apartment it wont read it n says i need to change my architecture structure n stuff but how do i know what to change!!! What cant i have in making an apartment ugh help please!

I'm getting that as well.

What seems to happen is one family can rent an apartment, but that's it. If any other familes want to move in, they can only merge with the existing family and not rent one of the other units. I can't tell what I'm doing wrong, each unit has a door/seperator thing.

I have this problem too.

Hi Everyone...sorry I didn't get back to you, I was sleeping lol.

Ok, firstly, if you are having problems with the driveway...go to Belladonna Cove the new neighbourhood and take a look at the apartment building they created which had garages...you may find what you need there, maybe you are missing something.

For everyone with the problem where you can only move in one family try this...Make a new lot, create a simple 3 story structure with stairs on the outside of the structure so that family's can get to their apartments. Don't forget the doors. Then do the cheat "changelotzoning apartmentbase" and save back to the neighbourhood and try and add family's to the lot...If it works, look at the differences between the simple structure you just built and the apartment that only accepts one family and see what you might potentially be doing wrong...

I'll try and post some images to help...

Try building a simple struture like this:

[/IMG]

Make sure that all apartments can be accessed via stairwells inside or outside. Make sure you have added apartments doors to all apartments. Then simply do the cheat "changelotzoning apartmentbase" and save to the neighbourhood. Check to see if your lot has actually become an apartment. Next, click on the lot to see its information and how many apartments are on the lot. If it acknowledges there are multiple apartments and you have made sure that sime can access any apartment, you should be fine to start moving sims in. Start with a simple structure like this before moving on.

Soon you will be able to make apartments like this with nothing standing in your way:



Good Luck Building...

I made two great apartment lots, then sent in my family. 'We' entered the lot but the family button disappears and I can only "edit" the lot, half of my furniture was gone and my family was "in the lot" but I couldn't play them.

Please help me, I'd love to have my own apartments

Sound unusual Amy...try the cheat "changelotzoning residential" and then save back to the neighbourhood. Then see if you can move your family out. Then go back to the lot and do the cheat "changelotzoning apartmentbase" and move your family back into an apartment...Maxis never make things simple for us do they???

Good Luck, and I hope you get your family back lol...

I hope Sims 3 is "easier" in editing/creating lots :k

Could you (or someone else) make the mailbox buyable?

I'm not the best at that kind of thing to be honest lol...I downloaded SimPE the other night and couldn't find the mailbox...It probably wouldn't be the best idea anyways as it wouldn't work on any other lot apart from an apartment lot...and if you already have an apartment lot, I'm assuming the mailbox is already a multi mail box... It would probably be useful to the people who claim that their mailbox isn't changing...Hopefully the problems are dealt with in the next couple weeks...

Have Fun

Hey, I am also having this problem. I read the reply to this and it didn't effect anything. I built the building, changed lot zoning to the apartment base, saved, created a family, moved them in (so I thought). I can't do nothing but use the by option or build and build is limited. It tells me who is renting in the building if I click it from the neighborhood, but when I get in the lot it is like I am still just building without any families. If anyone else has an idea of how to fix this please let me know. I have to agree with the other post...Maxis sure could of made this easier.


I, too, have built dorms and hotels and never had an issue.

Hi gurlee...not sure how to solve the problem with your apartment buildings however you could try a few things just to see if they work...

*Try: Disable custom content and then try building a simple apartment building and see if this has any effect.

*Try: If you moved the mailbox on the lot's where you had the problem, make a lot without moving the mailbox and see if anything changes.

*Try: This is quite a stretch but...you could create an entirely new neighbourhood with no lots or sims in it and try the tutorial there and see if you have success.

*Last Try: create an apartment the way you want it but leave it as a residential lot. Move in a family and see if everything is ok...if everything is ok with the lot, move the family back to the family bin and then go back to the lot and do the cheat "changelotzoning apartmentbase" and see if you have success...if not, hopefully someone will come up with a fix...

Good Luck

i m sorry i m new at posting but i have a couple of questions
i built an apartment lot with 6 doors and i had the same problem of being able to move in only one family.i hope that someone will find the sollution to this!
but my question is about the mailbox.when i m in the neighborhood i can see the new mailbox,but when i enter an apartment lot i cant,and i was just wondering,are u supossed to see it or not???
thanx to everyone who might reply!

I have a strange question that I don't really see in the FAQs that I think should go in this thread. In Belladonna Cove, there's a set of four different townhouse apartments that are just a bit different in height and I'm curious how they do it if someone could tell me... because you can't edit the lot to see what they did. Here's some screenshots that may help:









Sorry if this doesn't belong here.