Movement of Subfolders in Content Library
sayun
Posts: 14
I apologize if this has been asked before, but an hour of googling didnt seem to turn up the answer this question...
I've gotten to a point where I have a LOT of content, and organizationally it's getting a bit out of hand. Sure, I can search for something, (if I can remember the name), but I would like to start moving things around to get some sort of order to it.
To start, my Genesis 3 Female "Characters" folder looks like this:
While I assume at some point P3Design decided to lump all their characters into a parent folder with their brand, an older "P3D Brita" seems to lie outside of it.
My question is, will I break anything by moving these folders around? That is, can I move all the characters in subfolders, "Charlotte", "Josina", etc. into the main "Characters" folder?
Similarly, can I move and rename folders that have clothing? Like this for example, doesn't make sense to me:
Why is the "Tamara Outfit" content in a folder called "3D Universe"? Why not in a folder called "Tamara Outfit"?
For that matter, why not organized like: Genesis 3 Female > Clothing > Everyday Outfits > "Tamara Outfit", along with "Autumn Chic"? Maybe all the different dresses in a folder called Genesis 3 Female > Clothing > Dresses, all the shoes in a folder called Genesis 3 Female > Clothing > Shoes?
So... can I do this?
Thanks much in advance. :)
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Comments
You should be able to for most content in Daz Studio Formats. It's safer, however, if you use Categories instead of moving the actual folders on disk. You can right-click on a folder in Daz Studio Formats or Poser Formats and create a category out of it and its subfolders, then you can rearrange categories all you like without danger of breaking anything. If you do decide to move the actual folders, ONLY move folders with user-facing files. Don't touch the Data folder or the Runtime folder (some of the folders under Runtime can be moved, but you need to know the ins and outs of Poser file structure to know what's safe).
Thank you for your your response :)
A clarification question, if I may:
Can I take this to mean using the "Content Library" interface to drag things around and right-click > rename? Browsing to the actual folder of.. say... my characters reveals that they are My Library > People > Genesis 3 > Characters. These are okay to move I take it?
I will consider the route of using categories, but the task seems daunting, and potentially unrealistic. I suppose I can go through each of the products one-by-one, make categories for them or tag them with one I've made already, but that would take a significant amount of time. Is there a better way to do this?
Also, that would mean that every time I add new content, I'd have to find it and categorize it, right?
Yes, that's right.
You can just select "My Daz 3D Library" (or whatever you use as your content folder) in "Daz Studio Formats" and create a category from that folder and subfolders, and the same for "Poser Formats". If you have more than one content folder you can do it for each. Now you have exactly the same structure as if you were working with the actual folders.
Yes, I find that's the easiest way.
That makes sense.
I've created a category out of my G3F characters folder to experiement with. I tried adding a character by using the right-click > categorize, and it shows up in the proper category.
For the 'supporting files':
Do you just "Create categories from folder and subfolder" and put those under the categories folder too?
I understand why this may be "safer" (as you are only making links and moving those around as opposed to the original files), but it seems like it would add on a LOT of work, especially if we get content packs with a bunch items in it. It would also present an issue where it's possible that say, an outfit came with some accessories/hair/poses etc that you didnt know about because all you found in a search was for the item itself...
I'm considering that the first option of organizing the folders using the content library UI might be the better way to go. You mentioned "safer", though. What are the potential pitfalls of just renaming and moving folders there as opposed to using categories?
There are a couple of potential hazards. First, while most content should work even if you move files around, this isn't always the case. Second, if a product is updated, or you want to uninstall it. it's a lot easier if the files are in their original locations; otherwise you have to hunt down each file.
That makes sense.
To be honest, I like the idea of not touching the original files if possible either...
Is there a way to get around having to hunt down every new piece of content you install? Is there a way to find "uncategorized content" or have some sort of "newly added content" style folder?
What version of DS are you using, and how do you install your content?
I'm using DAZ Studio 4.9, and I have a tool that compares folders and adds any new files in A to B.
I extract the ZIP that I get, find a folder called "Content" or the equivalent of (Contains "data", "people", "runtime" etc.). I point A there, and B is always my library. So any files that don't already exist in B, get copied over.
After installing content you caa use the Content Library options menu (rectangle with horizontal lines in the upper corner) > Scan Known Directories For Files. Files found get put in the category Scan Results.
That seems to work well. I add new content, scan, and there it is .. in the "Scan results". :)
Is there a way to get it to list everything that is not categorized? I ask because I installed a character, ran a scan, and it showed up. I didn't categorize it yet, instead added more content, and ran another scan, now the first character is no longer in the scan results. It does show up in my library, marked as "new" with a blue border.
Why not just categorize by folder structure? You get what you want and you avoid any of the "my categories just disappeared issues".
Do you mean just rearranging the folders in the content library, and not using the categories down below?
Since they pulled the every handy blue highlight of new items, categorizing new content is a lot more of a hassle. Ironically mostly for DAZ purchased items since other items you can easily see the folder structure as you most likely copied it to your runtime folder.
For DAZ items I moved the Smart Content tab to the right and select I think Default. I'm typing this from work so I'm working from my bad memory. You can sort that to show the newest files, just make sure you have nothing selected in the scene or Smart Content will not show you everything. Everything DAZ will show up and you can right click on the item and select show in mapped folder (I think that's the one) and your left panel view should switch to your DAZ content library showing the file you selected in Smart Content. Since you are now in that folder you can right click it and categorize away. Since this method shows things you can add in you should get any additional items that might be placed elsewhere such as props or hair and be able to jump directly to them.
There are limits of course as poses don't show up for instance nor do material settings. Since most of the time mat settings are a sub folder of the item it's not a big deal but if you buy mat sets later on it can be frustrating. To make sure I get everything I take a screen shot of my DAZ install manager before I install anything and paste it into MSPaint so I can make sure I find anything I install. Things that get redownloaded as updates can often blank out the category created for it and need to be checked as well. I haven't figured out what triggers that and honestly it hasn't happened as much as it used to but it's annoying even if not that hard to fix.
In short, please DAZ put the blue new product highlight back in! I've honestly bought a lot less the last year since it's so bothersome to get it organized and I've not found Smart Content useful pretty much ever and it seems to get worse as you buy more and more product, and that's just the DAZ side.
Yes. Most of the Daz products are already partially done (e.g. People> Generation 3 Female > Characters > pixeluna>otherwordly). You can make your own structure as well. I add subfolders for clothing to categorize casual, dresses, armor, fantasy, lingerie, etc