Does anyone else find the task of using windows on a lot tiresome? They seem to be all over the place and don't place easily. Is there something we can do to make this easier to deal with?

It ain't just you. I have to turn off the sound because the sound effects of placing windows sounds like someone throwing dried beans at a drum as you wrestle them into place. It was a pain for TS2, but not quite -so- difficult.

When I place a window it looks fine, then the wall fills in the glass and all that can be seen is the frame. It's maddening!

I spent quite a well trying to place on stinkin window. It was not fun.
Most of the placement of items on TS3 are a bit strange: have you noticed the mile long red or green line coming out of an object when trying to place it? It's like "No, you cannot put this chair here because it infers with a tree on the other side of town."
Sorry if it seems I'm rambling. When you play with Sims all day, talking to real people is like a treat.

I have not even progressed to furnishing a home yet, I am so tired after just placing windows. LOL, I think EA hates builders. And as for the music of what have you they play as you build, I place my speakers on mute, it annoys me.

I have learned you can drag and drop in Create a Style. I wanted the shower wall to match the blue tile already on the bathroom wall. I clicked on the wall to open up the CAS color/texture thing. For whatever reason I picked up the square I wanted to match just to see if I could. Plopped it on the shower just to see what would happen. Another window thing popped up and asked which material I wanted to replace, so I selected the one for the shower wall clicked accept and now it matches. Perfectly! (I'm sure my terminology is quite lacking, but I just don't know what to call some of this stuff.) And I'm sure this is probably the wrong place for this post.

Slightly off-topic, but to expound on what Sophie Q said, you can drag-and-drop lots of stuff in the style creator. You can drag individual colors by dragging from one of the four round horizontal "color buttons" to the target object (it will pop up a color-replacement dialogue box like you described), by dragging the color/pattern/texture from one of the four vertical boxes on the left (just as you described), or the entire theme (all four color/pattern/texture boxes) by holding and dragging the bump-textured tab at the top-left of the four square boxes and dropping the tab on the object. If the target object doesn't have as many textures as the theme, it will just use the first however many it does have.

Dragging themes greatly saves time when trying to create a consistent theme for a room (such as a kitchen or bathroom) or for matching clothes to each other! :D

To ease placement of windows / doors, especially on diagonals. Just destroy the adjacent walls to the wall you want to place and it should be times easier... 90% of all windows are just about the same as in TS2 IMO... However it IS a lot more sensitive and jumpy for diagonals...

Another tip... If you turn on moveobjects cheat, the doors / windows tend to ignore snapping and makes it easier to place as well...

o.O I'm still getting used to alot of the aspects of the game and i admit I had no idea! so thanks for the info! T.T wow that will save me some time!!!! Lol i am forcing TS3 to run on a slow computer, and waiting for all the patterns to load on each and every part of an object in a room takes quite a long time!!! so i'll send an off-topic thank you back lol....

Thank you for the dragging tip. What I've been doing is selecting the object that I want to match in create a style, checking the color code, then entering that code on the object I want to match. Your idea is much quicker.

It is the murphy's law ! just place something (window, light...) on the wall the game "want" to place the windows, useful also if you must turn the window to see the right face.
Less destructive than KAuss way

Btw, I find it annoying that the two-tile windows are all huge, and you cannot place one-tile windows (or doors) centered between two tiles, like you can with objects. It would be nice to be able to put a window in the center of a 4-tiled wall, for example...

Window and stair placement are both ridiculously difficult in TS3. I'm so close to just giving up and going back to TS2, which wasn't as annoying in the first place, and for which I already know all the tricks.

To the OP ( original poster ) or TC ( topic creator ), whichever term is used here: I find that if I have trouble placing a window, I can just zoom in closer and it will be much, much easier for the window to lock onto the grid.

Actually in my experience having the "MoveObjects" cheat "On" causes windows to fill with wall space and a pain to place. I usually just make sure that cheat is "Off" before I place any windows or fireplaces.

If you have the cheat on, just pick up the window and drop it in again... The reason why the walls fill it is if there is another window or door trying to take its place...

This only happens to me if I use the "moveObjects on" cheat. Turn moveObjects off, then click the window again, and it should be fine. If not, umm... don't ask me.

Yes, moveObjects does that, especially when you move another object over the window. I turn it off when placing windows/doors. Just zoom in or slightly rotate the camera, usually it will snap to where you want it. Under some angles it can be really difficult to get objects to snap correctly.

Exactly! And nothing else! And I don't think it, I know it! There is no other explanation for what they did, when going from TS2 to TS3.
(My fun is gone ... )


Ja!