DIM Filtering Question

Jason Galterio

I am trying to figure out a way to isolate some of my DS assets. Specifically I want to have all of the G8 characters, morphs and textures in their own Runtime. (The same with G3F, etc.)

Why? Two reasons... having all the morphs installed adds a lot of overhead and irrelevant dials when I am designing characters. 

A couple of ideas I had...

Use DIM to install everything and then use a file filter to uninstall anything with morphs and reinstall those to a different directory. 

Or install everything and physically move the morph directory through Windows, but worried that this might have unintended consequences. 

Anyone have any suggestions?

NorthOf45

Moving assets willy-nilly will only give you headaches later, since DIM won't know where they are, so un- and re-installing will be impossible. That will also break your metadata and smart content (if you rely on it). 

You can install to any of your designated library folders by changing the current Content Path Shortcut in DIM Settings, but you will have to keep track of which one is selected when you install. Easy to do when everything is done in one shot, but easy to forget as you add products one or two at a time. However, you keep all the necessary bits intact, and you can always re-install if you forget to switch.

Just having stuff in a separate library won't prevent it from being loaded up with the figure, though, unless you plan to disconnect that library when running Studio.

Jason Galterio

NorthOf45 said:

Moving assets willy-nilly will only give you headaches later, since DIM won't know where they are, so un- and re-installing will be impossible. That will also break your metadata and smart content (if you rely on it). 

You can install to any of your designated library folders by changing the current Content Path Shortcut in DIM Settings, but you will have to keep track of which one is selected when you install. Easy to do when everything is done in one shot, but easy to forget as you add products one or two at a time. However, you keep all the necessary bits intact, and you can always re-install if you forget to switch.

Just having stuff in a separate library won't prevent it from being loaded up with the figure, though, unless you plan to disconnect that library when running Studio.

Disconnecting the "People" library is exactly my plan.

My creative process is pretty segmented. If I am working on an environment, that's all I am going to be working with. If I am setting up a character, that's the only thing I will be working on.

So, I would have the "People" library active when working on those. Then disconnected when not.

I can use Content Gatherer to collect the textures and morphs I need to make sure the character will work when the "People" library is disconnected.

It would be easy to just do a File search for "People" but I'd like to have the clothes and poses seperate, since those don't impact the overhead of the figures.

NorthOf45

Sounds like a plan. I think Content Gatherer is one of the few D3D scripts I didn't get. Might need to take a harder look at it to package and backup those customized/transferred/converted items.

Jason Galterio

NorthOf45 said:

Sounds like a plan. I think Content Gatherer is one of the few D3D scripts I didn't get. Might need to take a harder look at it to package and backup those customized/transferred/converted items.

It works 99% of the time, as long as you don't use encrypted / DAZ Connect files. It can't collect those. I doubt it will be updated, since the PA is no longer active.

However, it is really good at collecting morphs and textures for characters. Not to mention all the assets for full scenes.

The only thing it seems to have an issue with is some of the full character morphs.