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a
The Categories
The Categories in the Content Library pane are good for doing that its like a list of selected favourits. Right-click an item or a folder in the Content Library pane and choose "Create a Category From" > "Folder + Sub-Folder". Then you can choose in which category it should go to, with this you can build up an independend folder and content structure. You can brows the Categories within the Content Library pane those can be found as an top level entry beside the other content directories and can be further managed from there.
Custom Content Library with presets & sub-scenes
Another idea is to create your own content directory for customized stuff you want to save like scene subsets, character presets and most useful WearAble Presets. For those first load all chlothing onto the figure, then select the figure, go to the Content Library, navigate to a folder in your content directory, save a WearAble Presets with clicking on the plus sign at the bottom, select which fitted items to include in the WearAble Presets. Next time you can apply the same clothing set fitted to the figure by loading this preset.
Manualy cut&paste content files
If you want to cut&paste the actual files around in the Content Library its possible maybe for things you saved by your self, if its original content installed by DIM there is a waning on that. In case the product gets updated the new file version will get written to the original product folder and you will have duplicate files.
Read this post about the database and metadata issue with cut&paste content around manualy. This can be done within the Content Library pane with right-click or with the external file brower.
a
I have a couple posts that explain step by step how to set up categories. You can find those here About half way down the page. I have every single item of my content library categorized (over 10,000 items between daz and other places) Its a lifesaver in being able to find things quickly and i have it organized in a way that makes sense to me. You can organize yours in whatever way suits you the best of course.
I used to move my files around to suit me. This is something I'd done since the early days of Studio since Poser was very strict on what was a "prop" verses what was a "figure", but Studio didn't care.
I've also never liked "Smart Content" because it relies on metadata that a lot of my older content or 3rd party / freebie stuff doesn't have.
Lately, however, the product updates have bitten me more and more. DIM downloads the updates, but I forget to move the files again and now I have two copies. Even worse, I was in the habit of renaming some folders and such and that makes it doubly painful.
I will (eventually) turn back to Categories as that's the better way to accomplish this. The daunting task of categorizing 1000s of content items is what keeps me from pursuing it. Also, with most of my older content in my Poser format files, there's no easy way to know if a dress was made for Vicky 4 or Aiko 3 or Stephanie so categorizing those turns into a night long Google search session.
I'd rather be rendering.
But I also worry I have stuff in my content library that I don't even remember is there anymore.
Quickest way to organize a large library is to start at the top and work your way down (I've lost my categories twice, and had to redo the whole thing, it took months but it was totally worth it) If you do a half an hour a night it will get done evenutally and you will still have time to render.
I've tried multiple ideas and finally gave up.
a
I think this is the place she wanted to point to.
Yes, thank you! Link is fixed
Oh, this thread couldn't be more timely. I had begun to organize my files two days ago by moving the content around, renaming folders, creating new folders, etc... And I see there are problems with this approach, so I'll be able to switch to categorization now instead of realizing the problems later and have to start over.
However, I have a question : I can backup my "DAZ library" files, but is there a way to backup my categories? Can I find them somewhere in my computer, or is it purely internal to DAZ 3D and I can't back them up? I'll hate to categorize everything, rely on it and then have to recategorize everything again if something happens, and I guess I'll hate it even more one or two years down the road when I'll presumably have massively more stuff ordered.
The database is in the Content Cluster folder - Edit>prefrences>CMS Settings will show you where that is. You can also just export user data, which is more compact, and reimport that plus the store metadata if you need to - Content Library option menu (the lined button in the top corner, or right-click the tab)>Content DB Maintenance, check export User data, Accept - the file is then in /Runtime/Support in your first Daz Studio content directory.
Personally, I do both. I copy the content DB to my OneDrive folder periodically to save the database as is, and I export the user data as well. Exporting the user data has the advantage that if say your categories are lost because of a database upgrade during an update to CMS, you're more likely to be able to restore the User Data than trying to use the old copy of the database in the old format/structure.