How to add new contet to established Products?

LD1

Is there a way to add content to an established product? I have created new textures for clothes or skins for animals. Problem is, when I go to place them in that product’s folder, it never shows up in the Smart Content> Product folder> etc. folder, so that I can use it. 

I even went to the ”Content db Editor”, but I couldn’t figure out how to add the new textures there.  

I wind up having to add it to my personal Library. But I then have to remember (down the road) that there are new textures for that product located elsewhere - a pain.

Is there a way to add new content to an existing product? If so, it sure would be nice if someone has a step-by-step tutorial that I could follow.

SofaCitizen

I don't believe so - I have briefly looked for this myself in the past.

You COULD add it manually to the dsx file in /Runtime/Support and then re-import the metadata for that product. However, that would be a bad idea since you'd have to know what you were doing and if it was a product from the Daz store then your changes would get overwritten if the product was ever updated or re-installed.

It would be nice if there was an in-built way for the Smart Content to automatically link/merge related products - e.g. If you have a Clothing Product and a Textures Product.

Obviously if you have the item in question selected and use the "Filter by Content" then it should show you just the relevant clothing textures if the meta-data is set correctly. However, that does require you remembering that you have more textures outside the main product so not quite ideal.

NorthOf45

You technically could add to an existing Product, but not recommended. Your new textures can be a separate Product, like any other texture add-on. The key is to set the Compatibility to the original Product. The physical location is not really important, you can make links to your files in any folder you want, like in a sub-folder of the base Product.

You can keep your created files in any folder you like, which is better for backing them up. You can have more than one library, which is a good way to isolate your own creations from purchased products. The metadata is what will tie everything together for Smart Content.

First, create a new Product as a placeholder for your texture set. This will create a logical container that will hold only those items that you want to include, as opposed to LOCAL USER, which holds anything that does not belong to any Product (there could be hundreds). Typically, you will have all your files and resources in a folder or folder tree. In the Content Library pane, right-click on the top-most folder with your texture set and select "Create a Product From..." and give it a name (must be unique, or you will actually add to an existing Product, after being prompted). This new Product will contain any user-facing files in the folder tree that you specified.

For texture sets, there are no items with any geometry, so your task is quite simple at this point. You can add metadata to the assets from the Content Library folder with the Content DB Editor. Do it for every folder with visible assets. Select an asset from the top half, (you can do more than one at a time, or copy from one to many others later). Start by setting the Content Type (i.e., Preset/Materials/) and a Default Category or two (Categories tab, bottom half of the window, right-click items, "Add Default Categories to Selected File(s)"). These are the categories in Smart Content where they will appear.

Now for Compatibility. In the bottom half, select the Compatibility tab. Right-click on the selected item(s) in the bottom pane (again one or more, you can copy to the others later) and select "Add Compatibilites to Selected File(s)". Once the list of Products comes up, search or scroll to the base Product. Expand the entry to show all sub-items, if any. Select the one or more items to which the texture set is to be made compatible and accept. You should now have everything you need for it to show in Smart Content when the base item is selected in the scene.

If you want to create a reference close to the original base product, you can make links to your creations. Make a sub-folder in the Content Library under the base product, like most texture set add-ons. Navigate to your texture set folder, and select the assets you wish to link. Right-click and Copy. Go back to the new folder under the base product and Paste. This will make a .djl file which links to the original.

There are ways to do some of this with drag and drop (like Compatibility), but I have never tried it.

 

All done. (I hope!)

Richard Haseltine

You can alsos et compatibility by having the item loaded and selected and then dragging the presets from the Content Library to Smart Content, in the category you wish to use, and then seelcting the type (material preset) in the dialogue that pops up, if necessary.

In the Smart Content pane right-click will let you see add-ons (or the base from ana dd-on) http://docs.daz3d.com/doku.php/public/software/dazstudio/4/referenceguide/interface/panes/smart_content/files_page/results_view/start#context_menu

LD1

Thanks to all three of you for your help. 

FYI: As I was following NorthOf45’s steps, I discovered that there IS an easy way to add your textures etc. into an existing product. Here’s how:

After saving my new texture as a Material Preset, I right-clicked on my texture and selected the: ”Create a product from” option to create a product placeholder (as instructed). I used the same name as the original Product. It said “A product named “Industrial Storage” already exist. Would you like to add the file(s) to this product? Out of curiosity, I said yes. Sure enough it was placed in the Content Library tab> Products> Industrial Storage folder! And it worked when I tried to apply my texture to the propane tank. My textures even showed up in the Content DB Editor’s Assets tab!

I don’t know if I will leave it there since I don’t want it to be overwritten if that package was updated. But it is good to know that it can be done.

Now I am going to continue trying the steps that all three of you suggested

Thanks again for your help.

NorthOf45

Adding to an existing product, as you saw, is easy, but might complicate the maintenance. Updates would not touch the custom stuff, since the installation only knows about the original assets. Not a big deal, really, but harder to separate yours from theirs. Depends how much of a stickler you are for keeping things in order.