Hola!

Requested after submitting my icon collection so I thought I'd have a looksee if it can be done and thanks to the wonders of SimPE it can! Not too difficult either =)

We will go from this:



to this:



The first thing you need to do is find the actual collection file you want to update. Probably the most difficult bit if you have a lot of collections as they are saved with non-specific names (eg: 0x10de8111.package). Beep! Silly me. Not hard at all with Sims2 Clean Pack Installer!!!

1: Start Sims2 Clean Pack Installer
2: From the drop down menu choose *browse* and go to your collection folder: default location is: C:\Documents and Settings\yourname\My Documents\EA Games\The Sims 2\Collections.
3: CPI will list each collection with the name you gave the collection in game. Clicking on the files will bring up a preview of the icon (blurry given size). Now, if you mouseover the collection file you want - CPI will bring up a tooltip at your mouse pointer which gives the ACTUAL file name (eg: 0x10de8111.package). Write this down so you know what package to open with Simpe. You can have both programs open at the same time so you can refer back.


Step 1: Open up SimPE and browse to your collections C:\Documents and Settings\yourname\My Documents\EA Games\The Sims 2\Collections.





Step 2: Left click on the jpg/tga/png IMAGE entry in the far left Resource Tree window. This will bring up the same named entry in the main window. Right click it to bring up a menu. Mouseover to the Replace menu item and left click.



Step 3: Choose you new improved Icon file! SimPE will now pop up a browse window for your to find your new icon file. I keep mine in the default location of C:\Documents and Settings\yourname\My Documents\EA Games\The Sims 2\Collections\Icons. Select your new icon.



Step 4: If you get this following window pop-up click yes



Step 5: Once you have done that - the text in the main window should now be in italics. This indicates you have made changes to the file and should save your file so go ahead.



Step 6: Check that your data has saved. The text should have returned to normal and the image viewer should now show your new icon!

this is awesome. i am (recently) all about putting stuff in collections to stop the never ending paging thru ginormous sections of the catalog to find one specific thing. my life would be even better if anyone knows if you can store D/L objects ONLY in collections and not have them appear in the general catalog. is this possible?

thanks Loverat, i was literally just wondering about how to do this today ! Tiggy027 directed me to this thread, so thanks to you both :-)

I'm with kitler - just started using collections and realized what a boon it is. I hope more gamers will discover it and use it.

I too was wishing objects could appear in collections only - doubt if it's possible.

Anyway, thank you to Loverat for supplying this tutorial and also the huge icon set!

What you could do is create a collection for Maxis only stuff. Most Maxis items are already in collections.... but you could create a dining chair catalog for just Maxis dining chairs... and so on and so forth. These you could actually put up to share since no custom content is used. If you used collections exclusively - this would be similar to having no custom content in the larger bins.

Also - you can open your collections with SimPE and rename the custom ones. It doesn't work to rename the Maxis collections though, I've tried. But I've renamed all the ones I made and other sites have made - and they all work fine.

~k

what a great idea! I found your icon collection on your site ratatoulie, thumbs up! Will spend the rest of the evening catagorising

I just wanted to add that you are a fabulous home designer. I am very sorry to hear the news on your father, I whish you all the very best, and a lot of strength.
Bless you girl.
nina

Collection file modding related threads:

Changing Icons For Existing Collections
http://www.modthesims2.com/showthread.php?t=123906

Collection Files?
http://www.modthesims2.com/showthread.php?t=213105

collection icon?
http://www.modthesims2.com/showthread.php?t=186283

Comunity Objects
http://www.modthesims2.com/showthread.php?t=57823

Custom Collections Icons...
http://www.modthesims2.com/showthread.php?t=96184

How to create custom Collection Folder Icon?
http://www.modthesims2.com/showthread.php?t=241536

How do I make custom "collection-icons"?
http://www.modthesims2.com/showthread.php?t=170301

Renaming collection files with SimPE http://www.modthesims2.com/showthread.php?t=179754

hello .. its the year of the rat how come i havent seen new uploads from your page ? tc and tnx for the uploadshare .. have a nice day and happy simming :D

I don`t need this tutorial to re-icon my collections, as I can re-icon them in-game, but I`m sure the information will come in useful for creating collections with a tool I`m working on. Thank you.

And thank you niol for the list of links to other relavent resources.

Thanks so much for this thread it was exactly what I needed!