Prop Families in Lot Editor - A NUTs Guide

[paroch]

To many people, the use of Prop Families is a straightforward thing.  But for those who are new to Lot Editor (LE) it may take a bit of time to work out.  This simple tutorial should help you through that stage a bit quicker:

1 - If you plan to use Prop Families, one thing I'd recomend to make life easier for you, is the BSC Mod Prop Family Names by GA/SW77.  This download shows names for Prop Families rather than just a list of numbers.  This makes finding a suitable Prop Family much easier.

2 - Open Lot Editor.  One hint here is to only have files you want to use in your plugins folder.  This makes it much quicker to open the LE.  If you are not going to work on Industrial lots this time, take them out of your plugins folder.  Just remember to put them back in afterwards!

3 - Select the base lot you want to work on.  I'm using a 2x2 ploppable landmark here for the purpose of this tutorial.

4 - Select the "props" tab (black arrow), to access the props.  Then select "add family", to be able to see the different Prop Families you can add.



5 - The left hand box lists all of the Prop Families that are available to you.  The list will vary from user to user, depending upon which prop packs you have installed in your plugins folder.  Remember, only items in your plugins folder will be available in LE.  I've selected the Gascooker UK Houses as indicated by the orange arrow.  When you click on this, the box on the right, indicated by the green arrow lists each of the individual props that make up the Prop Family.  In this example it is a range of Gascookers large terraced UK houses.  Each prop is the same, or very similar size.  If you are happy with this Prop Family, select "OK".



6 - You can now see the size of the prop.  Move it around your Lot until it is in the desired place and click.



7 - There's room to place two of these Prop Families on this Lot, so let's place another one next to it.



OK, so now, when this Lot is placed in game, any one of the GC houses from this Prop Family could appear on the left hand side of the Lot, and also any one could appear on the right and side of the Lot.  This will give us a W2W road made up of GC's larger terraced houses.

8 - Now let's place some items in the gardens, using Prop Families.  We'll spin the lot through 180 degrees so we can see behind the houses.  Here we can see a Prop Family called Backyard stuff.  And the list on the right tells us exactly which backyard props make up the family.  Let's select OK.



9 - The size of the prop tells you the maximum size of any of the props in the family.  Now, we have four gardens, so let's place a different Prop Family for each one.  Number 4 is actually the same Prop Family used twice - a flower bed.  I've not placed fences around the gardens, just so that you can see more clearly.



10 - We'll place an SFBT spruce tree in the right hand garden just to demonstrate the difference between a single prop and a Prop Family.  And here is the finished Lot as viewed in LE.



11 - Make sure you save your Lot with a suitable name.  A three letter code for the user or team is common, as it the lot size and lot name.

12 - And here are the results.  Here are the front views.  The red lines, separate the different Lots.  You can see that each lot has a different combination and gives a more varied look to the road.



13 - And the rear view.  Again the red lines separate the different Lots.  You can see that different backyard stuff appears and also how the flowerbeds are different colours.  Where we used a single prop (the tree) it is always exactly the same.


The same principles apply to all types of Lots.  I've used a ploppable lot here for ease of demonstration, butthe same will happen with growable lots as well.

So, a quick and simple guide to Prop Families.  They are very easy to use, and give your Lots more variety, without having to make multiple lots.  The above pictures use just one lot, without using Prop Families the same effect would have required five separate Lots.

If you have any questions - feel free to ask and I am sure one of us NUTs will do what we can to help.

Good luck with your Prop Family Lots.

The NUTs - Jmouse, tooheys, paroch

[Diggis]

Great demonstration and thanks for the link.  That file will be very helpful.

[BarbyW]

Another useful tip is that if you want to see what is in the prop family - just to check that all of them are suitable for the area you use - is to select the prop and press N to cycle through the props in the family.

[Pat]

Paul that is a very good TuT you have made and Barby thank you for that tidbit about N, I never knew that till now...

[FrankU]

Why didn't anybody telle me about this N key? Thanks Barby!
Nice tut, BTW.

[rooker1]

Great work Paul on the little tutorial.  I just keep learning new stuff all the time.
Robin 

[CasperVg]

Great tutorial, well done!
LE always orders prop families in such random ways, it's never the same when you reopen it... But it groups certain prop families together tho.

[paroch]

Barby,

Thanks for your advice re the "N" key.

Glad to see this tutorial is of use, over 350 views (so far!).

[KatHuntoon]

very useful. . I thank you as well

[psychowarfare]

Thank you, finally I understood the Prop Family concept!!!