Content Management
Sirius1066
Posts: 21
I've been using Daz for a while now, but still consider myself very much a novice. I've been able to learn things I need quite easily. However, one thing I have struggled with in Daz is Content Management. I have never found a suitable method of managing and keeping track of my content. I am constantly loosing things, or forgetting that I have certain things and realising after I purchase a similar product that I already had something suitable. I don't find the Content Library at all intuitive. I often don't understand why the DIM chooses to install content in certain folders and at other times in other folders. It seems like this is determined by content creators and there is no standard methodology. Is this a correct assumption? It has been a real struggle for me from day one. Is this just me or do there's have the same problem?
Today I am getting a new PC and have decided that it's a great idea to try to organise my content in a better way from a fresh start. Is there any advice people can give me? Tips from your own experiences would be great. Is there a way to manually decide where the DIM installs products? Any general help would be great.
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Comments
A lot of people use custom categories - it's time-consuming to organize your content that way but it can be a big help finding exactly what you're looking for (and a great way to be reminded of things you have that you may have forgotten about). And yeah, content management is definitely a struggle for a lot of us - but on the plus side, the file structure seems to be improving a lot compared to the old Poser Runtime days of categorizing things.
Thanks. Do you use custom categories?
Once upon a time, yes - and they were really helpful. However, I got lazy and stopped categorizing my purchases. It really only works well if you are disciplined enough to add your new purchases to the categories and keep it up to date. I, sadly, I'm not very disciplined. lol
I fear I may be the same. But I might give it a go.
If you let things install where they like you'll never find them and stuff will be in nested vanity folders all over the place. I only manually install and don't use the so-called smart content method. Yes it's a PITA but it's the only reliable way I've found where I can find stuff I have. As a consequence I know where everything is and how I've named and put it into a logical location.
There are issues with manually installing content that keeps me from going down that route, updates. DIM fetches product updates every time I make a purches or get the weekly freebies. With manual updates you have to find out that the product has an update and then do the install yourself and from what I've seen Daz doesn't announce these things.
There are other methiods to managing content though. You can create links to the installed content without moving the stuff from where Daz wants to put it. Then you'll just have a second set of folders with nothing but links laid out the way you want.
I believe I would have a better time of finding a matching pair of socks in my grand daughter's bedroom than my purchased content in DAZ. What we need is for DAZ to hire Sheldon (From "Big Bang Theory") to organize the content once and for all. This is on ongoing problem and the solution may be more along the lines of managing content like "Apple" store than leaving it less managed like in the "Google" store. Simply put, Artists must be held accountable to keep their content current, add the necessary "Smart Content" and properly put everything into the fils structure as directed by DAZ. I purchased the "Content Wizart" by RiversoftArt. It is doing a good job of helping me get things where I need them but doesn't solve the issue of finding the time necessary to do it.
I don't think I could manage my content without the custom categories. It's a small initial investment of time putting things where you want them as you purchase them (maybe 20-60 seconds per product)...and then everything's exactly where you look for it, immediately, every time from then on. Just removing the thousands of content items that you don't need (3Delight materials and all the other bits and pieces of products that you're never going to use) from the folders you're working with is a big help by itself...but the biggest help is being able to organize things the way you think, to suit your own workflow, instead of having to search endlessly through other people's arrangements of content. I have to admit though, I'd be daunted by the task of organzing it all at once: one minute per product is only ten minutes if you've just installed ten products...but if you have hundreds of products installed already, I guess you could be looking at a whole day or more of work to organize all of it, which would be a bit painful...still worth it in the end, I think, but painful!
When I was asking about backing this stuff up (in this thread), Saxa mentioned another product, VisualMenus. It looks like something that could do an even better job of making it easy to access your content, but at the cost of a bit more work setting things up. I agree with what Chummy said about enforcing standards (as to where stuff goes and how it's named and so on): the fact that artists are inconsistent with how they organize things is one of the reasons it's no fun working with the raw, uncustomized folder structure. Fortunately, nobody has to :)
The problem with Custom Categories is that the info can disappear under the right (wrong?!) circumstances. I believe the database can be easily corrupted. I don't think there is a way to backup your database either. Daz Install Manager is a good idea, but the execution is ruined by bad information.
PA's place their content wherever they choose. There is no uniform specification or plan. Sometimes stuff is stored under the PA's name. Sometimes it's stored under the name used when the product is sold.
I am an artist. I want to "make art," not program, seek, etc.
I've backed up the database before.
I believe that putting in the time to organize the content will help you know what you have and prevent you from buying similiar products (in most cases). I use custom categories as well as have an outside database program that I use to manage my content.
Content database backup:
https://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/comment/643928/#Comment_643928
It seems to me that most content is maybe loosely organized the way I'd like to work. You have the "larger category" such as Genesis 8 Female. Below that we have Characters, Clothes, etc. The categories are not always consistent. Many items are hidden in "vanity" folders (the name of the PA, etc.)
So, the pane that has the filenames in it is only so wide. So if you have a bunch of products like X-Fashion Intrigue Outfit then you have a folder full of products that say “X-Fashion” and the part of the filename that you actually need is cut off. Or you have a million products whose title starts with dForce and the rest of the filename is cut off.
Or you’re looking for a character called Ravna and you have no idea you should be looking for a folder called Lyoness instead of a folder called Ravna.
Or you have hair labeled as "long hair" and hair labeled as "short hair", but what you really need is a folder called “Black people hair” or “Ponytail hair”. Or a category like “G3 products that work on G8”. Or maybe you want to combine things from the materials folder and shaders folder into one folder. Or combine things from the scripts folder and utilities folder into one folder.
I don’t see how anybody could use the default folder setup without losing some product they need at some point.
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