Can I custom organize content?
Joltrast
Posts: 199
in The Commons
Is there a way to make psudo folders where I can drop stuff so it's easy for me to find?
For example, a sci-fi folder, a hair folder etc?
Thanks!
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I assume you mean in DS? That's basically what the category system is for. And yes, you can create your own.
right click: create category
And that won't mess with any file paths right, it's just for my own organisation?
When I've done that where do I find the catagories I've created?
Categories do not touch actual file locations, they just say which categories a given file is to appear in. They are stored in the database, though you can export User (Meta)Data to a file from which they can be restored using the Content DB Maintenenace dialogue (Content Library option menu - the lined button in the top corner, or right-click the tab). The exported metadata goes to the /Runtime/Support/ folder in your first Daz Studio format content directory.
I recommend making a new Category tree next to Default so as to not mix the two. With your own categories you can move, copy, re-arrange and delete them with absolutely no impact on the original files. You can roughly follow the DAZ Studio hierarchy to at least have some commonality in naming. Environments, People, Props, Shader Presets, etc., without all the clutter of the original. Whatever you like. When you categorize, you will be presented with a pop-up with the category tree. You can make a new Sub-Category to start (i.e., MyCategories), then add the folder you want to categorize to that one. You'll probably want to add a few layers first, like for People, you might want to add Genesis 8 Female, Genesis 8 Male, and so on.
If you select individual items or groups of items, the approach is a little different. You get a tree similar to the Content Library when displayed as List, where you can navigate to an existing category or add new ones, and select multiple target categories if wanted.
+1 Following
And of course all this is explained & demonstrated somewhere in a thorough well written, up-to-date, and accurrate manual or video?
Not only the setup procedures, but also the method for archiving and/or restoring the Category index files or moving or merging them? I spent a couple of years one decade organizing my custom Category structure then lost it all during an installation of a hexed version of DAZ Studio.
Twice.
I haven't had the will or faith to try to recreate the whole thing again because I now have twice as much stuff to organize. I tried a couple of DAZ's self organizing schemes and found them lacking, incomplete and untrustworthy. I now just hunt the obtuse default native structure like so many of the schlubs out here in userland.
I know what you mean about losing the data. When they migrated to PostgreSQL from Valentina, most of my products ended up in LOCAL USER. Categories were intact, but there was no Product info, so I didn't know where the stuff came from (it might have been like that before, but those were early days and I plead ignorance). Had to re-install almost everything, but then there were two references to everything. Had to clean that out, too. That's another story...
How to categorize is fairly simple. How you want to organize it is a very personal choice. Put all People and Clothing at the top, then separate into different generations, or separate the generations first, then add the characters, clothing, poses, etc., after? You will have to plan it out in advance. It doesn't matter, do whatever you want, and you can always change it later. You probably know most of this anyway if you have done it before, but for those who would like the basics, it isn't difficult, just tedious. (Note: there are a couple of products can help with or do most of the work for you, but I cannot speak as to their abilities).
In the Content Library, there is a "Categories" heading on the far left. Right-click on it and select "Create Sub-Category" to make a new tree at the same level as Default for your custom categories (i.e., "MyCategories", or several, whatever). Default has all the categories supplied by the Product's metadata, or Lost and Found for those that have no default assigned.
Categorizing is basically a matter of right-clicking on a folder and selecting "Create a Category from" and choosing "Selected Folder" or "Selected Folder & Sub-folders". In the popup folder tree, navigate to the branch where you want to add the new folder (or create a new one), select it, and accept. You can also do individual files or sets of files. Select one or more items and select "Categorize". In the ensuing dialog, navigate the tree to get to the Category you want to use, or make a new one. Select the checkbox for one or more Categories and accept.
Categorizing by folder: (Everything under the currently selected folder will be included. Use Selected Folder if you only want the one folder and none of the sub-folders)
Find the parent folder in your category tree, select it and accept. If the Sub-category already exists, new items will be added.
Categorizing by item: Select one or more files, right-click on one of them, and select Categorize...
Find the target folder: (items will be added to ALL checked folders, so don't check all of them down the tree)
Alternatively, select the item(s), right-click and select Copy.
Go to your Category tree in the Content Library, navigate to the target category, and either click on the Paste Asset button in the bottom right corner or right-click anywhere in the Asset List panel and select Paste Reference.
For folders, you can start at the very top and do your entire DAZ Studio Format and Poser Format libraries all in one shot. You can make one set of custom categories for each, or combine them all into one uber category tree. You can then re-arrange the custom categories any way you want. Rename, delete, move, duplicate, create sub-categories (for those catch-all folders that have too many items) without disturbing the original file system.
Of course, you can be as granular as you want, doing one product at a time to ensure you get all the parts together. You would have to be meticulous, though, as you will likely be adding many more products before you can finish categorizing what you have. (I did it by chronologically by order date to ensure I didn't miss anything). Or just do the parts you use most often to have a sort of quick reference. Or all of the above...
You can easily back up and restore your work with tools in "Content Database Maintenance" utility like "Export User Data" and "Re-Import Metadata". The Export tool saves all the changes you did to the database (custom categories, metadata changes, and I don't know offhand what else, but it is all user metadata, I guess). Re-Import allows you to select User Data and which product data (on an individual basis, or all) you want to restore. The User Data files are saved to the Runtime/Support folder with names like UserData_n.dsx (n >= 1). Copy them outside your computer to a cloud service or two to keep them available in case of disaster.
CRight-click on the Pane's context menu or the Content Library tab and select Content DB Maintenance.
Back up your User Data with, you guessed it, Export User Data.
Restore your User Data and/or the Product metadata with Re-Import Metadata.
You will get the Import metadata dialog where you can select what you want to restore. If you have changed a product's metadata manually, make sure the "User Data overrides Product Data" box is checked. If you have just re-installed your products, there is no need to include them. If you just reset the database (the nuclear option) then you will definitely want to include them. Accept and go get a coffee...
Could ya post some screen shots? Just reading about this doesn't work so well for some of usun's brains. ;)
Thank you for a detailed explanation of how this works. Very much appreciated!
I'll add some when I get a round tuit.
(Yes, I will, soon. It takes time to annotate the screenshots.)
Screenshot that @Novica did using custom categories.
That's my frustration with DAZ Studio, DIM, Smart Content, Categories etc. None of this stuff works as well as it could or should. And there is almost no support for the user who invests all their effort to get things organized and easier to find.
It may be more dangerous, but I move files around all the time. I'm definitely not saying anyone else should do that, but It has been effective for me. I am very careful not to move contents in data, runtime/textures and runtime/geometries. I also keep my content directories and install packages backed up in more than one place.
Two words: Manual installation.
Been doin' it since finally grasping how the folder structures between Poser and DS work back in 2009. I will never use the DIM, Smart Content, or the new DAZ Central to install or organize my content. I use the Tree view in the Content Library pane to navigate.
Exactly my experience. Spent all that time in an OCD frenzy, creating catergories and placing my stuff into a beautifully ordered system only to have a DAZ update trash the lot. Like you, I have never had the inclination to venture there again. So now I just let DIM do its thing and occasionally move stuff to where it makes more sense. I don't use Smart Content either - just the tree view.
I use the list view in the Content Library pane to navigate, but can't imagine wasting the time installing manually with the size of my library, so DIM it is!
I tend to agree with the concerns about potentially wasting time setting up categories and the ability to save/restore them. After doing some quick digging, I came across the following:
https://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/comment/1024890/#Comment_1024890
It's old and I haven't tried it, but I assume it'll still work in newer versions of DS. Someday when I'm bored and have nothing to do (yeah, right!), maybe I'll give it a go. If/when I do, I'll definitely do a small test before investing too much time.
I tend to use the store to browse for stuff anyway by filtering by what I own thanks to the browser plugin. This has the advantage of being able to check out all the promos. I do wish the list of user-facing DUFs (and their locations) from the read-me files were actually listed on the product pages themselves, though.
- Greg
Screenshots added to my previous categorization description. Your layout might look different, but the functionality is the same.
Gratzi. That makes quick sense now.
Back around the time DS4 first came out, I had an inadvertant disk wipe and had to rebuild my whole content library. I don't remember what Studio offered in the way of oranization at the time, But I think it was at least a bit before DAZ brought out DIM. And things were still being packaged in those damned Bitrock installers which gave you no control about where the different components landed. (I do not miss those installers in the least.)
At that point, content sold here was as likely to be Poser content with some Studio materials (or not) as it was to be native Studio content. And like most comparitively new users I'd had to fumble my way through how to install a lot of mis-packaged freebies and whatever.
In the rebuild, I found that Studio doesn't care where the files for loading an asset (those things that are accompanied by thumbnails) live. It cares about the location of the Geometry files for Poser content. And it cares about the location of the data fles for Studio content. And it cares about the location of the texture files for everything. But pretty much everything that's accompanied by a thumbnail can be organized into whatever arrangement of folders make sense to you.
Of course it means manually installing everything. But doing that means you know where something *is*, and you can collect all the random components of a package into one main folder, rather than ett it get scattered across your runtime.
Manual installation and putting things where you want (Poser-style) is how you end up with all the "missing content." Ask me how I know.
Categories is a much cleaner way.
Poser is the one that used to not allow you to put things where you want? That's the opposite of what I think of when I think of "Poser-style", though it's likely they have changed that in recent versions. If the content is where I put it, I don't know how I'm going to misplace it.
But, hey, DS provides different options for however people want to organize their content.