Hi folks! I would so appreciate if anyone is kind enough to help a poor CS noob out.

What i want to do sounds really simple. I have my favorite house mod installed: Ravenloft. Its filled with mannequins. But I found the perfect mannequin mod. So what I want to do is delete the existing mannequins so i can place the ones from the new mod instead.

So I hesitantly opened up the Construction Set after reading a bit of the tutorials out there. I Loaded Ravenloft as the active module. Picked a room (the Closet). And selected the 5 mannequins in that room and deleted them from the render screen. Hit Save. Should be that easy, right?

Well then I go into the game, and those mannequins are still there, but all kinds of whacky things are happening. Walls are dissapearing, doors lead out into blackness, I might pop into the room inside a wall from the save load. Random other mannequins and other objects are gone in other rooms i didnt touch, and walls are dissapearing all over the place in other rooms. Some door models are doubled up in the same location. What the heck is happening?!

Of course its simple enough to revert back to the original Ravenloft.esp, but why arent the edits doing what they should be doing?

Hmm... sounds like it's probably because you didn't use a clean save (I'm guessing?).
If you've already visited the cell with your character and then you edit the cell, it can cause problems.

In terms of editing, though, it sounds like you did all the right things, so good job

What you can do is clean the save using the http://planetelderscrolls.gamespy.com/View.php?view=other.detail&id=52, to make it as if you have never visited the cell you are trying to edit. However, I recommend that you:

a) Remove all your items from that cell first, otherwise they will disappear
b ) Back-up your savegame
c) Clean the mod before you play with it - if you've edited other cells by mistake (I think just entering a cell can count as "editing" it), you could still experience some of the problems you described.

To clean your save game, open the Enchanted Editor, click Open, and find your save game. Then expand "Cells" in the list of categories on the left. Find the cell you want to "clean", tick it, and then click "Delete marked entries" (this option is in one of the menus or is a button somewhere, I can't remember...). Then save.

Tada! Your character should be able to visit the cell with no problems (I hope!).

Thanks for the advice! I will check out the Enchanted Editor. Ive heard about it before but never seen it. But seriously...remove all my items from the house?!!! OMG! Weeks of bringing in all my loot, and even arranging all my ingredients into their containers...and I have to drag it all outside?! That will take forever! And just to delete one specific type of object from the mod? There must be an easier way?

But come to think of it...*I may be doing something very wrong...Im trying to edit a mod that im standing in in the savegame. Maybe i should go somewhere else outside while Im editing the Ravenloft mod?

Hmm... if Ravenloft is made up of lots of cells, then it shouldn't be too bad to empty just one of them?

But actually, I think you have a point - you should try leaving the cell first, before applying the mod.

However, I've just thought of an easier way to remove the mannequins without the need for a mod. Just go up to a mannequin in-game and open the console (press the key below 'Esc'). Click on the mannequin while in this menu, and type "Disable". Mannequin gone.

OMG [facepalm] that was so damned easy! No need for editing the esp at all!

But i think I may have found an even better console command: Setdelete

http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Tes3Mod:SetDelete

Hehe, yes, if you have Tribunal you can use "setdelete 1", but you should use "Disable" first.