Someone asked me about this and I realized that I don’t think the game ever actually tells you about these. At least not in any visible, in-your-face way. So I’ve put together a small cheat sheet of useful keybinds and cheats that help you use and abuse The Sims 4’s build mode to its fullest potential.
I’ll try to keep this updated as new tools are patched into the game. If you feel I have forgotten anything please yell at me on twitter.
Cheats
The Sims 4 cheat console can be opened and closed with Ctrl + C.
bb.moveobjects
A classic entry in the Sims toolbox, moveobjects allows you to place objects regardless of collision or lot boundaries. There is at least one mod that sets this cheat to on by default if you’d like, but be wary of sim pathing issues.
bb.showhiddenobjects
If you’re familiar with The Sims 3’s buydebug cheat, this does the same and unlocks all the usually hidden objects in the buy catalog. This is useful for quick access to collectibles, Get to Work career objects and old event rewards that are no longer available the normal way.
bb.ignoregameplayunlocksentitlement
This cheat is verbose but situationally useful, as it unlocks all of the non-hidden career rewards in the catalog. They’re already unlocked when building community lots and empty residential lots.
bb.enablefreebuild
Allows the opening of build mode on lots where it is usually disabled, such as Get to Work career lots. Be wary when using it to edit the career lots, however, as a certain number of objects are required for the lot to work properly and replacing certain items can break sims’ career progress, especially in the Detective track.
Keybinds
Ctrl + ] and Ctrl + [
Resizes the object currently being placed. Works best on objects with no animations associated them, like rugs and sculptures.
Holding Alt
Holding the Alt key while placing objects allows them to be placed off of the snap grid. It doesn’t ignore object collisions unless bb.moveobjects is also enabled. Holding Alt + Mouse 1 while placing objects also allows them to be rotated outside of 45° intervals.
Holding Shift
Holding the Shift key while placing objects allows you to place many in quick succession, instead of requiring you to reselect the object from the catalog every time.
Ctrl + F
Toggles the ability while placing floor tiles to place half-tiles. Useful for creating fancy floor designs.