Hi, I wrote a handy little program to extract thumbnails from files and want to share it ! But first I need some people who are willing to test it and report bugs/make suggestions for improvements.

In order to organize custom content it's always good to have pictures of the items. Most files already contain thumbnails but it's tedious to get them: Open every single package file with s3pe, find the right resource, export and rename it. Sims3packs even have to be extracted to packages first. As I do this all the time while downloading CC, I wanted to simplifiy this process.


What's the purpose of this program?
The Thumbnail Extractor can retrieve thumbnail files from .package and .sims3pack files. It can not generate thumbnails if there aren't any inside the file. Extracted thumbnails will appear in the same folder as the original file.


How to use it:
Extract the .zip file und move the whole folder inside to the desired place.

There are three ways to use the Thumbnail Extractor:

1. With graphical user interface:
   Run Sims3ThumbnailExtractor.exe
   
   
   • Choose files: Select several files in .package or .sims3packs format to extract the thumbnails from them.
   • Choose folder: Select a folder to extract thumbnails from all .package and .sims3pack files inside it.
   • add _ to name: Choose if you want an additional underscore (_) at the end of the thumbnail's filename.
   • If the extraction process is finished you will get a message in the status bar about how many files were handled successfully (files without thumbnails inside are also counted as success).
   
   
2. Use the command line:
   "<program path>\Sims3ThumbnailExtractor.exe" "<filepath>\file1.package" "<filepath>\file2.package" "<filepath>\file3.sims3pack" ...
   
   
3. Drag & Drop:
   Drag and drop files on a shortcut to Sims3ThumbnailExtractor.exe to extract the thumbnails.

Additional notes:

• The extracted thumbnails will be named after the original file. If another .png file exists with this name it won't be replaced. Instead, the extracted thumbnail with have an additional underscore at the end of its filename.
• If there is more than one thumbnail inside the file (THUM and ICON resources), all of them will be extracted.
• Sims3packs are extracted to packages with s3ce (Sims3Pack CommandLine Extractor by aWT). This needs administrator rights and you will need to click Yes at the UAC prompt. Sims3pack extraction takes place in an extra folder inside the program's folder so it doesn't mess with the original folder.

Requirements:
Windows with .NET Framework 4


Credits:
Peter and Inge Jones for the s3pi library and their helpful forum at simlogical
aWT for s3ce


Feedback:
I have tested this program a lot, but more testing on different computers is neccessary. Please report your experiences and any bugs/problems you encounter.
And if you have any suggestions what could be improved or what feature should be added, feel free to tell me .

Hi, this sounds interesting. What is its practical application? What I mean is, once you've extracted the thumbnails, what type of things might someone want to do with them that for example isn't as easy just using S3OC and tick "include thumbnails" when cloning an item?

This program is not meant for creators but more for people who download a lot of stuff. Ticking "include thumbnails" gets thumbnails into a .package file and my program gets them out again .

I personally use the thumbnails for organizing all my downloaded items. For each downloaded item I save a picture with the same name, so I can easily find an item if I want to delete it. And this program helps to get the thumbnails that are already included in packages more easily out of it.

Oh I see! Yes that does sound useful.

This isn't working for me. All it did was convert the .sims3pack into a package file but I see no thumbnails

Thank you! I have been trying to organize tons of cc lately, and this is exactly what I needed. Makes the process so much easier. :D

awesome idea. i always get pics of the cc i download - especially because many creators dont include thumbnails. by now i download pics that the creator used for presentation or extract thumbs with s3oc. but a tool that makes the process of organizing cc even more easy is always appreciated. so thats why i download it and try it out

- on first glance i even hoped it was an "easy thumbnail generator"...so
is it generally possible to include a feature for "creating thumbnails" for those packages that dont have one?

edit: first test - no success
i am doing sth wrong. whenever i choose a folder / or files (doesnt matter which option in fact) i only get fails. i know the packages i tested have thumbnails that could be extracted (i openend them with S3PE before and checked). which step am i missing? also i have no idea about this tool you integrated (awts s3ce). i dont even understand awts own description what kind of tool it is . could you tell me why i should need it?

i am windows 7 user and match the prerequisite (net.framework 4)

I just wanted to say this program has helped me SO MUCH. I saved my store items as packages to save space and with this I can change the name and view which item is which VERY easily. thank you!

I know this is an OLD thread, but just wanted to say if someone else have problems with extracting thumbnails like I first had.

If you like me, only use Store Items from the Sims 3 store and want to extract the thumbnails you must first decaprify the Sims3packs! Then it will work. So copy all your Sims3Packs you want to extract a thumnail from and place them in a separate folder (name it TEST or whatever), decaprify all the Sims3Packs in the TEST folder and then use this thumbnail extractor. Copy over your thumbnails to the original folder if you don't want to use the decaprified Sims3Packs.

*** It will only extract thumbnails from single items, so if you test it on like the "Romanza Set" or whatever Store set no thumbnails will be extracted. You need to download every item separetly from the Store.


Very useful mod, thank you!!

Just found this now, this is so helpful! I too like to save photos with my cc and this makes it a lot easier

BOY I've been playing this game for 10 years and *just today* I found out about this tool! Thank you so much!

For anyone who might not know: CC-Magic does a similiar thing, but with even more features for organizing your CC and Mod-files
See this video tutorial for more information
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qarPD2NjvRA

Apologies if this is a dumb question/explained above but where do i find the thumbnails after i have run the program and the status bar has said successful?

Hey idk if you'll see this, but the thumbnails will appear in the same location as your files.

For example, I load in .package files from This PC > Documents > Merged CC. Run the program. Go to folder "Merged CC" in File Explore, and there the thumbnails should be.

Hi, I'm sorry if this was already being aswered. I'm trying to use this tool using Windows 11, I check and it seems that I already have installed .net framework 4 and I'm using this file which has thumbnails (I will try to upload images to this post), the thing is that no matter what option I select (file or folder) I always get the Failed status. Sorry for my bad english

Not sure if anyone on this thread is still active, but I'm having a similar problem to the user above me; windows 11 with .net framework 4, all files have full admin permissions, and the thumbnail extractor fails on any .package file I try. It works just fine on another machine, but for some reason, doing the exact same process on my main PC always results in "successful: 0."

i thought this was just me.. :c
grrr.

I got it working on windows 11! Can't be 100% sure what step did it but here's what I did. Kind of shocked it worked, tbh, as I just kept smacking issues that popped up until it did, but here's my steps. Please be cautious and use your own judgment on this stuff, these are old dusty files. I was just desperate (and maybe a little stubborn) as my Library has hit 1300+ files and I cannot possibly lose a single precious lot. I need them all!

My issue was that it would run (once I fixed s3ce as below) but not actually DO anything; it'd report extracting a few files, failing on a bunch, but nothing was actually being generated.

Please work on COPIES of your CC files, and do not make any changes to your system or security without googling them first.

1. Download the file from this page. Also get S3PE (s3pe_14-0222-1852) and s3ce (MTS_MarkJS_1149201_s3cev1.1.0.388). Scan everything with Defender or whatever you use.

2. Extract each of the three zipped programs into their own folders.

3. Replace the s3ce.exe in the thumbnail extractor folder with the one from the MTS download. Right click on it and set it to run as administrator in properties. Double click on this exe, click through if you get a blue UAC popup, repeat until you can run it reliably without any system popups or errors interrupting the process. Close it.

Note: I had a UAC (user authorization control) popup on both testing s3sce and running the thumbnail extractor, the blue "unknown publisher!" warning. I turned my UAC off (NOT RECOMMENDED) to test. With it turned back on it's still working fine, so please run through these steps without turning it off before you even consider doing so.

4. Replace any files in the thumbnail extractor folder that are also in the S3PE folder with the fresh ones from the S3PE folder. Make sure you copy all of them; some aren't in both folders and you can ignore those. Run the thumbnail extractor, and make sure you can get through to the actual program (where it lets you pick files/folders). Close it.

5. Make a folder in your documents folder called "thumbnail test". Put the thumbnail extractor folder there. Put A COPY of your CC folder you want to extract in that folder too (A COPY!!!) next to the extractor folder. Run the thumbnail extractor, choose the copied CC folder. Wait a bit. Note: this step might be unnecessary but it's what worked for me.

Good luck!

I had no idea this existed, and I need it badly! Thanks to folks commenting on old threads.