Style control--and just what is it with Acme Paper IM4?

[gottago]

Hope an experienced player can help with some noob questions, I've been reading and downloading voraciously this past week but a few things escape me.

Simple questions first: is there a glitch with the Acme paper IM4 cam lot? I just can't get that brown box to disappear, though I've succeeded with all the others. I've installed the lot files, and all the readme's essential and recommended dependencies twice now, but still no luck. The dependencies show, but not the lot. The others in the group work fine. If I can't ever get it to work and delete the lot file, will I have a blank lot growing?

Also, is the grass median strip (between roads and the lot) on industrial lots normal? It has street lights and signs on it, sometimes it is rendered as grass, and sometimes maxis dull green. If it is normal, how to have it uniformly rendered?

Broader questions now: deleting buildings and building styles. I can't abide the Maxis Houston style buildings; how to remove them all? Also, how to remove unwanted buildings from CAM lots? Just delete the particular building lot file? Will this give me blank lots or brown boxes? And what's the easiest utility to preview lots and delete them?

Also re: CAM--can you limit the stage growth to 12 or 13 and how is it done?

How to promote more variety of buildings on lots? I've added a large number of building lots but see the same ones popping up all over, especially in midrange CS lots. Is this something to do with the same building being in several packs, and therefore being selected too many times?

And how do you get rid of all the palm trees lining streets and avenues? Is there a patch on here somewhere, or do you have to mod the files in the lot editor?

Quite a list, but I'd be very grateful for any advice on any of these questions.

[RippleJet]

Simple questions first: is there a glitch with the Acme paper IM4 cam lot? I just can't get that brown box to disappear, though I've succeeded with all the others. I've installed the lot files, and all the readme's essential and recommended dependencies twice now, but still no luck. The dependencies show, but not the lot.

Do you mean the Acme Pencil Factory?

11. Industrial Manufacturing CAMeLots

Lot Size	Lot Name	Growth Stage	Download CAMeLot here	Download BAT Model here
2x1	Acme Pencil Factory	4	CAM Industrials BSC	Acme Pencil Factory

The others in the group work fine. If I can't ever get it to work and delete the lot file, will I have a blank lot growing?

No, you will never have a blank lot growing if you remove the SC4Lot file.
Removing the SC4Lot file is the proper way to block custom lots from growing.
However, you should delete all instances of it that might have grown in all your cities before physically deleting the lot file.

Also, is the grass median strip (between roads and the lot) on industrial lots normal? It has street lights and signs on it, sometimes it is rendered as grass, and sometimes maxis dull green. If it is normal, how to have it uniformly rendered?

That shows the difference between the wealth of the lots in the neighbourhood.
The richer the neighbourhood, the better the sidewalks look.

Broader questions now: deleting buildings and building styles. I can't abide the Maxis Houston style buildings; how to remove them all?

Disable the Houston style by selected one of the other three styles, instead of enabling them all.
If you want all other three styles to grow, you'd have to manually switch between them every now and then though.

Also, how to remove unwanted buildings from CAM lots? Just delete the particular building lot file? Will this give me blank lots or brown boxes?

As said above, removing the lot file is the proper way to stop them from growing.
You'd get brown boxes only if you remove the model, which is either in a SC4Model file or a DAT file.

And what's the easiest utility to preview lots and delete them?

Best way to preview them would be in-game by plopping them using the BuildingPlop cheat included in Buggi's Extra Cheats DLL.
However, that's tedious if you have lots of lots to check. Thus Maxis' LotEditor is probably better for you.

Also re: CAM--can you limit the stage growth to 12 or 13 and how is it done?

Only by not downloading and installing any stage 13-15 CAMeLots...

How to promote more variety of buildings on lots? I've added a large number of building lots but see the same ones popping up all over, especially in midrange CS lots. Is this something to do with the same building being in several packs, and therefore being selected too many times?

The best way to increase variety is to download and install more custom lots of the same growth stage.
Zoning several different sizes of lots might also help.

And how do you get rid of all the palm trees lining streets and avenues? Is there a patch on here somewhere, or do you have to mod the files in the lot editor?

Swamper77's No Palms Mod