Tool for compiling custom products to share with others?

Succulent Fruit

The title says it all. I have a large collection of awesome custom props and scene items I've created and ported to Daz Studio, and I want to share them with fans and friends. I've used the typical method for doing this, where you recreate the folder structure of the item in question in a zip file, and share it that way. But that is horribly inefficent, and often leads to mistakes and errors.

 

Is there a tool that does this for you? Or some sort of plugin for Daz? I would think that Daz store sellers would have something like this for when they release products, at the very least. Especially if you're selling items, you really don't want to get into trouble due to user error when compiling the product you want to sell. 

I have too many items to share to comfortablyand accurately recreate all the file structures manually, I really hope someone can help me out here.

FSMCDesigns

I am assuming you created all these from scratch yourself (not ported), otherwise they can't be shared.

I wouldn't be surprised if the PAs have some kind of packaging plugin or tool since they have exclusive PA only tools like the way to create HD morphs. I'd be interested in a quicker, more efficioent way to package up props myself since I have created quite a few also.

I don't have this, but it might help https://www.daz3d.com/package-your-props-for-sale

 

Leana

A few utilities which could be useful:

• Content gatherer collects all files corresponding to a scene in a separate directory structure 
• Content package Assist can be used to create DIM-compatible packages 
• Content wizard can generate self install files and also metadata for your product 

*Edited to correct the links

barbult

The Daz Store has Content Package Assist. There is also at least one free tool to do the same, but I don't have a name or link for it.

Phoenix1966

Leana said:

 

• Connect gatherer collects all files corresponding to a scene in a separate directory structure 

 

I use this for all my commercial products. 

barbult

It's not Connect Gatherer it is Content Gatherer.

Wonderland

I have this in my cart right now. It creates Smart Content as well as Zips so it's much more user friendly for Daz users  https://www.daz3d.com/content-wizard

Leana

barbult said:

It's not Connect Gatherer it is Content Gatherer.

Yes, for whatever odd reason my phone autocorrected this and I didn't catch it at the time.

Succulent Fruit

Thanks so much guys! I'll check out the ones you all shared. This will make my work so much easier!

Succulent Fruit

Alright, none of these ideas you guys gave me helped at all. The Content Wizard does not collect files from your own products and compile them. I stupidly just bought it thinking that it would. I also grabbed the Content Gatherer, which is supposed to do exactly what I need, but it won't even install. It gives me an install error, asking for my Daz Studio install directory, which it doesn't even recognize when I provide the correct path to it.

I also couldn't find any thing at all in Google for how to fix the Content Gatherer issue, apparently no one else has this problem.

 

EDIT: My bad, apparently the installer was corrupted. I unzipped the installer and ran the Content Gatherer by itself, and it works fine. It took a bit of work to figure it out, but it does exactly what I need. Thanks guys!

Leana

kingfisher13 said:

 I also grabbed the Content Gatherer, which is supposed to do exactly what I need, but it won't even install. It gives me an install error, asking for my Daz Studio install directory, which it doesn't even recognize when I provide the correct path to it.

I don't see why it would have any problem with manual install, but I installed it long ago. Have you tried installing it with DIM?

kingfisher13 said:

which probably won't get anywhere since they love to refuse refunds on products. 

I've never had Daz refuse refund on products during the guarantee period. The only exceptions are PC membership, which is clearly labelled as non-refundable, and cases when you try to get a refund on a product to buy it cheaper from a sale that explicitely says you can't.

barbult

I've only returned a handful of things over 8 years, but I've never been refused and have never had any hassle at all.

Mattymanx

I pack all my products manually.  The trick, is to save all presets and textures for each product, to a working folder for that product, that has the complete set of needed folders.  That way, if you need to rearrange your folder layout, it is very easy to do.  You can also have multiple versions side-by-side if you need to.

I do not compress my DUF files however so that I can quickly mass edit the file paths for the textures to take out everything before Runtime folder.

If you save a product that has geometry, DS saves that model to the Data folder.  It is important to always use the same PA name so that ALL your products appear in the same place.  And when you are saving multiple items for a single product, make sure also that ALL of them have the same Product Name so they are all saved to the same sub folder.  You need to remember to copy that Product folder from the Data folder location to your working directory.

 

 

joneienleah

So I have been looking for an easy tool to use so I can easily gather and backup all files needed for custom characters I created. I don't plan to distribute them, but wanted to package them like sellers on Daz and Renderosity so that I can easily reinstall them if I ever lost the files or needed to do a Daz clean install on a new computer.

All of the threads reference Content Gatherer (https://www.daz3d.com/content-gatherer) which seems to be a very old tool but no one else has made anything like this more recently.

I finally purchased it and it seems easy to use. But once I add the files, click analyze, then resolve button to locate the files and it gathers a good list of what looks correct for all files associated with the custom character files I added. But when I click File List, this list includes absolutely everything in Daz, all morphs I own, characters, etc. that have nothing to do with the custom character I created. So then I have to manually select the files I think are required (not sure if I am skipping something that is needed) in order to create the zip file. If I don't try to narrow down the files it will essentially include all of my Daz content library in a zip folder for this one character.

Does anyone know which other buttons I should click or other settings I need to make so the File List only includes the files I actually need that are associated with my custom character files? I played with some of the include/exclude options but then when I went to install the zip on my other computer, files were missing.

Or does anyone have a more updated tool to essentially do the same thing as Content Gatherer but maybe more recent and easier to use?

Thanks.

Succulent Fruit

joneienleah said:

So I have been looking for an easy tool to use so I can easily gather and backup all files needed for custom characters I created. I don't plan to distribute them, but wanted to package them like sellers on Daz and Renderosity so that I can easily reinstall them if I ever lost the files or needed to do a Daz clean install on a new computer.

All of the threads reference Content Gatherer (https://www.daz3d.com/content-gatherer) which seems to be a very old tool but no one else has made anything like this more recently.

I finally purchased it and it seems easy to use. But once I add the files, click analyze, then resolve button to locate the files and it gathers a good list of what looks correct for all files associated with the custom character files I added. But when I click File List, this list includes absolutely everything in Daz, all morphs I own, characters, etc. that have nothing to do with the custom character I created. So then I have to manually select the files I think are required (not sure if I am skipping something that is needed) in order to create the zip file. If I don't try to narrow down the files it will essentially include all of my Daz content library in a zip folder for this one character.

Does anyone know which other buttons I should click or other settings I need to make so the File List only includes the files I actually need that are associated with my custom character files? I played with some of the include/exclude options but then when I went to install the zip on my other computer, files were missing.

Or does anyone have a more updated tool to essentially do the same thing as Content Gatherer but maybe more recent and easier to use?

Thanks.

I have the same issue. Content Gatherer is a broken mess, with a terrible GUI, a bunch of random buttons that don't really seem to do anything, and of course the massive issue of the file list grabbing every single file in your Daz library. 

 

Also no, you can't generally manually compile all the dependent files in your product. Some of the dependent files won't be apparent at all, and there's no way of actually knowing what they are until you use a tool like Content Gatherer to hunt them all down. I recently created a product for a paying customer, who an hour later, came back with a missing file error, for a dependent file I didn't even know existed, and had never seen before. 

 

Luckily said customer is a patient and friendly guy, but When it comes to paying real money for products, people get upset when something they paid for doesn't work right. This can lead to issues, especially as someone who does commissions privately, and it can turn away customers and ruin your reputation as a seller. 

 

Someone NEEDS to make a functional tool for compiling products. This system is completely broken, and its amazing and frustrating that no one has done anything about it for years.

AllenArt

Mattymanx said:

I pack all my products manually.  The trick, is to save all presets and textures for each product, to a working folder for that product, that has the complete set of needed folders.  That way, if you need to rearrange your folder layout, it is very easy to do.  You can also have multiple versions side-by-side if you need to.

I do not compress my DUF files however so that I can quickly mass edit the file paths for the textures to take out everything before Runtime folder.

If you save a product that has geometry, DS saves that model to the Data folder.  It is important to always use the same PA name so that ALL your products appear in the same place.  And when you are saving multiple items for a single product, make sure also that ALL of them have the same Product Name so they are all saved to the same sub folder.  You need to remember to copy that Product folder from the Data folder location to your working directory.

 

 

Same. I do it all by hand. I make a mistake once in a great, but not very often ;) 

PixelSploiting

 I pack it by hand. But I have separate content runtime made for packaging and testing and I switch Daz between directories.

Mattymanx

Succulent Fruit said:

Also no, you can't generally manually compile all the dependent files in your product. Some of the dependent files won't be apparent at all, and there's no way of actually knowing what they are until you use a tool like Content Gatherer to hunt them all down. I recently created a product for a paying customer, who an hour later, came back with a missing file error, for a dependent file I didn't even know existed, and had never seen before.

 

Its all part of the learning curve.   Welcome to the wonderful world of content creation