How to Copy/Transfer Fire Sims Between Devices

Our intent with SimsUshare is to enable multiple people in your department to create and share simulations, whether through your mobile devices or laptop/desktop computers. This page details how to copy and share simulations.

To get the most from the app, we recommend that you acquire both the mobile app and the desktop/laptop companion. This enables you to:

• Carry and deliver your training everywhere on your mobile device
• Use the larger screen of your desktop/laptop for more precise editing. It is much easier to compose simulations on a laptop or desktop with a nice-sized screen, then transfer the sims to your mobile device for convenient playback in the field. Conversely, it may be easier to acquire photos in the field using your phone or tablet, mock something up quickly there, then copy to your computer for the finishing touches.

iTunes: Copying Individual Sims between Mobile and Desktop

The simulations you make or load onto your iOS device (iPhone, iPod Touch, or iPad) are stored in a folder called SimsUShare, which you can access through iTunes. Whether you want to put sims on your device or take them off, obviously first you need to have your device connected to your computer (Mac or Windows). Here is a screenshot of where the activity takes place:

1. Select your device
2. Choose the “Apps” tab
3. Scroll down to the “File Sharing” area. You will see an entry for “SimsUShare Mobile” (on the left), and a folder named “SimsUShare” on the right (if you have not run SimsUShare Mobile yet, there won’t be a folder there. Run the application at least once before copying any sims onto the device, so that the folder gets created).

Getting Sims off Your iPhone or iPad

To copy your sims off your device, either to use them in the Desktop application or to keep them as a backup, scroll down into the “File Sharing” area. Beneath the box for “SimsUShare Mobile Documents” are two buttons, “Add…” and “Save To…”:

1. Select the SimsUShare folder
2. Click “Save To…” and select a location on your computer to save the entire folder of sims
   Note: We suggest that you choose a location to store your sims somewhere on your computer you can easily retrieve
3. Your computer will save the whole folder in the location you chose.

If you want to put the sims into your copy of the Desktop companion application, continue with the following:

1. Locate that folder, open it, and you will see a folder called “sims” and a file called “catalog.xml”
2. Open the newly-saved folder (from the  steps above) on your computer, then open the “sims” folder. You will see a list of all the sims you had made on your device, for example “RANCH1”. The folder names will be very similar to the sim names, unless you have renamed the sims inside of SimsUShare Mobile.
3. Copy the folder(s) you want to transfer. Let’s call this the “source folder(s)”
4. Simulations made and used in the desktop companion application are stored within a special folder called SimsUShare in your Documents directory on your computer. Locate that folder, open it, and then open the “sims” folder. Let’s call the “sims” folder the “target folder.”
5. Paste the source folder(s) into the target folder.

Putting Sims onto Your iPhone or iPad

You will use a similar mechanism as above to load any sim into iTunes, except you first need to zip (compress) your simulation(s) and then choose the “Add…” button in iTunes (pictured above). You have to zip the simulations because they have to go in a specific structure which iTunes does not permit you to control. Here are the step-by-step instructions:

1. On your computer, locate the folder in which your simulation resides, for example, “RANCH1”
2. For this step, you can select more than one folder at a time. Select the sim folder(s) you want to copy, then
   1. Windows: right-click and select “Send To > Compressed (zip) file” from the pop-up menu, and it will create the zip file.
   2. Macintosh: Control-click and choose “Compress” from the pop-up menu, and it will create the zip file.
3. In iTunes, from the screen above, choose “Add…” and select the zip file.
4. Important: click the “Sync” button in iTunes to ensure the files are added immediately.
5. On your device, if SimsUShare Mobile is running, go to the main (home) screen and select the menu and item “Scan for New Sims”, then it will prompt you to add the new sims it found. If SimsUShare Mobile is not running, start the app and it automatically will scan for new sims, then ask you if you want to add them.
6. If you add the sims, SimsUShare Mobile will erase the zip file.

Android: Copying Individual Sims between Mobile and Desktop

Simulations are stored within a special folder called SimsUShare in your Documents directory on your device or computer. Use any File Manager app to take a look there, after installing and running the app at least once). On all platforms, each sim you make is contained in a new folder within SimsUShare/sims, with an alphanumeric name automatically assigned based on the sim name you chose.  For example, a sim you entitled “Ranch House 1” (because you are so creative) will likely have the folder name RANCHHOUSE1, unless that was already in use at the time you made the simulation, then it will have a slightly different name. Needless to say, folder names have to be case-insensitively unique (i.e., no “Ranch1” and “RANCH1”).

That sim folder (RANCHHOUSE1) completely contains the assets in your sim, so you simply copy the folder to/from your device and computer. Your job is done!

Behind the scenes, when the app starts, it scans your sims folder to organize the sims it finds (you can also choose the menu item “Scan for New Sims”, from menu on the main screen). If it discovers a new sim, it will come up with a prompt asking you if you want to integrate the new sim(s) it found. You can choose to integrate them, or ignore them (it will keep asking you each time the app starts). If you have deleted a sim folder manually from your device or computer without telling SimsUShare Mobile, it will adjust its record of the sims (geeks take note: that list is handily stored in SimsUShare/catalog.xml, if you’re curious, so please don’t mess that up).

Windows/Mac: Copying Individual Sims between Computers

The simplest way to copy/transfer sims among different machines is to use the shared folder feature of SimsUshare. This feature lets you choose a folder to place or copy your sims. Other people or computers you use SimsUshare on can also point this location, and thereby you can share your sims. By default, anyone who points to a shared location can copy, modify, or even delete that sim, but you can setup your network permissions to let others only copy or play your sims (speak with your IT admin about how to do that, and look at our documentation for the details). Typically, you will want to keep your own sims in a private folder and create additional folders in which you copy sims that you want to share.

If you have several people who want to share sims, you may be interested in our Station Edition, which allows any user on a computer to create and share sims.

Here is a video that describes how to set up your shared folders:

The Technical Details

Simulations are stored within a special folder called SimsUShare in your My Documents or Documents directory on your computer. Navigate to that folder to take a look there (after installing and running the app at least once). On all platforms, each sim you make is contained in a new folder within SimsUShare/sims, with an alphanumeric name automatically assigned based on the sim name you chose.  For example, a sim you entitled “Ranch House 1” (because you are so creative) will likely have the folder name RANCHHOUSE1, unless that was already in use at the time you made the simulation, then it will have a slightly different name. Needless to say, folder names have to be case-insensitively unique (i.e., no “Ranch1” and “RANCH1”).

That sim folder (RANCHHOUSE1) completely contains the assets in your sim, so you simply copy the folder to/from one computer to the other. Your job is done!

Behind the scenes, when the app starts, it scans your sims folder to organize the sims it finds (you can also choose the menu item “Scan for New Sims”, from menu on the main screen). If it discovers a new sim, it will come up with a prompt asking you if you want to integrate the new sim(s) it found. You can choose to integrate them, or ignore them (it will keep asking you each time the app starts). If you have deleted a sim folder manually from your computer without telling SimsUShare, it will adjust its record of the sims (geeks take note: that list is handily stored in SimsUShare/catalog.xml, if you’re curious, so please don’t mess that up).