Digital Art Zone

I’ve read several of the posts on content and would like some clarification please.  I have several related questions but will start with one.

In managing content for the new 4.5 (LOVE some of the new directory features!), I noticed that I have the following directories:

Studio\My Library\People\some Versions of Aiko, David, Michael, Steph, Victoria, and Genesis

and

Studio\My Library\Runtime\Libraries\Character\DAZ People\with some versions of Aiko, DAvid, Freak, Hiro, Judy, Michael, Steph3, Victoria

and

Studio\My Library\Runtime\Libraries\!DAZ\with some versions of david, freak, Michael, Steph, Victoria

Note:  The three “People” directories are NOT identical!

Why are there three locations?  Do I need all three places?  What makes some content show up in Content Library and some content I simply can’t find unless I view content by File List (and then sometimes nothing actually shows up in the Content pane although there are files in the folder).

I would like to see one location for all the DAZ People, and then add, as their sub-directories, all the other characters that require that base DAZ character. 

What is the best way to accomplish this?

Thanks for your feedback!

The first location sounds like the ‘new’ location where the Gen5 items are located.(V5, etc)

The second looks like it’s the location for Gen4 (V4, etc)

Can you post some screenshots showing what is in those folders?

The first location is where you’ll find items in DAZ Studio format—in some cases they may be accessories for figures or just material presets.

The second location is where you’ll find items in Poser format—all of the DAZ People prior to Genesis were in Poser format.

The !DAZ folder is a hidden folder which should not be visible inside DS—those are the support folders for the figures containing morph data.

If you have items not showing up properly, it may be that your content folders are not set up correctly.  The Runtime folder must be exactly one level down from the content folder defined (e.g. My Library>Runtime) or it will not work correctly.  If folders that are under Runtime are showing up in the DAZ Studio Formats section, then they aren’t in the right place.

The best way to organize things the way you want would be to use categories—that way you can combine the DS-format and Poser-format sections without breaking anything.

Thanks for the responses.  A lot of these directories are what I found when I installed stuff (from back in the early DAZ days.  I’ve been careful about moving too much to places that seem logical to me.  I know not to touch the data, the geometry and textures folders.  The mat files seem to show up everywhere; when I find an errant MAT folder, I move it to the Materials directory.  The Libraries folders seem to be the ones that actually show up inside Studio and that I can click/drag to use… sometimes.

I would find a “required-do not touch” list of folders to be useful, and to know which folders can be reorganized with similar files so ALL will show up in the location where I want to be able to use them…  hope that makes sense!  I can post my “Ideal list of folders” if that would be helpful in getting me organized.  =)

Hrmmmm… can’t attach Word file with directory pictures and can’t paste pics in post.  The Paths I posted above are the horizontal representations of the vertical directories.

My Runtime is immediately below My Library:  My Library\Runtime\ with Geometries, Libraries, prefs, Textures under Runtime. 

The Libraries folder contains folders for !DAZ, Animals, Backgrounds, Camera, Character (including sub-directory for “people”), Environments, LIghts, Materials, a Morphs folder, Poses, and Props.  Is this (Libraries) the folder where all my content should be that is usuable for creating, posing, lighting/camera? 

Perhaps I can send an e-mail with attachment if you want to see my actual directories. 

I’m motivated to get back to learning graphics, but get frustrated when I’m on a roll and can’t find the next piece because it doesn’t appear to be in the folder it actually is in!!

I appreciate your help!

P.S.  I’m using Windows Vista 32-bit.  Already sent a letter to Santa for a Hawt Screaming Graphics/Gaming Computer!!!

This might be helpful if you are ever trying to get a subfolder list of a given folder. Bring up a command window, navigate to said folder, and type at the prompt: tree /a > “My DS Folders.txt”

If you have a text editor with outlining, the file can be converted into a collapsible outline format that can the be moved around for planning purposes.

Just remember, moving things at the folder level will probably render all default metadata useless.