Why Are Beach Lots So Damn Difficult?

[SlickCee]

  You spend all this time downloading all these wonderful beach lots only to go into the game and they refuse to be placed anywhere. You test hundreds of terrains that specifically state "BEACH LOTS!!!!!11111" and yet the only one that they agree with is freaking Maxis made Moon Islands. The empty beach lot templates place fine otherwise, but the ones with stuff actually built on it refuse to turn from that red square.
 
  Why is this? And is there any way I can fix this with that edit neighborhood cheat?

[J. M. Pescado]

The reason beach lots are nearly impossible to download and use is because most beaches, by their very nature, violate the #1 commandment of lot-making: FLAT EDGES. Therefore, most beach lots are intrinsically warped and can only be placed on terrain that matches their original placement.

[Mootilda]

Empty beach lots will place without any problem because they have no predefined slope.  Instead, the game sets the slope of the lot to match the neighborhood terrain.

The problem with downloaded lots is that the slope of your lot is too out-of-whack with the slope of your neighborhood.  If you know whether you have too much slope or too little, you might be able to use the neighborhood terrain editing tools to modify the neighborhood terrain.  Once the terrains are similar enough, you should be able to place the lot in the neighborhood, but you may still experience crashing problems when entering the lot.  This crashing problem can be resolved by using the LotAdjuster to adjust the lot edges so that they match the neighborhood terrain before entering the lot.  Once the edges match exactly, you should have no further problem *in that location*.

If you were comfortable using SimPE, you could add the lot to the neighborhood using SimPE, set the appropriate x, y, and z coordinates, then use the LotAdjuster to match the edges of the lot to the location that you've chosen.  However, this is definitely an advanced technique.

[SlickCee]

 So..., the general consensus is just to build your own   
 I want to try your suggestion Mootilda but my game isn't the most reliable(especially when it comes to my neighborhoods). The SimPe version sounds more appealing actually, I practically lived in that program a couple of months ago. Eh. Maybe once I get the patience I'll take a go at it.
Thanks for your responses!

[Mootilda]

I have an article which will walk you through adding a lot to a neighborhood using SimPE:
http://www.modthesims.info/showthread.php?t=275135

Note that the article is for Castaway Stories, so the information about lot rotation and roads isn't correct for TS2.  I have information on TS2 lot rotation, orientation, and roads here:
http://www.modthesims.info/showpost.php?p=1778075&postcount=12

If you are working with lots in the lot bin, then you'll also need this:
http://www.simswiki.info/wiki.php?title=LOT

Here's a post about using the LotAdjuster to resolve discrepancies between lot and neighborhood terrain:
http://www.modthesims.info/download.php?p=3169826#post3169826