This tutorial will show you how to recreate this Tropical Treehouse featuring...

...a climbable tree,

swinging bridges,

a ladder,

and a hut with custom roof & ramp entry.

We'll need the following cheats for this lengthy project:

boolprop constrainFloorElevation false / true

moveObjects on / off

boolProp snapObjectsToGrid false / true

boolProp allow45DegreeAngleOfRotation true / false

First we'll need a nice flat 4x4 lot. If you have a hard time getting your land nice and level you might consider making a seperate nbhood for construction using one of the nbhood terrains that are very flat. They're not as pretty as one with hills etc, but you can always transfer your finished lot to it's permenant home once you're done.

Using the discrete concrete floor tile (helpful because of the grid pattern) lay down an 8x8 section like so. This shows us where to put our treehouse deck.

Then a 2x7 section. This will show us where our first swinging bridge goes.

A 6x6 section works nicely here at the end of the "bridge" section.

Next place a 2x5 section for the second bridge like this.

End it with a 5x6 section.

Then place a 6x6 section a distance from the main treehouse sections. This will become the hut we can use as a cook shack, or whatever else strikes your fancy.

With the room tool enclose the 8x8 section...

...and the hut 6x6 section.

Take out the column deck foundation tool and cover the other two grids like this.

Now we need to place a couple of "rooms" that will help us build the bridges. Enclose the center section of each bridge like so, leaving a tile space on each end.

Once that's done it's a good time to save, since we're about to turn on the floor cheat.

With the floor constraint cheat activated use the leveling tool and drag it from the top corner of the large deck room actross to the diagonal opposite corner of column deck foundation next to it.

Note how the foundation is now the same height as the walls! Now drag the level tool from the corner of the heightened foundation to the diagonal opposite corner of the next foundation.

If your lot looks like this, go ahead and turn off the floor cheat for now and save again.

Select the floor tile you'd like to use for your treehouse deck and cover from corner to corner.

Also choose the floor tile you'd like for your bridges, and cover each bridge, connecting the foundations and the main deck. Add the railings of your choice to the bridge as well. It's a good idea to note that when making a bridge, whether arched or swinging, or even flat, they tend to look best using an odd number of tiles. This is why I've chosen a 5 span, and a 7 span bridge.

Now on top of the stilted foundations add some walls to make rooms.

Leave walkways around the rooms where needed. The ladder will be centered on the side of this stilted foundation.

Place 2 concrete tiles on the ground below where you want your ladder.

Then add a floor tile to the foundation deck above them and you'll see a grid square pop out.

Now add a floor tile that you want to become the ladder, and more grid squares appear, so add another ladder floor tile in front of the first one.

Place ladder railings.

Then surround the foundation deck walkways with railings as well.

We'll come back to the ladder in a bit, but first lets do our main treehouse deck. Find the center four squares in the deck and remove them.

Lets save again, we're gonna turn the floor cheat back on next.

Now grab a section of connecting stairs and with the floor cheat activated place 1 section as shown.

From the base of the first section, place another.

From the base of the 2nd section place a third section, but turn it toward the hole like so.

Then from the base of the third stair section, add stairs leading down into the hole.

Delete the three sections of stairs on the floor, and leave the set leading down in the hole.

Then use the leveling tool and drag it from this corner to the diagonal opposite over the deck.

Now the deck is nice and flat again, and if we peek into the hole we see our small 4-step staircase. This is, of course, the Stealth Stair method taught by SimMaster Ralph.

Remove the walls around the deck area.

Using a "test" Sim, try out your stealth stairs.

If it works, GREAT! You can turn off the floor cheat and save again.

Add the deck railings and remember to leave an opening like this for climbing the stairs.

Select your tree, this one works best. Now turn on move objects and snap objects cheat codes.

Place the tree over the stairs so the tree is "centered" in the deck.

*It is important to leave the first step uncovered, otherwise they will consider the staircase blocked. lol

Test again...

Now add roofs & wallpaper/flooring to the stilted rooms.

Add doors or open doorways.

Windows...

Then remove the concrete tiles beneath the stilted rooms, leaving the sections for the bridges and ladder.

Now we can set those bridges to swinging! Remove the walls beneath each bridge.

Turn the floor cheat back on yet again and with the terrain tool, lower this section of the 2x7 bridge two clicks.

Drag the level from the lowest corner to the diagonal opposite like so.

Next tile, lower by 2 clicks.

And drag level like so.

Center tiles only need to lower by 1 click for a smooth look.

Level straight back.

There it is. Very nice!

With the 2x5 bridge remember to lower the center tiles only by 1 click after you've lowered end to end by 2.

Turn off the floor cheat and click & drag a floor tile to remove the tiles under the bridges. Then level the land beneath the bridges.

Now we're ready to tackle the ladder.

Turn the floor cheat back on (you have to have it off to level the land under the bridges, I know it's alot of off and on at this point, sorry) and grab the foundation tool.

Place a section of foundation at the end of the floor tiles on the ground and the end of the ladder above will jump down level with it. Perfect! Now turn the floor cheat back off for a sec...

Then remove the foundation you just placed. If you leave the floor cheat on while doing this, your ladder section will just pop right back up where it was.

Add stairs to the end of the ladder so they can access it.

Now at ground view raise this point in the middle edge of the two tiles 6 clicks.

And another 6 clicks here.

Now you have a smooth, steep slope for your ladder!

Turn off the floor cheat (yes, again! lol) and remove the two floor tiles on the ground, then level the terrain beneath the ladder.

Test...

And test the bridges while they're up here...

Now lets build the hut. On top of the 6x6 room add floor tiles you'd like to become the roof of the hut, and decorate it with some flower border like so.

Then remove the walls.

Add a big X in the center of the floor pattern if you want, just to keep in mind where you're at.

Turn the floor cheat back on and raise this point by 2 clicks.

Drag to the diagonal opposite corner.

Raise this point by 2 clicks...

...and drag to the diagonal opposite corner.

Now raise the center point by 4 clicks.

From the edge of the ground surrounding the roof pattern, use the layer tool to flatten the edge all the way around the pattern.

Once that's done, turn off the floor cheat and ctrl & drag a floor tile to remove the center tlles beneath the hut roof.

Then level the area beneath the hut roof.

Add walls to the hut, leaving an open section like so, or close it and add a door if you prefer.

Remove the floor tiles on the ground & save.

Turn the floor cheat back on and lower the ground beneath each corner of the roof by 2 clicks.

Then lower the two points connecting to the now lowered point by 1 click each.

Turn the floor cheat off to level the ground beneath the hut.

Save.

Now turn the floor cheat back on. (I'm not just messing with you, seriously!) Then place the largest "raise terrain" tool in the center of the hut at ground view.

Carefuly raise it by 12 clicks to create the hut island. This keeps our hut intact while changing the terrain only. Turn off the floor cheat as soon as you're done with this step.

Now with the level tool, level the ground out 2x6 tiles like this.

Lower this spot by 2 clicks.

Drag to level from the lowered spot the end of the raised section.

Lower again by 2 clicks in the next spot (not pictured) and level as shown.

Next spot, lower by 2 clicks.

Drag to level.

Lower by two on the next grid corner.

Drag to level.

Almost done. Lower this spot by 2 clicks.

Drag like this to level.

And theres our perfect ramp!

Add some terrain paint to the floor of the hut and the ramp.

Cntrl-click the terrain paint tool to remove terrain paint & clean up and edges as desired.

Lower/Highten terrain with the small tool to adjust any sharp dips or points as desired, and then the hut is complete!

Add hills and mountains to the lot with the medium & large terrain tools. I like to start with a big mountain in the back corner.

Raise terrain randomly, including some raised terrain near the climbable tree.

Here's an example of how the hills can turn out.

Level the area around the mailbox, and the stairs, as well as any other areas you want to be accessible.

Use the level tool to create a path between hills.

Then add water to the lot, remember that your stilted rooms were made to be over the water like this.

Now before we place all the trees and bushes etc, lets place lights around the lot. Switch to night mode.

Add green "Spike Lights" here and there where light is needed, as these lights are easy to conceal beneath shrubs later on. Place rail lights where you want them on the deck railings too.

Switch back to day mode and turn on the move objects cheat. Place bushes (or even combinations of bushes) over the spike lights.

In an open area place a black "City Dweller Dims" light post, then cover it with a single tile table like this one for nice concealed lighting at dinner time.

Turn on the snap objects cheat and place multiple water lily pads, cattails, bamboo, trees, shrubs, etc, wherever you like. Turn off move objects & snap objects when you're done placing them, then add some terrain paint here and there to enhance the lush look. You can save again, then your done with construction and ready to decorate!

Thank you for reading this tutorial, I hope you've learned some useful techniques here. I want to thank all of the tutorial writers whose tips have encouraged me to learn more about Sim building. I adore their creativity and love browsing the exchange for new tutorials nearly every day. The lot featured in this tutorial will be available for download on my SimPage in case anyone decides they'd rather play than build.