How do I find assets that I installed manually, by file name?

lukon100

Suppose I manually install an asset, such as a hairstyle.

I can usually find the hair in my content manager without the help of the search thing.

But if the hair has materials, the vendor could have put them any old random place. And as I acquire more assets, it takes ever longer to wade through every node of the database structure searching for it.

So I'd like to search for the texture by the exact name of the file, such as "BadAssHairTextureNumber_1.jpg"

Can the content manager search function show me where that texture file is in the database structure?

And, if so, how?

 

The content manager search feature is a big mystery to me. Even after reading several discussions about it.

 

Richard Haseltine

If you installed manually you can't use Samrt Content to search. You can do a file search in the Content Library pane - click the icon next to the search box to switch from the default database search to a file system search. You could also categorise the content - most easily by right-clicking on its folders in the Content Library pane.

SpottedKitty

lukon100 said:

But if the hair has materials, the vendor could have put them any old random place.

So I'd like to search for the texture by the exact name of the file, such as "BadAssHairTextureNumber_1.jpg"

These are two different things, and one of them doesn't matter to us users. "Materials" are actually scripts used to find texture files and apply them to an object along with the proper material parameters. They ought to be installed into folders alongside the objects the material can be applied to.

"Textures" are image files loaded into your scene by materials scripts, and applied to an object. They're used for different purposes; setting diffuse colour, bump, glossiness etc. You don't need to know where the texture files have been installed, the materials script takes care of all that for you.

lukon100

Oh ya. Thanks for that clarification, SpottedKitty.

Ya. Textures are not the issue. What I meant was "materials". Ya. I want to find the materials associated with an asset.

So, again, if I just installed a hairstyle called "Weird Hair", I can usually find it easily enough because the vendor will have put it in a place that makes a bit of intuitive sense.

But not so with associated materials. Materials could be anywhere, or at least they could be in enough optional places that manually searching for them node-by-node could take an hour or more.

If the vendor named the materials "Weird Hair Material Number 1" and "Weird Hair Material Number 2" and so on, I suppose searching for the string "Weird Hair" would find them. But vendors don't always name their materials this way. In fact I've seen material names that in no way share any useful strings of characters with the asset name.

So my question stands. How do I search for the materials associated with an asset, given that I have no clue what those materials are named?

 

lukon100

Thanks for your reply, Richard Haseltine.

It so happens that I'm doing a lot of categorizing of my assets now, in the manner you suggest. And the reason I want to find newly installed materials is precisely so I can categorize them and never have trouble finding them again. Categorizing is my long term solution to this. But I need a solution that works prior to my categorizing, such as when I'm trying to find the thing to be categorized.

Toonces

When you download a hair (or anything) from Daz or rendo (or anywhere), it will come in a folder before it ends up in your library. I always keep those folders partly for this very reason. I go back to the original install folder and open the subfolders to see the hierarchy. Then I know how to find them in Daz Content Library. In Daz, the poser folders are renamed sometimes (figures/people), but it generally matches...plus I know the file name.

Also, categorization can be pretty quick if you keep it simple. Just take an hour one day and click through all poser mat/pose (I think those are the two) folders and anything that looks like hair -- assign it a category (materials > old > hair) or something that stands out. Then you can see it all in smart content easily. I ONLY do categories (no fancy linking to products or figure constraints) simply because its a lot faster than building out all of the metadata and gets the job done. Then whenever you download/install an old hair (no metadata) you have to only update the categories for it and your set.

lukon100

Thanks for trying to help, Toonces.

You say "go back to the original install folder and open the subfolders to see the hierarchy. Then I know how to find them in Daz Content Library."

This does not work for materials.

I too keep all my install files in the exact manner they were downloaded. I too consult them to see the Windows 7 path hierarchy in hopes that doing so will help me find things. It simply does not work for materials. The Windows 7 path hierarchy does not correspond to the content manager categorization for things like materials. Not even close.

You also recommend: "Just take an hour one day and click through all poser mat/pose (I think those are the two) folders and anything that looks like hair." I have certainly done this several times already. The problem is that taking an hour to do this becomes required each time I install a 3rd party thing. And as my collection grows, there's more to search through, such that what was once an hour long search becomes 2 hours, then 3, then 4 and so on. This will eventually diminish my user experience to zero.

Again, I seek a way to search for the materials associated with assets. Aren't they linked to one another by the content manager? And if so, can't I be privileged to see these links? Ideally, I should be able to alt-click on any base object in the content manager, and choose from the pop-up menu an option that will show me the materials that it's vendor associated with that base object.

 

fixmypcmike

What is the full path to the materials preset that you can't find?  The raw texture files (e.g. jpg) won't appear in the Content Library in DS, but the materials presets that apply them should.