Digital Art Zone

quickxotica - 26 July 2012 08:48 AM

PS: Once all this work is done, are there any special steps I need to take to make sure my categorizations survive the inevitable version-upgrade to DS4.5?  I’d REALLY don’t think I could re-do all this if it ever gets wiped out.

Look in my .signature below at my freebies and tutorials link.  There’s a thread on moving DS4 from one computer to another.  This thread basically covers everything you need to know about backing up the DS4 CMS (which converts to 4.5 just fine automatically by the way).

quickxotica - 26 July 2012 08:48 AM

Once all this work is done, are there any special steps I need to take to make sure my categorizations survive the inevitable version-upgrade to DS4.5?  I’d REALLY don’t think I could re-do all this if it ever gets wiped out.

Changes to the actual folders on disk should be completely unaffected by whichever version of Studio you’re running, my existing content library opens quite happily in Studio 2, 3 and 4.

Changes to the smart content categories should be preserved, as it’s a database rather than a part of the code, and I haven’t seen anyone who has upgraded complaining that their categorisation has been corrupted, however I don’t use Smart Content and I haven’t upgraded to 4.5 yet, so I can’t say that definitively.

The move of my content database to DAZ Studio 4.5 even allowed me to solve some inconsistencies with the help of the new database maintenance tools.

I’d say manually organizing your content is more of a necessity than a choice. If I didn’t, I’d never be able able to find anything.

http://karibous-boutique.deviantart.com/gallery/25693748#/d2so6t9

My tutorial on how I organize my own runtime. 

Oh, one extra point. Don’t assume that because you’ve rearranged the folders, that’s it. My folder design is a work in progress and usually sees significant change once a year or so.

As an example if that I’m in the middle of moving the material folders under their parent items now that DS4 handles .MC6s, I’ve just changed my naming convention for Gen 4 outfits and I’m going to be changing it for hair - essentially the rise of Genesis now means that distinctions between something being usable by A, G and V4 and something being usable by only A4 and V4 are less important than they used to be. My naming conventions used to have the applicable figures as their lead element, but seeing as I’ll almost inevitably be auto-fitting to Genesis in future I’ve moved that to the back of the filename to allow the item name to dominate.

KaribousBoutique - 31 July 2012 11:59 PM

http://karibous-boutique.deviantart.com/gallery/25693748#/d2so6t9
My tutorial on how I organize my own runtime. 

Thanks for the tutorial, you mentioned things I didn’t considered.

I admit that although you described how to break the runtime into parts and gave tips to organize the content around Victoria 4.2, It’s still too dangerous for a new user to break it - so nothing works anymore. You’re an experienced user and know exactly how the runtimes works.

So I’m searching an external option to manage my content.
With the scripting facilities it should be possible to link this external solution to DAZ Studio or Poser -
to i.e. load such organized content.

just popping in with my two cents.

For me organization/categorization starts at install.

Instead of installing everything into the “my library” folder, I have a parent directory on a secondary drive.
Within that directory i have sub directories for each category.
This is what, currently, works for me.

animation
animals
clothes
efx
genesis
hair
hdri
lights
mechs and bots
monsters
other textures
people
poses
props
sets
shaders and mats
toon
tuts
vehicles
weapons

Now you could easily start micro managing these categories and sub divide even further.
victoria 3 sub directory in clothing or hair for instance.
I wouldn’t recommend beyond this as windows has a tendency to not like having to deal with file structures with more than 256 characters(depending on OS) generally.
At present i do the micro managing in daz. might change with the next computer build, we’ll see.

Another thing you might want to do if you do batch installs, is to keep a notepad open, and just type in what you are installing, then when you are in daz, you’ll be able to find it faster for categorization.

Now within daz, i’m over micro managed. chairs, plates, etc.

The one problem i run into is duplicate names.
This happens at two levels.
The first is at the product producers level. for instance there is an Ireland character for v4 both on the renderosity site, and on share cg.
The difference is that one has a parent of Pose>corinthianscori>Kenya collection>ireland(sharecg) and the other is just Pose>Ireland(rendo).
When both folders, ireland, are placed in the same category(v4 characters for instance), they are merged, so both are in the same folder. This is actually handy for putting props associated with a certain figure(earrings and a dress for instance) together. TO solve this you can either create separate categories(for me ireland good(rendo), ireland creepy(sharecg), or keep the original structure(corinthianscori>Kenya collection>ireland(sharecg) and ireland(rendo).

The second is at the product level(cr2, pz2, the picture you click on to load a product). when designers just use a generic name(sword) or name something that is exactly the same name as something else(contropose 1).
then you either have to keep the upper directory, or rename the item.
i usually just rename it and move on. Think I’m up to sword 50 at this point.

edit:i previously stated that ireland was on this site, it’s actually a renderosity. whoops

I actually use a mix of the two methods. 

Originally I always created a materials folder for the materials because I found I was spending far too much time trying to figure out which icon was the material and which was the actual object, and this allowed me to know instantly.

However, now that newer products have “Material” or “Wardrobe” printed in the upper right corner of the icon, I that problem no longer exists for these products, and since I don’t want to spend huge quantities of time creating and navigating through unneeded levels of folders, plus it’s nice to be able to see the icons for all my material options without opening another folder, for these products I just dump the materials right in with the product.

Sean Riesch - 07 February 2013 07:14 PM

I actually use a mix of the two methods. 

Originally I always created a materials folder for the materials because I found I was spending far too much time trying to figure out which icon was the material and which was the actual object, and this allowed me to know instantly.

However, now that newer products have “Material” or “Wardrobe” printed in the upper right corner of the icon, I that problem no longer exists for these products, and since I don’t want to spend huge quantities of time creating and navigating through unneeded levels of folders, plus it’s nice to be able to see the icons for all my material options without opening another folder, for these products I just dump the materials right in with the product.

awesome you found what works for you. we all have to find our own sweet spot.

word of warning though, those little notations are associated with meta data. no meta data, no notations.
outside of the daz store, most vendors don’t use it.

Don’t get me wrong, meta-data is a great concept. You can even create your own meta data files if you want.

now that you mentioned, i just noticed that after upgrading to the latest build, those titles aren’t on the icons, even the ones that had it previously. off to check this out.

find what works for you, don’t just go by what people say

refsocrd1 - 07 February 2013 10:13 PM

Sean Riesch - 07 February 2013 07:14 PM

I actually use a mix of the two methods. 

Originally I always created a materials folder for the materials because I found I was spending far too much time trying to figure out which icon was the material and which was the actual object, and this allowed me to know instantly.

However, now that newer products have “Material” or “Wardrobe” printed in the upper right corner of the icon, I that problem no longer exists for these products, and since I don’t want to spend huge quantities of time creating and navigating through unneeded levels of folders, plus it’s nice to be able to see the icons for all my material options without opening another folder, for these products I just dump the materials right in with the product.

awesome you found what works for you. we all have to find our own sweet spot.

word of warning though, those little notations are associated with meta data. no meta data, no notations.
outside of the daz store, most vendors don’t use it.

Don’t get me wrong, meta-data is a great concept. You can even create your own meta data files if you want.

now that you mentioned, i just noticed that after upgrading to the latest build, those titles aren’t on the icons, even the ones that had it previously. off to check this out.

find what works for you, don’t just go by what people say

As said before in the thread, just found your way. Some people likes a hierarchical organization and is just fine for them. Some people feels better grouping the related stuff in the same folder or category. That is fine also. You really need found the workflow which better serves to you.

I used to organize my stuff in a very structured hierarchy, but this arrangement sometimes put you navigating in a tiring way through much deeper folders. Since the CMS was introduced, I am organizing my stuff using the metadata and navigating through the Smart Content tab.

Smart Content provides you with a better interface to get your stuff. Smart Content has nothing with how and where you host your files. It is very dependent of metadata, and metadata also, has nothing with how and where are your stuff too. The most recent stuff have the metadata well assigned, some older stuff needs some adjustments, and a lot of older stuff needs you set the metadata, and I sword is nothing hard or so much time consuming. The work will pay off if you like the Smart Content idea.

The real fun is that with Smart Content you load your figure, Genesis as example and you decide make a lovely girl. With Genesis selected in the Scene tab, and choosing Shapes in Smart Content tab, you will get all Products (in case you are in Smart Contents Products tab) or Files from Products (in case you are in Smart Content Files tab) which works with Genesis. See all files/products which work with the figure gives you an ample view to choose.

So, you will dress your girl and you think in put a dress on her. Select Wardrobe->Dresses, in this case I would prefer Smart Content Files tab, and you get a collection of al dresses which are Genesis compatible. Get one and load on your girl. Now, select the dress in the Scene tab and go to Smart Content Files->Materials and you get all files which works with that dress. Now you want a Shirt, select Genesis again on your Scene tab and go to the Wardrobe->Shirts in Smart Content->Files and you get all Shirts available and compatible with your girl, and you can choose anyone, not necessarily the Shirt which comes with the loaded dress.

That is what I like in Smart Content. Works like your closet for select a clothing, a Makeup box, a Hair saloon… you can mix’n match your stuff in such way that you won’t do with a hierarchical structure. There are some benefits from navigate in Smart Content->Products view. You choose one product and double click it to explore the content, and you get all files for that product wherever it is a Morph, a Material preset, or a Pose. Above the files you can view and hierarchical navigation through the categories and this very useful to characters materials which comes in two flavors; Default DS Shaders and Human Surface Shaders.

Well, his works for me now. I really like to use Smart Content and the extra time in adjust some metadata product’s it is a work which pays off when setting up a scene. Just as works for me, your mileage may vary.