Suggestions on keeping track of assets?
SilverGirl
Posts: 848
I'm struggling with how to easily keep track of my assets for reasonably quick reference. I know the Smart Content option exists, but it doesn't work with third party, and for some reason a lot of my Daz stuff isn't showing up there, or is showing up twice, which makes it sort of a last resort. And with so many enviornments coming with a ton of props (YAY!!!) I'm finding it hard to remember where I saw a particular thing, plus the issue of having to click a million places to see options for hairstyles, etc.
I made an Excel speadsheet with links, which is something, but... it just seems like there should be a better way. Anyone found one? What works for you?
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I would be remiss in mentioning that you can edit, fix, and add new metadata so that your third party content shows up in Smart Content or automate it https://www.daz3d.com/content-wizard.
I think an excel spreadsheet that contains thumbnails and your own keywords might be best.
Thank you for that product rec!
I make a copy of the promo pages, even freebies. I place them in folders similar to the organization of Smart Content with the exception of Environments where I sort them by the PA's name, or if a one-off, by type of environment. That way if the product is pulled from the store, I still have the pages and know if it had a required item and what it was for. For some major sets with multiple PAs, like UltraScenery, I put all of them under the primary PA. Hair and Wardrobe/Accessories I make a copy and have one sorted by Generation(s) it is for, the other by Style. This file is kept on a non-Daz computer. (That helps when I kind of remember something, but can't recall the name or PA; or someone is asking for help on the forums.)
Characters and Hair, I use a Google Docs spreadsheet so I can look up them on any computer.
I also have sub-categories for Footwear, Props, Environments, Hair, so I can find what I need faster. Doing this as I purchase is a little time investment, but setting up a new computer, it is a slog, but will pay off. I am doing that now on a new computer and I am finding how many repeats of the same type of thing I keep buying. So my current buying is down.
Content Wizard is great and I use it for non-DAZ store products.
Whatever you do, do what works for your way of working. How much time investment you want to put in so you can save later.
I use search in DIM when searching in smart content / content library fail respectively. Also don't forget to deselect anything in the scene tab to stop the smart content filter from taking effect (you can turn that off by the way).
Finally, at the bottom of the Content Library tab is a variety of listings by different sort types and of those Product is most useful as it shows thumbnails and the full names are most informative. I browse that or drill down to the 1st letter/number/character of the product name if I happen to remember it. Those listing when you drill down are extensive so export that to an excel/csv if possible (should be I think listed from the Postgres dB CMS uses).
I render every purchase. Ideally, multiple new items per render and somethings multiple like items in a render. This gives me a visual memory of my purchases. To complicate things, I have a "todo" list of new stuff that has yet to be rendered and a notebook (I'm on number 5 now) where I track my purchases, renders, and what was in each render.
If I'd read this when I started out, it would've sounded like insane overcomplication. If you have a couple of hundred files to download, it is. When you have a couple of thousand, which produce at least thrice that many user-facing files, it isn't.
I'm doing several things:
Old Content
Daz started out selling content meant for Poser. But more than once it's looked as if Poser might crash and burn. So they developed Daz Studio as a replacement for Poser. So:
New Daz content for Daz Studio tends to be organized with a major product, and then add-ons for that product in subdirectories. It's relatively easy to find the pieces. It's easy to move it out of vendor-named folders so you can see what items you have.
But intermediate-age content is often loading partly into Daz content library folders and partly into Poser content library folders.
Old content loads into Poser library folders. Poser made a serious attempt at product organization. Unfortunately, the organizing principle they used, while economical in certain ways in the 1990s, isn't as well suited to vast content libraries where you probably have a lot more disk space. Poser forces different kinds of data into different user-facing folders ... and then some people found some hacks to make certain functions more convenient, partly breaking the intended organization.
If you buy old content (I did, and do), Smart Content isn't going to be smart enough to find the pieces. For instance, there are about 6 different places to look for texture-setters, depending on when the product was made.
Sorting in Daz Installation Manager
A lot of intermediate products have both Daz Studio and Poser versions complete. I don't download both.
I hide the Poser downloads of dual products in DIM's Ready to Download tab, without downloading. (This might change if I buy an up-to-date Poser license.)
I hide products I want local copies of, but don't want to install, in DIM's Ready to Install tab.
I have multiple content directories for different kinds of content. These are set up in DIM. I download the new products, then decide which of my various content directories I'm going to put them in.
Different Vendors
If I were primarily expecting to work in Daz Studio, I'd probably set up my Hivewire3D and Renderosity products so that DIM could install them -- while making sure they're listed in a fashion that I can tell where they came from. Hivewire3D is now sold at Renderosity, but Hivewire3D products group together nicely. General Renderosity products don't: I have a lot of stuff I bought there that modifies Daz products directly.
I haven't done this, however, because I'm exporting everything so I can use it in Blender. I'm building a directory structure of exported products, using product pictures as quick indicators of what's in the directories, as well as a record of how the product was expected to render. My basic organization so far is Kind of Item, followed by Time Period/Genre, followed by Related Product Set. It can't effectively be replicated in Daz Studio, at least not without more effort than I'm willing to expend.
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Multiple Content Directories
Anybody who's been hanging around long enough to accumulate a typical large library with several thousand installation files, and probably thrice as many user-facing files within Daz Studio, has found out that it's hard to keep track of the results, even with a Smart Content database.
So I have multiple content directories. Exactly what you want for content directories will vary, depending on what products you have, and what's important to you. Every possible organization has some disadvantages.
My method is to break up content into libraries based on subject matter first, and -- for poseable figures -- generation. It means I have a lot of libraries: I have 16 Daz Studio libraries. 11 of those are also Poser libraries. (There is no point in adding libraries of later Daz poseable figures to Poser, since they don't load. There will end up being some Poser-only libraries if I buy an updated Poser.)
They are:
Hair gets its own library because it's usually relatively easy to fit to figures of different generations, so I want it all handy to look at, for any character.
Cloaks and Morphing Fantasy Dresses get their own library because, for several generations, even though they fit different figures, they were using the same UV maps. A texture for a cloak for Michael 3 could easily be used on a cloak for Victoria 6. So I want these all available for inspection together too.
Humans figures get split up by generations because they have numerous add-ons and which generation they belong to isn't always clearly labelled. -- This is where the major disadvantage of my organization comes in. Products often can be used with characters of the same sex in multiple generations. If they don't have separate installers for each generation, then I have to pull them apart and install at least partly manually. So, for example, if it fits Genesis 3(7) Female and Genesis 8 Female, I have to duplicate some files and directories and install them by hand. This is a nuisance and I wish they all had separate installers for each generation. It's not enough of a nuisance to make me stop.
Animals are split into older and newer mostly on rendering considerations. Older animals might lack resolution in mesh, particularly, for closer renders. (Lyne's animals were wonderfully inspired, but they were built for ~Poser 4.)
In Main:
Main (Human Stuff)/Nature: the primary reason I have two different libraries for these settings and props is to reduce the number of items in each, so I have some hope of finding stray product parts, which are legion with respect to older products.
For the product collections that were made over years and comprise more than a dozen products, made for different programs, different rendering engines, sold now at different vendors, with add-on textures that apply to different parts of the entire model collection because not all of it existed when the first ones were made ... it still takes an evening or three to figure out how they interrelate, so I can export them. I have 13 14 products related to the Victorian Reflections Room, and figuring that out took an entire evening. The GIS environments took three. I doubt I'd have found all the parts for either, if I had all my content in one library. Just too much to scan when I start out only vaguely remember whether some part of the collection existed, and what exactly it was for.
Wow, this is really fascinating seeing how everyone has their stuff organized! Thank you all for sharing!
I created a huge number of word files for every content and I also made word files with collections. I also use an Excel File with additional information like compatibility to characters and dependencies.
I also ranked the content regarding quality for my needs. Only a small percentage is installed. This is a cumbersome task, but it works so far. Call me Monk.