proper way to clean ESP file

[SilentThief]

Title: proper way to clean ESP file

Been way too long. I had plans for attempting a TC, a rather large project for expanding traps, and many other ideas (which I hope to still actually finish someday)

Anyhow, I figure I should start WAY smaller. So if I manage to whip up a mini-mod, what util do I clean with? TESAME? TESPCD?

ST

[Spirithawke]

Personally I use and LOVE Tes3cmd. See my thread about it.

[Elaura]

"proper" is rather subjective.  Just back up your files before attempting to clean them with any program.  The worst case scenario is *over* cleaning, in which case you just reload your backup and try again.

If you are cleaning mods that are already being used in a savegame, all bets are off, but you can reduce your likelihood of having issues by ensuring your load order isn't changed.  IIRC, tes3cmd has the option of keeping the original file date, but as a backup, you may wish to use Wryemash's "lock times" function as well.

[SpiritedTreasure]

I use TESAME . I delete everything that I did not create. As in my tag afterwards ST this latest had STBHSH afterwards.
I leave in the cell names but not all the other named things that do not have my tag afterwards.

Also sometimes landscaping is included that should not be. Again I can click that and scroll down to see if my cell or changes are in there.
Once you merge mods junk cells are generally included for some reason and should also be deleted, like with my bathroom resource.

Cells I can click on and see if they are in use.. If they are I will see something in them like the name of the cell I am working on.

Junk cells and stuff I did not create get deleted. Then save and TESAME makes a new Clean copy of the esp. This is also good in case I mucked up something I can start again.. Thanks to Wulfgar for teaching me how to clean esps.

[sassman]

I always go over my mods with a fine-toothed comb n The Enchanted Editor.  you can see EVERYTHING in there, and if you know hat to look for, cleaning is as easy as selecting a few items, and [DELETE].


Of course, if you're NOT comfortable with Enchanted, I'd definitely say "Stay away", lol!  Way too easy to delete what you wanted.

[Spirithawke]

Of course, if you're NOT comfortable with Enchanted, I'd definitely say "Stay away", lol!  Way too easy to delete what you wanted.

This is the God's honest truth!  WWWAAAYYYY to easy to delete more than you want if you are in a hurry and NOT being careful. I have done it a couple times myself.