Digital Art Zone

OK… I have installed all the packages, Kids, Michael, etc, etc in the default paths supplied by the installers.

Why is there not a standard structure for things to go in.

For example - I have one product and the Hair is in the Figures folder and the materials for that hair are in poses folder.

I am if nothing else anoyed at having to hunt for things all the time -
Surely Hair, and all the textures relating to that hair should all be in the same folder under HAIR.

It would help if you had all the models (Genesis, Ceil for Gen, Kids4 Base, Victoria) all in the FIGURES FOLDER
Then another folder for CLOTHING where all the clothing was located with a sub category within each product for the related MATERIALS.

MATERIALS and textures DO NOT BELONG in the POSES folder.

Isn’t it time that some standardisation was implemented?!

Most pre-Genesis products use the default Poser file structure which was mandatory before Poser 8.  Conforming items (most clothing and long hair) had to be in the Figures library; non-conforming hair was in the Hair library; and material presets had to be in the material or pose library (most other programs, like DS3 and Carrara, did not support the materials library introduced in Poser 5).

These days, the easiest method in DS is to use Categories to organize items in ways that make sense to you.  For example, I put all my hair, whether conforming, non-conforming, or DS4-format, in subcategories of a main Hair category, and material presets in a subcategory of the hair they belong to.

So how do I MOVE these files into categories?

I do know how to maintain PC’s (being a IT systems Manager) but will simply reorganising the folders on my PC work?
Will moving files corrupt Daz Studio or lose the file altogether from the system?

MATERIALS and textures DO NOT BELONG in the POSES folder.

Yes they do, unless you want to always apply them yourself through the Material Room in Poser (or Surfaces in DS).  It was discovered many years ago, that a Pose file PZ2 could be used not only to apply a pose to a character, but also to apply a material.  These became known as MAT Poses, and that is why they are in the Poses folder.

It would be a great if everything could just be changed overnight, but it can’t.  Using Categories as Mike has suggested, is a way around this problem.  In that wasy, YOU decide what Categories to create, and what will go into each category.  It is a Database system inside DAZ Studio, and you should not move anything on your disk unless you are familiar with the Poser/DAZ file structures.  There is no need to move anything to create Categories

Categories appear in the main window in the Content Library tab, just below Products.  You can create new ones, and move whatever you want into them without moving any files physically.  I think Adamr001 has a tutorial on using Categories, I will try to find a link for you.

Poser and DAZ Studio content has grown over the last decade at least, and there have been many changes in the way that both applications handle loading and storing content.

tdrd - 07 September 2012 06:18 PM

OK… I have installed all the packages, Kids, Michael, etc, etc in the default paths supplied by the installers.

Did you run all the installers with “Default settings (recommended)”? Not a good idea, especially if you have a mix of content dating from before D|S4 came out, and newer items. The “default path” changed in D|S4, and any earlier installers don’t know about this change so they’ll frequently put all their files in one of at least two possible wrong places. I’d recommend always doing a custom install — that way, you can see what the installer is about to do, and change the settings if necessary.

tdrd - 08 September 2012 05:35 AM

So how do I MOVE these files into categories?

I do know how to maintain PC’s (being a IT systems Manager) but will simply reorganising the folders on my PC work?
Will moving files corrupt Daz Studio or lose the file altogether from the system?

There’s a comprehensive video that one of the admins here (adamr001?) created that demonstrates this technique.
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