I have played the sims 2 and the sims 3 and for what ever reasons I prefer the sims 2 tho I really liked some of the options in the sims 3 for example. The placement grid in the sims 3 is far better then that of the sims 2 being able to place things in the center of squares instead of having to use the edges or being able to place things diagonal make things look better. For example if i am doing a living room and I want a big couch say a 3 square grid one and I want it in front of my TV which is only 2 squares. There is no way to have that centered because of the grid set up; but in the Sims 3 you could center them because of the grid in that game. My question is there a way to mod the Sims 2 grid to make it work like the Sims 3 grid?

There's a cheat in the Mansions & Gardens SP that enables quarter-tiling of objects as you describe. Players without M&G can always use boolprop snapobjectstogrid false, but that requires a steadier hand or bigger tolerance for things slightly askew.

And don't forget boolprop allow45DegreeAngleOfRotation true

I've always wondered, but never actually asked: would I have to turn this off in my game after using it, lest terrible things happen and my neighbourhood explodes? Or, is it safe to leave on forever? I have actually used it, but always switched it off afterwards just in case. I'm just curious if I can be lazy with it... and, if it can be left on, why EA switched it off in the first place? Rooms always look less boxy and better for using it.

It's perfectly safe to leave on; I have it in my startup cheat file, so it's always on.

I imagine EA chose not to leave it on by default because some items don't function on the diagonal. So rather than coding everything to function in that position, they make it a cheat to make it the player's responsibility to choose when to use it and accept the (entirely non-dire) consequences.

Ahh, thanks for that, mangaroo - I clearly should have asked this years ago to stop all my endless faffing about in the cheat box! Will add it to my start-up tonight.

Great to hear thanks a lot for the info

If you have M&G, there's also setquartertileplacement [on|off]. It's more accurate than the snaptogrid cheat.

I use "snapobjectstogrid false" regularly with the OMSP items, along with "allow45degreeangleofrotation true", but I don't like leaving them on. However, while I'll always reset "snap objects", I've left the "45 degree" cheat on without problems - usually because I forget it until I next go into Buy Mode!

I can never remember the quarter tile placement cheat when I need it!

Once you've typed that in you have to press Ctrl+F to activate it. I never understood why though...

I never knew about the setquartertileplacement cheat. Interesting.