Hello once again everyone and welcome to my tutorial on layered arch bridges. For those of you who managed to miss class during the simple bridges tutorial, please review that lesson before continuing with this tutorial. Some of the information covered in the previous lessons will help you to have a better understanding of the tips, tricks, and various techniques used in this tutorial. That being said....

Begin with a 1x3 section of foundation. This will be the center of the bridge, so make sure to allow enough room for the rest of the construction.

Place another section of the same size and orientation at a distance of 6 squares apart. This should leave you with a distance of 5 squares between the foundation sections.

Repeat the placement of foundation on the other side to even things up.

Now place a section of open decking between the existing foundation.

Repeat this on the other side making sure not to simply span across the center section of foundation as you do not want to change the foundation in the center to the open deck variety.

If everything goes well...you should have something very similar to what's pictured above.

Now for those of you who did read about how to build simple bridges, the next step should be a snap! Simply place a section of pool...

Under both sections of open decking....

Then delete them using the "ctrl-click" method. This will remove the unwanted posts that supported the decking.

Place a room of walls lining the perimeter of the foundation.

Now using the connecting stairs, place a set of stairs a few spaces away from your bridge.

Place another from the lowered point that was created from the previous set.

Do this once more to bring the ground to an elevation 12 clicks lower than it was originally.

Delete the stairs and place a square of foundation in the lowest section of the hole.

Place walls on the foundation and open the cheats window. If you don't know how to cheat by now, I'm surprised that you're still reading this. Anyway, type in the "boolprop constrainfloorelevation false" code to allow us to change the elevation of tiles on the grid through manipulation of the ground level. (covered or otherwise)

From the lower section you just built, drag the leveling tool across to lower the height of the walls on the bridge.

Now your bridge should look something like this. Tip: for those of you who did'nt know, the closest any floor tile can get to the one under or above it is only 4 clicks. keep this little nugget of information in the back of your mind and you'll see why it's important to know later ! Moving on...

Build some guide walls! You're probably sick of seeing these by now, but they do come in handy when needed. By now you should know the drill; one space beyond the length of your structure on each side with a single row of tiles on top.

Page down to the inide of the bridge and using the leveling tool, select a section of floor at the end of your BRIDGE and drag over the front guide wall.

Repeat this to the rear guide wall as well to lower them to the elevation of the underside of your bridge.

Now build another set of guide walls on top of the newly lowered ones.

Making sure to page up to the topside of your bridge, use the same method as before to lower your new guide walls to the elevation of the top of your bridge.

Yes yes, repeat again in the back as well.

Using the wall tool, remove the walls under the flooring you placed on your guide walls.

Now select a wallpaper and flooring to decorate your bridge.

Place rails on both sides.

Remove the walls and foundation in the hole and level the ground back. These should no longer serve a purpose.

Select an area in line with your front guide wall about 3 or 4 spaces away from the end. place a single square room of walls and another on top. Add a tile to both levels. (any floor tile will do, but i'm kinda patial to the #8 :b)

Lower the first story to the same level of your lower guide wall.

Repeat this to the floor above using the top guide wall. This will give us what I call a guide post. This post does'nt really do much, but it is needed as it will let us maintain the original levels that we created for the guide walls.

Make guide posts at the end of each guide wall until you reach something like the picture above.

It's time to choose again, stairs...

Stairs and foundation....

Or a continuation of the bridges current level. It's your chioce really, but no sim architect should jump into a project without a good plan in mind. Just remember that the choice you make now may be very complicated to change later on. To continue the bridge's elevation out, simply build walls as you did for the top of the bridge and level them out.

I've decided to use a set of stairs at one end and a continuation of the bridge's current level at the other. Tip: If you want to have lamp posts or chairs or whatever on the bridge, you should go ahead and place them now as this can be very difficult and annoying if not impossible to do later without some tinkering!

Page down and get ready to modify the lower level of your bridge.

Raise the ground under both tiles #3 to a height of 4 clicks.

This will be the maximum height of the arches under your bridge. Level across to the corresponding numbers.

Page up and you'll notice that the change in the top layer did not transfer the same as it did on the lower level. Unfortunately this problem happens often when we sandwich the layers so closely together. This problem also worsens as it progresses through the layers, which means that the more layers you have, the uglier it gets! For now....

Just page back down and forget about the monstrosity you're creating above. Let's try to keep focused on the lower level for now. Raise the ground under tiles #1,#0, and #1 (respectivly)to an elevation of 3 clicks.

Level across the right #1 tile to the other side.

Repeat with the other #1 tile on the left.

Now flatten out the rear guide wall to the same elevation as the #1 tiles.

Once this is done on both sides...

Drag the new elevation from the rear to the front on the tiles labeled #5

Repeat this on both sides to even everything up.

Selecting the #7 tile on the front guide wall ( which should still be at it's original elevation ), drag the leveling tool from the front to the back making sure to cover over tile #6 on the rear guide wall.

Again, repeat on the other side.

Using the guide posts, flatten the rear guide wall to it's original elevation by dragging the leveling tool across from one to the other.

Using the leveling tool, select tile #0 on the rear wall and drag it to the front.

Now we have two happy little arches for the underside of our bridge!

Page up and prepare to reshape the top of your bridge, unless for some reason you like the humpy version as it is.

Before we begin working on the upper level, we need to flatten our guidewalls. Just go from guide post to guide post leveling your guide walls from top to bottom.

Once this is done, they should resemble what you began with.

Raise the ground under tile #3 by 4 clicks.

Select tile #3 with the leveling tool and drag it's elevation to tile #3 diagonally across on the rear guide wall to cover the center of the bridge.

This will flatten out the center area of the bridge. For those of you who prefer the flat area on the bridge...CONGRATULATIONS!!....you're done. Now get outta here. For those whose attention span is a little longer.....

Raise the ground under tile #0 by 4 clicks. Don't worry about the shape of the ground or the lower guide wall... just focus on the upper guide wall. Keep your eyes on the upper guide wall when changing the elevation of the ground! As I have stated before, the changes in elevation through layers that are sandwiched so closely together may not always be consistent. Pay close attention to the movement of the tile you're manipulating as you click. (if you have a nervous condition or have had too much caffiene or have a clicking problem, ask for help! :b)

If tile #0 leveled properly, drag the leveling tool across to the rear wall. You'll know if the tile is level by placing the leveling tool on it. If the tool does not recognize the tile (by turning green), fine tune it until it's right and carry on to the next step.

Alter the elevation of tile #2 until it is 1 click lower than tile #0.

Drag this elevation across to the back.

On the rear guide wall, drag the level of tile # 2 on the right side.... to the tile #2 on the left side.

Transfer the elevation of tile #2(left) to the front.

Change the elevation of tile #3 until it is 1 click lower than tile #2.

Flatten your rear guide wall.

Transfer the elevation of tile #3 across the entire length of you front guide wall.

Now drag the elevation of your front #3's to your back #3's.

Yep you guessed it...... on both sides. You're almost there.....

Change the level of tile #4 to 1 click lower than tile #3.

Flatten your rear guide wall...

And bring the elevation of tile #4 across the front guide wall. Transfer the elevation of the front tile #4's to the corresponding ones in the rear. This process is the same as the last, just dont get lost due to the fact that you should'nt need to see the picture of this process again!

Change the level of tile #5 to 2 clicks lower than tile #4 and drag this across the front guide wall.

Transfer from front to back...

And relevel the front and rear guide walls using the guide posts.

Using tile #7, transfer from front to back to flatten the tiles at the end of your bridge. Whew!, CONGRATULATIONS! The hard part is over and all you have left to do now is turn off the "boolprop constrainfloorelevation false" cheat by exchanging the "false" with "true" and add some water under your bridge. You can also remove the guide walls and posts unless you've really grown attatched to them. I must warn you however that they make horrible lawn decorations. My neighbors were not impressed. :(

Finish off your wallpapering and add some plant life to complete a fully functional and beautiful arched bridge! For everyone thats been waiting for this tute, I'm sorry it's taken so long and please look forward to pt.3 which will cover helpful tips, tricks, and believe it or not ....some restrictions!? I know you're wondering, but if you know the restrictions of what you cant do ( or at least cant do yet ) then you'll have a better grasp of what's possible! Please check out modthesims2.com for other great ideas and creations by other builders!