Getting Started

The things covered here will be important things you need to know before you actually start to create your world.

But before I begin, I am going to pass on the same very important caution that others have shared: If you are wanting to play your world in your game, then plan on spending several months or more in its creation. Arm yourself with lots of patience and expect to spend many hours at a time to complete this task. I'm not trying to discourage you . . . just want you to know what's in store before you invest a lot of valuable time.

The two things you must have in order to create a world for the Sims 3 game engine is the base game and The Sims™ 3 Create a World Tool – BETA*. CAW (Create a World) is a free download, but you must be a site member and have the base game installed before you can get the download.


A world can be created with just those two programs. Other 3rd-party programs can be used to enhance your creation, but for now we won't worry about those. We want to stick to the basics for those who are extremely new to this. Also, I strongly advise you not use custom content (CC) when building your world, especially if you intend to upload your creation to the Exchange. This is not meant to be a criticism of CC. I am a huge fan of CC and use CC in my game. However, not all players use CC, and those who don't will not be able to use your world in their game. Also, and no disrespect intended, The Sims games are full of bugs and adding CC to your game just makes it "buggier". I don't mind working around the bugs, and so, I am just offering this info to those who are new to this, so you know what to expect. However, as I have recently learned, an extremely good reason for not using CC when building your world is that CC will make it more difficult to get a clean testing. When testing your world and finding a problem, you want to be able to know that the problem is definitely with your world design and not the result of a CC file conflicting with game files or a corrupted CC file.


It is advised to make sure your system meets minimum requirements for both programs, and I suggest you run the programs with the recommended video settings, and always remember this: SAVE FREQUENTLY. Some of your creation will take place inside a stripped-down version of the game engine, and as your world gets larger, it will take longer to save your changes. The screen will flash, but this is normal, and the game will save every lot, one at a time, every time you elect to save the world.

Important Note:
(If you intend to use the "Distant Terrain", you must select the largest maps when setting up your new world.)
After opening CAW and choosing the size and type of your map, the first thing you should do is to create your main layers in the "World Layers" directory.
The second thing you need to do is to place the "Distant Terrain" object. This object helps to define the edges of your world and make it look more realistic. How to determine its placement is discussed in the Distant Terrain tutorial.


A good starting source to get answers and how-to's can also be found on The Sims 3 forum.
Included on the  The Sims™ 3 Create a World Tool – BETA page(at the bottom) is a link to a tutorial, which will provide you with the basics of how to use the program. For those who are just getting your feet wet with this, I highly recommend you read the tutorial.

Special Note:
Should you receive a "Version Not Compatible" error after installing the CAW tool, try this fix.