this is great, thank you for writing it. i've been totally successful with it.
silly question and i am probably missing something obvious but you mentioned that: How does one accomplish this? specifically i am trying to put a CC decorative object into the build mode plant section. there are no check boxes for that and the drop down menu in overall sort doesn't seem to include build mode. am i just dumb?

Awesome tutorial! :D I'm slightly insane about hiding and categorizing stuff myself, so here's a few other tips on the subject...

Hiding objects: Not a good idea to try to hide Maxis objects by not putting them into any category at all. It does work, after a fashion, but (IIRC) they just get dumped into the Miscellaneous section, *and* (I know for certain) if you load a lot that contains an item hidden that way, it's liable to crash. It may still be useful for someone who loathes Maxis content, doesn't play in the default 'hoods and doesn't download many lots, though.

Walls and floors: these can be hidden by extracting and changing the value for the "showincatalog" line in the Object XML to 0x00000002. The Object XML's for walls and floors, for reasons unknown to me, do not seem to be accessible using SimPE's search function. They are located in the catpatterns.bundle.package for each EP, found in C:\Program Files\EA Games\[EP or SP name]\TSData\Res\Catalog\Patterns.

Walls and floors hidden this way will still show up in any lot where they were used, but will not appear in the catalog and can't be copied with the eyedropper tool. No idea whether the same technique would work with terrain paints; their data appears to be stored elsewhere.

(As an aside, this is a very handy technique to use if you want to include a custom wall or floor in a default replacement CAS and don't want your downloaders to accidentally delete it. Extract all the information from the wall or floor package, import it into the CAS package, and change the Object XML so it doesn't appear in the catalog.)

Multiple object categories: Can't be done in SimPE, but I believe it *can* with Paladin's Categorizer from SimWardrobe. I suppose you could clone a Maxis item, run it through Categorizer and use its Object Data as an override. It doesn't seem to hurt the game when done with custom content, but I haven't tried it with Maxis, so caveat emptor.

Conflicting mods: Generally speaking, files in the Downloads folder will load in alphabetical order by file and then subfolder, and whichever one loads last will override anything that came earlier that affects the same code. So, if you have two mods that recategorize or hide the same content, whichever one starts with the later letter of the alphabet will usually take precedence (unless they're in subfolders named in the reverse order.)

Moving hair: In addition to changing the clothing category, Maxis hair can be recategorized out of the color bins and into Custom (handy for the veils, tiaras and weirder stuff if you still want it to be readily available) after a fashion, by cloning it in Bodyshop and then hiding the original hair.

Sorry to run on so long...hope something in there is useful. :)

Don't apologize this is great information. Thanks. :D

No, I believe you need to edit the RAW data in SimPE to do that. It's much easier to download Paladin's Categorizer from simwardrobe.com, which has checkboxes for it.

I finally finished my object re-catalog project and I am ready to start on my walls and floors. I know how to extract obviously and I can figure out how to change the values. But what do I do after that?

Thank you for your time.

From start to finish:

1. Go through the catpatterns.bundle.package for each EP and SP to find the object XML's for the floors and walls you want to hide
2. Right-click each XML in the Resource List window, choose "Extract" and save with the filename it gives you
3. Select "New" from the SimPE File menu
4. In the Resource List window, right-click and choose "Add," navigate to the folder where you saved the extracted XML's, select them all (CTRL+A) and click Open
5. Go through the XML's and change the "showincatalog" for each to 0x00000002; commit each line as you go
6. Save the package with whatever name you like.

Don't forget to delete all those XML's from the folder where you extracted them after you're done.

Thank you. Where do I save the package? I have one more question. Is there a way to preview those files in SimPE or do I have to go through the game and write down all the ones I want to get rid of?

Thank you so much for the step by step.

Save it in your Downloads folder or a subfolder thereof. And I'm afraid you do have to go through in the game and write the names down. There's no shortcut. :/

Thanks. I guess I'll get busy

When recatagorizing where would I put stuff in build mode....I don't see a place for it. I want to put something in with trees and in with the pools.

I haven't messed around with it much, but I vaguely recall there being a category for 'outside'. Try that.

I have been following your tutorial and am finally finished but I can't see where to recatagorize an items I want to put in build mode. Beside the usual catagories (under catalog sort) it only gives aspiration or career award catagory no outside but I see you recatagorized the potted bamboo in Bon Voyage and put it in trees in build mode but I can't seem to be able to figure out how you did it.

I think the information for that is hidden in the RAW data, but the easiest way to change that is to get Paladin's Categorizer and use that.

Is it possible to place community lot items in residential lots? Sorry if someone else asked this I just really need to know.

Yes it is, as it is evident by the many 'com lot collections' that do just that. How, however is not something that I've ever explored so I don't know the answer. Sorry!

I ran into a problem when trying it, but I think I know now what I did wrong.Is the sims store considered the latest sp? I was putting all of my editings in the stuff pack folder of mansion and garden.

Store Editions is actually between Teen Style and Kitchen and Bath.

well when I put it in the stuff pack folder of Mansion and Garden, or even sims2store, the package file doesnt show up.It's just not there the only thing is the text folder when I look directly to my computer/ea games/ e.c.t.In SimPE when I save it though to stuff pack folder it does show in the save as box.Also I'm not able to click save just save as.

Hi,

well, I managed to hide/unhide all clothes and most of the objects (buy mode), but I have some problems with the objects from the build mode, means, door and windows etc. Does anybody has yet a solution to recategorize/hide them? It's probably also a raw data thing, but I don't find the right entry to change.

I've been playing around with sorting stuff into the build mode categories, and I may have figured some of it out... As far as I can tell, there are two values on the object data ---> raw data tab that need to be changed... Build mode type and Build mode subsort. The following are the *Decimal* values (not hexadecimal) for some of the build mode categories:

Doors/Windows, Build mode type = 8
Build mode subsort:
- doors = 1
- multi-story windows = 2
- windows = 4
- gates = 8
- archways = 16
- multi-story doors = 256

Garden centre, Build mode type = 4
Build mode subsort:
- trees = 1
- shrubs = 2
- flowers = 4
- gardening = 16

Miscellaneous, Build mode type = 1
Build mode subsort:
- columns = 8
- stairs (full staircases) = 32
- swimming pool = 64
- multi-story columns = 256
- column arches = 512
- garage = 1024
- elevators = 2048
- architecture = 4096

To get rid of the previous catalog category, you may have to click on "function sort flags" on the raw data tab and set them all to false (I'm not sure on the "catalog sort" tab how to set the "overall sort" back to blank once it has been set). I've tested the above categories using one of Phaenoh's catalog clean-up files, and re-categorizing a few random items into the swimming pool tab, or the architecture tab, or the gardening tab and it seems to work.

I can't figure out how to sort stuff into the awnings, fireplaces or fences categories... I'm guessing it's probably too complicated for a non-modder like me.

Hello, I ran into your new catalog cleanup mod earlier and I thought I'd try and do it myself so I could sort out all my CC as well, but I'm running into a few problems and I was wondering if you could help? Everything went fine until I was supposed to add all the OBJD files to a package, and SimPE won't package them because they're SimPE files. I'm new to using SimPE so I feel like I've either made a stupid mistake or missed something really obvious, any chance you could clear it up for me?

SimPE not packaging SimPE files makes no sense. Did you make sure you clicked 'Save As' instead of 'Save' the first time? SimPE has trouble being smarter than that.

I figured out what I was doing wrong, and it was something extremely stupid. I was trying to make a sims2pack file instead of clicking add at the side, so it wasn't recognising the SimPE files as they're not supposed to go in a sims2pack. It works according to your tutorial now
Also, do I just take the package files of my CC from my downloads folder and add them to the folder with all the cloned maxis objects before recategorising everything?

Glad to hear you sorted it out. To redo your CC, just change the OBJD file inside the original CC package, no need to extract it.

I finished recategorising everything, and just wanted to say THANK YOU so much for this tutorial! I've never seen the deco section so clean!