Sorry If I'm not posting in the right spot but I was really hoping there was some sort of program that lets you recategorize sims 3 clothes but I haven't found anything so far, that I'm aware of lol. If anyone could point me in the right direction, it would greatly be appreciated!

Kuree's EasyCASP Editor has capabilities to reassign CAS items for certain files. It is really easy to use.

Clothing categories can also be changed using Master Controller and the Integration Module. Scroll Down to CAS On This Page for options available.

If you want to get more in-depth with editing items, you can also check out S3PE and S3OC: tutorial for both

.S3PE is more "technical" but allows for more options in editing (for example, if you make default replacement you can remove unnecessary things from the .package and make it smaller), while S3OC is easier to use because it's 95% ticking boxes.

S3PE: http://www.simlogical.com/s3pe.htm
S3OC: http://www.simlogical.com/ContentUp...te/uploads/190/

I think Mastercontroller has an option to remove clothing filters (and some very useful ones to compress the catalogue and remove EA recolors).

It also has a Blacklist option to prevent townies and your sims from wearing certain clothes.

You can also export and import the settings using Overwatch so that you can use the same settings in multiple savegames.

I think the Mastercontroller feature is just to remove the filter so it would show all the clothes in each category not actually move clothes from different categories. Also, I don't know if you can blacklist clothes using Mastercontroller but just remove clothes from the existing blacklist.

Well thank you very much for all of your useful information! I know it's off subject but in Sim PE or a program like it, do you know if it will allow you to select a file or files and then move them to a folder that you've created yourself?

I've gone a bit crazy downloading stuff for the sims 3 and I probably can't view everything at once in game and I'm sure I've downloaded stuff that is similar to each other so it'd be great to be able to view everything out of game and sort of sort through it all that way! lol

You can preview .package files in S3PE, just look for the ICON or THUM resources. If that fails, see the _IMG ones, those are the actual textures for the mesh. It won't allow you to move files from one place to another but it doesn't need to do that, cut/copy is a pretty easy thing.


Do what I did and save previews for everything. It'll save you a lot of time.

So I checked out your link that has a lot of useful information.
We've already discussed how to recategorize things and I saw the tutorial about converting files to package files.
Let me just tell you exactly what I would like to do and maybe you can give me your best input since you seem pretty friendly and helpful

*recategorize items (which you already told me how)
*sort through the files in a program that has pictures of them so I can somehow put them in folders based on similar items (so then I can delete things that are too similar)
*possibly do this compressing or merging business I've hard of with package files (although it seems complicated to me and I'd really need to be pointed in the right direction of how to do so)
*also when I'm in CAS I'm assuming the little folder icon on the thumbnails indicates a package file and the shopping bag icon indicates an sp3.pack; well i'm having stuff I've downloaded appear in game that is neither in mod or download folder and i'd like to know where it is
*and lastly I was wondering if there was any sort of program or any way at all while in CAS to save clothing as in a set like you were allowed to do in sims 2? It'd be nice if there were some way to save a particular style of clothing items together in a folder while in game as you're allowed to do with buy mode items
Anyways now you know all my needs I would like to fulfill and if you could in any way help me out or point me to a website that could help me with the above mentioned it would mean a lot to me!!

I am getting really sad...I tried to use S3PE but I couldn't really figure it out. I guess you can't view all of your downloads at once or at least in groups? I have to individually load each item into S3PE? So then I tried to use S3OC which wouldn't let me do anything at all or at least I couldn't figure it out. I just want to enjoy all this stuff I've downloaded but I don't even wanna play if I have to view everything in every single category almost because then it takes forever to look at stuff and find what you really want. I know I've downloaded a lot but I thought surely there would be some way to see everything you've downloaded at one time and to sort through it all

When you open package in S3OC select item you want to change (left column) than click "Clone or Fix" (right column) than make changes and when you finish click "Start" (left column).

S3PE isn't a file explorer in the sense that you can't view, say, 10 items at once; you can have multiple files open, but each one will open in a separate instance of the program. The best I can recommend (and what I also do) is to save a preview for every item you download, and to categorize your CC in sections that make things easier for you. For example, I have a lot of CC hairs which I divided first by gender (male, female, unisex), then by length (above shoulders, long, shoulder-length). This way and with the help of thumbnails, I can quickly see what the files are without having to start the game or open them in S3PE/S3OC. My build and buy mode CC is categorized by rooms.

The reason why I recommend S3PE over S3OC for viewing is that CC may not always come with previews in the form of ICON or THUM resources. With S3PE, you can take a look at the textures of the mesh and hopefully tell what file it is from those. For the few items I couldn't track down previews of, and with no ICON or THUM resources, I just took preview shots myself.
And for me, at least, S3PE loads faster than S3OC.


It's not complicated at all, don't worry You can see a tutorial with screenshots here: http://club-crimsyn.dreamwidth.org/28336.html. It's for an older version of S3PE but the work process and options are intuitive.
1) Open S3PE and create a new project (Ctrl-N or File -> New);
2) Go to Resource -> Import -> From package... OR As dbc...
From Package allows you to create a merged package without saving it (a dialogue window will pop up asking if you want to auto-save after each package).
As dbc... will save your merged package after it's done (you can't choose whether to save it or not, it saves it automatically).
3) Navigate to where you have the packages you want to merge, and select them;
4) Give your merged package file a name and choose where to save it;
5) Let S3PE do its thing (may take a while, depending on the number and size of the packages).

It is important to keep unmerged versions of your .package files, since you may want to remove/edit some in the future. While it's possible to remove things from a merged package, it's almost always easier to just create another merged package.

And while I do have some mods merged, I recommend testing to see whether they can be merged or not. Some of mine (like one that changes the Ask Sign and Ask If Single interactions from Romantic to Friendly) don't work if merged.


The little folder icon indicates CC, and I think the shopping bag indicates store content. Not sure about sims3packs, since I don't have any.
If you install things via the Launcher, I think it goes in the DCBackup folder; the Downloads folder (in My Documents) is just for copies of your .sims3pack files. You can delete the ones in Downloads since they aren't read by the game. Maybe someone more knowledgeable can weigh in on the DCBackup thing, since I don't have too much experience with it.


As far as I know there is no way to create collections of CAS items, sorry.

So let me understand about the first thing you mentioned about thumbnails...you take a picture or download one from the site you got the cc from and save it in a folder or something with the file? When I converted my sims packs to package files it no longer had any distinguishable file name so I have no idea how to tell what it is unless I load each and every file one by one into sp3e and look at it. I still have the sims3packs but even if I had thumbnails available externally to view without a program, when I convert to package files I don't see how i'd be able to keep them organized since the original file name is replaced with a long string of letters and numbers

I'm really sorry I feel I'm being so stupid about this but I really feel doomed

Can you rename the package to better identify it? I was afraid to do anything like that in fear of messing the file up

1. If you make a copy of any file you are planning to work with, and keep it in a safe place, then anything that does mess up a file can be undone by deleting the file you worked on and restoring the backup.

2. Yes, you can rename packages. It's got an internal number that it uses to identify itself to the game.

3. If the sims3pack only has one item in it, the Multi-Extractor should have an option somewhere in there to automatically rename the resulting package for you. Unfortunately, if there were more than one thing in the pack, it won't rename any of them. You still can rename them yourself. (Although I would use S3PE to do that.)

Well thank you very much for explaining that for me. I shall remember to do that next time! I have over a thousand downloads i'm sorting through though and I converted them all to package files already. I actually found this program called merlin that lets me view all my package files at once and rename them and also move them to different folders which is what i'm trying to do although I know it's going to be a process to sort through like items and place them all together in the same folder!

Hi There ... I've used Merlin for years. The application has not been supported by TSR for some time now. I'm curious though, Are you actually able to rename and move files? I lost that functionality somewhere around the third Patch from EA. I do keep it associated to packages as it allows me to click on the Merlin icon and the thumbnail comes right up.

Yes it let me rename the files and move them to different folders just using that program. I'm not sure what patch of the game I have but it should be up to date because it says that I am although I don't have many of the expansion packages. I'm not sure if that matters

Sorry, I didn't get a notification (forgot to subscribe to the thread, oops!).

OK this is going to sound complicated for a bit but it will become second nature to you if you choose to organize your content like this.
The issue with .sims3pack -> .package conversion returning files with gibberish names is a result of converting a .sims3pack which is made up of several files, like @Ghost_sdoj explained. I have only encountered this with sets from the EA Store. For those, there is one step you must follow before converting them to .packages: you must run them through the Recompressor. From this page, download the "s3rc-win.rar" archive, extract the files within it, then drag-and-drop your .sims3pack over src.exe. From my experience, you only need to do this with EA content, and not with Worlds. Why? Well, if you don't go through this step, your converted .package files will lack descriptions and names; doing this prevents this from happening.

So, to recap:
1) run the Store .sims3pack through s3rc.exe;
2) run the .sims3pack through Delphy's Multi Extractor;
3) open the resulting individual .package files one at a time and decide what you want to keep.

As a sidenote, to quickly spot the in-game name (the one that shows up for a piece of buy CC in the catalog, for example), open your .package file in S3PE and look for the STBL resource in English - that's where the catalog name and description are stored This is not applicable to CAS content, though, as that type of content lacks STBL resources.


Exactly! I give the picture the same name as the .package file so they're right next to each other. If you can't find a picture of the CC, you also have the option of exporting the preview from the .package file itself (if it exists): select the THUM or ICON resource, right-click on it, Export -> To file..., and choose your saving location. This will save the preview as a PNG file. If you have no THUM or ICON resources and no previews from the creator, you can create one yourself by screencapping the CC in-game.

I will definitely do that next time! I'm kind of sol right now since I downloaded sooo much stuff at once but I'm using Merlin to at least be able to look at my files at once and move them to different folders. but it's gonna take me at least a week! I was downloading stuff off thesimsresource and there's just so much and then I would forget if I had already downloaded something similar so I am definitely doing a bunch of deleting! Do you know of any other sites that has good stuff for sims 3? I'm just doing clothes right now though and hair and just things for the body

Oh yeah, I definitely know how mass-downloading feels like XD I still have a few hundred MB of CC I need to sort...


Check out the second link in my sig! I wrote two posts - the first is for CC, the second is for tutorials and programs. Some of the creators (like Sakura Sims) have left the community or the links on their websites are dead, but you can still find their stuff around or ask people for it in the WCIF forum.

Cool..I will definitely check that out! I don't know if you know what a dandy punk is but I'm trying to find clothes in that style lol. Think the lead singer of four non-blondes if you know that group. Or kind of like the baroque era but punked out! I don't know if I'll ever actually find what I really want...maybe I just need a good pattern or something