[2017] Lot Editor and Plug-in Manager - Forum Archive

[bsteckler 0]

Lot Editor and Plug-in Manager Forum Archive 2017 (and the beginning of 2018)

This thread contains all of the stray topics created in 2017 (and the beginning of 2018) in the Lot Editor and Plug-in Manager forum. This thread serves to condense those topics into one topic before merging into the new SC4 BAT & Lot Workshop forum.

However, all of the posts from the original threads are merged chronologically, which means that if two threads were posted in during the same time span, their posts will be mixed together, making it harder to read. To help with this, the title of original thread has been edited into the original first post of each thread.

Remember that you can use Ctrl+F to search through your current page.

2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017

-Jasoncw

Making Ploppable Residential Buildings

I'm getting back into the game and the community after a few years, and I've started working on a region that I eventually hope to showcase. I've recently downloaded Marcszar's Baltimore Rowhouses, and I'm finding that they are very difficult to grow and keep around in areas large enough to make realistic rowhouse neighborhoods. I want to make a mod that allows me to plop these buildings as well as grow them.

Before anyone says anything, I know that there are issues with creating and caring for ploppable residential lots. However, I have three of them that I've managed to keep going for at least five game years in testing, so I feel that my cities have the demand and employment base to support them. One of these is Andisart's One21 Apartment Tower, the other is Skyscraper's The Palm Building, which seems to be perfectly fine even if plopped on bare, unzoned land and left to its own devices.

I tried to clone the One21 Tower and edit the exemplar files so that they match those of the rowhouses, but after saving it and opening it in Lot Editor, I find that I cannot replace the building with one of Marcszar's rowhouses. Even though I have the rowhouses installed, the buildings just aren't in the menu.

I've downloaded and explored the PIM from SC4Devotion, but (of course) there's no option to create ploppable residential structures. Will I have to make these first as landmarks and then insert the residential capabilities via Ilives' Reader? What's the best method to go about doing this?

[kingofsimcity 5,740]

By downloading Buggi's Extra Cheats, you can plop ANY growable building in the game using the buildingPlop cheat. All you need to know is what the exemplar name starts with and you should be able to easily plop what you want from there.

 

[DavidDHetzel 1,816]

IRM Questions

So I'm looking to make some IRM compatible commercial relots.

What are the texture hex codes and the exact name of the props used for the various walls in the IRM filler set?

 

@T Wrecks I feel like you'd be good at answering this.  

[kingofsimcity 5,740]

Here's the information I got from playing around in the lot editor.

Base Textures

• I-D: 0xd5b0464a, from Railyard and Spurs Megapack 1 v 1.02 by north country dude
• I-M: 0x258d100, vanilla Maxis $ concrete texture
• I-HT: 0x258c2000, vanilla Maxis $$ concrete texture

Fencing

• I-D: cp's Brick Walls, exemplar names beginning with CP_BrickWall found in BSC MEGA Props CP Vol 1
• I-M: cp's Stone Walls, exemplar names beginning with CP_Wall_StoneArch also found in BSC MEGA Props CP Vol 1
• I-HT: SFBT green fences, exemplar names beginning with SFBT_Maschendrahtzaun, found in SFBT Essentials

Hope that helps!

[DavidDHetzel 1,816]

Thanks

 

[Fantozzi 4,069]

[SOLVED] Farm Fields Ignored

Hm - I just started to create farms for the first time and running into a couple of issues I don't understand.

1. I made a farm field. The ground texture changes on this farm field seasonally. O.k. - but why? How do I control this - I have only one texture on the lot, from where comes the other?

2. I made some custom farms. They grow and then, after a while a second one grows in midst of the plantation:

 

Like on the upper right farm - the left one is the farm, and then grew a second one right to it in the middle of the plants. Same on the bottom right - there grew a second farm on the south end in the middle of the plants. Any hints what I'm doing wrong?

 

[Fantozzi 4,069]

Ah - stupid little me. I accidentally copied a 'LotConfigPropertyfamily' entry.

So question 2 is solved. Just my sluttery.

 

[Edit]

And on question 1 - again my fault. Strangely I had two ground textures on the lot - this happens sometimes with lot editor as it's buggy to exchange textures.

 

So sorry for bothering.

[T Wrecks 10,210]

Ah, @kingofsimcity beat me to it - thanks, buddy!

@DavidDHetzel: First of all, I like your idea of making some commercial lots that will look good in an IRM environment! It kinda makes sense because stuff like a servo station or a burger joint in an industrial area isn't unrealistic at all, and e.g. a large grocery situated between industry and residential area doesn't sound out of place, either. This shouldn't be too difficult to achieve, especially because Maxis used one and the same concrete base texture for CS-$ and I-M. Maybe it's just me, but I-M and commercial also sounds like the best combination - dirt-spewing refineries and foundries (typical for I-D) may not be the best environment, and clean high-tech industry is something that may very well prefer isolated industry parks in more remote areas.

Just out of curiosity, why didn't you just open the relevant lots in the LE? The default Maxis Lot Editor lists the name and ID of any prop or texture when you click on it. It may be difficult to find the pack they're from, particularly for textures. The IID generally gives an idea here. For props, it's much easier because most of them have the creator's name in them. Just mentioning it here in case you run into similar situations in future and the creators are not available.

Looking forward to seeing your relots! We seem to have a growing number of lotters these days, and that's a very good thing IMO.

[Fantozzi 4,069]

Nope - sorry for the confusion, but the error returned.

It seems the farms I created ignore the farm fields as occupied. I tested now with different farm fields also with some made by other people - and it seems to be something wrong with my farm lots. They grow on space already occupied by the fields.

[rsc204 21,869]

Farms are a little unique in terms of how they work, although similar to industrial zoning. I.e. they use a system of Mech/Anchor/Out.

The farms themselves should have the occupant group IA Industry: Out. The fields are a law unto themselves modding wise.

If you are using PIM-X, under Lots / Stage 1 / IA you can see some example exemplars. I'd find them in the SC Dat, make a copy, give them new IDs and link them to your new lots/fields etc. That way whatever you have made will work exactly the same way. Not sure there is a whole load of information out there for this. Try here, FrankU is one of the more knowledgeable members where this subject is concerned.

[Fantozzi 4,069]

I'm completely stuck with this. Shure I made my lots from templates in PIM-X.

What I can observe: 1. My lots won't grow on fields other users created. 1. My lots grow only on fields, I created myself. Other users lots grow too on the fields I created.

My deduction: Something must be wrong with my fields, not with the lots.

How I created the fields:

1. I made a (void) model in B.A.T (with LOD of apropriate dimensions of course). I open PIM-X and hover the model over 'Agricultural Field' in PIM-X and PIM-X creates a desc file.

2. I took an existing field lot (tested to be working), and made a copy of it with lot editor (don't know how to make copies with pim-x). I replaced the building model with the one I created in PIM-X.

3. I did a comparison in Reader. The lots have identical entries. The model desc differs only that the original is RTK 0 and the one I created with PIM-X (1.) is RTK 1.

 

I ran out of idears with this issue. Repeated every step several times. But the farm lots keep on growing on my farm fields. As if the fields weren't recognized as occupied space.

I have a maxis-blocker for the agricultural lots in my plugin folder to be able to test my lots. But I can't imagine  it's the culprit (as my lots should work together with the maxis-blocker).

Every hint - what I could try instead is welcome.

[rsc204 21,869]

9 hours ago, Fantozzi said:

Shure I made my lots from templates in PIM-X.

On 09/03/2017 at 0:54 PM, rsc204 said:

I'd find them in the SC Dat, make a copy, give them new IDs and link them to your new lots/fields etc.

But those are not the same thing. In theory the PIM-X exemplars are correct, but since they aren't working, I'd start with a new template from a known working source, Maxis.

9 hours ago, Fantozzi said:

My deduction: Something must be wrong with my fields, not with the lots.

I'm inclined to agree with your logic. However, in my testing, I could get a farm to grow, but my custom fields never appeared. Then I saw another farm grow there, probably because the fields were still unzoned and therefore free for the simulator to pick from. Is that what you are seeing too? In which case, I'd say it's the farm, not the field. Note the property "Field Lots" listed in the buildings exemplar of a farm. That needs to link to any fields the farm lot is enabled to use. Perhaps this is the problem? If it's set correctly, then perhaps it's the fields properties after all.

9 hours ago, Fantozzi said:

1. I made a (void) model in B.A.T (with LOD of apropriate dimensions of course).

9 hours ago, Fantozzi said:

3. I did a comparison in Reader. The lots have identical entries. The model desc differs only that the original is RTK 0 and the one I created with PIM-X (1.) is RTK 1.

Sorry but this is a pet hate of mine, why? You do not need a special model for this. One transparent/invisible model is sufficient to be reused as many times as you will ever need. Personally I'd use a Null RTK Key of 0,0,0, but if you must have a model, use the existing Maxis blank:

Found in PIM-X under Resources / Other Models --> Blank (RTK0 ID 0x5AD0E817-0xBADB57F-0x0e110000).

A model is a model, it can be anything and as many things as you want it to be. Making lots of new invisible models is wasteful and create needless dependencies. Also an RTK0 model is very different from an RTK1 model, it might seem like a small difference, but it could be the whole problem. If you look at the Maxis farm fields, every one uses the Blank RTK0 prop that PIM-X defaults too. Perhaps the field Building must be RTK0 to work, you never know.

9 hours ago, Fantozzi said:

I have a maxis-blocker for the agricultural lots in my plugin folder to be able to test my lots. But I can't imagine  it's the culprit (as my lots should work together with the maxis-blocker).

Well for the purposes of testing, you should remove everything. That is to say, test with all your custom plugins removed. It takes every variable out of the equation. Should it be necessary?, probably not, but if you run into problems, it's something you should be doing.

In short, the simplest solution, however annoying, is often to start over, using a fool proof method. As I outlined in my previous post, start with the original Maxis files, extracted from the SC Dats. I found some useful info here, near the bottom of page 2 @cogeo outlines a method which is pretty much what I suggested.

Farm fields (like all Maxis content) link to other properties using Parent Cohorts. So your Desc might be identical, but if it doesn't link to those properties, will be missing things you may need. Conversely, simply linking to Maxis Parent Cohorts can be a source of all kinds of unexpected trouble, if you don't realise it's happening.

To sum up here. I know the advice given is all fairly generic and doesn't specifically help you to find the root cause of your problem. But, you've run into one of those specialist areas where you may find getting help is less than easy. I've been here myself many times and I know how frustrating it is. Consider sending a PM to @FrankU, who I happen to know has a lot of experience with farm lots. Otherwise @vortext is one of the most competent all-rounders I know know of, I'm pretty sure he's made farms at some point too.

Whatever is wrong though is likely to be so simple it will really annoy you when you find out the problem. What I find is most important though when you run into those bumps, search, search and search again. Google can be your best friend, but it can also be frustratingly dumb sometimes too. Refining your search parameters will increase the odds of finding the info you need. Almost everything you can conceive of was discussed at some point somewhere. Often, finding the information is the harder part. Always check the SC4D Wiki, some of the more advanced stuff is squirrelled away there. And lastly, don't give up, a change is as good as a rest. If you get really stuck in a hole, consider moving to something else whilst waiting for help. The number of times a new day has brought inspiration or clarity to a problem can not be underestimated.

[Fantozzi 4,069]

3 hours ago, rsc204 said:

Is that what you are seeing too? In which case, I'd say it's the farm, not the field. Note the property "Field Lots" listed in the buildings exemplar of a farm. That needs to link to any fields the farm lot is enabled to use. Perhaps this is the problem? If it's set correctly, then perhaps it's the fields properties after all.

Nope. My fields appear. I also put some maxis fields ID in the property and the maize field by Framly. With those my farms work fine.

I replaced the 'farm field building' I created with pim-x with a maxis one. The result was my field lots got blocked from replacing the building  or from 'saving as'. But still farms grow on my fields. BTW. - not only my own farms, others too.

3 hours ago, rsc204 said:

A model is a model, it can be anything and as many things as you want it to be. Making lots of new invisible models is wasteful and create needless dependencies. Also an RTK0 model is very different from an RTK1 model, it might seem like a small difference, but it could be the whole problem. If you look at the Maxis farm fields, every one uses the Blank RTK0 prop that PIM-X defaults too. Perhaps the field Building must be RTK0 to work, you never know.

Yes, thanks for the hint. Didn't think about the maxis one being there. You're right, I could use this the same.

But this brought my to another idear. I discovered that it's the RTK 0 property that blocks lot's from being copied with lot editor. So I took the corn lot from Framly - knowing they did work on my lots. So  I made a backup, deleted the RTK 0 and changed it to RTK 1. So I could do a copy of the lot in lot editor. Then I restored the backup = undoing the RTK change in the original file. And in the copy I hade made I deleted the RTK 1 too and pasted back the RTK 0 property from the original file. Basically I simplified the method of cogeo by enabling copying of the original file. Now I had an exact copy (apart from the id) from the original maize field, refering on the exact same desc file.

But while the original maize field works fine - on my 1:1 copy again farms are growing.  Well, and I thought this was fool proof.

3 hours ago, rsc204 said:

In short, the simplest solution, however annoying, is often to start over, using a fool proof method. As I outlined in my previous post, start with the original Maxis files, extracted from the SC Dats. I found some useful info here, near the bottom of page 2 @cogeo outlines a method which is pretty much what I suggested.

Cogeo says to open Reader and searching through simcity_1.dat for a pair of farm field exemplars. Do you know any method to speed this up? If I search manually through the exemplars this might take hours?

4 hours ago, rsc204 said:

Well for the purposes of testing, you should remove everything.

As long as I'm in the dark, I'd prefer to speed up things. With the maxis blocker off, testing will become too slow, I'm afraid. At a certain point it's better to give up an idear instead of wasting a whole lifetime only to orbit it. I feel frustration. And that's not what I want to have with sc4.

[rsc204 21,869]

1 minute ago, Fantozzi said:

Cogeo says to open Reader and searching through simcity_1.dat for a pair of farm field exemplars. Do you know any method to speed this up? If I search manually through the exemplars this might take hours?

Use the navigator, but I wouldn't... I tried this myself and have not really been getting anywhere. It might be better to start with a custom farm lot/field combo and use that as the template. After hours looking at the same problem, that's my conclusion, but I put it down for the day. There is some unique thing about farms that we need to find to get to the bottom of this.

I still think it's the Lot (Farm), not the field though. But I could be wrong. One thing to double check, the Buildings and Lot exemplars for the field, do both have the same Instance ID? They need to. Also, check the field's Building / LotConfig exemplars, what's the growth stage, it should be FF or 255. I note PIM-X seems to alter it after lotting, perhaps that's the issue?

3 minutes ago, Fantozzi said:

As long as I'm in the dark, I'd prefer to speed up things. With the maxis blocker off, testing will become too slow, I'm afraid. At a certain point it's better to give up an idear instead of wasting a whole lifetime only to orbit it. I feel frustration. And that's not what I want to have with sc4.

Well, it didn't slow me down too much having them there. I just had a system to quickly grow new I-R lots and bulldoze multiples at a time, waiting for my lot to re-grow.

I'm afraid if you are looking for easy answers, you might not succeed here. I've been down this hole myself and perseverance is the only way. Some things sit for ages before I figure out the problem. Other times I waste many hours only to find a thing simply can't be done.

[Fantozzi 4,069]

First of all: thank you for you patience. I'm pretty shure I'm doing some awfull mistake somewhere - and the reason is a lack of knowledge about something I should know. So practically you help me discovering the dark spot in my brain. I really appreciate that. Hopefully one day I can share the knowledge I gain from you again with other people.

7 hours ago, rsc204 said:

One thing to double check, the Buildings and Lot exemplars for the field, do both have the same Instance ID?

I must confess, I know what TGI are and that they have to be unique and that they make the file's name appendix - but then my knowledge on TGI already's exhausted.

 

Now in the lot exemplar - guessing from the type id - the first entry refers on the building? So this would be wrong because the instance id is different from the building exemplar? So I would have to change that in the lot exemplar to be the same as in the building exemplar?
 

[rsc204 21,869]

I'd change the ID of the buildings exemplar, because it's going to be less hassle. So that should be A5CF8896. However, you need to find the building in the LotConfig file and update that to the new ID also (this is how the two are linked).

So you have a bunch of lines after LotConfigPropertyLotObject, each starting with a code. 0x0 = Building, 0x1 = Prop, 0x2 = texture etc. (Note I'm using short form, so 0x0 shows as 0x00000000, short form removes preceding zeros, since we know it's a 8-digit hex code).

Double click the one which relates to the building (0x0) and find the final rep. This will have the old Buildings Exemplar ID in it, change that also to the new ID. Don't forget at this point to Right Click and select ReIndex LotConfig, or it may not function.

[Fantozzi 4,069]

7 hours ago, rsc204 said:

Also, check the field's Building / LotConfig exemplars, what's the growth stage, it should be FF or 255.

 

Halt! Stop!

You found it. You found my mistake! That was the culprit - grow stage only for the building was set to 0xFF. But not on the lot (was 0x01). Changed it and it works.

It works!

It works!

It works.

 

Man, and what a really simple one! Call yourself lucky, you aren't near - I would hug you now in a breathtaking surge of emotions!

 

[EDIT]

Checking back - the original file (the maize farm field by Framly) has grow stage 0x01 too on the lot. But this one works. So now I'm confused about that. Maybe I copied an error from the original that - for some strange reasons - doesn't appear on the original?

 

[matias93 7,535]

Everybody celebrate!!! 

I was genuinaly happy when seeing the 'solved' on the notifications, this project looked so hard just hours ago!

7 hours ago, Fantozzi said:

I would hug you now in a breathtaking surge of emotions!

At least you are on the same country (and continent), that hug would be materially feasible(!?)

[Fantozzi 4,069]

27 minutes ago, matias93 said:

At least you are on the same country (and continent), that hug would be materially feasible(!?)

Of course - but I know from experience that beeing huged by 246 pounds to some it may feel to much of 'fifthy shades of grey'

[rsc204 21,869]

7 hours ago, Fantozzi said:

Man, and what a really simple one! Call yourself lucky, you aren't near - I would hug you now in a breathtaking surge of emotions!

Well I'm not that far North of you.   -  But it's OK, I'm covered for hugs.

7 hours ago, Fantozzi said:

Checking back - the original file (the maize farm field by Framly) has grow stage 0x01 too on the lot. But this one works. So now I'm confused about that. Maybe I copied an error from the original that - for some strange reasons - doesn't appear on the original?

That does throw a spanner in the works, looking again at the Maxis Fields, FF is only used for the Building too?!? So perhaps I misunderstood something when I wrote they should both be FF. So there's a what the hell moment for you. Sorry I can't explain this behaviour. That said, if it's working, given all the problems, I guess I'd not worry too much about it.

[neslein 0]

Larger Hospital and Elementary School

Hello all.

First at all,-I´m not new to sc4,I have played it since 2004,but I hav´nt played for some years.

I have played allmost all the new City builders,but SimCity 4 is the only real "build a city" game for me :),-because(and many other reasons) so far I hav´nt reached more than 650.000 population,in a single city,and that was with the latest NAM installed.

I have SimCity 4,-the very first and original on a disc,-but unfortunately I can´t play it on modern computers,so digital SC4 Deluxe it is.

No problem in that,-other than ALL the problems you all know about,-It´s simply unplayable without Mods.

And mods is what this thread is about.If I had the knowlegde to customize a Hospital,or any other buildings for my use, by using the Lot Editor and iLive Reader I wouldn´t make this post,but I simply can´t figure out how to use these great tools.(58 yeays old,and never had an I pad,-or what ever the name are....;))

So here is my little pray for you Modders.

I would really like a Hospital and an Elementary School with a capacity of 9-10.000,and  with 3 times the cost for both the ambulance and daily running.

Nothing ells must be changed.Just a lot that act as 3 Hospitals or Schools

I know there´s a load of those costum Civic both here and Devotion,but I hav´nt found anything that fit my "style".

Can YOU do this for me?please?

 

 

 

[twalsh102 1,601]

You wouldn't need Lot Editor to do something like this for your self, only Reader.  To loosely paraphrase Maimonides' famous quote "Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day; teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime.":  'Give a man a modded building, and he has a modded building; teach a man how to mod a building, and his horizons are endless.'

This is something that we can easily give you a crash introductory course on (we're talking a small handful of settings on two buildings), so that you can mod the building(s) of your choice, rather than settling for whatever somebody else might decide to give you!  The knowledge gained could be used to start modding just about anything.  Are you game?

[neslein 0]

Nice reply,-I like that ;=).However I really don´t think you "can easily" teach me using the Reader.

I have downloadet it,-in different version (1.4) now,but whatever version I use-when I open it,the first message I get are this:

"Failed to open C:/Program Files (x86)/Origin Games/Sim City 4 Deluxe Editon/English (US)/Sim CityLocale.DAT"

--(I can´t even do this / correct on my keyboard...lol)

Then when I click ok,the program open with this message:

"No Reader.ini detected.You need to setup the Reader for optimal performance"

So allready just by open the program,I have no idea what happend and what to do.

Am I game?

Absolutely,and if you can teach me using this "easy" thing,you´ve got yourself a friend for life

 

[twalsh102 1,601]

OK, first thing I need you to do so we're on the same sheet of music is to uninstall the old version of Reader, then download and install the latest version of Reader (1.54) which is found here:  https://www.dropbox.com/s/7g06tdc313xmkxx/Ilives Reader_v154_Release.zip?dl=0 

Let me know if you run into any installation problems.

I see that you are using the Origin download version.  I know that some file locations for digital versions are different than they are for CD versions, so we may need to work through that.  That is likely the cause of the errors you mentioned

Also, what version of Windows are you using?

[neslein 0]

Win 10 x64

Well.Now I have installed the Reader from your link,and also the Visual C++ 2010 (only possible after deleting all other versions of Visual´s...)

Now,I also have SC4 Deluxe on Steam,so I decided to remove Origin from my PC,and instead install SC4 from Steam,but still it tells me this:

I know it´s  the version (sc4) from Steam now,because it´s on danish(my language),and the Origin version are on english,so I have no idea why it still says /Origin Games...

When I click "ok" on that screen,Reader open with this screen:

I don´t get the message about:

"No Reader.ini detected.You need to setup the Reader for optimal performance"

and as you can see,-the Reader seems to be ready,but I don´t know if it "looks right".

-many things are greyed out..

So far,so good (or bad?)

 

 

  Edited March 22, 2017 by neslein  
typo.Edit 2-added info

[twalsh102 1,601]

I haven't "experienced" Win 10 yet, so we'll have to play that part by ear

It does look right.  It's usual to have most thing greyed out, because you don't have any files open to run those commands on.

Although it's not necessary for the purposes of this "lesson" (Reader will work perfectly fine with out knowing where SimCityLocale.dat is), I suspect you will probably get annoyed if you keep getting that first pop-up every time you open Reader, so let's try and find that file first.

So, open File Explorer, click on your C: drive, type SimCityLocale.dat into the search window and hit enter.  This should find that file any place it is located on your C: drive.  Make note of that location, or better copy the location to notepad or whatever goes for a text editor in Windows 10.

Once you have the location jotted down or copied, Open Reader if you don't already have it open, click on the Reader icon (all the way to the left at the top of the page).  This opens a menu.   All the way to the bottom of the menu, next to the Exit button, click on Options.  Make sure Option is highlighted in the left pane.  You can keep all default settings for now.  the one we are going to change is the first option with an address box: SimCityLacale.dat file.  You can do a couple of things here: a)if you copy /pasted the location to notepad, delete the location that's currently in the box, copy the true location from notepad and paste in the box; b) if you just jotted down the location, you can type it in (although there is room for error here; or c) click the browse button (open folder icon) (you will initially be taken to the wrong location - i.e. the location that was previously typed in the box), browse to the location you either jotted down or copied, highlight SimCityLocale.dat in the right pane, and click on open at the bottom of the browse window.

This fixes the SimCityLocale.dat issue.

OK next lesson, we will actually be changing the values for those properties that interest you.  Although any school/hospital will work, pick one of each that you want to operate on.  Custom content would be best for several reasons we don't need to go into right now, but ease of finding the necessary exemplars is the primary reason.

All for now, work beckons!

Cheers, Tim

[neslein 0]

I love you :))-even you forgot to tell me also changes the SimCity folder (no 2 option,but how could you know it also saied Origin)hehhh..

Now Reader open as intended.Bravo.

Can´t wait till next lesson.You´r a good friend:)

In the meantime,I´ll use a little time in the "Donate" option in top of this site.

CU.Kim

  Edited March 22, 2017 by neslein  
Added picture

[twalsh102 1,601]

OK, break from work, so we can carry on.

First lets look at the anatomy of a download.  If you're familiar with this part, you can just skip it.
 
The four basic game file types you will see are .SC4Lot, .SC4Desc, .SC4Model, and .dat
The SC4Lot file will always contain the Lot exemplar, but may also contain the Building exemplar depending on the type of lot
The SC4Desc file may be either a Building exemplar or a Prop exemplar.
The SC4Model file contains all the model and texture files.
A .dat file may contain any combination of the above.

Each type of file may contain a number of "sub-files" of types:  Exemplar, PNG, DIR, XML, LD, FSH, S3D, LTEXT, and more.  The actual contents will vary from file to file.  There may be multiples of each type.

Now let's get back to what concerns you.  Before you open and change any files, alway have a backup.

Open up Reader, click the Open File icon at the top of your page, browse to one of the files you want to operate on (It doesn't matter which at this point), and open the .SC4Lot file.  If the file you chose only has a .dat file, open that.  Since the properties you're interested in a very similar, I'll talk about both hospitals and schools at the same time. You will get a window that has two panes.  It's usually best to just maximize the window so you can see most everything.

One word of "warning" here:  All values in Reader are in hex.  The good news is that there are a couple of easy ways to convert back and forth between hex and decimal:  a) Use one of the many hex - decimal converters available online; b) Use the built-in Windows calculator changed to Programmer mode.  Let me know if you need tips for using the Windows Calculator.

In the left pane you will see a list of all the sub-files that are included in the SC4Lot file.  Once you click on one of these sub-files, you will see the contents of that sub file on the right.  Right now, we are interested in the Exemplar sub files.  You will probably see two, but with no idea what they are.  There is sometimes a way to tell by looking at the Group ID, but for now, just open each until you find the Building Exemplar (the Exemplar Type property will say Buildings).

The two columns that interest us are Name (of the property) and Value.  You will see that some properties will be showing decimal numbers rather than hex.  Don't ask me why the Maxis developers did this.  It is what it is! 

The properties that determine capacity are: School Student Capacity for a school and Hospital Patient Capacity for a hospital. The values are of course in hex (hex numbers will always look something like this - 0x000002EE; when using a converter, you only need to input the portion after the x).

Once you've determined what you want the capacity to be and converted it to hex, double click the property, and a window will open where you can change the value.  You can enter in the new value in one of two forms:  the full hex number (0x000002EE), or an abbreviated hex number (0x2EE).  Note that the converter you use may only show you the relevant digits (2EE), so the easiest way to input the number is to just use the abbreviated hex number (0x is always needed in Reader to denote a hex number).  Once the new value is entered, tab down so that the Values as text window matches the value you just entered, then click Apply.

The property to determine monthly costs is the same for both a hospital or school - Budget Item:  Cost.  This property is almost always the last property in the list.  You will notice that it includes two values: the first is monthly "maintenance" costs, and the second is either bussing or ambulance costs.  You will change these using the same process used for changing the capacity values.  You will notice that the hex numbers here are longer than those used for the capacity values.  This is based on Data Type:  UINT32 uses 0x plus 8 digits; SINT64 uses 0x plus 16 digits. 

Once you  have changed the values you want to change, click the save icon to save the file.  IMPORTANT NOTE:  If you save a file more than once each session that file is open, you run the risk of corrupting PNG and LTEXT sub-files.  If PNG files are corrupted, the lot icon will not show in the game menu, and it could cause the game to freeze/crash.

[neslein 0]

O my God.

I really appreciate you take your time to teach me using this Reader,or in your own word,-how to catch a fish.But I feel like a marsian who have never seen water in hes life.

The first part about .SC4Lot, .SC4Desc, .SC4Model, and .dat,well I know very little.I know a hole lot more about the SC4 Mapper and bit files,but thats another story.

I have tryed to follow your instructions,and have "open file",and that gives me this:

Then you tells me to open the .SC4Lot file,but I don´t know where to find that one.

It´s very late here now,and my brain stopped working by reading your last post :)).I won´t say to give it up yet,but perhaps take some smaller steps...

[twalsh102 1,601]

OK, no problems.  Like I said we'll need to work through a few differences between Windows 10 and Windows 7, which is what I have.  I'm making an assumption that you have already downloaded some custom content from either the STEX here or the LEX over at SC4 Devotion.

Some more SC 4 basics:  You should have two Plugins folders, one where your game is installed (which is what your are showing) (hereafter referred to as Installation Folder\Plugins), and one in your My Documents folder (or whatever goes for My Documents in Windows 10 - I think it's Dokumenter under Denne PC in your screen shot) (hereafter referred to as Documents\SimCity 4\Plugins) (this folder should have been created automatically when you installed the game).

Installation\Plugins folder should not contain any custom content other than certain mods that are .dll files.  All other custom content that you download should be placed in Document\SimCity 4\Plugins or will get placed there by an installer if one is provided.  If any custom content (other than DLLs) have ended up in \Installation Folder\Plugins, we need to move it at some point.

Likewise, you should have two Regions folders:  Installation Folder\Regions (which contains all default Maxis Regions), and Documents\SimCity 4\Regions (which is where any custom regions should get placed).

Please let me know if you don't have any custom content yet.  This will mean we need to operate on Maxis files, which can be a somewhat more complicated subject., or we  need to download some custom content.  Most Custom Content creators give installation instructions for their content similar to this:  "To install copy and paste the <download title> folder into your User\Documents \SimCity 4\Plugins folder." or something similar.  Some tell you nothing.  Some will still tell you place their content in Installation Folder\Plugins.

Will the game still work if everything is in Installation Folder\Plugins?  Yes, although it is not considered a best practice.  Plus every download that includes an installer will place content in Documents\SimCity 4\Plugins.  Pretty soon you have custom content all over your hard drive, making it difficult to find things.