Firing Smart Content And Using Content Library
dan.shive
Posts: 0
Smart content has failed me one too many times and I'm making the shift to using the Content Library exclusively. This might mean having to actually think about what folder I save presets in, but at least they'll still be there when the database explodes (which, based on recent experience, appears to be inevitable on my system).
That said, what tricks do people use to streamline the use of the Content Library? My initial plan is to make "!Poses" and "!Shapes" folders in the "My Library" folder and save my custom presets under organized folders in there instead of in the the default presets folder. Seems like it would make getting to my own stuff a little bit faster, anyway.
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Comments
Both sound like good ideas. I do the same thing and I actually still use Smart Content as well. For Poses I just copy them into my folder, and I do all my saving directly to another folder which I have organized as well. I leave all the DIM installed content as is so there is duplication of poses, but they're not that big.
Just so you know, the content database can fail on you too. I regularly go into my content database file and copy those files into another place as a backup. I'd definitely recommend this! Also, Adam001 has his content library structure available for free in the free section of this website. You still have to categorize all of your stuff, but he has a pretty good system going.
...so is it possible to simply set up a custom runtime structure and totally forgo the database?
Adamr001 structure: http://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/15192/
sikeus said:
I was very interested to read this. I often have problems with the content database. The first sign is usually that new categories I create seem OK at first but are not there when I start Daz Studio the next day. The next stage is that I can't create new categories at all, or sometimes creating a category creates the folder but doesn't put anything in it. Does it fail in the same way for you?
When I contacted support they suggested uninstalling the content manager, deleting the database and re-installing Studio. This does get it working but only temporarily, sometimes for a week, sometimes only a day. The other thing I have found is that if I export user data each time I create categories then next time I re-install and re-import the metadata I get my categories back.
I tried to use adams category structure and failed miserably at it. Not that his structure wasn't good, it was me doing something. I ended up removing and installing studio, CMS, and content several times trying to get it to work.
I would install and categorize several items then all of a sudden all the categories I hadn't put anything in would be gone, or items wouldn't show up in unassigned category etc. I finally gave up and just installed to subdirectories I created on my external drive to give some organization to my content and will use the default categories for now. I would still be trying to get it to work for me and never get to actually use the content .
the biggest problem came when trying to categorize the items that came with genesis essentials, even now all those items still are in my unassigned folder and as long as my products work they can stay there :))
Maybe at a later date if I find my content needs to be reorganized I will try again, right now it was just frustrating for me, but I thank adam and every one else who tried so hard to help :)
I don't use Smart Content much. I use the Content Library search tool, but even that doesn't always work. I didnt want to spend hours categorizing. So I use Import from the place where I know my installed files are. One of the things I noticed is I will not find something in the Content Library if Genesis is highlighted. So if I was looking for a different model, it doesnt show up until I delete Genesis. An example is the Gargoyle hound.
Another thing i use is to search on just the file extension. If I want to see hair I just type hr2 because I don't always remember how the artist named them. It filters out the gazillion hair colors so I can just focus on model. .
I'm still using 4.0 so I need to find the non-duf stuff for the newer items. Curiously, even though it installed ok, and I know there are dsf files say for the Car Hop, neither Smart Content nor the Content Library will show them. Even if I type dsf as the search criteria, a few other items show, but not that one. It only works if I go to the folder, and open from from the dsf obj itself. I don't know why, I am tired of file management, so I just live with it. But then, I don't have to have a "work flow" because I dont' have to. There is no way I want to spend anytime reinstalling the program multiple times. It's just easier to import.
..thank you,
...bookmarked.
I was very interested to read this. I often have problems with the content database. The first sign is usually that new categories I create seem OK at first but are not there when I start Daz Studio the next day. The next stage is that I can't create new categories at all, or sometimes creating a category creates the folder but doesn't put anything in it. Does it fail in the same way for you?
When I contacted support they suggested uninstalling the content manager, deleting the database and re-installing Studio. This does get it working but only temporarily, sometimes for a week, sometimes only a day. The other thing I have found is that if I export user data each time I create categories then next time I re-install and re-import the metadata I get my categories back.
I've had some trouble trying to re-import my user data if my database got too corrupted. It just would hang on me. So that's why I copy and paste my backup files over the corrupted ones, with the CMS stopped. That seems to solve the problem for me for a month or two. I still lose a week's worth of categorizing, usually, which is a pain. I just need to back it up more often.