The Menu Bar

This tutorial does not match the newest program version.

Settings

Options

Base Path
Path used by the software to find the data (pictures, database, inventories). If there’s no value, the default path is used
File Containing the store data
Path used by the software to find the database
Sub folder containing the images
Path used by the software to find the images. This option can be overwritten by individual information for each object. If there’s no individual information available, the software looks in this path. The name of the image is saved in the database itself. A list of these names can be found above.
Display store data in the following language
Names of objects, compilations and sets are shown in this language
Show UI in the following language
The User interface is shown in this language
Display the following inventory after launching the application
After launching the program, this inventory will be loaded (default inventory)
Test
Testing the connection to the database.

Missing Image File

List of image files the program couldn’t find.

About S3S Browser

Update Infos & License Agreements

Inventory

Create Inventory

Creates a new inventory and opens it. You can save it to any location you want

Open Inventory

Opens a inventory

Edit Properties

Edit the properties of a certain inventory. You can rename the inventory or set if the inventory should be loaded on startup

Create Copy

Makes a copy of an existing inventory

Close Inventory

Closes the active inventory.

Scan Downloads

The Sims 3 Download Folder
The folder where all your downloaded Store sims3packs are stored (usually documentstheSims3Downloads).
Additionally Search, also search the DCBackup folder
Since the database does not have all Sims3Pack info (especially if you have many sets and compilations), it can help to scan the DCBackup folder. If you regularly clean this folder out, there’s no use in doing that.
DCBackup folder
Path of the folder (usually documentstheSims3DCBackup).
Current Search
Some Info about the currently running scan.
Go
The program scans the folder(s) and marks all items it finds as owned. Sub-folders are scanned as well. Since the program is not able to scan the installed data (in DCCache), it uses the downloads/dcbackup folders to determine if you have a download or not. Since not all the Sims3Pack/Package info is available in the Database yet, some items you have is not recognized correctly. You can always marks something manually as owned within the software
Show log
Not for the casual user

Save all

Saves inventory, image names and Sim3pack info changes

Active Inventory

Shows you the current active inventory and lets you choose another one. The list only shows the ones that are loaded on startup (see inventory properties).

The Symbols

Backwards/Forwards
Goes back or forth one page
Home
Shows the main screen
Search
Search the items by English or German name. This does not apply to sets and compilations
Compilations
Shows all compilations. The pie diagram below shows, how much of a compilation you own. If you click on it, all items in the compilation will be marked as owned.
Sets
Shows all sets. The pie diagram below shows, how much of a set you own. If you click on it, all items in the set will be marked as owned. Sets can also be sorted by different criteria and search by name (German or English)
Items
Shows the objects by main- and subtypes. Main and subtypes are taken from the EA Website (there are some minimal variations). You can show all items at once cause those would be to many. There are also filters by category, item price, special items, rating or owned status. You can use the owned status filter in combination with others. You can search by name (German or English) but only within the current filter. A dash/check marks tells you if you own the item or not and you can change the status by clicking on it. Each item can be rated by up to five stars (the ratings are saved per inventory)

Symbols used on the detail pages

Arrow
Opens the Compilation/Sets/item in your browser (EA Website) where a link is available
Dash
Price of the item
i
Special info about the item available
Pie diagram
Shows how many percent of an set/compilation is marked as owned.
Check mark/dash
Shows if an item is marked as owned
name link
Detail page of a compilation/set/item

Compilation

Shows the sets in the compilation and some extra info.

Missing pictures and Sims3pack names can be added by the user. The green part on the lower left shows how much of the compilation you own and if it’s still worth to buy. By clicking on the images of the sets, they are highlighted (shift-click to mark more than one set) and the info shows, how much those sets would cost. At the moment it’s not possible to unselect the last item.

Set

Shows the items in the sets and some extra info.

Missing pictures and Sims3pack names can be added by the user. You’ll also find links to compilations, super- and subsets. The green part on the lower left shows how much of the compilation you own and if it’s still worth to buy. By clicking on the images of the items, they are highlighted (shift-click to mark more than one item) and the info shows, how much those items would cost if bought individually. At the moment it’s not possible to unselect the last item.

Items

Shows information about the items.

Missing pictures and Sims3pack names can be added by the user. You’ll also find links to the sets the items are in. The green part on the lower left can be used to add individual info about the item. Those are saved with the inventories.

Installation of Image Files

For legal reasons I can’t upload my pictures, since I downloaded them all from the EA-Website. I’m in the process of finding ingame pictures I can distribute. Around 1200 are available for download already (thanks to MrHawk, elanorbreton, SimsVIP and Anonymous )

If you name your pictures accordingly and copy them in the image folder in the base folder, the program will find and display them. The names consist of the english name (without special characters). Item pictures are png files, while sets and compilations are jpg-files. Make sure you have the correct sub-folders within the image folder (see Installation & Startup). A complete list of all the file names can be fond here: Excel-List.

If you want to have a different name or place, you can save an individual picture for each compilation/set/item. This information is saved in a separate file. The program first checks this file to see if there’s any image information available, if not the information in the database file is used.

To save your individual picture, click on select image underneath the current picture and choose the picture from your hard disk.

If you have your own ingame-picture that you would like to share with other users, you can upload them somewhere for me to download (credits will be given)

Saving your own file names

To find out if you have bought a certain item, the program scans a folder defined by you for Sims3Pack (and also DCBackup-Package files). Since I don’t own the whole store, some file names are missing in the database, especially those of sets and compilations. If you own compilations/objects/sets that have missing sims3pack names you can save them individually. The information is saved in a separate file. The program first checks this file to see if there’s any image information available, if not the information in the database file is used. To save a individual file, click on the icon with the three dots after the Sims3Pack name

To make this info available to everyone, you can upload the file UserData.xml (found in the base path) to some file sharing site like mediafire and send me the link (see Feedback on how to get in touch with me)