Saving my family for later use

[Qtzlady]

I am a Sims 3 newbie and I have a question.  How do I save my family for later use?  I have read the tutorials on saving and moving a family.  But what I am wondering is can I export my family to a "back up" file independent of the game to be imported back into the game at a later date? 

I put a lot of time into making a duplicate of my real family, only to realize I should have started on a practice family first while I was learning the game.  I don't want to lose my family while I practice on the other family. 

Also that way I could play the family again at a later date and give them a do over?

Thanks for your help.

[pallyndrome]

You can always start a new game, which will give you a completely new neighbourhood and family - this does not delete your old family (as long as you call the new one by a different name), and it will be there in the main menu for when you want to play it again. If you want to do more to keep it safe, you can always back up your files onto a USB, or some such separate device to keep it safe from computer crashes.

[Qtzlady]

Thanks for your reply. 

But won't my original family age while I play the other family?

Thanks again.

[Ricalynn]

If you start a new family in a completely new world, then the old family will stay in tact because it's a different save file.

If you choose a new family while in the same world/save - then you can turn aging off if you're worried.

[Joria]

When in CAS, (Create A Sim), there is a button with the word, "More" on it basically in the middle of the bottom of the screen.  If you click on that it brings up an option to save to file, shown by a file icon, or save to bin or export.  If you save to bin your created Sims will be saved to CAS with their original information attached to them.  If you somehow lose your Sims while playing, you can then go back into CAS, click on "Premade Sims", select people, and your family should be there, but as individuals, not a group.  You can then select them and recreate your family.

If you just save them to library while playing, they should show up there with the information for them at that point including any funds they may have accrued.  So if you want, you can evict them from their current home thereby stopping any aging or progress they would make while you play another family.  Then, when you want to play them again, you just put them back into their home. 

Also, if you look in your Sims3 folder in your pc, you'll see a file named Saved Sims.  Any Sims you have saved to library will also be there.

I'm pretty paranoid about saving things as I've so often lost Sims, builds and stories, including failing a dynasty because of it.  So I regularly ALSO save a copy of pertinent files to my desktop or to a flash drive just to make sure I have the things/people I love.

[Qtzlady]

Thank you!  I appreciate all of the help. 

I did save them to bin when I was creating them.  So I have now made a back up.  I feel better now.