You mean other than checking the "Model" tab in the GMDC in SimPE? I don't think so. That's the fastest method I know of for just checking (and one I also frequently forget exist).

There's ingame in live, Bodyshop (but you can only check the fat morph), extracting the mesh and checking in Milkshape... but all of those are a lot slower, and are more useful if you want to check if a morph actually works or not.

Yeah, I thought that would be the case. Ah well. Now I just need to figure out what to do with this mesh that somehow has a body AND a bottom group!

It could be it's a full-body mesh put together from two separate groups, and the one making it just didn't combine the groups into one or rename them (likely a shoe swap). Maybe check the mesh preview (and the recolors if possible) so you don't delete something you shouldn't.

For the second group in a clothing mesh, the group name doesn't really matter - it could be called "bottom" or "shoes" or "noblend" or "locomotive" for all the file cares, as long as the names match. If it's already called "Bottom" in the PropertySet, it's much easier to keep that name than to change it purely for the sake of esthetics. As long as you don't have two groups called "Bottom" it's fine, and as long as they're linked to the proper shader (SimStandardMaterial for anything not linked to the skin).

(I'm not entirely sure if the bottom, top and body groups have to be named like that to work properly (they do need to be linked to SimSkin), but for the sake of keeping things in order it's probably a good idea to have them named as such so you keep track of what's what.)

It's a bottom mesh. It just... has a fullbody mesh there too. So I had a look at a recolour and it only mentioned the bottom and there were no overrides for more groups, so I just deleted the body mesh. I'll have to wait and see if I actually broke anything.

Anyway, another question! Actually a couple that are bothering me. First, does it matter if a morph is named ~00MORPHMOD.0 instead of ~00MORPHMOD.1? Usually when I look at the Model tab, there's an empty 0, presumably the normal mesh, then 1 for the fatmorph (and 2 for the pregmorph, if it exists) but sometimes 0 is the fatmorph. I've been renaming them because I like consistency and it annoys me, but I don't know if it's an actual problem.
Second, when I checked the comments on a couple of meshes, I saw the line NoMorphNorms, which I have never before seen in my life. Any idea what it means?

^ I don't make enough clothing morphs to be sure of this, but I think the numbers have something to do with the type of morph and/or the layers in the mesh (not sure which of the numbers, though - I always have to look it up).

I haven't seen "NoMorphNorms" either. It's mentioned here, so maybe it's got something to do with EA top seams: https://forums.modthesims.info/download.php?t=356866

Weird about the body mesh, though. Maybe they used it while modifying the mesh and forgot to remove it? Was it just a body mesh with nothing going on?

Thanks! I was having one of those brain fart moments where I forgot that when looking for the obvious thing, you should look in the obvious place.

Anyway, I'm really nervous about uploading a lot. Idk why, and I'm probably overthinking it, but for those who do upload lots, what's your process? How to you go about gathering your cc? What's your approach to picture taking and making a custom thumbnail for the download? I guess the cc part is making me nervous the most; it's been a pita trying to look at the Clean Installer and figure out the exact recolors I need and don't need. I'm wondering if there's a better way to tell what's in use.

And for downloaders, is there any detail you appreciate seeing when looking for lots to download? Do you prefer if alarms and phones are already placed? Lightning?

Phantomknight, I generally won't download a lot with custom content. I have a lot of custom content in my game already, so I never am quite sure if I have that item or not, if I need to go add it to my game, and do I really want to bother to figure that out? No, no I don't. I just want to play, and if I'm downloading a lot instead of building my own it's because I want to play NOW, not go track things down.

I don't particularly care about what's in the lot otherwise, so long as it's clear what's there. And if it's a 20k or under starter lot, and it's too close to 20k to buy things needed for standard game play (alarms, phones, lights, fridge, bed, etc) then those things need to be in it, or it isn't really a starter lot. If it's 10k, fine, you know, plenty left over to buy needed things. If it's 19,999k, then my sim needs to be able to live there without dying before getting that first paycheck, you know?

Frr those of ya who use defaults ... how in the world do ya remember which items you've defaulted so ya don't put in two for same item? I do try and take pics of items (it's mostly hair from hair default page) ... but that doesn't always work :/ ... especially if you do them far apart (months/ years...)

@CaliBrat I put defaults in downloads/defaults/originalnameofitem

Which won't help until you get to reordering all your custom content, but it works pretty well, though you may have to abbreviate the original name and shorten the default's name if it's too long.

I don't mean knowin that it IS a default ... more to know WHICH hair it takes the place of. I do mark it as a default (if I don't forget...lol, but I am gettin better at that at least),

This is more what I'm talkin 'bout.... say you're surfin and you find a really cute default so you download it. Then say days, weeks, months later when you're again surfin 'round you find another cute download so of course you get it. You don't realize until later (if you do realize at all...lol) that you're new download happens to be an item that you've previously defaulted with somethin else.

Visual example of my blondness :P
I got both of these defaults.. can't even say that I remember how long between them I got them ... lol
They both replace the afhairshortcute ... I like both, but bein their both defaults obviously I can't have them both.
https://antkasdefaults.tumblr.com/search/peggy
https://zundie-sims.tumblr.com/tagged/sims-2-download (left side almost nearly to the bottom)

That's why I put them in by the original name of the thing I'm replacing. So say I'm replacing afbodytracksuit. The default gets installed to downloads/defaultclothes/afbodytracksuit as the folder it goes in. So if I'm going to install a different default for that, when I open the folder to install it, it's obvious I have something defaulting that already. The actual name of the file might be anything. I might have to go to the default database and look up which outfit afbodytracksuit is, especially if I'm in my medieval downloads, you know, but I know I have some default for something there already.

Everything else is installed and subfoldered by creator name, except defaults.

This is really smart. I should definitely do this with my defaults.

I have a question - about divorce in the Sims, and deciding which couples are going to make it.

I found it easy when Mary Sue caught Daniel cheating - she was NOT going to put up with that (plus she was much happier when she realized she preferred women).

And Lucy's first husband wanted a calm wife who was a dedicated mom, but she just wanted to party, so obviously their relationship ended.

But what about the bland marriages. Matthew and Jessica Picaso are married. It's fine. She never found out about his affair with Lilith, and that ended a long time ago now. Should they divorce or just stay in their banal marriage?

I'm not specifically looking for advice on this couple (there's another thread for that). I am curious how others decide to end relationships, particularly when there's no reason to end the relationship. Or are all your sims married for life?

I probably make things a lot more complicated than they need to be But, it's how I work...
I build and test in a parred down 'build-CC only' game.
After testing. I package the never-before-set-foot-in lot (that I've saved in my lot-bin, refreshing as I test/fix)
Then I install the lot on my Win10/UC machine - which has clean hoods and absolutely no sims.
When I load the lot - I can immediately see what CC I've forgotten - and there's always something! *sigh*
Then, I add that particular CC, load the game again, and create the final package from there.
It is a completely clean package. (No chance of the SDHugBug ever!)

Some recolors are really tricky to identify. The only way to figure some of them out (that I've found) - is to turn testingCheats on, hover over the recolor, and write down it's long gobbledy-gook number, then look it up later in SimPE. Total PITA!

As for pictures - stay within the guidelines... Be sure to turn the lights on (use Moo's tool), click 'save' so the gridlines go away, get as close as you can, keep your pictures in order so they show the build in a ordered fashion. I usually crop my pictures to be 1000/1200px X 600/800px or else they are too big for the allotted size limit (800kb) And, I also like to show multiple views of the same room in a collage (of 2 or 3 pictures.) Do NOT collage the required pictures though. (Be forewarned, some people really hate collaged pictures!) But, I think 3 individual shots of the same room would be really boring, and sometimes 1 shot just doesn't quite show everything.

I am an artist - I put a lot of work into my uploads - but, really, I don't think anybody else cares. I do it because it is what I enjoy doing. Other people put a lot less work into their uploads, and have a lot more traffic/downloaders. So, I highly recommend finding out their processes and doing what they do, not what I do. LOL! . The important thing is to have fun. Enjoy being creative, and enjoy sharing your creations. Don't let it stress you out

All my Sims' marriages are based on the "chemistry/attraction" between the Sims.
(1) I require a 3-bolt chemistry attraction relationship between Sims to get married. If something happens so that the 3-bolt relationship drops (e.g. a Turn-Off is met by a skill level increasing, a fitness change, a job promotion, etc), then that will require the two to split-up.
(2) If the relationship is iffy - for instance if one has a turn off for underwear and after they woohoo and are in undies which causes the relationship to drop below 3-bolts - then I figure the relationship isn't "solid". So even though they may have that 3-bolt relationship much of the time if either of them find another 3-bolt partner, then they will eventually split up in order for that one to go after their new-found 3-bolt person.
(3) Sometimes when there are multiple 3-bolt attractions, I use the "Information.../My Chemistry With..." option on Cyjon's Debugger and compare the values between the multiple suitors to choose which potential partnership should be pursued- the winner being the one with the higher chemistry value.

Even if you don't require 3-bolt relationships, for those bland marriages you could still use Cyjon's Debugger to determine if there is one or more better chemistry relationships that might cause them to divorce in order to seek "greener pastures".

If a marriage is bland enough to bore me, I do something to stir it up. Date them; take them individually to community lots to see what new wants/friendships/whatever arise; send them on vacation or start a business together. Observe their wants and autonomous actions and see if they lead anywhere.

I very seldom break married couples up because...I'm just not like that. I think Drama Acres Trent/Trisha is still my only divorce (outside of playtesting Widespot, where breaking up Sandy and Hamilton is an obvious storyline to try out; and it didn't make it into my permanent play for that neighborhood), because Trisha made if very clear she wanted out, seeking out an affair with Julien Cooke on her own, and Trent simply would not do anything to improve things. If Strangetown Nathan Gavigan ever catches Mary with Gunnar he will realize who her mysteriously brown-eyed daughter reminds him of and throw her and the kid out, but Nathan is really unobservant (hence the problem in the marriage) and Mary has proved to be pretty slick about covering up. I'm not opposed to divorces in theory, but in practice the forces holding people together tend to be ever so slightly stronger than those pulling them apart. Even when Mary Sue caught Daniel with Kaylynn in Retropleasantspot, she rolled fears of divorce - obviously she's taking the tried and true and really pernicious attitude that it's more important to avoid scandal than to have a happy marriage. However, she then set about systematically befriending Kaylynn, which I find fascinating and think has lots of potential.

The thing is - a marriage only has to make sense to the people inside it. It doesn't have to be passionate, or even openly affectionate, to be comfortable and satisfactory for both parties. Not everybody is ardent. Not everybody wants more than a base level of friendship and mutual support in their marriage. Sometimes it's enough for Golde and Tevye to hold hands and say: "I suppose I love you, too."

Unmarried couples are another matter. Matthew Hart took Sarah Love for granted, acting possessive if anyone else showed an interest in her, but never rolling wants for her or initiating contact even after I made him initiate a date or two in college. I let Dora Ottomas date him and he seemed more interested in her than in Sarah! Sarah kept rolling generic marriage and baby wants and gave every appearance of defaulting to Matthew while being hurt and frustrated that he wasn't more proactive. So I let her Try for Baby with one of Jessie's boyfriends when they all went on vacation to Burning Robot together, and when triple-bolter Clarence Phillipine came along and, as a townie, swept her off her feet, I let her get engaged. Catching her with Clarence started Matthew rolling wants for her, but hey, he snoozed, he losed. Let's see how he finds his way through his own life (currently alien pregnant and working as the Beakers' live-in nanny/potential simvaccee).

Jessie, meanwhile, almost married Theodore Townsend, the streaker, who was living with them and was the one Sarah tried for baby with while they all had anti-jealousy potions on, but I forgot to set Jessie's potion to static, it decayed, and he flirted with Sarah in front of her, causing her to break up with him. Due to the housing shortage in Strangetown he and Sarah stayed for awhile, for a full day after Sarah and Clarence got married, giving me a chance to observe behavior and judge what they really wanted, and while Jessie was the injured party and even more furious with him than he was with her, he was consistently aggressive while she mostly refused to poke him back, so I turned him back into a townie. A stable threesome would've been interesting but it wasn't up to me. The flirt barely ruffled the surface of Jessie and Sarah's friendship, which honestly has survived worse, and she and Clarence and their twins are still sharing her trailer.

I decide marriages and divorces on their wants, their personalities, and what it means for the story going on in my head. I'll give some recent examples.

Sharla Ottomas married Aldric Davis. They seemed happy enough together, but she was rolling wants to get a job in Law Enforcement or Law, so I figured that she really valued the law and the social order. But Aldric rolled wants to see the ghost of someone, turn someone into a werewolf, etc, so clearly he didn't care about the law and wanted to do his own thing. In my story, he wanted to become a cult leader, and he had already committed murder. So they were fundamentally incompatible, and she divorced him.

Tina Traveller decided to marry Telegonus Beaker to get away from her vampire mother and because she had a desire to marry a rich Sim, not because she truly loved him. Still, they were pretty into each other, even though Tina was cheating behind his back. I decided to divorce them because she was on a date with William Williamson and he rolled a want to marry her. So he asked her to leave her partner (a mod), and she agreed. This told me that William was the one she really loved.

I also have a confess to cheating mod. If someone is rolling a lot of romantic wants for someone other than their spouse, I may have them confess to cheating and see what their spouse's reaction is. Sometimes they seem forgiving and they can work it out; sometimes they are furious and there's fighting for days until one of them moves out. When Circe told Loki she was having an affair with Gen. Buzz, Loki slapped her--to me, that was definitely grounds for divorce, and it helped my story because Loki had to go into hiding after that.

Ajay and Erin Loner stayed together until they died naturally (on the same day), even though their marriage was never exciting and she started cheating on him with younger men as an elder (in my story, she had dementia and was confusing the young men with people she knew when she was younger). He was upset and cried a lot, but he wouldn't even consider leaving her, because it didn't fit his personality.

So the main variable for me is: does staying together or divorcing make more sense for the story and for the Sims involved? What are the wants they are rolling telling me about how they feel about their marriage?

@Sunbee and @CatherineTCJD thank you! I appreciate the advice. I forgot to think about pricing before, Sunbee, so I really appreciate that tip--for my starter homes it was easier to remember to include the basics. But now that I'm working on my mid-range homes, I forgot that, even though a $50,000-60,000 house should include the basics as well. So I'll try to remember that when staging. And CatherineTCJD, I really appreciate all the work your put into your upload presentations, and that's one of the reasons why I was thinking about it. Even if I don't end up downloading, I love to look through your lots, see how you planned out everything, and visualize how my sims could potentially make use of the space. I also love that you link to the real world inspiration! And when I do download, I appreciate the title card and the house spec pictures--I've gotten pretty adamant about including previews in my download folder, so it's nice to have such good options. I don't mind the collage pictures either; as you say, sometimes it's hard to show off all the corners of a room. But then, I value the layout pictures the most, and that's what I look at when downloading, so maybe that has to do with it.

And @Sunbee, that's a great idea for organizing defaults! I started doing something similar with recolors, because I kept downloading recolors for the same things and you're right about it being easier to see what you've already downloaded. The only thing I can add, CaliBrat, is that with the preview pictures, I have made it a habit to also include a visual of what I'm replacing. The default database makes this easier now, too; I'll go to the database, take a screenshot, then use Paint to crop, copy, and paste the picture of the Maxis item onto the picture of the default. Oh, and if you didn't know, if you have Windows, for your preview pictures, make it a .jpg that's named Folder. That'll make sure it shows up properly, as a large clear picture, in the preview. Sometimes Windows Explorer will recognize there's a picture in the folder, but it won't always show up as the preview unless it's a jpg named Folder. The best way to explain this is with a picture, so see attached. (This is true in Windows 7, btw. Not sure if they changed it in 10.)

Finally, Coriel_Muroz, I'm more in line with Peni and Sturlington, especially since most of my married couples have at least 2 bolts already. I generally don't marry sims that have low chemistry outside of challenge hoods, or only allow it in arranged married situations. It does happen a bit with the premades, too, and perhaps this is why I tend to break them up. Hmm... Anyway, for me it's about sims' wants and the stories I'm telling, and whether I want those stories to involve their spouses or not. If each spouse's story branches off in different directions, or if they can only really get what they want by being "free" of the other, then it makes sense to break them up. But if a sim's story can be told within the marriage, or if I feel the sim values stability and appearances, then I might keep them together. For example, my Burbs broke up after John started an affair with Kaylynn. As a Family sim, John was torn about it, but eventually he decided to leave Jennifer because not only did he want more kids, but also because he and Kaylynn, sharing the same aspiration, shared similar values and had a similar plan for the future. That relationship didn't end up working out either, but for John, it made sense for him to try and achieve that old-school family dream, and he's in the Riverblossom suburb right now, still trying to achieve it. Jennifer, on the other hand, didn't want more kids and felt it was time to focus on her career and make more money. I see her as wanting to obtain the status and position of her old family, the Pleasants. So it made sense to split those two up. In my Veronaville, however, I started playing Goneril and Albany Capp. The pair have little chemistry without a turn on adjustment, and since I prioritized their careers over their relationship, the two stayed a bit estranged for the first week I played them. Then, during a birthday party--Ariel's, I believe--Goneril went for Oberon and flirted with him. Now, I haven't played Oberon yet, so I don't know how he's feeling--if he's upset that Titania won't settle down, or if the pair have more of an open marriage, etc. But for Goneril, as a Capp, there's no way she would risk the stability of her family or the potential embarrassment of a divorce. She'll do whatever she can to keep the affair a secret and stay married.

So yeah, long story short, divorce would depend on the story I want to tell with the sim and what the sim and I want to do next.

Thanks for the responses about divorces HobbesED, Peni Griffin, sturlington and Phantomknight.

I like the idea of considering a change in lightning bolts as a marker of a change in the relationship. I allow couples to marry with lower attraction if that's what they want - I just had a couple get married with 0 bolts - but maybe it's cause she's really into him, and he had just been abandoned at the alter so was prepared to marry anyone who would take him.
But if the attraction level changes, then the relationship probably will as a result as well.

And really examining your sims to consider what they might want is probably also an important factor - I've probably done Jessica Picaso a disservice, treating her like a wife and mother, but not really examining what she wants. A family sim, her fears are always about Matthew dying, but I've never seen her worried about them divorcing. Don't know whether that means she would or wouldn't, but I think I need to get to know her better.

I've got a few mods that are going to make a difference - I just downloaded the Confess Affair mod, very excited to see what happens when Lucy tells her wife Beth that she had an affair with Phil (too bad she can't also say that she had his baby, which she's planning to ditch if Beth doesn't divorce her). I also have the autonomous Ask to Leave Partner (Phil has asked Lucy to leave Beth, but never when Beth was on the same lot, so we'll see what happens).

The struggle is with the couples who are together and it's fine - nothing spectacular (3-bolt couples who are always all over each other are obviously not planning a divorce) or terrible (affairs and deteriorating relationships will likely lead to change).

Take Morganna and Ian. Morganna is the eldest daughter of Mortimer and Dina, and as a Goth is obviously not interested in scandal. She married Ian because getting married after university seemed like the thing she should do, and Ian is hot and smart and from a good family (He's a Burb).
Ian married Morganna because his parents wanted to see him get married and have children before they died, and his dogs liked her well enough. It would never occur to him to divorce her - He's actually a bit of a himbo. I know I said he was smart, and he is, but only book smart. Like he has a lot of knowledge, but doesn't necessarily realize how it's connected to the real world.
But Morganna - she wants to focus on her business, and raising 3 boys (who were all toddlers during the last rotation) and 2 dogs is just SO MUCH WORK. She tried to get Ian to give away the dogs, but Lucy wouldn't take them (as mentioned above, she's going through her own family drama). Morganna just isn't happy. But how would a divorce look? And does she care? Maybe I'll implement a dice roll to see if she passes a threshold for wanting to leave enough to actually do it...

Your thoughts, as always, would be very helpful for implementing some kind of rule of this sort.

Yep! Seen a few weird inconsistencies with all this morph checking, but that was definitely the strangest.

Thanks Peni and Jo! Yeah, searching for scalp instead of skull would never have occured to me. And I agree, sometimes they're much too large for the hairs.

I downloaded some default clothes that turned out to be dresses that were categorized as shirts. My question is why would anyone want this? I'm genuinely curious as I can't figure out how not to put bottoms with them. I should say these are for children, I used to have some adult CC that was like this but it had a bottom to go with it that was stockings.

Clashfan, those are probably meant to be paired with bottoms with different shoes (bottomless tops and bottoms with various shoes/tights/pants, or pantless). They work for different categories as long as both parts are set up properly.

Using them as default clothes is probably not the best idea, though. Those can cause a lot of weird combos, especially since they tend to not work with a lot of bottoms. Maybe switch them out for something else instead? I guess someone could find a use for it, but honestly those clothes work a whole lot better as custom clothes, so they don't wreck havoc on townies...

Default replacements work best if they're the kind that doesn't cause any trouble, and looks okay even if you give a townie free reins to the closet and hairdresser.

@simmer22 Ok that makes sense to me. These are 4 pieces in a much larger default set so I didn't realize until someone actually spawned into them. I guess my default search will continue.

The Lamp Of Fire Warding seems to prevent the Sim Kids from going to school and when they query go to school it drops out of their query when it is on the lot. What is causing this? I use the No School Buses mod by Midge The Tree and there is no conflicts with it.

Along the lines of the recent topic of divorce/break-up, I'm wondering is there a way to end an engagement without the Sims having to fight? I've got a pair that got engaged in Uni and it was a bad idea at the time but they both seemed to want it so I went with the flow. Now she's graduated and he's still in school and things are just not going well. She's much more interested in marrying up and is not willing to wait for him to make his fortune. He still loves her but is easily distracted with others. I want to end it but I really want it to just be a mutual thing and not an "I hate you forever" situation.
My game is structured in a way that if a Sim is going to cheat they really have to want to which basically signals to major problems in their relationship. I don't find myself in this situation often, or never really, so I don't know how to end an engagement without them fighting. Any suggestions?