Renaming duf files... and how it relates to the database/content library

pjwhoopie@yandex.com

Greetings.

Here is a question, regarding data/content management.

I am trying to logically link some of my assets and was wondering if it is possible to change the names of folders or image icons (duf.png) in the content database and still have it all link up.

Example.  An Artist (for the sake of argument, let us call him HardTimesarts ) creates a G8F and calls her Cindy.  When he puts the package together, he misspells the Genesis 8 Female folder (and calls it Genisys 8 Females ).  Also, he plans to create 101 more Characters, so he puts Cindy in a very specialized folder
People/Genisys 8 Females/Characters/HardTimesarts/G8F/Assets-Made-While-Drunk/On-a-Tuesday/Cindy

Now, he didn’t name the duf file/png “Cindy”, he was smart and named her HtAcindy.duf.png

Now, time goes on and LOOKING through my icons for a character I want to make, I am thinking about Cindy, but can’t really find her as she is not with the “C”s.  I have long forgotten she was made by HardTimesarts.

Is there a way to change the name of the .duf.png and still have it link to the important parts of the asset?

Also, is there any harm in MOVING the Contents of HardTimesarts folders into the correct folder Genesis 8 Female and still have it all work?  Allowing me to delete the erroneous Genisys 8 Females folder created by Mr HardTimesarts?

Thanks, in advance

pjwhoopie@yandex.com

ooohhh.... and one more too.

HardTimesarts really is an incredible artist, and one that wants to give you good value for your purchase... so he created two Cindys... a Cindy Young and Cindy Old.. but instead of naming that way so they would be right next to each other in the content library, he scatters them by naming one HtAoldcindy and HtAyoungcindy.   I would really like to rename them to Cindy Young and Cindy Old.... but how do I do it?

Richard Haseltine

I suspect that Daz QA would have words with HardTimeArts over a folde structure like that, and of course if the tiem doesn't have metadata you can rearrange and rename the user-facing files as you like. However, a generally safer method is to leave the actual files alone and use categories to arrange them for acess (you can right-click on files or folders to categorise them). In a case like HtAoldcindy and HtAyoungcindy you could also use tags to add Cindy to both, and Young to one and Old to the other, which the search in Smart Content will find.

pjwhoopie@yandex.com

Thanks Richard....

I am using categories... but the names of the actual asset (as decided by the artist) are how things are arranged - alphabetical order.  Unless I am doing it wrong anyway. 

And that is what I want to chage, although my original post may have been too wordy.

In its most basic form
I want to change
HtAoldcindy.duf.png TO Cindy_Old.duf.png
If I do that, is it as simple as renaming HtAoldcindy.duf to Cindy_Old.duf to make them link or ?

 

Chohole

I am told that For the user-facing data file and png, yes... BUT, also realize that renaming said user-facing data file will immediately break its link to whatever metadata exists in the database for it.
 

TDBAGZ

It may be frowned upon but I have renamed files within DAZ with little issue. Renameing outside in a file explorer is a different issue and can lead to broken files.

You can also drag and drop files and create subfolders within daz now. SOME files can be moved outside in a file explorer and I would say copy and paste and test from the new location before moving or deleteing the old version.

PNGs and TIPs are pretty safe. I have rendered a few in Iray and attached them to items before. Just note that the Icons are 91x91 and Titled ("MATCHING_FILE_NAME".duf.png) and Tips 256x256 Titled ("MATCHING_FILE_NAME".tip.png).

Mindful, the more images the more drive space.

Categorizing items helps alot too, but not all artist do it when creating and some products pre-date the abilty. So you might still have to do alot of those yourself. It can be real a time saver though for sure if you have items you constantly find yourself looking for or have a repeated workflow that can be speed ran.