Editing Monte Vista in CAW - For Complete Newbs

It took what felt like months for me to work my way through enough forum posts, partial tutorials and dead-end links to finally figure out how to edit Monte Vista in CAW and have it turn out - WITH the damn bridges. And since we're never as unique as we want to think we are, surely someone else is struggling with the same thing. So here is my complete, start to finish, assume you know as little as I did when I started, Editing MV in Create A World for Newbs. 

Back-Up Your Files

Copy and Paste your entire Sims 3 Folder onto a thumb-drive, and external hard-drive. Whatever you have that will hold the file and it's contents for safekeeping. The path is C:\Users\[you]\Documents\Electronic Arts\The Sims 3.

I can honestly say I had to restore my game from the back-up at least half-a-dozen times, so disregard this advice at your own risk. 

Download Some Stuff

If you haven't already downloaded and installed CAW, now would be the time. 

https://www.thesims3.com/game/tools/world. You will also need Monte Vista if you don't already have it. CAW is free, Monte Vista is not. Below are links to everything else you will need. Download and extract the files for each of them.

 7 Zip

Next there are a few programs you are going to need. All of them will download as zip files so you will need a program to extract them too. I use 7 zip - https://www.7-zip.org/download.html. It's free and doesn't constantly pop shit up on the screen. From here on out, I will assume you are using 7 zip too.

Delphy's Sims 3 Pack Multi-Extractor

Delphy's Sims 3 Pack Multi-Extractor is a lovely little utility. It doesn't actually install, it just sits there in it's folder or on your desktop until you need it. I like it on my desktop. To edit Monte Vista, you will use it once - unless you completely FUBAR something and have to start over. 

Compressorizer Redux

Compressorizer Redux is another utility type program you will only use once to edit Monte Vista. Download, unzip and put the folder on your desktop. 

S3PE and S3OC

Both of these programs can be found at Simlogical. Download them, unzip and install. You can access them through the start menu or pin them to your taskbar. I like them pinned and ready. S3PE - Sims 3 Package Editor and S3OC - Sims 3 Object Cloner. When you go to download them Microsoft .Net Framework will be mentioned. Ignore this. If you are running on Window's 10, you've already got whatever you need. Sims 3 is so old most of the players and creators in the forums were playing on Vista.

Keeping things organized

Sims 3 files are in a package format and they are all named with numeric strings that are impossible to differentiate from one another. It's pretty easy to end up with an absolute mess if you aren't methodical with the files you are working on. You can start with creating a couple of folders on your desktop. Name one MV original and another one MV extracted. You will also need a folder you can drop or copy and paste original files in for safekeeping. Call it something like safebox or whatever that lets you find it. There will be more folders as we go. 

Other Useful Links

If you've never used Create A World this tutorial is pretty straightforward.  

The forum post I started from by SimSample is >here<. It is worth a read but keep in mind they are discussing Bridgeport, which is an EA world that came with the Late Night expansion pack. Monte Vista is a store world purchased from the Sims 3 Store and the files for each are handled much differently. The tip on blue lots after using Edit in Game is gold though.