My DAZ Disability
Ron Knights
Posts: 2,186
I hadn't done much business with DAZ since Genesis 9 was first introduced. Then I started shopping again this past week. I joined DAZ Premiere and did some shopping.'
I found one bundle that interested me. Let's just say I found a chance to express my political frustrations thanks to this bundle. I just wanted to vent. I don't intend to share the results with the outside world.
I got confused very quickly. So many parts of the bundle were organized under "DAZ Originals," rather than their actual product names.
There were also some items which were not included in the bundle. But they clearly worked well with the bundle.
I just had to admit that I need a more direct way of organizing my content. I prefer to use Content Library, because it is the closest to my own way of working.
Beyond that I had to move the "facing" files into more logical folders.
My work begins by using DIM to install items in different "categories" such as "Genesis," or "Moonshine." Then I go into each collection and arrange items by alphabetical order, etc. Those revised collections or categories are what I see in DAZ Studio and the Content Library,
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Comments
i'm probably borderline OCD when it comes to this exact thing lol
I can't function on anything other than the content library, so smart content and all that is lost on me. What that leads to is an extremely time-consuming, and meticulously organized content library structure.
If I buy an "environment" that is, say, the living room of a house, that probably gets installed to "Enviroments>Architecture>Vendor Name>Product" - I can't stand that.
In my content library, I'll find that under "Architecture>Home>Rooms" - whereas if the product was an entire house, I'd have to put it under "Architecture>Home>Full House"
There's subcategories for everything lol
Animals get divided into Real-World and Artificial
Poses get separated by useage - Action, Casual, Swimming, Shooting, Fighting, Couples, etc etc - I tried at one point to pull the whole files apart, so that I could further break it down into like "Poses>Casual>Sitting" "Poses>Casual>Standing" - but I ran into a lot of duplicate file names and gave up - so I just put the whole folder in both lol. Also, all corresponding props, environments, or whatever, that certain poses are designed to work with are duplicated within the pose folder so I don't have to scroll back to find them. Guns, for example, are duplicated and placed in the folder with the poses that were designed for them.
Clothing is sorted into folders of Casual, Formal, Swimwear, Activewear, Fantasy, Sci-Fi, Uniforms & Costumes, Footwear, Jewelry and Accessories, and Undergarments, with some further refinement in certain categories (Hats, Gloves, Earrings, Necklaces, etc under the Jewelry and Accessories folder, for instance).
It's like that for everything - vehicles are sorted by type, shaders are categorized, Genesis 9 stuff is separated into male and female folders. And within common, large folders (such as clothes) there's also a "Favourites" folder, that contains all the subfolders of the regular Clothes folder, but only with items that I consistently use and look for.
Took me ages to set it up that way, but now that it's done, I'm so happy with it. Everything is where it makes sense to me for it to be. And new content is pretty easy - DIM installs it to a fake Runtime directory, then I just loosely pre-sort it all in there, and then merge it into my real directory. I love it. No more hunting around for products, or companion items to products, or foolish mix-ups where like the clothing gets installed to a folder, and the texture expansion gets installed somewhere completely different - that one really urks me lol
You have my sympathy! I don't have the energy or patience for that kind of detail.
I am obsessed with simplifying things. Clothes are clothes. I don't care if they're fancy or elaborate. (Indoor or outdoor, etc.)
I have scenes and props. Sometimes I have an anxiety attack over whether it's a prop or scene. Then I just close my eyes for a bit.
You know the real kicker?! "Vanity Folders" are not necessary! I've moved every "facing" folder to my liking.
I've never run into a duplicate named folder!
DAZ could save us a lot of grief by eliminating "Vanity" folders!
How about something like this (for Windows only), works this way:
A complete list of your products, downloaded automatically.
Select a product from the list, and it will show links to all parts of that product, no matter where they are located
Click any of these links and it will automatically locate that part of the product in DAZ Studio
See video: https://app.screencast.com/egu6SWehsLRtJ
I wish I had the energy to do this. All the content is so annoyingly disorganized by default.
The video is very interesting, but I am not certan why you mentioned it. When I looked at your website from 2024:
Download
Currently not available for download, working on fixing a data download issue caused by changes on the DAZ site. Should be available again within a few days...
This program is now free. If you find it useful, you can donate to support development, if you like. Thanks!
Taoz, I'm sure your utility is useful. I just don't see the need for it.
jmucchiello, I've been doing this on and off for decades. I'm beyond exhausted into delierious.
Yea, sorry, but I wanted to update the app as well as rewrite the documentation as it's a confusing mess with a lot of now obsolete info, before re-releasing it, but all kinds of stuff has got in the way so I've had to postpone it again and again, for months now.
I'm mentioning it here though because I've decided to make it available now (this week) in its current state anyway, then the updating of the app and the documentation will have to wait. It's working as such, the cause of the issue mentioned on the site has turned out to be very difficult to track down though, so not solved yet, but there is a temporary fix for it which requires a bit of extra work on behalf of the user.
It seems like a good idea. Hopefully you will work it out.
That's how mine started - just general organization and cleanup, but then when I'd be looking for clothing for a scene, I'd end up scrolling through the entire list and it was just taking up too much time, so I started to sub-categorize. First it was more like "Regular clothes, fantasy clothes, costumes", and then I just kept breaking it down from there. Took a LOOOONNNNGGG time, but I've definitely saved it back with interest now that I can quickly sift through only the items that fit into what I'm actually working on, so I'm not wasting my time scrolling through dresses and combat gear, and space suits, when what I'm looking for is a leather jacket.
I kit-bash a lot, too, so for me to say I'm looking for a leather jacket, what I really mean is I have to look at ALL the leather jackets I own and decide which one pairs best with whatever else I have picked out lol - and has the proper morphs to conform to whatever else the figure is wearing, etc.
if you have OCD nothing in the DAZ library is going to make you comfortabe
I don't have OCD but
I just search my folder using Voidtools Everything because I certainly am not going to find anything any other way
I still discover misnamed stuff I have had for years, I think "I never knew I had that, looks cool" and promptly lose it again
>16K in DIM I have no hope of finding everything
... then there is the other stuff
Thanks!
I hope to have it ready for download friday or saturday.