Actually, I think that answers my question really well... sounds like you might very well have neighborhoods with missing or corrupt catalog descriptions caused by the processes that you went through. Do you have a link to the empty lots from Jordi at MATY? It might be helpful to take a look at them...

Ok, here it is: http://www.moreawesomethanyou.com/s....html#msg300725

Ok, first off: The test with WinXP (SP2 etc.) and the current official SimPE (didn't update to the QA as SimPE was already installed in XP) was successful! LE started and expanded the lot perfectly.
BTW, as it reads the catalog description most lots in the Maxis neigborhoods are listed with their original English names instead of using the Maxis language adjustments - so it's impossible to find the right lot without renaiming it first. Maybe you'd like to add this hint to your tutorial for players who don't run TS2 in English (if you already did I oversaw it *doh!*).

Tested LE 1292 and unfortunately I still cannot say if a neigborhood or subneigborhood is causing the problem - here's the error report:
The last paragraph just explains that JIT debuging isn't activated and if enabled all toubles are reported, included the problems that aren't included in this report... worth a try?
Can it maybe nevertheless be caused by Vista?
And I fiddeled around in the G1- folder to avoid rebuilding the houses after adding the Maxis caracters again (deleteallcharacters and copied the backup character- file). So it caused some troubles which could be solved by move out and in again. Don't know if this still affects my G1 because for some reason I could never, right from the start, enter the lot of the couple with the plantsim- wife, even after move out the lot couldn't be loaded. Might this be the problem?

Actually this should be clear and not required to mention: It doesn't matter to me that my lot is expanded and "my problem" is solved (start XP and expand lots there ). I keep on helping you to try and find the error which causes these troubles as this might help you - and other users of LE. Clear, isn't it?

If you happen to have a C# debugger which supports just-in-time debugging installed on your Vista machine, it certainly wouldn't hurt to turn on JIT debugging.
Yes, it would appear that there are at least two problems - one of them could easily be some sort of incompatibility with Vista. I don't have Vista and have been avoiding it like the plague, so I'm not sure whether I'll be able to solve this problem.

Okay, this is probably a really stupid idea, but is there any way I can get this to install on my Mac. I know that there's a program that allows for .exe programs to be installed on Mac OS X, but I'm not sure about the .NET part of it. I'd *love* to be able to build terraced houses.

It's true that some people have reported problems with shrunken lots. Also true: people have reported the lots are fine and not causing problems.

If you are interested in shrunken lots, I suggest you read this thread: http://www.modthesims2.com/member/s...5#startcomments At one point test lots were posted within the thread. They may or may not still be in there. If you find any, You can help test them .

On this page at post number 1384 you'll find 'little beach lots' that you can try out: http://www.modthesims2.com/member/s...440#post1839440 At MATY there is some discussion of these little beach lots here: http://www.moreawesomethanyou.com/s...ic,10456.0.html

PLEASE remember that these lots are suspected of causing problems: MAKE A BACK UP OF YOUR GAME FOLDER before installing and using any!

Newer EPs allow you to change the lot address within the game. You can also use SimPE to make this kind of change.

Is it possible that you could get back 1.2.7.8, the one that you can SHRINK lots with?

The shrinking feature is not yet complete and may cause game crashes and neighborhood corruption.

Ok, then. Do you have any idea when a newer version might be out?

The current LotExpander was updated for Bon Voyage and seems to work for Teen Style Stuff. Until there's a new EP (or incompatible SP), I doubt that there will be a new version.

If you are asking about the unreleased shrinking feature, which may cause game crashes and neighborhood corruption... I have no current plans to release this feature.

If you are interested in the research on shrinking lots, check out the research thread: http://www.modthesims2.com/showthread.php?t=250693


Other known problems:

- Problems running with Vista - I don't have Vista so I'm having problems tracking this down. The LotExpander seems to crash when the SimPE DLLs are loaded and used for the first time.

- Problems running on a MAC - I don't have a MAC, but I believe that the problem is with the .NET runtime, so there's nothing much that I can do.

Just a progress report: found a trial- debug program and "just" have to get it working (a bit difficult to activate everything but I fiddle around ) so you should get the report ASAP.

Okay, I would love to get this to work, but everything I've tried just gives me this and LE doesn't load up.

I'm running Win XP SP2

The newest version of PE which I think is 0.64 or something like that. (do I need an older version perhaps?)

I have Sims NL, OFB, Seasons, Pets, and BV, no stuff packs.



Is there a process to fix this? I'm not very techy, but I can generally follow instructions.

-Chris

This looks like a similar problem to the one reported by motherspet on 12th Jan 2008. Have you tried downloading version 1.2.9.2, which fixed her problem by skipping neighborhoods with bad catalog descriptions? It's available here:

http://www.modthesims2.com/showthre...355#post1887355

Please let me know whether this resolves your problem.

Help!!!
I downloaded LotExpander 1.2.9 and installed it on my system. I am running Vista Ultimate x64 with TS2 and all expansion packs and stuff packs up to Bon Voyage. When I ran LotExpander and press the Start button to begin, I get the following message:

Unhandled exception has occurred in your application. If you click Continue, the application will ignore this error and attempt to continue. If you click Quit, the application will close immediately.

Could not load file or assembly 'simpe.package. Version=1.0.2676.19318, Culture=neutral, PublicKey Token=null' or one of its dependencies. An attempt was made to load a program with an incorrect format.


Clicking on the Details button provides the following information:

See the end of this message for details on invoking
just-in-time (JIT) debugging instead of this dialog box.

************** Exception Text **************
System.BadImageFormatException: Could not load file or assembly 'simpe.package, Version=1.0.2676.19318, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=null' or one of its dependencies. An attempt was made to load a program with an incorrect format.
File name: 'simpe.package, Version=1.0.2676.19318, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=null'
at LotExpander.LotExpander.NeighborhoodScreen()
at LotExpander.LotExpander.NextButton_Click(Object sender, EventArgs e) in G:\Source\LotExpander\Source\LE129\129\LotExpander.cs:line 117
at System.Windows.Forms.Control.OnClick(EventArgs e)
at System.Windows.Forms.Button.OnMouseUp(MouseEventArgs mevent)
at System.Windows.Forms.Control.WmMouseUp(Message& m, MouseButtons button, Int32 clicks)
at System.Windows.Forms.Control.WndProc(Message& m)
at System.Windows.Forms.ButtonBase.WndProc(Message& m)
at System.Windows.Forms.Button.WndProc(Message& m)
at System.Windows.Forms.Control.ControlNativeWindow.WndProc(Message& m)
at System.Windows.Forms.NativeWindow.Callback(IntPtr hWnd, Int32 msg, IntPtr wparam, IntPtr lparam)

WRN: Assembly binding logging is turned OFF.
To enable assembly bind failure logging, set the registry value [HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Fusion!EnableLog] (DWORD) to 1.
Note: There is some performance penalty associated with assembly bind failure logging.
To turn this feature off, remove the registry value [HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Fusion!EnableLog].



************** Loaded Assemblies **************
mscorlib
Assembly Version: 2.0.0.0
Win32 Version: 2.0.50727.1434 (REDBITS.050727-1400)
CodeBase: file:///C:/Windows/Microsoft.NET/Framework64/v2.0.50727/mscorlib.dll
----------------------------------------
LotExpander
Assembly Version: 1.2.9.0
Win32 Version: 1.2.9.0
CodeBase: file:///C:/TS2ModdingTools/LotExpander/LotExpander.exe
----------------------------------------
System.Windows.Forms
Assembly Version: 2.0.0.0
Win32 Version: 2.0.50727.1434 (REDBITS.050727-1400)
CodeBase: file:///C:/Windows/assembly/GAC_MSIL/System.Windows.Forms/2.0.0.0__b77a5c561934e089/System.Windows.Forms.dll
----------------------------------------
System
Assembly Version: 2.0.0.0
Win32 Version: 2.0.50727.1434 (REDBITS.050727-1400)
CodeBase: file:///C:/Windows/assembly/GAC_MSIL/System/2.0.0.0__b77a5c561934e089/System.dll
----------------------------------------
System.Drawing
Assembly Version: 2.0.0.0
Win32 Version: 2.0.50727.1434 (REDBITS.050727-1400)
CodeBase: file:///C:/Windows/assembly/GAC_MSIL/System.Drawing/2.0.0.0__b03f5f7f11d50a3a/System.Drawing.dll
----------------------------------------
System.Configuration
Assembly Version: 2.0.0.0
Win32 Version: 2.0.50727.1434 (REDBITS.050727-1400)
CodeBase: file:///C:/Windows/assembly/GAC_MSIL/System.Configuration/2.0.0.0__b03f5f7f11d50a3a/System.Configuration.dll
----------------------------------------
System.Xml
Assembly Version: 2.0.0.0
Win32 Version: 2.0.50727.1434 (REDBITS.050727-1400)
CodeBase: file:///C:/Windows/assembly/GAC_MSIL/System.Xml/2.0.0.0__b77a5c561934e089/System.Xml.dll
----------------------------------------

************** JIT Debugging **************
To enable just-in-time (JIT) debugging, the .config file for this
application or computer (machine.config) must have the
jitDebugging value set in the system.windows.forms section.
The application must also be compiled with debugging
enabled.

For example:

<configuration>
<system.windows.forms jitDebugging="true" />
</configuration>

When JIT debugging is enabled, any unhandled exception
will be sent to the JIT debugger registered on the computer
rather than be handled by this dialog box.

I then followed the threads here an downloaded and installed LotExpander 1.2.9.2 and still received the same message with only the version number of LotExpander changed.

Am I doing something wrong?

I could kiss you. Works like a charm! Thanks!

This problem has been reported serveral times now. As far as I can tell, the LotExpander has problems running on Vista, especially Vista 64. At this time, I have no fix for this problem. I've updated the original post to reflect this.

I have Windows XP, all EP's and all SP's and the language is dutch

Please try downloading version 1.2.9.2, which skips over neighborhoods with missing or corrupt catalog descriptions:

http://www.modthesims2.com/showthre...355#post1887355

Other people with problems similar to yours have reported that this resolved their problems running the LotExpander, so I am hopeful that it will solve your problems as well. Please let me know what happens.

This change will be incorporated into the new version for Free Time.

Oh, thank you! Thank you, thank you, thank you! {kisses} I am a huge fan of Galilea's lots (from TSR), but they don't leave a lot of room for growing. It is going to be such a huge help to be able to make them bigger! Ooo! And I have a couple of other ones, too! {dances for joy}

Any idea on when an update will be made for Free Time? Cheers. LTC

Well, first I have to get Free Time. That happens when the EA company store finally bothers to get some in... usually a week or two after the general release.

Then I need to do some testing to determine what kind of problems are occuring. Finally, I need to find solutions to the problems. Finding and fixing the problems for Pets only took a week or so, but Seasons was more difficult and took about a month.

So, my best guess is another month, give or take. Sorry that it takes so long.

Anyway I can manually do it via SimPE? LOL

I don't believe that you can. If I remember correctly, SimPE doesn't allow you to add or delete fields. You'd need a more powerful hex editor.

Update: New Free Time version 1.2.10 now available. Luckily, there were very few changes required.