Organizing Content
Melissa Conway
Posts: 590
I've read just about every post I could find on the subject of organizing content, but didn't find the answer I was looking for. I have content that is "older" or from stores other than the DAZ store. This content does not show in Smart Content (no metadata), and for the majority of it, when I use the search feature in the Content Library, it does not come up. Ideally, the search feature would be my go-to solution (because really, why click through a bunch of folders and subfolders?), so I'd like to add search tags to these items. I was hoping for a simple process, such as: find item in Content Library, right click on it's name, choose "Add Search Tag," type the name of the tag into a box and Bob's your uncle! But it's either way more complicated, or can't be done...?
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On searches, make sure you are looking for files and not database and I find the search process to be really slow, but I almost always get the results i am looking for.
THANK YOU. Huge difference in number of search hits! However...are the items under Poser Formats included in the search?
I never search for anything in DAZ Studio. For many years I insisted on manually installing my DAZ and Poser stuff. That got to be too overwhelming. If you're lucky, the stuff you buy should be placed in a logical place or manner. For instance, you should have a folder with the exact name of the product you bought & installed. Sometimes you at least find some logic. For instance, if you buy a clothing item for a Genesis 3 male, it should be found somewhere under the heading or category of Genesis 3 Male.
It IS overwhelming after several years of amassing content. Very frustrating to spend large chunks of time trying to find things...and it's not like my brain can be bothered with actually remembering where things are or what they're called.
There is a thread floating around that shows exactly how I and several others categorize our content. You only have to do it once and then just keep it updated with new items. I would have quit daz by now if I hadn't found this solution. And yes, this will work for all content poser, other sites and daz content. Let me track it down for you.
Okay here is the start of the discussion on my art studio thread There is another thread I will link here as soon as I find it. Okay, here is the thread Diva started which shows several other poeple's organization as well.
Thanks, you guys. I did see these threads, and am considering biting the bullet, but honestly, the very thought of putting in all that effort exhausts me. I have to be in a rare and particular mood to organize! Besides, I'm in the middle of a project and it's killing me to have to stop and kitbash things everytime I need something that doesn't exist...well, I'm sure you know my pain. ;) LOL, as usual I was hoping for an easy button...
I hate categorizing things. When I want a beer, I don't look under categories to find it. I just get the beer I like at the time. When I want a t-shirt on Amazon, I don't categorize it. I buy it and wear it. We shouldn't need to search or categorize. If you buy a t-shirt for a Genesis 3 male, it should be installed in an extremely logical place! For example, under Genesis 3 Male, and a folder called clothes!
I think DAZ made a huge mistake when they made DAZ Studio into an installation machine with faulty logic for product placement.
I totally agree that you shouldn't have to. But, the only way I can deal with it is to organize it myself. It stresses me out way too much to have to hunt for things all the time. and yes, the initial investment in time was rather large but its very easy to keep up with once its done. And no one says that you have to do it all at once. You can easily do it as you go. Take ten minutes to set up your core categories then whenever you use something, stick it where you want to. Now you will always know where its at. I know its not an easy button lol. I wish!
I feel your pain. I desperately need to do this too and keep putting it off. But I'm tired of not knowing what the heck I have.
I woke up this morning thinking, "Ima DO it!" Then I read the threads you linked to and my head exploded. In particular, the possibility that after all the blood, sweat, and time of organizing, the database might become corrupt..?! So I reassessed and decided that instead of attempting to organize everything, I'll just go ahead and create a category called "Here I am!" and fill it with all the hard-to-find items I need for my project.
EDIT: Okay, I immediately ran into a problem. The hard to find stuff is mostly the older content, as I mentioned in my first post in this thread. I created the Here I am category and sub-folders from the first product, a set of 3rd party trees, and it looked as if it worked, but nothing happens when I click on the product name. It seems to have created an empty folder...
Not sure what your issue is. When I buy a piece of clothing for G3M or G3F (Genesis 2 for that matter), it gets installed in People/Genesis 3 Male (or Female) / Clothing. DIM works.
Same structure for Characters, Hair, and Poses.
Sounds like you created the categories but you did not assign the files that will be associated with the sub category. Getting items into categories is a two step process unless you use the short cut way. First I will tell you how to do it the long way and then I will show you the short way and fast way.
The 2 step way, or long way: I do a search of the runtime and content directories on my computer. Under the category Default there is a category called Unassigned. All of the products that are in my runtimes and contents are listed here because I have not placed them into categories. So for this example I will use the braid hair for Djinni by fredrik. It is an Aiko 3 hair. This item was made many years ago and is Poser format and is a freebie. I go to Unassigned -> Characters -> ! Eldritch -> Djinni and select BraidHair. By right clicking I get a list of things I can do one of those things is to categorize. See image 3. I click on catergoize and a form pops up saying where do you want to put the item. I follow the tree until I get to my category called Aiko3 Outfits and I click on that box. See image 8. The braid is now assigned to the sub category.
The 1 step way: I do the search for products. They get listed in the Unassigned. So this time I go to Unassigned -> Characters -> ! Eldritch -> Djinni but on Djinni, I right click on Duplicate Category -> This Category Only.... See image 11. A form pops up that lists my current categories and under !Characters I see Aiko3 Outfits. I highlight that category and DAZ will create a category under it called Djinni. See image 15.
A note, categories can be renamed or created and renamed while you are in the pop up forms. So if you change your mind about how you want to categorize you do have that option as well. Right click is your friend. You also can change the category names contained in Unassigned before you categorize them by right clicking. Another note, the second option under Duplicate Category -> This category & Sub-Categories.... allows you to put all of the content from the category you have selected all the way down to the lowest level. So say you have a directory for a character that has morphs, body textures, eyes, makeup etc in different directories then all you do is select the top level say Kimberly and you can recreate that directory tree into a connected category tree.
Thanks very much for the detailed explanation, DollyGirl! I figured the answer was out there somewhere, but the determination I woke up with this morning dissipated fast, and I couldn't make myself read one. more. post. I went into full-on avoidance mode as evidenced by the fact that instead of wading through the forums yet again, I cornered my dog, shaved the poor mutt, and gave him a bath! Not a treat for either of us, I can tell you...LOL
Won't help with what you've already got, but for the future- Basically when I install those items from other stores, I jot down where the files went when I manually install them, then I go to them, right click, categorize, and put them in say, a Renderosity folder with subfolders made for Gen3F, Gen3M, your themes of your choice. Then they're in Categories in Content Library. I also change the name up in the Daz Studio Formats section and add RENDO behind the name, so I know it's not from here. If I don't have time to Categorize, I know which ones to do that with later.
You'll save time in the long run if you just dedicate some time to getting your extra content categorized- the good news is a vendor tends to do it the same way every time, and since you probably have favorite vendors, you'll locate chunks of products all at once.
The answer to this question is to go to the item you want to add to your search criteria. Select it and look for the little white arrow below the product section, the items that you click on to load something into the Viewport. See image 17. You may have not closed this window down so you won't need to expand the window just skip the next sentence and look for the three words. Click on the arrow to expand the window. You will see three "buttons", Tips, Info and Tags. Click on Tags. See image 19. You will see the words Keywords: and Notes: in the Keywords put what you want to categorize the product as. In the example I selected the BraidVeil and added the tags veil and Djinni. Click on Apply Changes. See image 21. Remember that your tags need to be comma delimited. I then went to search and typed in djinni and got hits for the character and the braidveil. See image 23.
A note, you have said that you were concerned about the stability of the category list. All of the information that you see in the content Library and Smart Content is contained in the database. If you loose your categories then you have probably lost other data. The difference is that Studio helps you auto-generate some of the information because we have it in support directories that are outside of the database. Creating Smart Content for your other items might be a good idea just to have information some place else. If you want to know what you already have in case of a failure then look under Runtime -> Support. You will see .dsa, .dsx and a .jpg file for each of the products that has smart content. The .dsa and .dsx files are clear files so that you can look at them with a text editor and understand what is contained in them.
That being said it is a wise thing to make a copy of the database every so often. I chose to do the back ups after I have installed a large amount of content and have it all categorized. Hope this answers your question.
Sounds like good advice. Thanks!
I see that categorizing items that show up in Smart Content is pretty straight-forward, at least.
That's IT!! It worked! You are officially my Hero of the Day. THANK YOU.
I just don't use any of the native Daz content. Everything is Poser format and arranged in a heirachy that makes sense to me. I put things where I want and can find ANYTHING quickly.