Meet Al, Ben & Carol. These 3 Sims were created together as a 'family' in Create-a-Sim, but the game really does not distinguish Sim relationships: you can create two adult Sims & move them in together & play them as a couple, as siblings or as roommates....with the Sim Logical Apartment System you can also play them as neighbors in an apartment complex.

The lot this 'family' has been moved onto is a Duplex, with two separate units each with one bedroom, 2 baths, kitchen, living room & enclosed balconies, and I'm playing Al as a young bachelor living alone, and Ben & Carol as a couple. As they move into their new lot, Carol remarks to Ben how important it is to use a money cheat when setting up an apartment game: buying a basic set up for a single family Sim home will strain the $20k starter budget, trying to set up multiple units with $20k is impossible.

The duplex Al, Ben & Carol have been moved into is already furnished & ready to set up. In their front yard is the apartment Controller, which is shaped like the Hawthorn bush from the Sims game. This controller is absolutely necessary for the apartment system to function. You use it both to show/hide your apartment tokens (see below), and to set access levels for the apartments. When you place your apartment controller on your apartment lot, be sure to put it where you'll remember where it is. I usually don't use any regular hawthorn bushes, so I will always know it's the only hawthorn bush on the lot. You find the controller in your Buy menu, under Misc/All.

This is the 1st floor of Al's apt: living room, kitchen & bathroom. In each room I have placed an apartment Room token, the gray square with an 'X' in it. You buy those in Misc/All. Each token controls all the apartment hacked in the room it is placed in: in Sims a 'room' is defined as any enclosed space, so an enclosed balcony or patio would be a 'room' and would require tokens. If you design your building with a more open floor plan, where for instance the kitchen & living room aren't separated by doors, then you would only need one token for the kitchen/livingroom. After you set up your apartments, you will toggle the tokens to be invisible, so you don't have to look at them during normal gameplay. Ben & Carol have a similar apartment set up next door. The rooms on the second floor also each have an apartment token placed in them.

When you first place your room tokens, they are gray with an 'X' on them, which means they are not set up. To get your Sims moved in, you have to both set the tokens to an apartment number & then assign the Sims you want to each apartment The first thing you want to do is set the room tokens. Al's unit is going to be apartment 1, so I click on one of the gray room tokens in the unit I chose for him & this Menu pops up. NOTE: the names in the 'Give Share to' lists will vary depending on who lives in your neighborhood. Right now we want to choose 'Set household', so click on that.

And you get this submenu. The apartment System allows you to create up to 4 Apartment units, plus 'standalone rooms' (more about those later). Since I've decided Al's unit is apartment 1, I choose Apartment 1.

Once I choose 'Apartment 1', the token changes color & has the number 1 on it.

Now I set the rest of the tokens on the 1st floor of Al's unit to apartment 1, and then toggle to the 2nd floor & set the tokens there. Notice there are 2 enclosed balconies on the 2nd floor, each with a token that needs setting.

Once all the tokens for apartment 1 is set, I repeat the process for the tokens in apartment 2, on both floors.

After all the tokens have been assigned their number, I want to assign which Sim 'owns' each apartment Going back to apartment 1, I click on one of the room tokens with the number '1' on it, and click on it. Once again you get the menu with several 'Give Share to (name here)...' selections. To assign a Sim to a room token you need to select their name from the Give Share to menu: first you will choose the last name & then select the individual by their first name.

If the family name you are looking for isn't on the menu, hit your 'Tab' key to scroll through the menu until you find the family name you are looking for. I named Al, Ben & Carol 'Brentwood', so I scroll a few times until I find their name. When I find 'Brentwood', I click it.

Another sub menu opens showing the names of everyone in the 'Brentwood' family. As you mouse over each name, the Sim's thumbnail shows in the center. I choose Al for the apartment 1 token. Once you assign a Sim to an apartment token, that Sim will have access to any apartment hacked object in any room that has a token with the same number on it. So once you assign Al to one apartment 1 token, all the rooms in apartment 1 are his.

It does not matter which Sim you use to set up the tokens. Here, Al is shown setting up his own tokens. He also set up the tokens for Ben & Carol, who were busy getting to know each other...like all new Sim couples, they come into the world with a 20/20 relationship, and they won't sleep in the same bed until it's up to 50, so I let them have some quality time while Al took care of the tokens. After assigning an apartment 1 token to Al, I had Al click on an Apartment 2 token, toggled through the 'Give Share to' menus until I found Brentwood, and selected Carol. I then did the same for Ben. Up to four Sims can share an apartment token.

After you've assigned all the Sims to their token, you can finally hide those tokens! Click on your controller bush and you get this menu. As you can see, you can choose to Hide all tokens for normal gameplay, so you don't have to see them. Anytime you need to see them again (to remind yourself which unit is which, or to remodel, etc) you just choose Reveal all tokens to make them visible again.

The other menu choices determine access levels to the apartments.

'Sharers Only' This is the default setting which only allows the Sim you assigned to the token number to use the apartment hacked objects in their unit. That's the mode you want for standard apartment play.

'Be neighborly at' is the setting which allows the other resident Sims to use the apartment objects in the unit: if Ben & Carol were to have Al over for dinner, I would set their unit to 'Be neighborly'.

'Entertain Visitors' is the setting that allows guests from other locations too use the apartment objects: if Al were to invite Zara Townie over for dinner, I would set his unit to 'Entertain Visitors'.

'Party Time' is the setting that allows all Sims on the lot to use the apartment objects, so if Ben & Carol were to invite Al & Zara Townie over for dinner I would choose 'Party Time' for their unit.

'Out of Bounds' takes all access away from all Sims: this would be used for very specialized situations. I personally haven't used it.

Each of these setting can be chosen for each apartment individually or for all at once. If Al is having Zara Townie over, I only want to set his unit to 'Entertain Visitors', if I chose 'all units', Zara would be likely to go & use the bathroom at Ben & Carol's after dinner.