Nomenclature

Hah! That worked! I was hoping on avoiding NifSkope, but it actually wasn't as hard as I thought it would be. I had changed the names and paths of some of the .dds and .nif files, that probably was one of my issues to begin with. But I opened up NifSkope and edited the nif like you said and changed the paths pointing to the original dds files to the new ones, and then saved. Opened the Creation Kit, created a new link to the nif and a new weapon data entry, and bam! New weapon! Thanks a bunch!

I apologize. I'm sure the topic title has caused eyes to roll as soon as they saw it ( 'not this question again?' ), but I've been looking through tutorials on here and elsewhere and I can not seem to find a solution to my modding issue. I recently downloaded a replacer mod. This particular mod replaces the meshes and textures of an existing Skyrim vanilla weapon, and I'd rather have this weapon be a standalone item. I have the .dds files, and I have the .nif files. However, to my disappointment, the mod does not contain an .esp. If it had contained an esp file, I most likely wouldn't need to be bothering people on here with my questions. So, on to my question(s). How do I take these .nif and .dds files and make an item in game with the creation kit utilizing these resources? I'm assuming it's something as easy as creating reference types in the creation kit (stuff like texture sets, armor addons, and so on) that point to these particular files. I've searched for guides and tutorials, but none of them quite address the issue that I have. I've found some guides that start from the desire to do a replacer with custom textures, others that focus on armor replacer/standalone conversations (not weapons), others that tell you how to do a simple duplicate of an existing item and just give it a new name and stats, and so on. If anyone has any links to any tutorials that specifically address my issue, I would be ever so thankful. Also, I have no intention of redistributing someone else's mod. I'm only interested in this conversion for personal use. Thanks!

Oh, I have no intention of redistributing content. I only wanted to edit mods for personal use. I have a 'thing' for armor mods. It's almost OCD, where as my character progresses, I like to make armors and collect them to proudly display in a show room filled in mannequins. Why I do this in a single player game where no one else will see the content, I'm not quite sure. :) But what I don't like is how some armor mods have quests, and edited cells (dungeons, go kill this 'boss,' and so forth) that you have to go to in order to get the armor. I appreciate their effort, and I'm sure much of this kind of content is enjoyable, I'm just not interested playing through that content in order to get their armor. So I wanted to figure out how to make my own mod file with item entries that point to their mesh and texture work so I could avoid having to add all those various dungeons and bosses and such. And your tutorial helped me with that greatly. Gladly, I've also recently learned how to edit/add crafting and temper recipes as well. So that takes care of that. Thanks again.

Thanks for this link. I think that link may have shown me what I was doing wrong, but I haven't tried it yet. Wanted to thank you in advance. Edit: Yep, that worked. It had something to do with me not duplicating the armoraddon file associated with the item. Did a test run and everything worked fine. Thanks again to you, and everyone who responded so very quickly!

I need some assistance, please. I'm trying to copy a piece of armor from one mod (esp file) to another mod (my own created esp file). I start this off by checking the relevant main esp files (Update, Skyrim), and then by checking the mod I want to copy from and opening the data, without selecting an active esp file, which is intentional. I create minor edits to the item I want to copy, such as removing the enchant, removing the description, and giving the item a new name. I then select save, which opens a prompt asking me to create a new esp file. I create the new esp file and make sure it has active status and then save the file and close up the creation kit. When I log into the game and attempt to equip the new item, the armor piece does not show up on my character. When I reopen the creation kit and check the new item I have created, all the data has been correctly copied from the original item to the new item except for the 'models' field at the bottom middle portion of the object edit window. I again check to load the original mod I want to copy from, and set my own new esp as active and make sure to copy over the correct settings to the models field and save once again. When I reopen the creation kit to check to see if my save held, it again shows in the new item that the models field is blank. What am I doing wrong? Is there an easy step-by-step tutorial someone can point me to that can show you how to copy one item from one mod to a new one? TL;DR version: I can't successfully copy an item from one mod to a new esp file. Please forgive me if this topic has already been discussed at length. I tried the stickies and doing a few google and forum searches, and I still can't seem to find an answer to my problem. Thanks.