can I have multiple content library windows open at once?

twitchew

I have run into a minor annoyance. I am using some poser content (so no smart content option) that has poses, mats and cameras. I would really like to have pick a pose then a new camera angle. I find that I have to traverse a whole set of directories to go between the poses and the cameras.
I would like to really easily switch between two or three content folders or maybe have 2 or 3 content panes open at once.

I don't see a way to "book mark" a folder, copy and paste a "path" or to have multiple content panes open. Are there any suggestions or methods that people use to toggle between content areas?

fixmypcmike

For me, the easiest way to do this is to use Categories -- I categorize the figures and props in one folder and related materials, poses, and cameras in subfolders of that folder.

Richard Haseltine

If you are using the default list view of the folders try switching to the tree view, which shows a standard folder hierarchy that you can open in the folder list without changing the folder being viewed until you find the right one - which makes the back and forward buttons more useful. You can do this from the Content Library pane option menu - the lined button in the top corner, or right-click the pane's tab.

linvanchene

twitchew said:

I have run into a minor annoyance. I am using some poser content (so no smart content option) that has poses, mats and cameras. I would really like to have pick a pose then a new camera angle. I find that I have to traverse a whole set of directories to go between the poses and the cameras.
I would like to really easily switch between two or three content folders or maybe have 2 or 3 content panes open at once.

I don't see a way to "book mark" a folder, copy and paste a "path" or to have multiple content panes open. Are there any suggestions or methods that people use to toggle between content areas?

What you can do is create several "Activities" for each task.
Basically an Activity is a custom layout you set up for a specific task.

In each "Activity" you can have open another "version" of the Content library.
If you switch between "Activities" the last content library folder location used in each "Activity" remains!

In your example this means:

You could create an Activity called "Posing" and then you can browse to a "Pose" folder in that content library.
In another activity you could call "materials editing" you can browse to a mat folder in that version / instance of the content library.
If you return to the "Posing" activity that version of the content library will still be at the same posing folder you last accessed.

compare:

Customizing Activity tabs

http://docs.daz3d.com/doku.php/artzone/pub/software/dazstudio/reference/customactivitytabs

Side Note:
You can quick access the custom user interface layout edtior with F3

- - -

Screenshot: Practical example of a DAZ Studio custom layout with activities:

In the example screenshot you can see the activities for my custom layout:

Content Browsing, Scene Setup, Animating, Rendering, Dynamic Cloth etc.

So basically with one mouse click you can switch between the Content Library folders you use for Scene Setups or those for the animating, or final rendering part of your workflow.

Side Note:
Currently the one main downside of custom layouts is that you always have to update all activities manually to add new tabs, buttons or features. If there is a DAZ Studio update new functions are not automatically added to your custom layout.

With DAZ Studio 4.8 I will probably make the Effort to create a new custom layout.

- - -

Richard Haseltine

Just be aware that if you switch folders and use the back/forward buttons they will step through the folders you have had open in each pane - so if you load clothing in one activity, go to the materials sub-folder to apply a preset, then go to a surfacing and rendering activity and use a couple of folders for different materials presets which you apply to modify the preset, if you then go to the original activity and click the back a folder button it will first go from the clothing materials to the folder that was open in the other activity, step back through the folders you used there, then get to the clothing materials folder and only then get back to the master clothing folder.

WendyLuvsCatz

You can also browse to and drag and drop stuff into studio, I often do that
and I have been known to create shortcuts to stuff when lazy