How do YOU keep your database clean and organized?

aedonix

So. I have been using Daz for about 3 years now, never once done any sort of database organization of any real sort, and ideally looking for a way to sort the whole thing out.

Assuming I manage that with helpful tips from you guys, what do you recommend to keep your database from becoming a mess in the first place? (I also have some 3rd party assets in there too just to confuse issues)

Your help and advice is hugely appreciated.

nicstt

I stay the hell away from Smart Content, best way to deal with it imo.

I then install everything through DIM, then place the 'user facing files' in custom folders as I need them; perhaps clothes together, people and hair together (amongst others) and perhaps again with sub-catagories - such as dforce hair.

Pendraia

I don't use smart content. I use categories and create my own as I don't like the default categories. 

I organise by

animations

environments

figures

hair

lights

render presets

scenes

scripts

shaders

Under figures I have

animals, toons etc

people

poses ( I have a separate pose folder as well as having poses under specific people. I have a lot of pre genesis poses which work fairly well on multiple figures. I also transfer poses when I have a script that will do that. )

People is set up

Genesis Daz figures

Hivewire Figures

Poser figures 

Pre genesis figures

There are other folders that cover Nursoda, Mavka, Star other other stand alone figures.

I also have a folder called anatomy and body parts where I keep a reference for wings and horns etc that I can use on multiple figures.

The good thing is that categorising allows multiple references. So I keep a hair folder where all hairs go plus one for the specific character the hair is for. Any hair conversions I do I also have a specific folder with the conversion and copies of the mats for the hair.

Under the specific characters

I have Genesis folders by number, than inside I have male/female folders

Then for Genesis8fem for example 

Characters

Clothing Hair

Poses

and anything else relating to the character.

This is time consuming but I can find things super easily when it's setup. I'm still reinstalling at the moment though and it's time consuming.

aedonix

Doesn't Daz do some sort of clean-up utility for Studio?

NorthOf45

Clean-up? How would it know what to clean? You need the assets, or else uninstall them. Where they go initially is sometimes off the mark, but I ignore the actual placement and use custom categories exclusively. No hunting for files, you can re-install or update with no worries. If you are starting from scratch, and have a lot of content, just categorize the whole library and re-arrange it after. Categorize new products as you install them (don't let it lag). You can add, remove, copy, delete at will in the categories without disturbing the the physical installation.

SofaCitizen

Yeah, it seems that if you want a properly organised structure (either database or physical location) you need to do the work yourself. Given how infrequently DIM offers product updates I don't think there is too much incentive for PAs to go back through their assets and fix the categorisation. Also, there does not appear to be properly enforced categorisation or folder structure unfortunately.

As someone new to Daz I prefer using Smart Content / Categorisation and am somewhat happy to let DIM put files where it wants so that if there is an update then atleast it won't duplicate files. I try to avoid looking in there so I don't get reminded of the duplicate folders (plural & singual) and the misuse of the apostraphe. Instead I will mainly use the Smart Content and just search for the items I need. At some point I will tackle the annoying 169 products that are still in "lost & found".

alan bard newcomer

Like many with a lot of content I use DIM to install to a set of custom folders which are then added to the content library as directories. 
====
But first and formost .. almost 50,000 files in my Daz scene and render back up. 
And they are a mess because I didn't start with a system. 
If I was starting now every scene file would be mmddyy scene name and all renders from that scene would be mmddyy scene name render number image name. 
And remember to create a locked camera for every image rendered from a scene. 
---
Yes I sort of have folders with a character name with all scene files and all renders I can find of that character. but it's a long way from matching each image to it's scene file ...