Grids go askew so it looks crappy - why?

[The1ManClan]

I like nice, sharp, clean grids. But when setting out the roads, far too often they just start to create inner grids that are badly broken. Instead of a nice clean, sharp, 8 x 28 where each zone square is nicely fit beside each other, this crappy skew appears, making lousy looking gaps in the planned layout.
This happens on plain, flat ground, even when using tools to ensure nice 90 degree fits from one corner to the next.

Why is it doing that? Is there a tool that can fix / prevent this? I did a number of searches in the forum and mods for "Grid Askew" and similar terms but found nothing to tackle this.

[Ripp]

" Is there a tool that can fix / prevent this? " Not that I know of.


Make sure you have the "Toggle Snapping" tool found to the far left of road tools set to all and then use:

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=445589127&searchtext=precission+Engineering+2

will help a lot but it won't completely prevent it.

Then build your roads in short enough sections that you can see the zoning grid to make sure it lines up correctly with NO offsets and that both ends of the road intersect at 90 degrees.

A word of caution: the city boarder lines are only a guide and NOT rendered precisely square or even exactly the same length. A perfectly squared and aligned outer beltway will appear skewed compared to the city limit lines.

[Clunk]

Zoning Adjuster was the one all the cool kids were talking about.

I tried it but realised I don't really need it because RICO over-rules many of these little irritations.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2389414419

[MarkJohnson]

I just level the ground before laying the roads. Works every time. Just level them to the previous road.

[The1ManClan]

Mark - that's what I was saying.. already made sure the ground was perfectly flat before starting my roads. So sometimes it works perfectly, and then at other times it just starts to create this stupid skew of the grid.. seems to be no reason for it.
Clunk - I will try that Zoning mod and see if it can fix things, thanks!

[MarkJohnson]

İlk olarak The1ManClan tarafından gönderildi:

Mark - that's what I was saying.. already made sure the ground was perfectly flat before starting my roads. So sometimes it works perfectly, and then at other times it just starts to create this stupid skew of the grid.. seems to be no reason for it.
Clunk - I will try that Zoning mod and see if it can fix things, thanks!

I find the highway entrances are usually off kilter. so you need to start at one side then connect it to the other side in a giant rectangle. Just make sure to stop just before you connect to the other side, so the last tiny piece will be offset. The the rest of your city will aligned properly for the rest of your map. as long as you keep expanding off the starting rectangle.

Just remember to make the ground level before laying roads, or any bump can throw it out of alignment.

[MaxFX]

Perhaps this happened:

One of the things that can mess things up when creating a perfect grid, is when you (without realizing it) follow a road guideline coming from somewhere else than the roads that are part of the grid you're building. (perhaps a nearby road or fence for example)

If you use 'Fine Road Tools' and 'Fine Road Anarchy', you'll have a small window in these mod's UI with 'snapping options'. Here you can select where you're mouse snaps to when building roads and other networks. These options are: Angle, Length, Grid, and Road Guidelines.

(Road Guidelines are the blue lines and dots coming off of nodes of allready placed networks)

Try disabeling the 'Road Guidelines' in this little menu in the UI of said mods. You'll notice that the nodes no longer have a circle around them, and there are no blue lines coming off of them any more.

Note: Do NOT disable 'Angle' or 'Length' in that same menu while building your grid, or the roads do not snap to the 90° and 180° angles, and do not follow the 1U increments, messing up your grid up in a different way...

---

Another Tip: Enter the games editor (intersection part) and try building roads with these different snapping options enabled one at the time, and see how your mouse behaves when building roads. A full understanding of this gives you a LOT of control and understanding in building networks!!

And when you realise that the 'Move It!' mod also has a snapping feature, the amount of control in adjusting roads and other networks after you've built them also increases a lot!!

[BettyB]

Something like this?

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2692643100

[MarkJohnson]

Can't see the zoning squares SueQ. Maybe click the zoning button for a clearer view of alignment.

[BettyB]

Thanks for the suggestion Mark, Maybe I'll do that. :)

[The1ManClan]

SueQ - holy crap... is that a layout of highways along each map square? Do you have that setup downloadable somewhere ?