This is a short tutorial about how to create splitlevels.

First make the shape of your house, because this is a tutorial, I'll just take a rectangle =)

Create another floor

Now it's time to place floor where you want to make rooms etc.

On the ground floor, create a square like shown.

Should look like this :)

On the outside of the lot (next to the square you've just created is recommended), create a diagonal wall (you can also make a non-diagonal wall but then be sure there is grid on it)

Time to turn this cheat on:
Boolprop ConstrainFloorElevation false
You now can see that you're able to lower the ground, do this with 6 clicks.

Then equalize it so that the grid's visable again.

Now drag the equalizing tool from the diagonal wall to the square created in the house.

As you can see you just lowered the walls!

When you go to the topfloor it looks a bit odd, to correct this we have to use the equalizing tool from the building menu again and drag it over the top floor.

Time to turn the cheat off:
Boolprop ConstrainFloorElevation true
Now you can place floor on the square.

You can now place the connecting stairs :)

To finish the detail, place a few fences or balustrades.

Ok, now the majority of the work is done, you may not be quite pleased with the fact that you see this part (in the green oval) of the stairs so, we're going to hide that =)

(the reason why I'm telling this right now and not already on the beginning is because some stairs (like the metallic modern one) won't be needing the hiding-walls so now you know how to create them with hiding walls and without)

now create the walls like shown next to the square already created.

When you go one floor up, this should be the result.

Now get back to the diagonal wall and drag the equalizing tool over the square again.

Now this is what you should get, looks better eh?

This (the flying triangle) is a common thing that can happen when building with the constrainfloor cheat.
To correct this, go to the walls / fences.
Choose a fence/wall (doesn't matter which one) and press the ctrl key. When pressing it, drag the wall so that it's gone and then drag it back. You don't have to delete it, just drag it and the triangle-shaped flying thingy will be gone :)

Now we can turn the cheat off again
Boolprop ConstrainFloorElevation true
And this is what you should get and you can start decorating!

The tutorial is done now, this is my result of the tutorial!
I've added a few more pics showing other creations you should be able to do right now with this tutorial.
I hope you enjoyed and learned from it, if you still have any questions or other things you want to say, feel free to sign my guestbook! =)
- Nijhofvirra

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