The amazing appearing/disappearing thumbnail labels!

Doodle Designs

I'm developing three sets of related products. Since I split my time working between my (faster) destop computer and my (slower, but portable) laptop, I'm keeping my files on a thumb drive to make switching back-and-forth easier.

I'm confused about what's going on with the labels that DS puts on thumbnails in the content folders.

I spent most of yesterday working on my laptop and all the labels were there.

When I got home I plugged the thumb drive into the desktop - and the labels were gone from two of the three content paths! Huh?

I swapped the thumb drive back to the laptop and the labels were all fine. Swapped back to the desktop and they were gone!

Both computers are using the exact same files yet one has the labels showing and the other doesn't! Both are running DS4.9 but the laptop is running the 32-bit version while the desktop has the 64-bit version. The laptop is running WIN XP. The desktop has WIN 7.

I don't understand how these labels are being applied to the thumbnails. They appear once you save to the content library, but are not actually part of the thumbnail image, since you can create your own, rendered thumbs, copy/paste them into the content folder, and the labels are still there. This must mean that the info is stored somewhere within content folder, doesn't it? But where? And how does DS decide whether to apply the labels and when not to?

So that you can see that I'm not totally crazy, here's how things look on both computers:

LAPTOP

 

DESKTOP

I've experience the labels disappearing before, when I've moved the content folders to a different path and when I've renamed the folder just above the content folders. I'm guessing this has to do with changing the path messing up how DS associates the labels with the thumbnails, but in this case there have been no changes (other than the drive letter) because I'm using the same thumb drive on both computers.

Also, while moving the content from the laptop C drive to the thumb drive a few days ago, I zipped them since copy/pasting to the thumb drive made all the labels disappear. On my first attempt the labels disappeared. On my second attempt, the labels stayed.

The difference was the folder level I zipped them at.

The first time, when the labels disappeared, I had zipped the Accessories for Him and Her and Bathroom Accessories folders separately.

The second time, when the labels were kept, I zipped the same two folders but went up one level to the top Glass Block Products level.

I'm at a loss. Anyone understand how the thumbnail labels work? How can I avoid the labels disappearing?

Richard Haseltine

The labels are in the Content Managment System - theya ppear on the system you aved the files on as they are set by the preset type you save, but not on the other unless you copy the metadata or edit the Content Type setting for the files on that machine.

Doodle Designs

Thanks for the response, Richard!

Where is the metadata located? Path?

For packaging a product, is this something that is supposed to be included in the zip file?

Doodle Designs

I found this documentation, but do I need to go through all this? If the metadata is created as I add content, can't I just include the folder in my zip file?

http://docs.daz3d.com/doku.php/public/software/dazstudio/4/userguide/creating_content/packaging/tutorials/adding_metadata/start

Richard Haseltine

Sorry, I was trying to reply and the site died. I'll leave my attempted reply below - it may be simpler, though less complete, than that guide if all you want it the tags (and I'm not sure if that guide is current fro 4.9.x, where there have been changes to categorisation and the handling of products).

Select the items in the Content Library pane, then in the pane's option menu (the lined button in the top corner) select Content DB Editor. Select the items in that dialogue, then use the Type pop-up under the item list to set them to Materials>nVidia Iray (or whatever you want) and click Accept.

Doodle Designs

Thanks for the quick-and-dirty instructions.

I can see how this can be used to add labels to content that doesn't already have a label, but my issue is that I have everything with the labels on the thumbnails already - DS 4.9 added them as I saved the content in the Content Library tab. I need to figure a way to get the needed metadata into a zip file so that the labels can be installed when a customer unzips the content files into their own computer (or when I move the files from one of my computers to the other myself).

Do you know the file path to a folder where the metadata is stored that I can include in the zip file?

Richard Haseltine

The metadata is in the database, not as a file. You can export User Data (open the Content DB Maintenance dialogue from the Content Library option menu and check Export User data) which will place the UserData_1.dsx file in the \Runtime\Support folder in your first Daz Studio content directory - you can copy thata cross and import user data using the Content DB Maintenance dialogue on the other machine, but that will take all of the user data across. Alternatively if you do create a product you can export that as a single .dsx file with the settings for just that product (and again, import it on the other machine).

Doodle Designs

Firstly - is this something that Daz 3D requires for vendors to include with all products?

If so, can you please give me more detailed instructions on how to do that?

Richard Haseltine

I'm not sure - in the past the metadata was created by QA, that may have changed but you would need to ask.