Help with Reader?

[timcravey 168]

I am trying to mod a group of small parks all based off the same 1m invisible model.  They were all lotted on a blank lot with unique desc. for each.  In game they all show the same "Small Plaza" name and description instead of the actual names and description I entered in the Plugin Manager.  I opened them in Reader and there is an extra exemplar on all of them -- the Maxis plaza. 

I select this file, right click and Remove it. Then Reindex (also in the left panel) and Save. When I select the actual exemplar to reindex the LotConfig I may or may not be able to see the file in the Reader, may or may not be able to Reindex it, and then may or may not be able to Save it.  Occassionally I receive an error message -

The number 6 may be 1 in the error message. If I abort the Save, my lot does not show up in game. If I Save, the lot may or may not show in game.

Does anyone recognize this problem? 

[Andreas Roth 605]

Most likely, you added or deleted a file and didn't select "ReIndex" and "Rebuild Directory file" right away. Try to delete the DIR file completely and repeat said steps. Also, what's with that "unknown" BMP file? Is that your lot icon? Icons need to be saved as PNG files, so your lot might not work as intended.

[local_authority01 3]

How important is it to reindex, and when should it be used when editing with the reader?

[Andreas Roth 605]

The DIR file is basically a list of all compressed files inside a DAT, and usually, the Reader should update it while saving. But whenever you add or remove some files from a DAT, and/or change their IDs, those commands should be applied to avoid problems.

[local_authority01 3]

I downloaded some files that I couldnt open the UI from. Everytime I tried it crashed the reader. I needed the lots though because I had other lots that used them as dependancies. What I ended up doing was making a .dat of a .dat. I transfered the pngs, Ltexts, and exemplers into another .dat and just added a query from the game files. Anyways when I moved these files and made a new .dat from them, a new DIR file was created. Pretty Cool!!! Lol, I havent tested it in-game yet but I hope I remembered to reindex.

This was a while ago though. Now I make it a point to reindex every exempler that I change two or more files in, just to be safe.