Adding modifications made in Lot Editor to original DAT file

[michael_nz40 1]

I'm new to modding, and have been playing around with the Lot Editor and iLive Reader.

I downloaded a seawall from the Stex and decided to change the pieces a bit. The file was a single DAT file with 8 lots in it. I removed some props from each lot using the Lot Editor. This gave me 8 LOT files in my Pluggins folder. It also gave me new icons in my game menu; I had the original sea wall icons as well as icons for the modified lots I made. All of these lots plopped perfectly fine.

I wanted to combine my modified LOT files with the original DAT file I downloaded. I wanted to have only one set of lots, not my modified set and the original set.

Using iLive Reader, I removed the LotConfig Exemplar for one sea wall lot in the original DAT file. I then copied and pasted the LotConfig Exemplar from the LOT file I made into where the old Exemplar used to be in the original DAT file. I then changed the Instance number to what the old Exemplar Instance number was. I then repeated this with the rest of my LOT files. I then clicked on "ReIndex" and "Rebuild Directory File", and then saved it. So in the end I had the LotConfig Exemplar files from my modified LOT files in the original DAT file, which were replacing the old LotConfig files.

I removed the LOT files from my Pluggins folder (which I no longer needed) and ran the game.

When I plopped the lot in a city, the game crashed to desktop. The Lot Editor also crashed to desktop when trying to load these files. However, when I put my LOT files back in my Pluggins folder, I was able to place the lots perfectly fine. I could do this by using the icons from the modified DAT file as well as the icons from my LOT files. So the modified DAT file worked as I wanted, but only if the LOT files were in the Pluggins folder, which is messy and clutters up the game menu with their icons

I have no idea whether I'm on the right track with what I did, but how would I go about fixing this? I want to modify the original DAT file by adding the modifications I made in the Lot Editor. I would really appreciate some help with this.

Thanks!

[un1 41]

I did that once.

Well, you need to take out the old icons from the original DAT using LEProp.

Then open the new lot you made and replace the icon using LEProp. Then you DAt pack the new files.

There you have it.

-un1

[michael_nz40 1]

Fantastic! Thanks for the help!

You know, I wouldn't have thought to do that, even though now it seems so obvious. I ended up deleting the exemplar lot files from the original DAT file too, because just removing the icon files made my in-game menu go all weird. I've got it all sorted now though.

Also, I never knew LEProp existed until now. What a fantastic little program.

Thanks again for the help.