Organizing Suggestions, Please
JasmineSkunk
Posts: 1,902
Hi everyone! 
So, I have a little issue....
When I was hanging about here before, I primarily used Poser because, back then, you needed it to create most content. Even though I had Daz Studio, I never really dug into how it works. But... things change. And, not only am I embracing Daz Studio and Iray and trying to learn about them, but it puts me in this weird place of kinda knowing stuff... but not knowing stuff. And one of those issues for me, is... How the heck am I going to organize my stuff now?
I used to organize it for optimization in Poser, but tht is not really helpful to me now since I haven't even installed Poser since being back. Okay! So... what I have done so far is put all of my Genesis Generations into the "Daz" section and all of my Generation 3 and 4 figures (Aiko 3, Victoria 4, etc) into the "Poser" Runtime section of my library and so far, that is working out great for keeping my figures organized. The issue I am having is reguarding Props and Environments.
OMG!
How do you guys organize this stuff so you can find it? Should I put props from Character clothing into a "Props" folder or leave them with the clothing they came with? I am struggling to find what I have and remember where to look. Do you put all jewelry in one folder, or leave it with the figure it was designed? Currently I have Hair organized in it's own folder, wiith subfolders for G1, G2, G3...etc... and that is working out fine for hair...
But the PROPS!! I'm so overwhelmed! How do you guys do it? Any suggestions would be helpful. Thanks. 
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Comments
I'm a lazy one and leave it the way DIM sorts it into categories. I use smart content a lot, so that helps (even when I'm looking for props/clothes not made for that figure, for that I just unhook the "filter by Context" . Every now and then I need to go by search function or I search in the products.
The one thing I use mostly from the content library are shader presets
Screen shot of my file organisation
Leaving the files alone and using categories or links to organise does avoid issues with updates, or with add-ons that need to reference product files (e.g. Ultra Scenery)
hmm... Well, that may be. But I think it's too late for that, lol... And I am not willing to start over - again.
But, thank you for the tip.
Like RH, I feel moving the actual resources isn't done lightly; I've done it when I had to (I've even edited .dufs etc when I had to), but it's best not.
I keep a complete custom hierarchy under Categories in the Studio tree. When I buy and install a new product, I also categorize it into one or more areas of my custom tree. This is a fair bit of work, and requires a fair bit of maintenance, but it's the only way I can find things, especially since PAs are very erratic about where they choose to install things in the file-based Content structure. (Did they put that set in Environments? Did they put it in Environments/Architecture? Did they put it in Props?)
At the moment, my custom tree is broken into these top-level categories: Anatomy and Shapes, Characters - Men, Characters - Variant, Characters - Women, Clothing, Creatures, Hair, Poses and Expressions, Props, Sets, Shaders, Skins - Makeup - Effects ... but there's a lot of subdivision, especially in clothing and sets (I classify sets by things like "Schools and Libraries," "Retail and Business," "Urban Streets," and a lot more).
Unfortunately it's not adequate; I need a lot of cross-referencing, and though I'm happy to throw things into multiple categories as needed, I'm finding I need sometimes to look for things on multiple axes. Like, sometimes I'm fishing in the pool of all my female characters, sometimes I specifically want a Black character and want to see all those, sometimes I need a G3 character for reasons, etc ... what's really needed is a smart metadata system. You could even call it something like Smart Content. It's a shame that the one in Studio is such a disaster area!
I do a lot of database work in my day job and I have gone so far as to consider firing up a Postgres DB client and spending a few days repairing and restructuring metadata myself. (VERY NOT RECOMMENDED UNLESS YOU ARE CRAZY LIKE ME AND ALSO KNOW A LOT ABOUT DATA STRUCTURES AND STUDIO INNARDS). The main reason I don't, apart from there only being 24 hours in a day, is that I would never be able to let Studio's automatic processes touch any of that data ever again (never connect inside Studio, never let it update Smart Content ever ever ever). As it is, I can't let any of my category names under Categories overlap with any of the ones Studio likes to use or it trounces my stuff.
I have also considered running a separate DB of my own just to be able to keep listings of things in Studio, but that's even more work and pain, to be honest.
An easy way to get started with Categories is to go to a folder, right-click, and choose "Create Category From" > "Folder and Subfolders". Now you have a Category tree that matches the folder structure, and you can then modify it as you like.
If you ae going to manually organize, Daz Studio content can be ANYWHERE you want it to be in the Library and you will be able to use it. Refering to the user facing files that is. All textures still go into the Runtime folder structure and anything under Data is left alone.
As for recomendations, it really depends on how the PA who made it first organized it. I start from there and decide how i want it to be.
Thanks for the input, everyone. Sounds like it will be daunting no matter how I go about it. I'm just going to have to suck it up and figure it out,I guess!
Thank you!
sent you a message @JasmineSkunk
I would highly recommend you invest in some SSD External drives (I own a ton of 4 TB SSDs). First and foremost, I download the zips manually per order along with the documentation and promo files as without these, all zips look alike. I also maintain a huge excel sheet that houses itemized assets by order number and date. A bundle of multiple products is listed as one item (similar to what appears on an order. This sheet has only 13K lines of purchases. But, I also have a spread sheet of items purchased which is much greater than 13K lines and resembles itemized products as they appear in the product library. I rely on a highly organized folder and sub folder system that allows me to find shoes earrings infrastructure, weather etc. This allows for non-tagged simplified searches that are based on the way I name the files. It is not the DAM system, just something that works for me. I have 15k products from Daz. I have 127 main asset folders, one of those being Props, and it has a ton of sub-folders. But some 'Props' deserve their own main folder structure. Weapons live in a main asset folder, as do Jewellry, Footwear, Robotics, Hair, Toons, Music related etc. I also download via DIM to a different drive and uncheck delete after download and retain a backup of this drive. I use DIM to install to another external SSD drive and utilize DIM's invaluable tools for troubleshooting missing files, locating installed and misinstalled assets etc. I love DIM but I don't put all my eggs in that basket, hence the manual downloads. The spread sheets allow me to search by artist, date or partial name and this is a godsend for inactive products. The manual folders allow me to search for footwear by type beit flats, open toed or wedged heels etc. Eg I can search for characters by nationality, age range, generation etc but I keep fairy seperate from creatures, monsters and toons etc. Clothing by era, genre, generation or season etc. Hair by length, types, cuts, era etc. The best way to organize your content is how you see fit to use it. How do you search for items on Daz? By seasons, events, location etc? Are places medieval, distypoian utopian, infrastructure, underwater, at the beach? You can make your system cater to your needs. I do use categories and install at times based on projects but these are more temporary on demand vices, like needing a roadmap for a vacation that you may never use again. My main manual system is what I rely on as a permanent, unchanging map to my mile-hig compost of Daz assets.