I've read up on the various troubleshooting methods and tried them out, (re-installing CAW, starting a new world, removing CC .packages, clearing caches, LAA) but to no avail. I'm having the following problems:

1. CAW crashes every time I try to make a 45 x 5 lot. I have tried out many other lot sizes without problems: 5 x 5, 45 x 45, 45 x 6, 45 x 3, 20 x 5, etc. I can make 5 x 45 lots (vertical) but for some unknown reason, CAW hates 45 x5 lots. I get the crash error "Attempted to read or write protected memory. This is often an indication of that other memory is corrupt."

2. EIG uses a huge amount of memory (3.5 to 4 GB) and crashes before the world even loads. Or the world will load but the memory usage will continue to increase until EIG crashes (usually within a minute). This is a new world, it's completely flat and there's only a little bit of road and 9 empty lots. TS3CLA is showing the Max Memory Used error.

I'm running the game on an Windows 7 x64 i7 with 16 GB RAM.

Please help!

EDIT: I have a lot of store content/CC simpacks that I forgot to disable. I removed my DCCache folder and now EIG is working and using much less RAM. However, this means I can't use any CC in EIG (which doesn't really suit my needs). Is there some kind of work around for this?

What patch level and CAW version are you using?

If you think it's custom content causing your problems, you may have to go through and weed out everything that you won't use or that is outdated. CAW reads all your installed content when it loads, even if your objects aren't enabled for use in it.

I'm patched to 1.67. I'm not sure how to find out what version of CAW I'm using. It's whatever was on the official website yesterday.

I'm playing again after a long hiatus, so this is all a fresh new install of everything, including CC. When I normally play, I have no problems with CC or memory usage but when I'm in CAW and running EIG, the memory usage is huge and causes the game to crash. Since removing all my CC makes things run smoothly, I guess that EIG simply can't handle all of the custom content (there's a lot of it).

I'm thinking I should have two sets of DCCache files. One for gameplay and another more selective set that includes only the objects I would use while world building in CAW and EIG. I can swap them out when needed. It's not my preferred arrangement, but I'm not sure what else to do.

I'm still having problems with the 45 x 5 lot crashing CAW. I guess that's not a CC related issue.

That's a strange error to have for CAW - does a 45x5 lot crash CAW regardless of where it's placed, the angle it's at or the point in time that you try to place it? Does it happen on and off the grid? It's not crossing over anything else? I can't think that would crash it, but you can never be too sure what CAW will take exception to.

If nothing else works, you could just use a 5x45 lot and rotate it 90 degrees via its properties tab.

The EIG problem sounds kind of like it's trying to load something and failing, then repeating that until it runs out of memory and crashes. I'd think one or more of your CC downloads got busted by a patch or is just broken in some other way, so I'd be leery of using the CC you have until you're sure everything is compatible.

You may want to try using Process Monitor to identify the CC causing the memory bleed.

http://simswiki.info/wiki.php?title...ackage_File_Lag

CAW seems to only crash when the 45 x 5 lot is completely horizontal. So, if it's aligned to the grid at 0 rotation, it crashes. If I rotate the grid, so that it's some degree diagonal, I can make 45 x 5 lots without problem. Without the grid activated, if I try to make the lot as horizontal as possible, it crashes. It's a stupid and bizarre issue that I may not have ever discovered if I didn't insist on making narrow 45 x 5 alley lots.

Ultimately, I think it's not a particularly significant problem and I will just make the 5 x 45 and rotate them, as you suggested. I just worried that it might be indicative of some other larger CAW issue.




I ran the Process Monitor while playing in live mode for a bit and didn't discover any anomalies. But then again, playing in-game was never the problem.

So, I'm a dolt. It's been so long since I've played/used CAW that I've forgotten many things. It seems that there's a practical limit for store content + CAW EIG. According to the official forums, 2.5 to 3.5 GB store content is the common maximum for EIG to run without crashing. I have more than 3 GB and thought I could EZMode it by just running everything unfiltered. I am beginning to somewhat tedious process of reinstalling only the items I'm using in my world.

Sims 3 Forum Thread discussing store + EIG limits, beginning half way down the page, for the curious.

Also, it was mentioned in that forum thread that building in EIG is a no-no. I'd not heard this before (because, clearly, I'm a dolt. And I am very new to CAW). What's the proper way to build lots then? Build them in game, save to library, and then add them to EIG?

Right now EIG is running fine without any CC. Will report back if my crashing problem is resolved after doing some content testing. Thank you Fentonparkninja and SharaRose for all your help.

About the only problem I experience with EIG is the UI hanging when it goes between live mode/edit town and build/buy, and even so, it's rare enough (for me) not to be a great concern, so long as you save anything you're working on to the bin every so often. The other problem with EIG is saving in it often creates a lot of 'junk' objects (bits of fruit in the corners of your world and blank things way off in the underworld somewhere) on the global layer that increase your loading times when there are a lot of them. It's easily fixable if you have a empty copy of your world's global layer saved somewhere though. The great convenience of using EIG is that your lots are already there in your world, plus you can see what it looks like against the terrain you plan to put it in.

However, I don't work with store content at all - I actually have nothing installed via the launcher bar one custom world and whatever build of my own world that I'm testing at the moment. I only use some NRaas mods for utility, which are less than 8mb all up, so my experiences with EIG may be a lot better than someone with 3gig of store content installed. I'd say go with the advice on that thread you linked, they're speaking from the position of users with a lot of store content installed.

I reduced my content to about 2 GB I'm actually able run CAW and EIG. I can only conclude that the crashing was caused by too much CC installed. I'm ashamed to say that I bought a lot things from the store that I never used. I had too much of a "ooh, it's a bundle, it must be a deal" mentality. And some of the stuff is darn ugly. I think I'm unlikely to use most of the CC in my world-building, but I do like the option. And since I don't have any intention of releasing it (my first world - it's likely to be a disaster) I'm not too worried.

You were right about the junk objects from EIG. There are already almost 100 of them in my test world. Now that I know I'll start afresh more carefully.

Well good luck with it. Worlds are a headache even when everything is working properly!

Hey there I am curious to know how to save a blank global layer in the event that I may have some of these unwanted objects floating around in my world?

I've been using edit in game and this looks like a real concern.
I am also experiencing crashing when trying to place long, skinny lots. I didn't note the exact dimensions but it was probably about size as I was planning to use it to build a wall. I had to scrap that idea.

I also did make a new game file with only the cc I need for my world. This helps things run much better.
When I place a lot with cc in my game in EIG it replaced the store stuff with base game. I figure once the world is exported into my cc game file I will just go in and re-place those lots with the store content intact.
Haven't quite figured out how I am going to share it though. I suppose folks will need to download my lots and place them as needed.

Simsample's instructions are in the tutorials, I believe. If you keep old saves of your game, though, the earliest one may be clean if you hadn't used EIG yet, so you can just grab it to overwrite the current version. First thing I do now on starting a new world is to put a copy of the global layer somewhere safe for future use.