Sims 4 Build mode cheats

Open the console with Ctrl + Shift + C on Windows, the same shortcut or Command + Shift + C on Mac, or by holding all four shoulder buttons on PlayStation and Xbox. Type the command, press Enter, and it takes effect straight away.

Money cheats behave the same way. Everything else in the game, from skills to traits to the shift-click menus, sits behind the master switch described on the page on enabling cheats. Build mode does not.

What they do need is Build mode itself for two of them: bb.ignoregameplayunlocksentitlement is entered from inside Build mode, and bb.enablefreebuild is entered while you are on the locked lot you want to edit.

bb.moveobjectsCopy is the cheat that separates a stock house from a built one. With it on, the grid stops rejecting placements: objects overlap, sink into each other, sit half through a wall, and land between squares rather than on them.

One keyboard habit goes with it. Hold Alt while you drag an object and it rotates freely and nudges off the grid instead of snapping to it. That combination is what lets you set a rug at an angle or push a sofa a few centimetres closer to a wall.

Many players write the command as bb.moveobjects on. Both forms are in common use and both are documented, so pick whichever you find easier to type.

One thing to watch: Sims still have to be able to reach things. Furniture pushed into other furniture can end up somewhere nobody can use it, and the game will not warn you, because you just told it to stop checking.

Three commands widen the catalogue, and they do different jobs.

bb.showhiddenobjectsCopy adds the debug catalogue: scenery, clutter and event objects that exist in the game files but are not normally for sale. Type debug into the catalogue search box to list them. The community knows this one as the buydebug cheat, and it is where most of the decorative odds and ends come from.

bb.showliveeditobjectsCopy unlocks a second, larger set: the environment and world decoration pieces the worlds themselves are built from. Run it after bb.showhiddenobjects, because the two sets barely overlap and the live edit objects are the ones you want for terrain dressing and backdrop work.

bb.ignoregameplayunlocksentitlementCopy is different again. It does not add new objects to the catalogue, it removes the lock from the ones already there that a Sim is supposed to earn through a career. Enter it while you are in Build mode and the career reward objects become purchasable at their listed price.

bb.enablefreebuildCopy lets you edit lots the game normally marks as off limits, including career venues and the Magic Realm. Travel to the lot first, then enter the command while you are standing on it. Build mode opens as it would on a home lot.

This is how you rearrange a workplace your Sim visits every day, or fix a venue whose layout annoys you. It is the only cheat that changes which lots you are allowed to touch, rather than what you can put on them.

EA documents object resizing for console: hold L2 and R2 on PlayStation, or LT and RT on Xbox, then press up or down on the D-pad with the object selected. Each press changes the size one step.

On PC and Mac, most guides give the [ and ] keys for the same thing, [ to shrink and ] to enlarge, pressed repeatedly with the object selected. That shortcut is widely reported and does not appear in EA's own documentation, so this page reports it rather than promises it. If the keys do nothing, click the object once to select it before pressing them.

Resizing pairs naturally with bb.moveobjects: a shrunk object often needs to go somewhere the grid would not allow.

FreeRealEstate onCopy sets the price of every residential lot in the world to §0, so your household can move into the largest house in the neighbourhood with nothing in the bank.

The catch is where you type it. The command only works from the world map, the view where you pick a lot to move into. Entering it while you are on a lot does nothing at all, and that is the single most common reason players believe it stopped working. FreeRealEstate offCopy puts the prices back.

Like the bb. commands, it does not need the master switch, and EA's achievement penalty only applies to cheats that do. For the rest of the Simoleon commands, including the one that sets an exact balance, see the Sims 4 money cheats.

Every command on this page works on Xbox and PlayStation. Open the console by holding RB, RT, LB and LT together on Xbox, or R1, R2, L1 and L2 on PlayStation, and type with the on-screen keyboard.

Build cheats are the exception to the console achievement rule. EA states that they do not disable Achievements or Trophies, which is why a console player can use them on a save they care about. Any cheat that needs testingcheats true does disable them, for that save only.

Nothing, and that is worth stating plainly. The UI Cheats Extension is a free Live mode mod by weerbesu that makes the game's own panels clickable: needs bars, the household funds counter, skill bars, career panels, relationships, traits in Simology. Build mode is not in its feature list, and neither is editing lot traits.

So the bb. commands stay the only route to off-grid placement, the debug catalogue and locked lots, on every platform. Where the mod does help is everything you do after the house is built. See every UI Cheats feature, panel by panel for what it covers, or the full Sims 4 cheat code list for the typed equivalents.

Work down this list before assuming a patch broke something.

• Check where you typed it. FreeRealEstate only works from the world map. bb.ignoregameplayunlocksentitlement wants you in Build mode. bb.enablefreebuild wants you on the locked lot itself.
• Check the spelling. There are no spaces inside a bb. command, and no space between bb. and the rest of it. A space ends the argument, which is why a mistyped command fails silently.
• Try the other spelling. If bb.moveobjects is ignored, enter bb.moveobjects on. Both forms are documented and players report using one or the other out of habit.
• Search the catalogue properly. After bb.showhiddenobjects, the new items appear when you search for debug, not as a new category tab.
• Check for a stale mod. A script mod built for an older patch can leave the interface glitched or panels blank after the game updates, which looks a lot like a cheat failing.

If the console itself will not open, or your commands are rejected across the board, work through the fixes for Sims 4 cheats not working. If the UI Cheats Extension is the thing that broke, its own troubleshooting guide goes through mod versions, script mod settings and folder depth.