Advanced Smart Content Search & Discovery

Rod Wise Driggo

Amazing that I was using DAZ studio since years and always ignoring smart content. Now as size (my runtimes are no longer fitting affordable external 1TB SSDs), organisation (can't help but a DIM and a 3rd-party-runtime seem to slow down things) and speed (my older runtime had too much G8F morphs so making loading G8F a very loooong taks) had me setup my runtime again I had a closer look and hey, that smart content is not so bad at all.

By using some forum explanations, tutorials and "reverse engineering" some products I can finally add my external products to smart content. So I've learned...

- to create products from content library folders
- to add additional files to that products (is there no better way than to create a product with the same name and add?)
- to add a picture to that product (no size restrictions for that - at least on mac)
- to edit category, compatibility and even set/declare bases (strange thing that stuff with comp vor G8F/V8 won't show up in general sometimes)

Now I started to work with tags and add my own categories, but here I'm kind of stuck. So if I may ask:

- Where should personal categories go?
Let's say I want a new category for poses "doing sports" with a sub-category "playing tennis". Shall I add those to a dedicated tree or to the default tree?
- Is there a way to find that user categories with the product categorization?
When I have a new product I can onl add root categories (menu to choose from) or categories (manual entry). Is there a way to have my user categories appear together with the root ones for easier picking.

Now the biggest questions:

- How can I use my user categories to search for products?
In my example above I can select G8F in the scene and would get my own product in smart content. But it would only show up if I add it at least to one root category (here poses). If I just use my personal category, it won't show up. Also my personal categories are not part of the poses-tree although I added them with the default tree. So I can't just drill the tree fo discover.
One I have selected my product the user categories are shown so it helps at least to pick the right pose quickly. But it would be far better to have that from the start.

- How do I search for custom categories, tags or vendor names (or any other info I added to products). The search field in the smart content pane seems to only look in product names. But what would be the use for all the meta data if it is not used for searching?

Thanks for any feedback on that smart content stuff.

brvsn

I think I replied about vendors in your previous similar thread.. does that work for you?

Lindsey

I use these two searches frequently on the Products tab

key::PA Name
sku::Product SKU

Rod Wise Driggo

Lindsey said:

I use these two searches frequently on the Products tab

key::PA Name
sku::Product SKU

Thank you. Could elaborate. How do I use those? Do I have to create a filter? Clicking there opens a folder picker.

Rod Wise Driggo

@brvsn & Lindsey:

Thanks to both of you. Think I finally get it. You need to type in "key::" or "sku::" and then the PA name or the SKU. That helps. And one can save such a filter for quick reference. How about a list of all PAs. Searching is good but getting lists of Vendors, tags or any other info would be even better.

Are there more things like key:: or sku:: - is there a full syntax available somewhere?

Lindsey

The sku:: was picked up in a forum thread.

Key::<pa name> was just by accident. On the product tab, there is a screen at the bottom (normally I have it closed) where it has subtabs Tips/Info/Store.  On the info tab, it lists information about the product.  I just happened to click on the Artist(s): <pa name> as it was a link, and it popped the key::<pa name> in the search box.  You can enter other terms but so many products come up it's useless for my needs.

fixmypcmike

I put my custom categories outside of Default.  When you use Smart Content or searches it will show them whether they're in custom categories, Default categories, or both.

Richard Haseltine

Rod Wise Driggo said:

@brvsn & Lindsey:

Thanks to both of you. Think I finally get it. You need to type in "key::" or "sku::" and then the PA name or the SKU. That helps. And one can save such a filter for quick reference. How about a list of all PAs. Searching is good but getting lists of Vendors, tags or any other info would be even better.

Are there more things like key:: or sku:: - is there a full syntax available somewhere?

http://docs.daz3d.com/doku.php/public/software/dazstudio/4/referenceguide/interface/panes/smart_content/advanced_filtering/start

Rod Wise Driggo

Thanks Richard. That helps with searching.

Two big questions stays in plays though regarding user (root) categories:

1) Is there a way to have those user categories available from the root tree once catagorizing products?

2) Is there a way to see those own categories in the smart content panes left tree to browse or pick? Currently I have to for example discover a product with those default categories and can only use user categories to find let's say a particular pose inside a product.

Finally one other question. Smart content helps with discovery but usually does not preserve the folder structure of a product. So i.e. all materials or hints are aggregated. Is there a way to structure stuff not only by using categories?

fixmypcmike

If you have custom categories outside of Default DS should display them -- it only treats Default as the root if there aren't any other top level categories.  Maybe you need to restart DS for them to show?  I have custom categories from DS4.8 imported, so I'm not sure of the mechanic when you add them for the first time in 4.12.

Richard Haseltine

Default is hidden if there are no other root categories; if there is at least one other root category, a sibling for Default, then both will show.

Rod Wise Driggo

OK, so if create custom user categories OUTSIDE of default, those show in the smart content pane.

Whereas if I create them WITHIN default they don't show in the left tree of the smart content pane.

Right?

Richard Haseltine

Rod Wise Driggo said:

OK, so if create custom user categories OUTSIDE of default, those show in the smart content pane.

Whereas if I create them WITHIN default they don't show in the left tree of the smart content pane.

Right?

They wll show either way, it is recommended that you use a sibling root category of Default for your own categories - but this a buisance in some ways and I must admit I don't do it. Whether an item appears in Samrt Content depends on the various filltering options, not the category used - any given category, in any root category, will appear if it contains one or more items that match the current filters.

Rod Wise Driggo

You're right it seems. After unchecking "Filter by context" those categories showed up. Thought everything would automatically show up on an empty scene. Apparently not ;-)

fixmypcmike

Rod Wise Driggo said:

You're right it seems. After unchecking "Filter by context" those categories showed up. Thought everything would automatically show up on an empty scene. Apparently not ;-)

No, only things that could be loaded in an empty scene are shown if Filter By Context is checked, like props or figures.  Material or Pose presets, for example, cannot.