I can't view downloaded plugins

[ZoologyGirl]

Hi, I'm new here, so hoping I am at least in the general correct area for this question.

I have owned and been playing the SC4 deluxe edition on and off ever since they first released it.  However, I have never used downloaded lot/building content before, and am running into problems.

I downloaded some lots directly from the simcity.ea.com site.  The couple landmarks I downloaded (Stonehenge and Arc de Triomphe) from their "cool stuff - downloads" seem to have downloaded fine and I am able to access them in my game and place them.

However, I downloaded various lots from their "lot exchange"...some ploppable...and they are not accessable to me when playing my game.  When I go to my plugins folder for SC4 is comes up as empty.  However, when I retry to download a lot I have previously downloaded it says "The file named C:\Users\Heather\Documents\SimCity4\Plugins\insertnamehere.SC4lot already exists"

I guess I am confused as to why these are not working and how to go about correcting this problem.  I am running Windows Vista.  I hope someone can help 

[thingfishs]

Hi & welcome,

You're in for a treat if you've never used custom content before and you've been playing that long. The best thing to do is avoid the maxis lot exchange altogether as it is known to contain buggy and even viral content. The safest exchange by far is the LEX which is here on this site, see the "lex" link above (you need to register separately for that). Also by far the biggest (and generally safe and policed), is the STEX at simtropolis.com. These are your best places to get new stuff. Most things from the LEX will have their own installer that will place it directly into your plugins folder and most from the STEX are simply manually placed there. Any other official Maxis things you might want can be got from the "support" link above as well.
good luck

[ZoologyGirl]

Thanks, I just registered for the BSC/Lex thing from this site and am navigating it now so I will give it a try and see if I can get some things to work.