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As a newcomer, it's "interesting" (ie, horrifying) to see people with 20 years of experience having to struggle with the same file issues I'm running into. People seem to be going out of their way to be gentle with Daz developers here, but after 20 years there really is no excuse for this kind of nonsense. The deeper I get into Daz, the less I like it, and at this point I'm thinking that it won't be much more than a support element for making minor characters for my projects to be realized in Blender. There seem to be some areas in which setting up characters for facial animation could be facilitated in Daz, but transferring these elements into Blender appears to be even more problematic than building them there to begin with.
I suppose I was looking for some shortcuts to speed up workflow, but creating a useful Daz-Blender pipeline has proven difficult so far. Overall, it doesn't look like there's much pay-off in mastering Daz's idiosyncracies.
Of course, the kinds of projects I'm working on are outside what the typical Daz user seems to be interested, so I don't represent the core market, but if Daz were better organized, and transfer issues were smoothed, I know I'd be buying various kinds of assets when it was just too inconvenient to make them myself. Right now that seems unlikely- and I think there are more and more people like myself trying to find/make cross-application pipelines for producing a wide variety of projects.
Thank you Lindsey, I will take a look at that later.
TheKD: I might, but I don't have quite as much content as many of you because I almost exclusively buy fantasy stuff and almost everything is from this store. Fingers crossed. :)
Fixmypcmike: That was my mistake, sorry. I didn't mean the actual data folder, I meant the base content folder.
Honzo: I hear you, I spent a good two weeks learning Blender and just went back to Studio because it's still easier for me to work with these figures and content in their native software. There are three decent methods of getting DAZ stuff into Blender, but I still didn't care for the different posing methods and REALLY different material system.
All I've wanted from the day Smart Content was put forward was the ability to move stuff around and then have CMS scan my content folder and relocate and re-recognize the moved content instead of giving those 'missing file' icons. Unless I'm mistaken, we still can't do that, and that's surprising.
His Content wizard already does that, among other things.
Way back in the day I ended up doing manual folder organizations with Poser. I've reached the point where I I'm going to have to do this with Studio. I don't reallyu care who made an outfit, what I care about is being able to find the kind of outfit I need, and Smart Content drives me up the flipping wall. I'm just arguing with myself on how I'm going to go about it.
The OP is why I let everything install wherever it wants to, then use Categories to set up a structure the way I want it
I use Studio as an item collector; I export what I want and import into Blender.
I got fed up of Iray; it's a greedy hog imo.
I convert items/props as I need and save as a .blend file. I can even pack any textures in the file.
One thing brought me to studio from Blender; I sucked at characters (especially the rigging); Diffemorphic has solved that problem and I now have my own skin material setup, which is similarto the one I had using NGS Anagenesis 2. I get faster renders, and access to more tools.
I stopped manually organizing content a long time ago. I rarely ever go digging through the content library anymore either. If it doesn't show up in Smart Content, I forget I have it until I look through the DAZ store to see what I own.
I used to do that, too. When DS 2.1 introduced the first content database, I imported my manual folder structure and turned it into categories. After using categories long enough to be sure I could restore them if anything went wrong, I started reinstalling everything to the original file locations, correcting my categories to point to the "new" locations. Now everything is left as it is in the zip, and all my organization is done in categories. I categorize everything as I install it into my own categories. Periodically I decide some of my categories would be better in a different arrangement, and it's really easy to rearrange them, much less effort and zero risk compared to moving files around.
I rarely use Smart Content, because (a) it's not laid out in the way I think, and (b) I'm too OCD to use it unless it covers EVERYTHING, and the work involved in creating metadata for everything, including items I convert to a different figure, as well as checking the metadata for everything that does have it to make sure it's correct, is far more than just categorizing everything. I love having the metadata for the tag in the upper right corner of the icon showing what type of item it is, but I find it easy to check that it's correct when I install things. As someone who is compelled to look at the file structure in the zip to make sure it's correct before I install it with DIM, I know that I wouldn't be able to rely on Smart Content if I didn't check it all myself.
Me too. My older Poser items are all organized on my Mac but I never understood Daz file structures and just see what's in smart content. I really wish Daz didn't completely remove items from the store and do what Rendo does and say the item is no longer available for sale, but keep the promos. I have no idea what I have anymore. One day I'm just going to have to go through my purchased item list and start using all the things I don't even know I have.
I don't use Smart Content because it doesn't appear to know about all my content. I am worried that Categories info might be corrupted if a database goes bad, whatever. These days I cheat. I create various collection "runtimes," (Gen4 DAZ for content up to & including Victoria 4, etc.), Scenes Favorite, Animals, etc.
Once I get DIM to do my work, I copy each of those collections, and rename them (the copy of Gen4 DAZ becomes Gen4Ron). Then I arrange things so I can find them.
I didn't even know that not everything showed up in Smart Content. I've only ever used DIM and Smart Content. I do absoultey no organization and I've never (or thought I've never) had any problems with that. Now I'm wondering what kind of stuff I'm missing...
Yeah, but how do you do it so you don't have to add every new thing you install to the category?
It doesn't take much work -- if you install the files but don't import the metadata, then you can "scan known directories for content", and the results show up in Default > Scan Results > [whatever the relative path is on disk). If you like the paths as they are on disk you can just move the whole tree; if not, you take each folder, highlight all the items in it (unless you want to break them up differently), right click > Categorize. Then you can import the metadata and it all works. If you like the structure under Default then you don't even have to do that -- just categorize things that end up in Lost & Found or other weird locations.
It all depends how much the way YOU want it organized differs from the default.
Don't you want to install categorize every new thing each time so that Space Clothes can go into the "Space Clothes" category and Cyberpunk Clothes can go into the "Cyberpunk" category? This is always interesting and a little confusing to me. I had a boss who would organize her files into endless folders on her computer. I always just used one folder and used my computer's search to find things. I explained to her that her folders really had no physical reality; the computer actually spreads the files almost randomly on the hard drive and just makes symbolic links. I do agree that everyone should use the system that works for them but this all looks like so much work!
That's another thing that bugs me. I buy DAZ content because I want to Make Art. I don't want to be a database programmer, etc.
OK, I'm already regretting this. ;) The biggest problem I'm having is that so many unrelated items keep appearing alongside related ones...why am I seeing HDRI rotation presets when I'm looking through hair colors? It messes up what's probably the biggest advantage of Smart Content; getting a short list of all of the textures, clothing, hair, or poses that best fit a particular figure.
I needed to clean up my content anyway, so I don't mind all the uninstalling and reinstalling that much, but manual sorting is starting to look better again.
Yeah its the biggest reason i cant use it either, its not that intuitive for me and stuff gets put in weird places lol. I used to be super ocd with manual sorting but honestly now i just put everything in vendor folders on who made the item, because at this point I know who my favorites and go to vendors are. If i want a hair i know which folders i want to peek in first etc. Its still a little time consuming but not nearly as much as how i USE to sort it lmao.
I do searches at the 3D sites I buy from to see what I bought and what I need and create a list with where it is installed! Here is my suggestion: Have a plan and Idea for what you want to create before just sitting down and making a portrait render of your favorite character. I find that going old school and using pen and paper to figure out what I want works best. I want a story that is set in the future. I find out what props and costumes and sets I have and where they are located. Get organized first! If I lack something I go see if I can find a free or cheap alternative? If not buy the expensive prop or character I need. Get all the parts I need and story board on paper. Rough sketch work best even stick figures work. Have a reference for what you want to do. Get everyting shaded and in posed and it is off to the render races. I don't try to get the best render possible ever!!!!!! I get something I can work with inside of either photoshop or gimp, or your favorite paint program and fix everything the way I want. It may seem like too much hassel for a quick render but you will be surprised at how much time this will save you. ~just my 2 cents
Ditto. I don't use smart content and place things where I can find them. I sorten the paths out of the nested vanity folders because who wants to go through 4 or 5 sub-folders to get at what you want.
What do you mean, install the files but not import the metadata???? I use DIM.
You're gonna have to explain to me like I'm five. Please?
1. Have both DS and DIM open.
2. Stop the CMS in DS.
3., Install some items with DIM (I find 6 at a time is a good manageable number for me).
4. Start the CMS in DS.
5. "Scan Known Directories for Content"
6. Sort the results into your desired categories
7. Re-import metadata (if you have DIM sorting installed items by most recent install date, it's easy to just select the most recent items).
8. Repeat as needed.
(I should note that I'm really anal-retentive, so I look at the folder structure in the zip before installing, and submit a bug report if it's incorrect or if anything is missing after DIM installs it. I also look at all the newly-installed items after re-importing metadata and make sure they all have the correct tag at the top right for what type of item them are. It's not necessary to do all that, I'm just OCD about it.)
Lindsey, could you confirm that what I'm explaining in this tutorial is correct? If it's right, I'll fix a couple of little things and post it on my dA page. Maybe it can help a few people there (and sell a few of your things here). :) It appears to work as expected for me so far.
data is not a folder for user content, the snake must be in "YOUR_DAZ_FOLDER/Animals/whatever", the folder "YOUR_DAZ_FOLDER/data/" is for geometries, UVs, clone, shapes that the user don't need touch. If the vendor set the snake in "YOUR_DAZ_FOLDER/data/" instead of "YOUR_DAZ_FOLDER/X/" were X can be: People, Animals, Props, Enviroments, Shaders, Scripts, or Runtime/Libraries/Character, then the snake would be not visible in Daz Studio.
GiGi_7: I know, I corrected myself after Fixmypcmike pointed it out. It's still absurd that it's the only item in a Figures/vendorname/productname main folder though.
I just finished reinstalling my DAZ content using DIM. Everything is in the default location. I loaded Valentino 8 & Floyd 8, individually. I went to Smart Content. Only 3 outfits were listed for each character. There are many more outfits available. I did the same thing for hair.... same result.
Why bother have a feature like Smart Content, when it doesn't work at all? When I complain about the way DAZ Content is scattered around, people say I can use Smart Content. Some say I can use Categories. But what happens if your categories information gets all corrupted or disappears?
Auch! a case of "Not refreshed thread". I hadn' seen a lot of comments. Sorry
@Lindsey @SnowSultan The Custom File / Drag and Drop solution sounds pretty good! Excellent Idea.
For years I've been using the custom categorization system but Drag and Drop sounds like it's loads faster. Thanks! :) I'll have to try that out.
Rather than reinstall again, may we try a little diagnostic?
First, if you load a generic G8, does your complete wardobe for G8 including the Floyd and Valentino clothes show up? If only a few garments show up, we can proceed to see if the proper metadata is there in the first place.
Second, in your various content folders, go to Content> Runtime> Support, are there loads of small text files that end is .dsx and .dsa?
Third, if you go to InstallManager > Manifest Files, is the folder loaded with a .dsx file for each of your products? I am hoping to find out if there is a problem that your Smart Content isn't pointed to its metadata or that the metadata is somehow missing.
This works like a charm! And it's SO FAST to Drag and Drop categorize stuff once the folders are set up.
I added a "!" in front of the custom folders so they show up at the top of the list in my Content Library. Then under each of those main folders I can create subcategories:
This seems to be working great so far! Thank you @Lindsey and @SnowSultan !