I wish daz would clean this up.
Show not Tell
Posts: 206
Library categories. Ever try to find a new product ?
I could download a scene and it could be under its own practical name in a library or under the PA's name. One PA left the "s" off of environments so I now have a new library called "environment" as well as a library called "enviroments". A vehicle could pop up in "Vehicles" or in "Props". Then you have older stuff going into "Poser Formats" and off site stuff going into "My Library" opposed to "My Daz3d Library". Some PA won't even categorize so you end up with a single item library called something like "Be Seated" that should have logically loaded into "Poses".
A couple years ago I spent 3 tedious days (no joke) sorting out my libraries in Poser 9. I won't even consider such a chore now until I buy a new computer and carefully load each product and sort them.
It would be nice if daz jumped on this issue of a universal standard for where product is going to end up. I have bought stuff and been left scratching my head trying to find it and even wondering if the download worked.
Any stories on this you would like to share ? One other question, do you think I am to blame or responsbile for my own mess ? Do you think I am just being too annoying ? Overall I have more good things to say about Daz than bad things.
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Comments
If you install with dim, you can search for the product in the installed tab. Then right click on the the right facing error and choose "Show Installed Files". You will be able to see where they are in the content library. This has been a problem for a decade at least for obscur poser related reasons.
I have the same issue with Victoria 4 and other similar old products compatible with Poser. I get a damn headache trying to find the items I want, the texture that come with it, the poses, etc. I have no idea how people thought this was acceptable during those days. Seriously, my inability to find my V4/M4 products is what stops me from installing them again.
Sometimes I start to doubt if I even purchased an item I am looking for or search my hard drives on old computers wondering if I ever transferred it.
Yes they desperately need an editor and style guide and it needs to be enforced. Why are environments in the props folder? It makes finding stuff difficult.
I basically rearrange it all when I have the time.
Got to agree - it's annoying when extra (and unnecessary) folders get added.
If you right-click on the folder and select "Browse to folder location" then it does make it easy to move things to where they should be. But...they should already be there by default.
Serene Night is right. An adhered-to style guide is desperately needed. I doubt there's a single Daz user who isn't frustrated with this stuff. I can understand Daz's reluctance to fix the old content (can't find it? not sure you bought it? well, better buy a new one, then!) but it boggles my mind that it happens even with newer items.
There have been a lot of typos in the DIM path names lately(the above mentioned environment/s, one in General 8 Female instead of Genesis 8 Female, etc.). I did open a ticket for them and was pleasantly surprised when support had them fixed and available in DIM shortly afterwards.
I would suggest a new category style guide and start to use it for all new releases. Then slowly migrate the old stuff. It is likely impossible to repair all the errors but the new mistakes are all pretty inexcusable.
Why for example is the Pace character clothing dumped in the base clothing folder and not in it’s own folder? Why are their errors in file structure and typos in the names of things. These should be detectable during testing.
If you have already purchased an item the product page clearly lets you know with a red Purchased button where the Add To Cart button is on unpurchased items, you can then search DIM or your product library in your account for the item.
Fastany insteady of Fantasy, Plants under Landscapes, Plants under Props, Plants under Props->Environment->Plants or Props->Environment->Landscape->Plants, Plants under Environments, Architecture under Environment and Props, weapons in the Props folders and Poses folders...yeah, it does get a little frustrating. I generally find what I need though it does take some time. I tried the custom category stuff, and I guess it would just take time to get used to it, but I just wasn't liking it. Old habits die hard. ;-) More frustrating to me is when stuff has DS files (like Arcade di Janus) and it will not load and instead crashes. I have to load the Poser version and cross my fingers and toes. I guess I'm used to the clutter and don't bicker too much about it, but I agree with Serene, there really should be some sort of template/guide adherance.
I've had a problem finding things, too. I have one in a folder called "Environmentss." I use the search function in DAZ Studio to find some things, but it doesn't always bring up everything. For instance, I can search for a prop and it will give me all the textures for it, but not the actual prop, even though the prop is in there somewhere. One thing about the misspelled folder names is that the artists need to be careful about proofreading everything before sending it off to DAZ. I worked for 12 years in a word processing center and proofreading was the most important parts of our job. It can avoid a lot of problems.
That's what we're complaining about. You have to jump through a million flaming hoops to locate stuff. Also, the product search function is pretty weak; it doesn't always work. And looking things up manually in the product library is problematic if you can't remember the exact name of the item. Even if you can remember it, half the time the name is prefixed by the PA's name, and half the time it isn't. I've even caught products listed under "T" because the item began with the word "the"!
Yep, been a serious issue for a very long time.
At this point I'm certain it will require divine intervention to force PA's stop doing it. Until that happens, I'm afraid we'll be left to endless hours of searching and sorting on our own.
thanks didn't know about this
I quickly tired of hunting up and down the massive and poorly categorised Pose folder in the Poser runtime end trying to pick out Figure 'Poses' from Morph 'Poses' and Material 'Poses'. Nevermind that Hair items were either in Character, Hair or Props (folder categorising on filetype (cr2, hr2, ppz etc) was a bad idea on Posers part.
Sloppy conventions on vanity naming isn't helped by some PAs who can't decide on how their name is spelt** (sometimes within the one Product, nevermind between products)
I ended up using soft links to group all hair into Hair (and actual Figure Poses into a Poses Folder inside Pose folder and so on for Clothes (mats), People (morphs) Props and Scenes. Then same with Character and Prop folders.
The Poser end seems to be prone to a little more tempermentality to moving files about, but symlinking seems to be mostly OK*
Worked so well, I did the same with the considerably better laid out Daz end of the runtime (mostly to fix the sloppy differentiation between Environments and Props and some sloppy differentiation in Poses and Expressions.
I do have to take a moment to make links for all new items I buy, which often means a second manual download for old stuff as the filelist is usually missing from documentation, but it's worth it.
* I'm one of those weirdos who runs Daz on 'Linux, so I don't know if this method would be as reliable on Windows with it's fairly recent addition of links replacing the old shortcuts.
** Also sloppy case usage is often an issue for me with runtime content, although DIM does an excellent job of mostly minimising those ('Linux is case sensitive, Windows is not).
I gave up hoping and now have a massive custom category system. Took a long time to set it up but now that its up and running I only have to find the sutff once. And I know exactly where everyting is.
The randomness of where content installs is why I will always manage my libraries/runtimes using File Explorer, for as long as it exists.
Totally agree. This is the reason I will have no truck with Smart Content - it's not 'smart' enough. It's a QA issue, in that QA need to define a standard and enforce a rule that nothing - absolutely nothing - gets into the store unless it meets the standard. But that would take effort, and they may judge that it won't increase sales much or enough to compensate. We can't see how products will install until we buy them and install them. We could return them if we don't like how they get installed, but I suspect 'we' aren't going to do that, and unless we do, nothing will change.
I use DIM to install, but have about 30 folders, I move stuff about as it suits me. And Smart Content, well yeh, I have issues with it.
...sometimes I am surprised to find something I didn't think I had because it is in some odd category.
I totally agree with having a standard path for everything and from anywhere. I installed everything manually and many times I have to actually drill down into the folders to see where it's placing at as it's never in the same place or where you would thing it might be. I also find it really odd that zips from Daz start with the content folder, whereas the zips from renderosity go past the content folder into the runtime, libraries, geometries, data, etc.. For me it isn't an issue as I know better, but for new users it can really be problematic.
I don't have too much of an issue if a PA is consistent
but some litter everywhere
Stonemason used to be nice and consistent with props/Stonemason/ his sets
but now he too has popped some under enviroments
ok if was always there as some do
also the annoying sub folders of Architecture and Landscape that even more can be randomly hidden in
again OK if was always done by a particular PA but again some pop stuff in any of those places under environments too
its just chaotic
some on the other hand do not put under their PA name but set name and sometimes that is different to what it is called in the store
I often have to open DIM to find stuff looking at installed files.
I understand older stuff being more random but this is stuff released in the past year
Or more usually, you find you've bought something for a need, not realising you already had a comparable product burried in an overused seemingly counter-intuitive folder under a non-descriptive folder title.
Any idea how to restore custom categories to a new PC? I'm hoping there is an .xml file or similar that gets created and updated when you add your own, but I don't know where it is. Thanks!
hmmm I've just moved mine from one external drive to the next by copying it over, but i do that for my entire library (as back up and also to store eveything on because there just isn't enough memory anymore to handle the whole thing) so I am not sure. I know when I uninstall and re install Studio, they are still there, so they have to be somewhere.
Even if Daz did start to enforce a sorting rule very strictly, it would only be for new items. Old items would not be updated. And you cannot enforce the sorting rule on other sites or for freebies. This problem is as old as the community. The best solution is to manually sort your content the way you like it. No two people are going to agree on how it should be done anyways.
What works for me is that every product I download, i unpack to an empty folder, reorganize the content the way I like it and then repack it with 7zip. Then I install using 7zip and delete the original zip file I downloaded. I keep the new 7z file and put it away on my hard drive with the rest of my presorted content. This way i can mass install content if needed and I never have to resort it again.
Yeah, I got tired of trying to find stuff a long time ago. So I only use Products section under the content library tab now. At one point I started trying to write myself a script that would add all my off-site products to my list, but then a PA must have had my PC bugged or something because they released a god-send product, the package assistant.
Now if I could only remember the items I do have in that library... Another script I plan to start soon...
I found it so difficult to find things that I now use my own custom categories. Setting it up was a long job but now I mostly just have to categorise new stuff as I buy it. Characters, clothes and hair are mostly come arranged sensibly for Studio content but other things are all over the place. Some scenery is in props, some in environments, some buildings are in enviroment:archtecture and some just in environments etc, And Poser content is another story.
I'm guessing there is a style guide for Genesis figure content, or at least a widely used convention on how to arrange things. But when you build up a large library even this isn't enough. I hate trying to find a particular style of outfit in a long list of Genensis 8 Female clothes. I've setup sub categories for different types of clothes, casual, formal, swimwear etc. But this is driven by my opinions. Something I class as a fantasy outfit someone else may say isn't fantastic enough, something I consider an historical outfit someone else might say isn't historically accurate and should be filed under fantasy. And I've got some things in more than one category.
A style guide could help but I think if you want things organised how you want them you have to do it yourself.