Sims 3:CTU Guide Designing

This page is under construction :) - daluved1

Find a CAS Part

Before adding any designs to your CAS part, you have to chose which mesh you wish to use.

• Parameters - Use the age, gender and type parameters to dial up a mesh category. Then select the mesh you want to use from the drop down list. The thumbnail to the right of the screen allows you to preview the mesh.
• Quick Find - Once you dial up the age, gender and type, Quick Find allows you to scroll through thumbnails to pick which mesh you wish to use.

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Part Details

Part Details is for informational purposes only. More advanced users can use this list to help locate specific files and details of the package.
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Part Category

The Part Category tab allows you to change the categorization of the CAS part. Most of these are pretty self-explanatory.

Changing the age and/or gender of a CAS part can cause some pretty wacky results. So don't be shocked if you get something weird.

Extended Category		Other
Valid for Maternity	Check if you want to allow pregnant sims to wear the CAS part.	Left Handed	????
Valid for Random	Check if you want townies to be able to wear the CAS part.	Right Handed	????
Is Hat	Check if the CAS part is to be considered a hat.	Human	????
Is Revealing	Check if the CAS part is considered to be revealing.
Hidden In CAS	Check if you want the CAS part to be hidden in Create-A-Sim.

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Commit

By now you've probably encountered the commit button. To save any changes you've made, it is important that you click this button before moving on to something else.

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Stencils

A stencil is a design that appears on top of the base texture of the CAS part, however thestencil itself is not recolorable. Stencils can be saved in DXT1, DXT3 or DXT5 compression.

For more information on how to add a stencil see Applying Stencils

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Patterns

Patterns are the recolorable regions in Create-A-Sim. Here you can set the default colors/patterns you want displayed on your CAS part.

Enabled/Linked

Enabled	Tick this to allow the pattern region (defined with the mask) to be recolored.
Linked	Unknown

Type

Sets the type of color or pattern you want to use.

Solid

A solid color. To change the color, click the little colored square under Solid Color Options.

Pattern (Colored)

Colored patterns, the kind the Pattern Packager makes. They can have up to four different colors. To change the color, click the little colored squares under Pattern (Colored) Options.

Pattern (HSV)

HSV patterns are base images that are color shifted by a certain amount. They usually show up as red, yellow and magenta in the pattern preview.

BG Image

BG Image is used for specifying a background image behind the pattern itself.

Channel

The channels are used to control how this image is shifted.

Pattern Browser

The Pattern Browser allows you to easily browse through both the in-game patterns and downloaded and/or user created custom patterns.

Custom Patterns

• Use the Import Custom Pattern button to add a custom pattern to the pattern pool.
• To view custom patterns, pick the asterisk (*) from the drop-down Category list.

Tiling

Tiling allow you to change the number of patterns tiles used to fill a pattern region. The default size is 4.0000,4.0000; to use more tiles per region, increase the tiling number (see image) and vice-versa.

RGB Mask

Changing the RGB mask under the patterns tab can be used to build a pattern from scratch, that is only used for that specific design and will not show as a usable pattern in Create-A-Sim/Style. To do this, you create a pattern but instead of packaging with Pattern Packager (or any tool of choice), import the DDS here directly.

Note: it's much easier to use the pattern browser to import a custom pattern ;)

Specular

Changing the pattern specular can alter the shinyness/reflectiveness of the pattern.

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Logo

The logo is unused at the moment. My speculation is that it'll be used to distinguish items from different EPs, like The Sims 2 did.
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Textures

The vast majority of your CAS part will be defined with textures. The following is a list of all the possible textures, and what they edit on the CAS part.

Texture	Use	Compression	Alpha Needed
Base Texture	The base texture--sometimes called the multiplier---maps out what parts of the mesh are used (via the alpha layer) and it adds texture (wrinkles and folds) to the CAS part.	DXT5	Yes
Clothing Ambient	The clothing ambient indicates lighting intensity of the CAS part. This is rarely used, even by EA, so most are left pure white.	DXT1	No
Clothing Specular	The specular indicates the shininess or reflectivity of the CAS part.	DXT1	No
Mask	The mask uses the Red, Green, Blue and Alpha channels to define the different regions (patterns) that are recolorable using the Create-A-Sim tool.	DXT1	No*
Overlay	An overlay is similar to a stencil except it can be placed anywhere, whereas a stencil is confined to the perimeter of the mesh. Necklaces that are attached to a clothing item are usually overlays.	DXT1, DXT3, DXT5	Yes
Part Mask	Unknown	DXT1	No*
Skin Ambient	The skin ambient is similar to the clothing ambient, except it indicates the lighting intensity on the skin itself. For the most part all default ambients are the same, so there's really no need to change it.	DXT1	No
Skin Specular	Skin speculars are like clothing speculars, except they indicate the reflectivity/shininess of the skin itself.	DXT1	No

* If you have four pattern regions you'll need to include the alpha channel.

Replacing Textures

For more information on how to replace a texture, see Replacing Textures

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Other Details

Other Details, like Part Details, is strictly for information only. The majority of the information displayed here can be changed under the Part Category tab.
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Thumbnail

If you want your own custom thumbnail to display in Create-A-Sim, then import it here. The image must be in .png format and 256x256 in width and height.
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Meshes

(coming soon)
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Design Type

Design Type allows you to change between 3 channel (CasRgbMask), 4 channel (CasRgbaMask) and Tintable Overlay.

• Switching to 4 channel allows you to successfully enable pattern D (the fourth Pattern region).
• Toggling to CasRgbMask automatically disables pattern D

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3-D View

By far the neatest feature of the CTU is the 3-D preview! The 3-D view allows you to...well...preview your CAS part in 3-D.

How To Use

To start 3-D View, click the Start 3D button in the left corner; make sure that you've added a new design.

• Use the mouse wheel to zoom in
• Right-click and drag to rotate the mesh

Render Mode

To change the way the mesh is rendered, right-click anywhere in the window and choose the mode.

Reload Textures

When you change a CAS part texture (i.e. base, mask, etc.), switching back to the 3-D view window should automatically refresh the mesh. If it's not refreshed, then click "Reload Textures".

Note: the 3-D View will not show patterns or recolors.

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