For my fellow Simmers who can’t get Bulk Rename Utility to work...
I might have something to help you out!
So, for those fellow newbs out there who like me only got into the modding of this game recently (like...when a certain virus hit) let me give you a quick tip! Certain symbols in the filenames of your cc-content actually slow your game down a little bit. But we didn't know that for the longest time! So a lot of cc-content still has names that your computer struggles with.
Now, you've got Bulk Rename Utility to help you out with that. Only, trouble is, I couldn't get it working. Because either I or my computer sucks (nothing but love for he ol' thing though <3). So I resigned myself to renaming every single file. Last night my husband asked what I was doing, because my keyboard sounded so repetitive. I told him I was changing the names of the files of the cc-content in my sims 2 game. Since my husband is an IT-er he wrote a little program for me to do it for me! So I figured that might as well be my first actual contribution.
What does it do? It renames all the package filenames so that they are now stripped from spa ces, hyp-hens and [square braces]. So _ underscores _ are still present because they don't slow your game. Also, the file names of your sub-directories (like "clothing" or whatever) are not touched. This program only changes the names of files that end in 'package'.
You can download it here.
If you're already somewhat computer savy and know how to use the terminal, you can stop reading :)
If you're unfamiliar with using the terminal on your computer, then keep reading! I'll give you a little step by step on how to use this program.
Step 1: Download renameit.exe
Make sure to save it in a folder. I've found that the easiest way to do this is to save it right on your desktop. So that's what I'm going with in this example. But theoretically, you could save it anywhere.
Step 2: Open a terminal.
Easiest way to do this on Windows is to use the search function and look up "cmd".
Step 3: Open the folder you saved renameit in.
Now if you saved it on your desktop, you want to put in: cd "Desktop". It should look something like this:
Cd stands for "change directory" which basically makes your computer look in the right folder for the program. So if you saved it anywhere other than Desktop, then you should change it accordingly.
Step 4: Find the right path.
Now, you want to find the folder that contains the package files you want to rename. In my case, I want to rename all my downloads so that's the folder I'm choosing. Don't worry if you've got subfolders in the download folder! This program won't change the folder's name but it does find all the content within that folder.
To find the path to the folders easily, you can go to the folder with your downloads in your Windows Explorer, right-click on the path-bar at the top of the window and select "copy as text". Like so!
(Excuse my Dutch ;) But you should get the gist!)
Step 5: Run renameit in ‘dry-run’ mode.
Dry run functions as a safety precaution. It shows you all the files that it would change the name of and how it would change them. This way you can check whether it does what you want it to. To do this, you should put in your terminal execute: renameit.exe "paste path here" --dry-run.
It should look like this:
Step 6: Check whether it's about to do what you want.
All good? Then on to the next step!
Step 7: Execute the program.
It's the same command except you don't put in the --dry-run command. So it should say the following in your terminal: renameit.exe "<paste path here>"
And that's it! All your package filenames are now stripped from spa ces, hyp-hens and [square braces]. It only renames files with a ".package" extension.
