I'm looking for Content Library advice
laststand6522732
Posts: 866
I've been waiting months to ask this question. Now the time has arrived. I'd really like to get control of my content library. Between the DAZ Installer and the scan entire hard drive command, my library looks like it was arranged by a madman. I think some of you know what I mean.
I'm comfortable with the Windows directory structure, and I'll rebuild the library by hand if I need to, but I hardly know how to begin. I can see that DAZ is over-riding the Windows directory structure, replacing it with the "categories" system, and that it only displays certain of the file types. Is there a decent writeup on just what this system is doing, and why it does what it does? If not, can anybody give me high-level overview? And most of all, what did you do to impose order on this Montessori school of a system, without turning into a full-time librarian?
I've seen a couple of plugins that claim to make content library management easier. Have you tried any of them? Are any of them worth considering, or will I be better off organizing this data by hand?
Thanks in advance for your insight.
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Comments
Organisations that depend on the Content Management System
Smart Content (DS4): groups items by type, and filters by what is (or isn't) selected. So with nothing selected you should get only files that will add new content, with a piece of content you should see items that modify that content as well.
Categories: groups items by type, so animals are all together with sub-divisions.
Products (DS4): alphabetical listing of products, showing all files for that product.
Organisations that red files and folder from disc
Poser Formats/DAZ Studio Formats (DS4) or the non-category view (DS3): shows the actual files on disc, separating Poser and DAZ Studio files. Poser files show only the Poser library folders, hiding the Runtime folder that lies on the true path, and the Runtime and Data folders are hidden in the DS format listing bit otherwise things are arranged as they on disc under the folder that iss et as a content directory. If the scan for content has found too many folder you can use the Content Directory Manager (DS4: Edit>Preferences>Content Library, Content Directory Manager button; DS3 Edit>Preferences>Content) to trim them down.
It comes close to showing the actual files. Comparing the DS 4.6 tree to the OS tree (below), we see that DAZ has elected to make a few omissions. To me, this is disconcerting. I can't anticipate what DS will show or not show, because I don't know what its guidelines are. What DS displays is based on the actual files on disc, but the display is not quite actual. But I didn't come here to complain.
Editing DSs choices after the fact via the Content Directory Manager is something I hope to avoid in the future.
Thanks...
If you have folders like UNzip folders to Work with Third party content, Free items, Rendo zips and the like. When you do Scan Drive all those get added to your content paths. For full control of content you really need to do it yourself. By that I mean you stay in-control of were all your content is installed, and you set up DAZ Studio to only use that or those folders.
Scan drive is more for a dedicated Hard Drive that only has properly configured Content folders ready to plugin to the DAZ Studio Paths.
I myself have One Main DAZ Studio 4.5+ content folder, It gets all content DAZ 4 and above. I then have another folder that gets all content that can be used in Both DAZ Studio or Poser, or DS3A even. And yet two more that are Poser Type content folders only. But I am in charge of all of them and I install the content using both DIM for the DAZ 3D folder for DS4+ and hand installs for the other content from DAZ 3D and other sites that goes into the other folders. I point DAZ Studio to the Paths myself, and never used Scan once.
That Allows me to have what I call Work Content folders on my Hard Drive that only hold projects like Props I'm building and getting things Zipped up in proper Install zips if they need fixed. Those paths I add and Remove to DAZ Studio as I need them. The other four are there in my Content Library Tab ready to use properly at any time.
Also Keep in mind Not all files installed are USER Facing in DAZ Studio. In a File Browser all will show. In DAZ Studio only items ment to be used by the user will show. The Folder may list but be empty. It holds no User Facing Files. Or will not Show at all.
The folders that are missing are the ones that don't include any loadable files.
data - includes the geometry and morph files that are loaded by the files in the actual content folders
Read Mes - contains Read me files for the products which are not read by Daz
Runtime - contains the Poser format runtime that is listed under Poser Formats (again, skipping the geometries, textures and morph folders which contain resources that are not loaded directly by the user but by the presets that load a whole item instead)
Templates - UV templates for products so you can create your own textures for them. Again, they're not used in Daz itself.
Uninstallers - Product uninstallers, that again, are not run within Daz.
All the folders that are hidden are folders that you don't need access to within the program. They either contain resource files for products/are the mess behind the curtain of any product or a references/used outside of Daz.
I guessed that was the intent. But there must be more to it than that. Notice, in my screen shot, that two of the subdirs are gray. There's no usable content in them. Why not just hide them altogether? And if I delete them, might I regret it in the future? I'm thinking, they must be there for a reason.
Thanks.
If you don't intend to create your own textures, you should be fine to delete templates (I don't even install mine), and they're available on the item page or in your product library for new ones anyway.
General probably contains items like background images/photoshop resources, etc. For example, a lot of Ron's sets install there, so check it to see what's in there. If it's just background images and .psds etc you SHOULD be able to move it somewhere else on your harddrive if you really want to. (but back up just in case there is something in here)
My guess is ds is set to ignore specifically named folders (and in the poser libraries any of the non-standard folders since poser items HAVE to be in those folders to load but some vendors end up making their own morph resource folders rather than using the standard one) such as data, Read Me and Runtime, but it doesn't hide other folders outside it's standard set because some PAs have the FREAKING ANNOYING habit of making vanity folders (Dreamlight, for example) at the top level so their stuff is under Dreamlight > Product rather than Environment > Product or whatever, so if Daz hid the non-standard folders you might lose actual content.
Yes. I suspected what you've said was so, but I didn't want to believe it. I needed to get it right between the eyes.
My Poser content is my biggest disaster, because I keep a backup dir in my download dir containing all my non-DIM files. Scan Drive picked up all of that stuff. What a mess. But I learn best that way, by making a big mess. I'm going to have to devote some time to cleaning this up. Argh...
Thanks for your help.
I don't plan to delete anything unless I have a copy. Yeah, I've noticed that vendors have pretty much a free hand as to how they structure their data. I'd like to see a little more consistency there, just for its own sake. Right now though, finding my stuff in less than half an hour is my goal.
This content management stuff is the most unpleasant learning task of them all. I hope to get through it this week.
You are more than welcome. And I fully admit I learned this lesson the hard way myself. Fixing it once was enough. The good part is this, You should know most folders that should be listed as they were put there by you to be used in DAZ Studio. Remove the ones you know are backup and temp unzips and just not needed. Then do a full rebuild of your Database once you are done.
I've made good progress cleaning house in a short period of time. The anticipation of it was worse than the doing of it. There's something that's nagging me though.
Why are some of my sub-containers grayed, even when they contain useful assets? What is DS trying to tell me?
I've made good progress cleaning house in a short period of time. The anticipation of it was worse than the doing of it. There's something that's nagging me though.
Why are some of my sub-containers grayed, even when they contain useful assets? What is DS trying to tell me?
The ones that are highlighted are paths that contain 'new' items (items are new until they're selected or you mark them as seen). You can mark all items as seen by going to the four lines with the arrow at the top right of the pane and selecting 'Content Database Management' and 'Mark All Content Seen'. The others aren't greyed out, they just don't have new content in them. :)
Ha! Excellent. All gray here. There's hope for me.
I assume the purpose of "seen/not seen" is to help me find things?
Pretty much. It's just a little 'this is where your new stuff is' thing.
Thank you. My containers were blue since the day I installed, last year. I thought it was cosmetic until recently. The first time I tried to mark everything seen, I tried on the top-level container and it locked DS up. Then I tried it on the base containers and it worked fine.
I have a few other Content Library questions along these lines. I hope to get through most of them this week.
I'll be back.
Having accepted Jaderail's advice, I've decided to work this out. First I came across this:
http://docs.daz3d.com/doku.php/public/software/dazstudio/4/referenceguide/interface/panes/content_library/container_view/start
The DAZ Documentation Center is loaded with great writeups that, unfortunately, suffer from poor accessibility. If I ruled the world I would combine all the DS tech docs in a single downloadable source, with an updated TOC and index. What a valuable piece of work that would be.
I decided to learn the Container View system by working with it. Under the DAZ base container, I created a subcontainer named Michael 4. Beneath that I created containers named Hair, Beard, Pose, etc. Beneath Hair, I created a container named Materials. To me, this is a rational way to work. I noticed some (alas, not all) of the content creators had set their work up the same way.
I had to convert a few CR2 files into DUF format, to get them to show up in the DAZ base container. All went well until I got to materials.
My question is: How to convert a PZ2 file into a DS file? I know it's possible, because I can see that content creators have done it. How do they do it? I expect this question will come up again with other file types.
Thanks.
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Setting up a subcontainer structure like this, to support a given figure, is a time consuming activity. But once done, it will save much time and effort. I hope I can make this work.
I wish that the Container View system incorporated shortcuts to file locations, so that the same item might report to various figures. By any chance, is there such a feature?
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Thanks.
Michael 4 and all generation 4 and earlier generation DAZ figures are Poser format files, with the exceptions of some texture and pose presets in DS format, don't try forcing or converting them to be in a DS format content structure.
The CR2s appear to have made the conversion fine, although I haven't exercised them yet. What is most likely to go wrong?
Do you know what tool was used to create both PZ2 and DS MAT files from the same source?
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Later...
Other was also a failure. This is why:
http://docs.daz3d.com/doku.php/public/software/dazstudio/4/referenceguide/interface/panes/content_library/container_view/other_import_formats/start
Using the Poser base container to store M4 files is working well. This helps to explain why:
http://docs.daz3d.com/doku.php/public/software/dazstudio/4/referenceguide/interface/panes/content_library/container_view/poser_formats/start
I am seeing that while DS does a very good job of working with formats that were once exclusively Poser formats, the Container System itself is slightly less "multicultural." I'm learning the particulars of this. I'm not a veteran user, as many here are, I'm a newcomer. I do know that the key to finding my stuff is a consistent nomenclature and a common storage location.
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Conclusion
I spent quality time with the DS Container System today. I learned three things.
1.) No file type mixing is allowed between the Base Containers. Period.
2.) Most of the difficulty I've been having in finding my stuff is due to the Poser vendors' widely varying file location and naming practices.
3.) I can correct item 2, so long as I comply with item 1.
Yesterday I didn't know any of this. My thanks to those of you who offered help.
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