Sims 2 Tutorial: Deleting and Re-categorising CC

Updated: 30th January 2025

In this blog post I'll be documenting the first time I'm using the Sims 2 Body Shop and Simlogical's Outfit Organiser (at the time of posting it is version 3) to sort out my custom content (CC) folder. I have used Body Shop in the past to create Sims but I've never used it to manage my CC. The Outfit Organiser is a powerful tool created by Simlogical which also allows you to manage CC. I really needed to sort out my clothes folder due to missing meshes, CC I didn't want anymore and clothing that not categorised how I would like it to be. I wanted to document this so I could refer back this blog at a later time as I have a horrible memory, but find it easier to follow my own notes/instructions. However, Simlogical has a really good tutorial on the website for this mod so do check that out. I hope you find this blog somewhat useful too!

If you want to use Simlogical's Outfit Organiser, simply download from the link above, extract and then run the OufitOrganiser.exe file contained inside. I have the Sims 2 Ultimate Collection which I got via Origin in 2014 and the Sims 2 Body Shop was found in this location on my PC: C:\Program Files (x86)\The Sims 2 Ultimate Collection\Fun with Pets\SP9\CSBin

Configuring Outfit Organiser

After opening the Outfit Organiser I headed to the "File" tab and then "Configuration" to set the following paths.

Setting the correct paths

Cigen.Package Missing!

I then ran into a pop up saying "cigen.package was not found - thumbnails will NOT display". You can ignore this if you want to and the app runs perfectly fine. However, as I wanted the thumbnails to display, I did a quick google search to find out what the cigen.package file was and were it should be located. After consulting the wonderful community on Tea Addict's discord server, Tea Addict told me that I should run Sims 2 Body Shop to regenerate the cigen.package file. I realised I hadn't run this since moving to my new PC last year.

Oh dear! Cigen.package not found

Trying to Get Body Shop to Run!

My next issue was trying to get the Sims 2 Body Shop to run on my new PC.

• I first applied the 4gb patch (only require when you run it for the first time).

• I then opened up Graphics Rules Maker, found the Body Shop location and let it auto-detect the best settings. This, again, was just because I haven't used Body Shop since I moved to my new PC.

• I then tried to run Body Shop to no avail, nothing happened. I headed to google and tried the following suggestions:

  • Temporarily removed folders unrelated to CAS from my downloads folder to the desktop - did not work

  • Temporarily removed the "Saved Sims" folder from my Sims 2 files to the desktop - this did the trick and Body Shop opened (although it took a while, I could see it in task manager for a long time until it appeared on my screen).

• To ensure I had all the thumbnails generated in the cigen.package file I clicked through each outfit category for all the age groups for both masculine and feminine frames and dragged the scroll bar to the end (I am not sure if this is necessary or not but I thought I'd do it since I hadn't used Body Shop on this PC).

  
  

At last Sims 2 Body Shop opened!

Deleting Un-wanted CC via Body Shop

The first thing I wanted to do was go through my CC as I knew there were clothes I didn't want anymore (or had versions for masculine/feminine frames I didn't want). I looked through each age group and outfit category in Body Shop and then deleted the files I didn't want from my Downloads folder (being careful with meshes that I still needed). I did not delete the files directly in Body Shop (and I don't do it in the Sims 2 game itself as it's too slow). Instead, I put a duplicated copy of my Downloads folder on my desktop, this way I could delete files without an error popping up saying the items were already open/in use in Body Shop.

Along the way, I found some items that I didn't want to delete, but re-categorise. For example, formal dresses that were in everyday wear, pyjamas in everyday wear, coats and jacets in everyday wear instead of outerwear. I created new folders on my desktop called "re-categorisepyjamasonly", "re-categoriseformalonly" or "re-categoriseouterwearonly" for example and dragged these items out of my duplicate Download folder over to these new folders.

When I was done, I then replaced the Downloads folder with the duplicated version from my desktop where the items had been deleted from and also moved in the re-catergorise folders to this new Downloads folder.

Outfit Organiser

I ran Outfit Organiser and checked Simlogical's webpage to familiarise myself with the layout of it:

1. The navigation tree of the selected folder and any sub-folders contained within it.

2. List of all the .package files within the selected sub-folder.

3. The table of resources found in the selected .package file(s).

4. Actions that can be performed on the selected resource(s).

Layout of Outfit Organiser

Re-Categorising CC with Outfit Organiser

The next thing I did was load up the folder I wanted to work with in the Outfit Organiser. This is under the "File" tab, then "Select Folder" and then navigate to the folder you want to use. In my case: C:\Users\username\Documents\EA Games\The Sims™ 2 Ultimate Collection\Downloads>Re-categorisePyjamasOnly

I have some pyjamas which are found in everyday and sleepwear categories, I only want them in sleepwear only. I selected the first file in the navigation tree, then worked my way through the package files and un-checked the "Everyday" box.; Once I'd worked through the list I then pressed "Save All". Handily, items that had been edited appeared as a light red colour before saving so it was really easy to keep track of what I had done. I then moved down to the next file in the navigation tree and the packages within and continued this way until I'd done all the files and packages. I later realised you can batch change multiple items, see end of this post.

Once I'd finished I took the the files out of my re-categorise folders and put them back in my regular clothing files in my Download folders (I file things under the CC creators name).

Note: You might wonder why I am putting bottoms as pyjamas only when the bottoms is not accessible under sleepwear in the vanilla game. Usually only the Everyday category has tops, bottoms and full body outfits. The other clothing categeories (formal, gym, sleepwear, swimwear, underwear, outerwear) do not. I use a mod by Lazy Duchess to allow for these outfit categories to have tops and bottoms as well as full body.

Re-categorising clothing items

I reaslised I could also multi-select items which made this process a whole lot faster. You can select all the recolours (not the mesh) and change them all in one batch.

Selecting multiple items

There is so much more than can be done with the Outfit Organiser, and I'll update this post if I ever use it for more things. But for now that is it, I hope this blog was useful! :-)