Digital Art Zone

I’ve been designing a pair of high heel shoes for Genesis.

My figures have 7 material zones and I have created 30 dsf material files (times 2 for left and right shoe) plus one set of dsf files to put one color on all 7 material zones at one (times 2 for left and right shoe).

This gives me a total of 480 material files.

Now I am about to create Meta Data and it struck me that I don’t want to have 480 materials and 17 pose files cluttering the presentation of the 2 product icons in the Smart Content Pane of the main product. But maybe that’s only me?

What better than to create a poll

If I could have it my way (and I don’t know how or if it’s even possible) I would want to have ONLY the 2 product icons in the main product view (and shortcut icons to the material and pose views). The materials should ONLY be visible in Presets>Materials>Product view (together with shortcut icons to the pose view and maybe the main product view). And finally the poses should ONLY be visible in Presets>Poses>Product (together with shortcut icons to the materials view and maybe the main product view).

So the question is what do you prefer?

Make everything visible in Smart Content, I don’t mind the added clutter!

Add ONLY the figure, poses and the one materials that set all 7 materials zones to one base colour!

We have removed the poll from this thread - we aren’t sure why they are available at all, as they weren’t on the old forums, but we would ask that people consult the forum team before setting a poll up.

Frank0314 - 05 June 2012 04:46 PM

We have removed the poll from this thread - we aren’t sure why they are available at all, as they weren’t on the old forums, but we would ask that people consult the forum team before setting a poll up.

Sorry about that, didn’t know.

Since it’s not a technical problem as such you might consider moving it to the commons?

We haved moved it to DS discussion Forum, as we feel you are more likely to get answers here.

If the clothes are set to be compatible with Genesis and the materials to be compatible with the clothes then you should get the result you want - the materials will appear when the clothes are selected.

Richard Haseltine - 06 June 2012 05:14 AM

If the clothes are set to be compatible with Genesis and the materials to be compatible with the clothes then you should get the result you want - the materials will appear when the clothes are selected.

Hi Richard, thanks for taking the time to comment!

With all due respect for your knowledge and experience with the software, no i don’t get the result I want.

At least not not the way I have tried to create the files with the information and documentation available.

Your comment sent me off in a direction to test a few new ideas but the strange behaviour remains.

This is what I did:
When saving my DSF Figure file I selected Compatibility “/Genesis” and Compatibility Base “/xTH Pumps”.
In the Content DB Editor>Assets I set the figure Categories to “/Default/Wardrobe/Shoes/xTH Pumps” (and to “/Default” more about that later).
The Poses Compatibility are set to “/Genesis” and the Category is set to “/Default/Presets/Poses/xTH Pumps” (and to “/Default” more about that later).
The Materials Compatibility are set to “/xTH Pumps” and the Category is set to one of the eight created materials catgories f.ex. “/Default/Presets/Materials/xTH Pumps/Lining”.

This is the Smart Content presentation I get:
- With Genesis selected, going through Wardrobr>Shoes>xTH Pumps and select the product icon I get to see all 499 files, the DSF figures, the poses AND the material files. (First Image)
- Because I added the “/Default” to my figure I can click on Default to the left of the product Icon to get the view I want when I’m about to add the shoes to Genesis. (Second Image)
- With the shoe selected, in Materials I get all 499 files, again since the default view is to show ALL content. (Third Image)
- Because I created the material categories I can use the sideways tree to get only the category I want. (Fourth Image)
- BUT if I use the vertical tree structure no matter which category I select all I get is the main product Icon. (Fifth Image)

And guess what happens when I click the main product image?
I get to view all 499 files again forcing me to step through the sideways tree again to get to the material category of choice.
This behaviour makes it infinitely easier to go to the Content Library we are trying to avoid in the first place.
 
Maybe it’s just me but this is not my interpretation of how SMART content should act…

A final thought for now:
Since no one has bothered answering my initial query this might be the time to move the thread back to Nut’s & Bolt’s as the discussion is heading in the technical direction?

EDITED - Forgot to include the images…

Not the results I’d expect, but I’m not sure why it isn’t working.

I don’t know how or why, but suddenly it works as you explained that it should work

I don’t know how or why it works but this is what I have done since my last post:

Quit Daz Studio. Installed more than 10 new products, all with MetaData. Some new stuff purchased today (and and some bought earlier that did not get installed immediately)...

Started Daz Studio again, accepted import new Metadata (no need to mark as new).

When I open the wardrobe I see ONLY my DSF Figure files!

When I open the Presets>Pose folder I see ONLY my pose files!!

And finally when I select my shoe and open the Presets>Materials there is no sign of the product Icon, I see ONLY my materials and when I go down the three I see the 8 material groups. Finally when I select one of the groups the materials are there!!!

It’s a bit frustrating NOT to have an answer to what caused the problem.

I lean towards the Troll that seem to be lurking in my system to try my nerves as soon as I seem make some progress

It seems I’ve beaten it for now, I’m finally ready to send this product to Daz for Preliminary Review.

It does sound like a refresh issue of some kind, though I’d always advise restarting DS if something doesn’t seem to be taking correctly. If it happens again please make a bug report.

Well, then I guess it’s time to submit a bug report as I am back in the same old mode again.

I doubt it is my product as I experience the same problem with all my content…

Unfortunately that is not possible at the moment…

Since I can write this I must be logged in but the rest of the system thinks I am logged out and whatever I do I get rerouted back to the login page.

Final test is to log out on this page after this post is submitted.

But if the problem remains it may be a while before I get access to the system again…

The bug reporter is a separate system anyway, if you don’t already have an account you will need to create one

Richard Haseltine - 07 June 2012 12:47 PM

It does sound like a refresh issue of some kind, though I’d always advise restarting DS if something doesn’t seem to be taking correctly. If it happens again please make a bug report.

Not sure it’s a bug after all…

Now I finally found out about the difference in looking at the Smart Content as File and Product respectively:

When looking at “Files” the view is only the categorized files.

Looking at “Products”,after selecting the product I get to see everything everywhere.

I guess this is the way Smart Content is supposed to work?

Not sure, I have to admit I’ve never looked at the Products tab.

LOL!!!

And I went in the complete opposite direction…

You don’t mind having a fast look at your Product tab an see if it resembles the images I posted earlier ?

Yes, I see the same behaviour in the Products tab.

I better start to RTFM then

Well I’m glad we got that sorted out, I hate not knowing why thing behave as they do.