If I'm so smart how come I managed to trash my 'hoods too and after starting over decided (a) to follow my own in advice in future and (b) to write a definitive step by step so no-one has to go thru the same misery.
Oh, listen to what I did!? I read JMP's great tutorial on MOREAWSOMETHANYOU about changing the terrain of a neighborhood without harming your sims. Well, I thought that was great! I am just sick and tired of that terrain, it's a year old, I'm ready for the new one. So, I did. And it worked just like he said, of course. But I had to dig my lots out from hillsides and under the water. No problem. So then the terrain was messed up. So then I redid it. And they were back in the water and in hillsides. So I am going to make a perfectly flat terrain with no water and call it "Little Sims on the Prairie!"
Thanks so much now I have the theme song stuck in my brain and Melissa Gilbert keeps tumbling down that hill over and over and over ... AAAAAHHHH ...
Redoing the replacement process should fix the messed-up-terrains. However, if you left the neighborhood file open in SimPE, you are blocking the save process, which is why the saves don't take. Also, savings are sometimes nonsticky, and it helps if you force the neighborhood to save by opening a different one and flipping back. I started with that because it was easy to make. Then I decided I was too smooth and created "Ground Zero" by taking the same flat map and repeatedly bombarding it around the edges with the "meteor" tool.
Thanks JMP. I think you are right, I had opened TS2 with SimsPE. I'll have to check it again. BTW: Here's the link to his wonderful tutorial, if anyone's interested: http://www.moreawesomethanyou.com/smf/index.php?topic=151.0