your first page says go to the official Mesh Tool tutorial: start with Page 3 that link does not work. where should I go?

I've fixed the broken link to the MeshTool tutorial.

Anyway, this tutorial has become a little outdated (though is still valid and contains some useful information and FAQs that you can't find elsewhere).
Have you taken a look at the new tutorial (that includes explanation about creating a mesh both with Milkshape and Wings3D)?
Here is the link:
http://www.modthesims2.com/showthread.php?t=59293

Hi!
I want to thank you for creating all of these fantastic tutorials for us newbees in modding sim 2. I am actually a proffessional game artist who have been working on games such as Battlefield 2:Modern combat. But this is my first try at modding the sims2. I got a few meshes working fine in the game, but sometimes I end up with a craching game when i put my own meshes in, they look fine and everything is right until I pick up my bject ant try to place it on a floor in the game. Then the game crashes. I am using Alias Maya to create meshes, and photoshop for textures. Could Maya be the problem? Sometimes when I import my mesh SimPE says that there are too many vertices in the mesh, but it is only 300 vertices! Altough in SimPE it says that there are 2000! I have read many many threads to see if anyone else has the same problems, but I seem to be the only one.

Once again thank you all you good people!

I use Maya and it works fine.
The only problem is: when you export an object from SimPE and change it in Maya even if it is only the size, SimPE think there is more vertex beeing add. If you do this one moore time it adds more verts. In Maya you still have only the original ones. The best thing is to save everything in maya files and work from them. I hope it helpes.

I can think of two possibilities. I've read, in posts at this site, that at some point between exporting an object from a 3d program and getting it into the game via SimPE, the faces or the polygons become detached, which (if you think about it) would result in a vertex count being multiplied. You'll need to do a search on this site to investigate this phenomena if you think that might be what it is. However, that wouldn't result in the increased poly count that can affect game perfomance (if I understand it correctly it's the poly's that matter).

The other possibility is that you have hidden (or isolated) vertices in your mesh. If you're an experienced mesher then you'll know about this. The most common way to have hidden and extraneous vertices is if you have imported a shadow (groundshadow etc.) from SimPE into your 3d program withough removing the isolated vertices. The shadows in the sims seem to usually have the object attached them where the object's polygons have been deleted but the vertices remain (I think this is a mechanism for making more accurate texture mapping of the shadow).

I get an error message every time I import a mesh into SimPE but it's usually just a warning about something it's not sure of in the format of the object file and doesn't cause problems. The line of warning you get about vertex or poly counts being too high in the groups tab in the plugin (after the model name), I'm not sure whether that's there as a guide or it really means you'll have problems.

Find out if your vertices are becoming unwelded. Good luck.

For the game to actually crash, there must be something more serious going on. Even if you don't get a new guid it shouldn't crash (that usually just means your object will temporarily overwrite the Maxis one you cloned).

Hi! Sorry for not answering you but I had hoped to have a happier thing to say. Ive tried hard to figure out whats wrong, but no answer yet. It seamed as Samekh was right about the extra vertices appering when I import-export the meshes in SimPE so that solved half the problem. But even after that, my game still crashes everytime I try to place my mesh in the game...I guess I have to give it up. Well at least I got some things working, so I´ll probably put them in the "download" section after testing it a bit further. (Dont wanna end up crashing other peoples games.)Thank you Samekh and Sofal for trying to help me

bubbis,
don't give up just yet
game crashes are usually caused by mistakes in the resource node,
or by having 'doubles' somewhere in your download folder.
maya shouldn't be the problem, since that's pretty much the program maxis uses
if you want, you can post your package at the Repair Center, and I'll take a look at it

about the vertices,
those multiplying is usually because of uv-mapping
what I do, when they really get out of hand, is reimport into my 3d program (Blender) and remove the doubles,
or, if you're making the object in quads, try triangulating before you import in SimPE and removing doubles SimPE importer automatically turns all quads into triangles, and that could be causing your problem there

Have looked at the new tutorial, but the "page 3" direction remains opaque since the tutorial apparently isn't the same and the link to the old tutorial is dead.

Dead! Dead, I say!

Actually, yes, it's dead. Requiescat in pacem

That's because now SimPE has incorporated the functions of the MeshTool.
Note: the MeshTool still exists, and it is widely used (especially for body meshes), but in order to create objects, the best choice is to do everything using SimPE.

If you are creating an animated object (i.e. an object that uses joints), you can perform the Export/Edit/Import phase by following one of these methods:

The "GMDC" method or
The ".TXT" method

If, on the other hand, you are creating a static object, it's simpler: just export and import the mesh in .obj file format. Using the .obj format lets you use other 3D modeling programs than Milkshape, and take better care of the UVmapping and smoothing using an UVmapping program.

Hey! Could someone please do me the biggest favour and tell me step by step how to make an object. I have read all the tutorials but I dont even know what SimPE is and all of that so please explain to me from the beginning.

rachy,
this one is as step-by-step as they come
read it carefully, it has all the information you need

if you're having trouble, I suggest you start with something simple,
like recolouring an object, making wallpaper or clothes. this will allow you to understand how custom content works in the game
for recolouring objects, go here
or use the wizards of Simpe, that comes with the actual program, a tutorial for the Wizard can be found here SimPE is the program most creators use to make custom objects and recolours. Links to the program site are on most of the tutorial pages I just gave you.

simple to understand, thanx so much, haven't downloaded my creations yet because I don't think they are that good, but maybe soon. Teena

Géniale j'adore c'est vraiment bien même si j'ai rien compris !!!!Je fais comme les bébés je regarde les images !!!!!!!!!!!

Si toi pout comprendre sans savoir l'anglais, le tutorial doit être vraiment bon! :D

(Sorry for my french )

I can't enable option.
The tutorial is for the old simpe, I have tha latest version , 0.58.
Does something change maybe?

Ps: exuse me for my English -.-

Ronja, I've checked again the tutorial, and yes, obviously all the screenshots were taken with an older version of SimPE; but the new version, apart from different colours, is basically the same: you might find some more options, but the options shown in the screenshots are all there...

If you can be a little more specific, and tell me which step, or which picture, you can't understand, I will help you.

Ok, I follow a Tutorial, but, in the game, I see many option colour transparent ^^.
What's happened?

Now , I see the preview , object and recolour ( in the game ) all trasparent.

Ronja, you say you have "many objects and recolours transparent"...
Does it means that you have created (following this tutorial) many objects, and all of them are transparent in game? Or that you can't see other objects, not created by you or not created using this tutorial?
Can you give me an example, and maybe post here one of the objects you have created and look transparent in game?

Maybe , I had any mistake. Now, I see everything ok! Thanks for help, but I have another question.
In the simpe, befor importing mesh , program show me (often , but not always ) an message: Index was out of range: must be non-negative and less than the size of the collection. Parameter: index

OHHHHHHHHHHHH! I hadn't installed the program I didn't see that it said it needed it on the site. Now I can finally mesh.

No it's not!!!!!!!
Where the heck did you get this program?!
This isnt Milkshape,is it?
Well what the heck because all the programs should be somewhere close to easy to use and close to each other,and this is like the 5th link in a row I've clicked to tr to figure out how the hell to make items,and it's a totally different program,you just cant make it easy,can u?

OK, there is a perfectly visible thread called Creation Start-Up Center on the main Object Creation & Texturing forum, and there are Forum Guidelines that say in bold letters PLEASE READ, which you obviously didn't. And, for your information, we're not making object creation hard on purpose. The fact is that it's not easy. So, please, look around and read the threads that say "Please read" or "Please, start here" before you attack us who are trying to help.

can someone plz give me a easy guide to recolouring or making ur own wall hangings (pictures)

thnx in advance

petlesso65, if you look around the tutorial forum, you will find tutorials for three different ways of recoloring paintings. The most obvious method is using SimPE's Photo Studio which is specifically meant for this purpose, but you can also recolor paintings with the Wizards of SimPE or Object Workshop. You will find separate tutorials for all of these.