DAZ Studio and manual organizing the file structure

peterschut63

Hi

I am new at DAZ Studio, and have a question how to manual organizing the file structure in DAZ Studio 4,9

After a break of seven years I want to try and pick-up my old hobby again. I only used Poser (up to version 7) and recently bought Poser 11 Pro. I cleaned up my old Runtime folder as this was a mess as I could not find anything back. I needed to go to the .zip file or .exe file and looked where the parts, morphs and material poses were of all the contetnt I bought years ago. So after two weeks work I cleaned up this structure with different themes and object in 50 easy and smaller subfolders (see below)

I think I want to move to DAZ Studio as Genesis 3 does seem to be a better figure.
So I a struggling a bit with the file structure, as I know this will become a mess.

This is the poser structuure:
=======================
V4_Base
    •    Runtime
        o    Geometries
        o    Libraries
                Camera
                Character
                Face
                Hair
                Hand
                Light
                Pose
                Props
        o    textures
V4_Clothing
    •    Runtime
        o    Geometries
        o    Libraries
                Camera
                Character
                Light
                Pose
                Props
        o    textures
V4_Hair
    •    Runtime
        o    Geometries
        o    Libraries
                Camera
                Character
                Hair
                Light    
                Pose
                Props
        o    Textures
========================
These tree structures contain several objects in the same family like clothing_dress, clothing_action, clothing_casual, Shoes, Boots and so on, as I had a hard time finding my stuff.

In DAZ Studio I managed to add a custom library via the preferences>Content>Content Directory manager window and make a similar tree structure:
G3F_clothing
    •    Data
    •    People
    •    Runtime
G3F_Shoes
    •    Data
    •    People
    •    Runtime
G3F_casual
    •    Data
    •    People
    •    Runtime

Question:
Wil that work when I manualy add DAZ3D, Renderosity and free content by unzipping these files and add them to this directory

I have searched the web extensively and there is no real explanation of how this works. I dont think I want to used the DAZ connect method as that will only solve part of the problem. I need a clean and organized structure as if this goes well I will buy a lot of stuff from DAZ, Renderosity and others and that needs managing.

Cheers,
Peter

 

Richard Haseltine

A folder-based categorisation will work with any content, though there's always the risk of breaking something and updates are a fiddle if you move the originals. Spliiting across multiple content directories by figure type (or anything else) is certainly OK. Using categories is, however, more robust - content without metadata can be fairly easily categorised.

3dOutlaw

I agree with Richard, that the Categories seem the way to go, since you can include content from both your poser and daz file structure in one place...which is a BIG benefit for Poser users or those with a lot of V4 or older content.

(...the only downside I encountered is the refresh, but am working that in another thread, as it seems it is working for others)

peterschut63

Richard Haseltine said:

A folder-based categorisation will work with any content, though there's always the risk of breaking something and updates are a fiddle if you move the originals. Spliiting across multiple content directories by figure type (or anything else) is certainly OK. Using categories is, however, more robust - content without metadata can be fairly easily categorised.

What I want to achieve is to have categorized folders and place (unzip or install) the new materials in that folder.

If I do that, can something break? Are there rules what sits in runtime, data and so on like in Poser?

A DAZ product will have an installer and will place the product in a pre-defined tree. Renderosity will have a zip file with a tree that I can change, but often not do.

So in my poser directory I normally remove any vendor names an all the irritating double !! marks that make the product sit on top of the tree.

For instance in character I only have one extra level of the product group by removing the artist name. It made working in poser with a large runtime so much better 

Richard Haseltine

peterschut63 said:

Richard Haseltine said:

A folder-based categorisation will work with any content, though there's always the risk of breaking something and updates are a fiddle if you move the originals. Spliiting across multiple content directories by figure type (or anything else) is certainly OK. Using categories is, however, more robust - content without metadata can be fairly easily categorised.

What I want to achieve is to have categorized folders and place (unzip or install) the new materials in that folder.

If I do that, can something break? Are there rules what sits in runtime, data and so on like in Poser?

A DAZ product will have an installer and will place the product in a pre-defined tree. Renderosity will have a zip file with a tree that I can change, but often not do.

So in my poser directory I normally remove any vendor names an all the irritating double !! marks that make the product sit on top of the tree.

For instance in character I only have one extra level of the product group by removing the artist name. It made working in poser with a large runtime so much better 

Changing the folder names within a content directory can cause issues - especially if the underlying asset is changed but you use an older user file.

ShelLuser

I think this tutorial is an absolute must-read when you're planning on (re)organizing your contents in Daz Studio:

http://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/20018/metadata-tutorial-adding-new-items-to-your-smart-content/p1

Also because it can help you import 3rd party materials and add those to your DS workflow (mainly referring to the smart contents pane here).

Each to their own of course but it has been really rewarding for me to tune DS to my specifications. Example: I do a lot with Genesis (1 & 2). So under 'Figures' I have a specific 'Genesis' category which gives me direct access to all Genesis base models. I also do a lot with props, even discovered partial items from existing sets. A nice example being the blacksmith. There's a lot of stuff to discover: forge, anvil, door (left and right and side door). So I made sure to categorize these myself as well. I can find these in my setup under Props => Architecture => Blacksmith. While the main set itself can be found in Sets => Architecture => Exteriors => Old West => Blacksmith.

Anyway, you get the idea I hope :)

 

peterschut63

Thanks for all your reply, but for some reason it does not work.

I have a clean install of DAZ Studio 4.9

I made a folder with two sub folders called:
C:\3D Library 
    •    DAZ Studio Content
    •    Poser Runtime Ext

The Poser Runtime Ext has all my 50 library categories, and works fine in Poser. I also pointed DAZ Studio to these folders and they seem to be fine as well.

In the DAZ Studio Content subfolder I made my first (of I hope many) subfolder called:
        •    G3F_Base

This should become the folder with the Genesis 3 Female base.
I downloaded the Genesis 3 Female Starter Essentials and placed the content of that zip file in my G3F_Base directory.
That folder looks like this:
C:\3D Library 
    •    DAZ Studio Content
        * G3F_Base
            o    Data
            o    Light Presets
            o    People
            o    Props
            o    Readme’s
            o    Render Presets
            o    Runtime
            o    Scene Bulder
            o    Scenes
            o    Scripts
            o    Shader Presets

I told Daz Studio where this file is and the tree is visible in the library area of DAZ Studio
If I double click on any of the objects nothing happens.

HELP  …..

 

TheKD

That is really odd, What you did should work. I organize all my crap manually like that. I have a seperate library for G3F, G3M, and animals I use frequently. My rule of thumbs is leave the data and runtime folder alone, all others I arrage however I feel like it. I take out vanity folders and link spam, move stuff all over the place, and even make my own icons when the default icon sucks.

jestmart

Please post a screen shot of your Content Directory Manager with both DAZ Stuio and Poser formats expanded.

peterschut63

Hi Forum.

I included the folder Content in the tree, and that didn't work.

G3F needs to sit in the DAZ Connect folder, and didn't work in my personal C:\3D Library\G3F_Base folder.

After downloading via connect G3F could be loaded. My add-ons do now work by placing the folders Data. People and Runtime in the root of the folder that I select as a library folder (so no Content folder)

Hope this makes sence, but I think I got it now.

Thanks all ...

 

 

SpottedKitty

peterschut63 said:

I included the folder Content in the tree, and that didn't work.

That's a common misunderstanding — "Content" doesn't mean "the one folder with Content in the name", it means "any folder containing your content files". A lot of beginners get this wrong and end up pointing one folder level too low or too high. The name of your content folder doesn't matter, it could be anything, as long as it's the same folder path and name you've specified in the DIM installation settings (if you use it) and in the D|S Content Directory Manager.

One final gotcha if you use Connect — you can specify where the Connect folder goes (and there must only be one of them), but it's a "black box", things get installed into it, but you must not fiddle with anything in there manually. The one and only way to manipulate anything installed with Connect is to use the controls built into D|S.