Reinstalling my content ... any shortcuts to building the content database?
JonnyRay
Posts: 1,744
So I find myself having to re-install my content. Given that I'm talking about a few thousand ZIP and EXE files, just doing the installs is a pain. The secondary pain is trying to get everything categorized properly.
Anyone have some tips / tricks they've used to make this easier?
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The best advice I can offer, is install only a few items at a time. Categorize them as you go. If you don't do this, you end up with a giant task that's extraordinarily difficult to accomplish.
The best shortcut you can do is to take Excel or notepad or something and plan out your organization before you get started. Then rely on the Unassigned Category and scanning for new items to give you those few items at a time to process into your new hierarchy.
Oh another thing that can be handy is to use the "Duplicate" functionality. This is particularly useful for Hairs that have multiple figure compatibility, etc.
Here's a bit of my OCD that'll give you an idea of what you can structure your data like. You should do something that works for YOU though and not necessarily just copy mine or someone else's structure.
I assume you needed to rebuild your database from scratch as well. However if you meant only that you needed to reinstall all your content (if you accidentally deleted it, etc.) remember your database may still be there and in theory you may not need to recategorize it.
So seeing a post of what you did to organize your content, could you supply a little more info on how to do it? I have just been installing my content by default, and nothing ever shows up in uncategorized except a couple scenes I saved myself. Could you give the steps to achieving this or a link to a tutorial?
If there is smart content, it will show up within the categories within Default, rather than in Default > Unassigned, and you have to go digging for it unless you want it to stay there. You can look by product if you know the product you just installed, or if you keep the Default categories emptied out at all times, you can look for the blue highlighting to see where it went (although sometimes the highlighting isn't removed and you'll have to look through empty ones too.)
Unfortunately, yeah, it's a rebuild. Lost hard drive. Backups weren't completing "successfully" like they said they were. :(
Thanks for the ideas, Adam. I should sit down and plan it "on paper" first. Would be even worse to get 1/3 of the way through and realize that my structure wasn't really going to work because I forgot something.
Before the content database, I used to constantly be moving folders around within my Runtime to categorize them myself; So I do have a little idea what worked for me in the past.
Actually, give me more than a 'bit'. I'm going to do it up "right" again.
Probably take me a few days, but to help Kharma's most likely issue, I'll say this right now...
The key to making Unassigned work for you is to NOT process the metadata queue on startup with DS. When you do that all the data gets automatically categorized and thus cannot be "Unassigned" ever again. So what you do is have DAZ Studio *already running* when you install your content. Then you go to the context menu at the top right of the Content Library tab and select "Scan Known Directories for Files". This will populate the Unassigned category. You can then manually categorize, etc. The next time you start DAZ Studio you will be prompted to import metadata. IF you HAVE NOT not installed anything new since your last scan it is safe to allow this. If you have not finished categorizing your previous installs do NOT allow it do to this as it will remove the items from Unassigned. In this case, your only option to get the default Metadata back is to use the Content Library Context menu option of "Content Database Maintenance" and select the "Re-import Metadata" option. Be warned, this will reprocess ALL metadata so it can take quite a bit of time once your install base gets fairly large. I find it faster to just close and re-open DAZ Studio.
thanks Adam, I know I always process the metadata after installing a product, I thought you had to. I was wondering if its ok to move files around in the content library as I noticed when I installed the supersuit, I had a hard time finding the shaders as they were in a diifferent folder but in the tutorial I was looking at they were in the same folders as the rest of the supersuit folders and was wondering how to do this.
Okay, so did the above answer your question?
yes as far as nothing showing in uncatagorized, but not how to rearrange the content library folders to make more sense as far as where products are
I have a question.
I just built a new PC with new hard-drive and what not. I am using my old hard-drive as a slave. Now I have a lot of DAZ content on that old drive, I know I can re-download. My question and problem is not all my content is DAZ, some freebies and what not. My old 2.3.3.50 is still installed and all my content is there. Is there a way to transfer it over to 4.5?
I been out of the loop for some time due to having kids and want to finish up some old projects and start some new ones.
Any help would be great and thanks ahead of time!
In 4.5, in the Content Library pane, right click on Poser Formats and DAZ Studio Formats, select teh Add ... directory option, and select the content directory used in 2.3.3.50. Repeat as needed for additional directories.
Thank you can not wait to try. But I just seen 4.5 is free and got it. Should I delete 4.0 and do a fresh install of 4.5.
What about "Content Management Service" folder?
Yes, that should be uninstalled as well. If you want to keep any custom category work you've done, leave the "Databases" folder alone.
Here's my default structure, available in a format you can import and use :)
http://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/15192/
Here's a question that I think belongs in this topic. If I'm wrong, I apologize in advance.
I'm using DS4.5 and the new DIM. I'm reinstalling my content from scratch, a few items at a time, and categorizing as I go.
When I install content that is checked in DIM as Smart Content, it automatically goes into certain pre-ordained categories. Usually I'm relatively happy with the default choices (translation: I maybe don't hate them), but sometimes things just have to be moved. I could rant about not being able to rename the smart content default categories, but that's for another topic. After I've moved things to where I want them, I save my User Data.
I try to keep my content database synced between my workstation and my laptop, and to do that I reset the database and then re-import the metadata as modified by my user data file.
Here's the problem. When I rebuild the content database by re-importing the modified metadata, although all of my custom categories remain where I put them, and any additions I've added to the smart content categories remain, none of the smart content items or categories I've deleted or moved stay deleted or moved. They return to their default locations. NB: All operations are performed on the content database while the actual files remain untouched.
Is there a better way to do this? Do I need to open a support ticket or make a feature request to allow the deletions to be noted and retained by Studio so that they can be incorporated during metadata import?
Jeff
User data will only include additions, not entries you've deleted from the metadata that comes with the content, so when you reimport the metadata the default ones are imported also. I keep my personal categories outside of the default categories, so it doesn't bother me to have the extras.
It seems that is the way to go -- set up a personal category space outside of Default and then ignore what's inside of Default. Doing that does add a "Default" entry and an entry for my personal category space to the Smart Content file list, but I've found that if I delete the Default category from the Content Library then restart DS4.5, the Default categories return but they are completely empty. Once they're empty, the Default entry disappears from the Smart Content list and Smart Content picks up all of my personal category metadata, with all of the top-level categories that are inside my personal category space displayed in a list. Very cool.
Thanks,
Jeff
Sorry I started a thread called "No longer have unassigned categary" if it could be deleted I will post my question here...thank you
I am reinstalling content with DIM and tried to follow Adamr directions on installing with DS open, then run scan known directories for files, but they seem to categoriae themselves there is no Uncategorized folder in the content manager . What do I do to fix it?