Can't Get Organized
whispers65
Posts: 1,034
So from DIM, I have roughly 5,000 items installed. I have more content from Renderosity, and a few other places, not to mention freebies. Some has smart content, mosst don't. I can't find anything. I know how to create subcategories in Smart Content now so I can create under like male > Genesis, Genesis 2, etc and put the characters in because apart from loading a base character clicking on it and then seeing what smart content comes up, I can't tell which is which. In content library, there are products, categories, etc. I think I'm going to have to go through literally each item and categories them. And then when it comes to 3rd party content or freebies, I'm not even sure they are all installed corrected. Ugh. I have really bad organizational skills. I can't organize 1 item in a paper bag.
Any suggestions? Is there a better way?
Thanks.
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I know that it is very frustrating to organize all of your 3d art things. I have collected for 20 years and it can be overwhelming.
First, it is not an overnight project. I have my own system that is wonderful for me.
I install everything manually because I know where I will remember my things.
So, I am not one to comment on Smart Content.
But, I will tell you, I would be in the same situation as you if I had let DIM install my things. I DID let DIM install all of my hair products (over 400 of them.) It was a mess and I redid it manually.
If I were you, I would re-download every one of your products as your backup.
1. Do it by page. Don't try to do all pages overnight. Keep a folder on Page 1, Page 2 and so forth.
2. Sort your product library by purchase date and put the oldest first. The page numbers change if you purchase more content.
3. Make folders for each product and put at least one picture in there.
I copy my product names from my Product Library on Daz3d's website. I use a a text to folder app here: Text 2 Folders - Download - Softpedia
Wonderful product.
So this starts your backup of your files.
Because I have OCD, I spend more time organizing and backing up than I do making art. Maybe I have fun with that too :)
You can make your own Libraries (Daz Studio) and Runtimes (Poser.) I have more than 30 of them. I used Daz Studio mostly and there is no problem with any of them.
Let me know if you want me to delve deeper into this product with you! I feel your pain :(
I'm more visually oriented so I need pictures that I can look through to find the kind of item I want (or to look through randomly to inspire a new render) - the only use I have for the item name is asking DIM where it put it :-)
It pays to find a method that works for you that doesn't try to undo the work DIM does. If you let DIM stay in charge of where it puts stuff then it can (a) update things easily, and (b) tell you where it put stuff if you just type in the product name.
For the pictures: for every item I aquire, I download the images from the product page that really caught my eye and save them into a simple index with folders like "Hair", "Clothes" etc.. The product images on the daz site typically contain the product name in the title, so it's easy to scroll through a bunch of thumbnails (I use large thumbnails in XnView), find something I like, look at the name and type it into DIM. DIM will tell me whether I've downloaded it yet and, if so, where the files are.
Pictures are most important in files to find your stuff! I even have by theme! Right now, I am looking at all of my Halloween things. I have my Poser and DS props in Halloween theme libraries, however all of my characters have their own runtime and libraries. So, I keep their Halloween Character and clothes and accessory pictures together for fast reference!
I totally agree. I don't know why but I didn't think about pictures and organizing that way also, but I'm always going back and looking what I bought and then I get ideas from the picture itself.
I'm sure I have Halloween stuff can't tell you what or where. I absolutely agree with making backups of files. Did I do it? No, and since it's been years since I've done anything with 3d, I didn't have anything on my harddrives and had to redownload everything and I suffered because of it. One place, that I had bought stuff from no long has the downloads available. it was a lot of M4/V4 stuff. oh well. live and learn, die and cry.
My method is based on .doc files, separated by subject.
For me, this is things like:
location - modern - bedroom
props - food - desserts
wearables - footwear - G9 sneakers
In the documents, I have separate pages for each asset with the name, a link to the URL, description of how to find it in DS (i.e. "shader presets/VendorName/ProductName") and relevant pictures.
This method is time-consuming to keep up with, especially when you consider location sets that have a lot of props in them that need split out into their respective files for candles, books, living room furniture, cookies, etc. I wouldn't envy anyone trying to start from your library size. Of course, ANY system you try to implement at that size is going to be a time-consuming pain in the rear, so I guess you pick your pain.
The bonus is when I need a rug, I can easily scroll through all my rug options. Or if someone on the forums asks if anyone knows of a set with (for example) an alarm clock, I can easily link all the sets that I've purchased that have alarm clocks.
My figure is, there's no point having spent money on it if I can't find it, so the extra time is just part of the investment.
SilverGirl Yes to everything you said! Time consuming, you bet. However, if I want a rug...I go to Themes-Household-Decor-Rugs LOL
I keep both my Poser Runtimes and my Daz Studio Libraries the same way. I took me years to perfect my organization.
whispers65 I started reading some of your posts. I am nosy that way. I always want to get a feel for past happenings when trying to help someone.
You are going through rough times. 3d Art is the best therapy I have ever had.
Please take one day at a time. I want all good things for you!
@whisper65, for items released in support of any holiday I created a sub-category under Props>Furnishings>Decor>Holiday Party and there I put Christmas, Valentine, Easter, 4th of July, Halloween, Thanksgiving, birthdays, weddings, and any other holiday or party item. For example the balloons we received recently I put not only under there but also under Props>Toys>Pre-School (another sub-category I added to Toys). My added categories are fully based on how 'I' look at the possible uses for an item. It may not be as it was presented, but as I might use it. And it is totally subjective. You may have your own special celebrations you have gathered items for I never thought of buying. Under Props>Food>Holiday Cookies n Cakes is where I keep any baked goods, although they may also be also ticked under Props>Food>Bakery Goods or Beverages or Candy... For clothing I have put my printouts of the promos by generation and genre and also a copy in a 'All Together' file and under that I have a folder for 'Entertainment_Costumes' where there is some of the more out there outfits are collected that I would not use for normal wear, but on stage is perfect.
This is what I have come up with after years of trying to organize my Smart Content subfiles and my promos and rebuild them after crashes or on newer computers. Or when I accidentally logged into DAZ in D|S and ruined everything.
Mary
This won't help you on freebies or items bought at another store, but in your on-line Product Library, have you typed in 'Halloween' and looked at what comes up? Or 'Mexico' since they have the Day of the Dead. Other search words might be 'Scarecrow', 'Pumpkin', 'Gourd', 'Fall', 'Smoke', 'Fire', 'Ghost' 'Storm', 'Fog', 'Barn', 'Blackwood Manor', 'Victorian', 'Haunted', 'Graveyard', 'Zombie'.
These are just a few words I pulled from my promos or memory that might find some items you may have bought over the years. Maybe they will bring to mind some others?
Mary
I'm lazy. I use the Content Library pane to find my content. I do very little actual organizing compared to what is mentioned above.
My first task is often moving items out of the "PA" or "Vanity" folders so I can easily find them.
I whittle down the Props and Scenes folders. I eliminate folders such as "Architecture."
I am often tempted to remove the "PA's" name or initials from product items such as Poses, Characters, and hair. (Ex: "BW sit pose." But that would be the most tiresome and abundant burden.
It seems every time I'm ready to do a project, I run into something that makes things hard to find,
I am so aware that such organizing effectively breaks the intended effciency of DAZ Install Manager. DIM can't find the stuff I moved, and won't be able to provide updates.
This is not really for organizing stuff but an offline catalog of your DAZ products, but it has some advanced and fast search functions specifically designed for DAZ products, plus DS library integration. Can also be used for easy download of promos, if nothing else. And it's free.
https://3dcontentmanagers.com/software/pm-daz/
I use categories inside of Daz. I can find anything I want in less than 30 seconds. I have over 5000 characters across all generations along with thousands of other assets from many different stores. Let me go find the llink to the thread that I show how I do that. I also have a tutorial in the daz store on this
Links to interesting tidbits and information that I don't want to spend hours looking for....
A link to my first thread
1. How I organize my Custom Categories - About half way down the page is where it starts. There is also more examples on the next page.
It is time consuming but once its done its super easy to add content as you buy it, and you can organize it in any way that you see fit and that makes the most sense to you.
I hear ya, but I wonder just how much time I spend trying to find something. I would like something picture based for sure.
Thank you! 3d isn't something I even need to do but it is fun, creative and relaxing and help visualize writing more. I start the final edit of my new novel and hopefully it will be out next week.
Thanks. I like that idea especially about having all of the holidays in one place. whatever I end up doing, I just want to find stuff.
Do you mean by "on-line Product Library" like logging into my Daz account and looking for purchases? if not, I haven't. normally I just go to the store and look up something generic and see what comes up and see if it shows I purchased it or not. Like this morning, I remembered a pool that I like. I searched pool and it didn't show up and that's because pool isn't in the title. It's was under kitchen.
That's why I think I'm leaning toward going through and making sure everything fits into a category and going with that or maybe even an outside program. I definitely what something with pictures as it's easier for me to see. I have glasses, but still don't see that well.
Oh thanks for that! I have a lot to do today, but I'm going to squeeze this in and see where it takes me.
Thanks. I created a thread a long time ago, "Learn by Doing". I need to get back to that. Right now, I'm taking different things and experimenting again to re-introduce myself to concepts. Today, I'm going to work on an inside movie theater. It'll will help with switching out movie poster textures, lighting a large inside building, and once the lights are lowered and the "movie" starts lighting in that respect (emission I think that is the term I'm looking for). Anyway, it will be fun.
Yes the best way to learn is to just start trying it. I've been gone for more than 5 years for the most part and the relearning part has a fairly steep curve still lol.
Yes, that is what I am referring to. Also, when I am looking at a product, I look at all the elements in the product and categorize the separate items. If I had purchased an environment set that had a pool for example, I would take the pool and categorize it as Props>Architecture>Pools Water Feature (a sub-category I added) then if I was looking for that I would be able to find all pools, fountains, etc... This is separate from 'Plumbing Fixtures' which I try to keep out of Furniture, Decor, Other, General, and every other weird place they have been assigned because someone has no idea they are part of a building's architecture. A pet peeve.
I want to give an endorsement to @IceDragonArt. I purchased her tutorial years ago and it was very helpful.
Mary
IceDragonArt Thanks for sharing how you set up those Custom Categories - neat to know!
I have too much stuff and little patience to sort through things... So for me, having anything that makes it a little easier to search for and view things helps. So I want to say how much I appreciate the offline content management tool Taoz built and linked to here. It gets a big recommendation from me!
It gives offline access to product images and readmes that are quicker to get to than searching the DAZ store website. I find that especially useful for making better use of the many pose and lights sets I have. The Boolean search on titles also means I can search for generation specific hair or clothes, light sets or HDRI, and view the results in a nice tiled-image-view to quickly find what I like or am searching for. Searching on order day/month is also handy for when I'm participating in challenges or just want to test out something new, and have access to the details at the same time. So any time I use DS now, I have Taoz's content manager open as well.
Searches in the products or files category in Smart Content are okay but miss things and throw unrelated things together at times too. Searching in 'files' in Smart Content rather than products allows me to search in prop and pose names for things that match (like 'reach' pose or 'basket' prop). Not all things are in Smart Content of course, so not everything will show up, but it's useful for some quick things for sure.
It'd be fantastic if PA information was included in DIM so we could search on those, and if DIM included a column for user tags that are saved and that we could search on. Just adding a few keywords as tags to new purchases in DIM would simplify categorizing and finding things so much more!
You're welcome! I'm glad you found a way that works for you! If you have a lot of content my way takes a long time to do but is easy to keep updated after that. I lost all of my categories at one point. It took me 4 months of working on it every day to put it back together lol. But, for me, it was worth it as it suits my workflow much better.
It's been about 5 years for me to, but things are coming back slowly but surely. I'm surprised I remembered as much.
That's good advice. I haven't gotten that far yet. Last night I spent a good amount of time reinstalling stuff. I now have separate libraries for Daz, Rendo, Renderhub, freebies, etc. The manual content may not be installed the best yet. I run across all kinds of things like obj files and stuff. I'll figure it out though.
Well the main thing for searching the store is tells me what I've purchased at the same time. but at any rate, I'd still like an offline solution and get things better.
Thank you very much!
Gete? A little observation reveals that thread starters can change their titles.
I still struggle with the way DAZ organizes their content. DIM would be fine if DAZ adopted a more sensible approach to organizing content.
But instead we have a mass of "PA" folders, and even every single item in a folder has the PA's initials before the name of the items.
Props and scenes are scattered about with incosistentcy.
All too often I decided not to buy products for those reasons.
I actually feel let down by DAZ because of the need to search for my products.
For some reason I can usually remember where I got an item from, so after last night creating a library for different places has helped a lot. And I created a category so when I run across something I've been looking for I create a category from it and that helps until I can come up with a long term solution.