Catalogue of Owned Items
drafter69_696b99e42b
Posts: 348
After more than 1500 items in my Daz Folder I have reached the point where I can not remember what I own..... Is there a way to catalogue the Daz Folder? Thanks
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Using the browser addon, you can list your owned items right here in the Daz store. All of them; just ones from certain categories; ones from certain vendors; etc:
You can find more info on the addon here: https://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/106296/announcing-daz-deals-browser-add-on/p1
Any thoughts on "Content Cataloger Easy (CCEZ) for Windows, DAZ Studio Edition"????
I'd highly recommend Account Manager for DAZ3D. Downloads all of your DAZ3D product pages with promo images, searching by product name , links to product docs and orders and it's quick and free.
http://www.taosoft.dk/software/accm-daz/
Edit: The info is at product level.
It works wth a rather broad stroke. It works as advertised, and uses product thumbnails to produce an HTML list of a library's products (you can produce a catalog per runtime - in fact, you have to do it that way for each library you want to catalog).
I found that it only recognizes thumbnails that are to the DS spec (91x91?) and not all vendors honor that, so it was confusing to figure out why things were missing, but I can't blame the vendor for that.
I also wish that it included the text/description and search. Again, it works as advertised, but isn't what I wanted, and I can't really recommend it for a complete catalog.
Closer (for my needs), is the local forum member @taozen's free manager tool which is a standalone windows app that does a nice job of collecting your entire daz library content list into a full TOC with search, and the complete set of product pictures for each. Search for his name in the forum, then find the tools in his signature in any of his postings. You need his application (fast small windows) to colelct and view your stuff, and it'll point you at the official page for text/descriptions, but it also doesn't create a complete 'product per page' view with descriptions that I could save as a PDF and search on, etc. Given it's free!, and does allow me to pull the entire per-product image collection for everything in my library, I can only thank @taozen for his great gift. Be wary that the recent version (although updated often) might be broken due to recent DAZ website changes, but that may have been fixed with a recent release.
yeah, I'd love a tool that would take the pages from the various content sites, and reformat each into a single-page HTML format with the main image and description up-top, the included stuff blurb below that, and the rest of the images - all on a flat HTML page that could be exported as a PDF without the need for any browser scripting or other complexities. Kind of like the sites that do the 'printable version' of their pages. Just a complete page per product. Kind of surprised none of the vendors have this option on their sites. Clearly they sell stuff, not collect/buy/manage their own stuff. Maybe someday.
Thanks again to @taozen for his cool tools that help keep some of this craziness in order.
cheers,
--ms
I can certainly sympathize.
My content libraries (there are a total of ten of them, both Poser and DAZ Studio, which represent an accumulation that spans more than a dozen years) have reached the point where I don't know where half of it is; hell, I don't even know what half of it is anymore!
I realized a few years ago that I was going to need to get a handle on it, if I had any hope of leveraging it all. After all, you can't use what you can't find, or even know that you have it! The problem, as you are apparently aware, is the sheer volume of it all! My DAZ-acquired content alone (which accounts for more than 90% of my total content) consists of a total of 7900 products, as of my last "inventory". Content from other marketplaces (Rendo, Content Paradise, 'Rotica, TurboSquid, et alia) comprises the rest of my purchased content.
And then there are the 'freebies' I've acquired over the years, both from the afore-mentioned marketplaces, and sites like ShareCG, among others; I cannot tell you how much I've picked up from those places, or where it's all installed! (A couple of unfortunate disk crashes over the years left a lot of "orphan" content in my runtimes: items with no history, no pedigree, no attribution, no clue where it came from.)
All in all, I have more than 1 terabyte of content, a lot of which I can't use, simply because I don't know what-all I have!
So, I started writing a 'content management solution'. I managed to use some aggressive copy-and-pasting from the My Account pages: first to get the actual orders (more than 950 of them since my most recent DAZ account -- it's tied to the e-mail address, and that only dates back to mid-2009), and then the products associated with those orders. I put all of that data into a collection of spreadsheets, and then loaded them into a SQL database. After that, it became a relatively simple, but extremely tedious, process of "fleshing out" the details. I also used the Order Confirmation e-mails to fill in the cost of everything I bought. (The final number stunned me, and I won't mention it here; let's just say that I was completely flabbergasted!)
It's still very much a 'Work in progress', and it probably always will be, simply because I'm still accumulating content! (Not today, but yesterday, and more than likely, tomorrow; Wednesday, of course, is a dead-bang certainty, since that's when the PC+ products are released!)
The best advice I can offer is to figure out a system that works for you, but make sure you are diligent in maintaining it. Because it is all too easy to let it slide -- and then you're right back where you started. But do it now, before it becomes such a daunting project that you're inclined to shy away from even wanting to try.
Like you, using the various available tools and my own scripts/hacks, I try to keep up with all of my resources (your approach seems quite comprehensive and appropriate to your collection - wow.).
I want to also mention that for both DAZ and non-DAZ content browsing and analysis, I really like the "p3dO Explorer" package/tool. I get the indication that the developer is working to integrate the current DS formats (duf, etc.) in the tool. I hope so.
Sadly, I'm starting to believe (based on the evidence...) that I prefer collecting and managing content more than rendering my million ideas. sigh.
DAZ's DIM and connect (I don't/won't use connect) help with DAZ content, but don't integrate with anyone else's, so ... my investment in portability and vendor neutral data management supercede their data silo model, so DIM is a handy but minimal tool in my workflow.
I'm still looking for the tool that considers the content's meta-data with the seriousness of the data itself - descriptions, representative images, file-lists, and usage docs. Sure, DAZ has the content-library and smart-content databases, but again (and for obvious reason), they are DAZ-specific. So with my content collection being maybe 30% DAZ, and having no clean way to import/export that categorization investment, it's a no-go for me. Ironically, by attempting to force me into their data silo, they guarantee my rejection of it. 90% of the DIM "Product Info" resources are completely useless, (as are the readme's and howtos for the products of all except a those from a few precious PA's). This isn't just a rant, as the only way I'm likely to use a product *after I've bought it*, is to have the post-purchase ability to find and 'operate' the product - hence the need for a decent catalog.
'Print as PDF' is a minimum for me to ensure I've got a base record of what I have purchased and/or downloaded. After that it's the wild-west of hacks and patches we've been mentioning here.
I can't blame DAZ for their myopic interests, but can't help but believe that they would be grand-central-winners if they enhanced their tools to include the ability to import everyone-else's content into their eco-system (e.g. auto-import and 'to-DUF' conversion of poser libraries, etc.). The level of DS use and adoption would only go up, and they would certainly sell more materials and tools for users to better-render their new and existing Poser content.
Anyone else have and trust any unmentioned librarian tool for their content addictions?
curious,
--ms
I have, for years, printed little 3x5 cards from the Product Library, (Picture and first couple lines) and sorted into a card box. I just pull out the cards when needed, that way the obscurly named products still show up.
Categorys are each generation split into characters and clothing. Then Past, Present & Future places and props, Then Animals, Other Humanoids, Robots, Monsters, Environments and Utilities..
Admittedly it is a pain to create the cards at first, but not its just a matter of updating every so often.
I do the same, but with full-sized images from the product page, in a folder on my desktop which includes different folders and sub-folders for different categories. Sometimes a single item will be in two or three different folders.
You're right, it's a pain to set up the first time, but it has the advantage of including everything that comes from non-DAZ sites as well, unlike the "Only show owned" button here.
Although daz doesn't, for obvious reasons, provide pre-rolled tools set up for other stores the emans to create them are there - you can create a new store, with a blank URL and the ability to tag individual products added to that store with the necessary toekn to open the product page (or readme) from the More Info right-click menu, you can use Content Package Assistant in the store to make DIM-ready product packages. Connect is Daz-only, but DIM and the CMS don't have to be.
To be sure, I don't harbor any grudge against DAZ for considering their own interests with respect to their tools/offerings. That's common sense at work.
I *do* believe if their tools became indespensible to users by inspiring the import, (auto)conversion, and the use of any and all available content resources (e.g. obj/cr2/car/lwo/...), they would benefit economically (e.g. via the so-called 'food-court' co-opetition model), as DAZ tools would quickly become a user's goto first-stop, etc., due to pure convenience. Small company and lots to do, maybe someday. They're touching on that model now, but not enough to garner my commitment yet. Personal choice.
The Content-Package-Assistant tool has my interest, but I tend to re-work my product runtimes by hand anyway, so I'm on the fence re: converting my zillion non-DAZ zips. Certainly not DAZ' fault/problem.
Appreciating that I may simply be missing a great resource in DS - what do you mean by 'create a new store, with a blank URL'.? Is this a CMS or DIM capability?
tnx,
--ms
(edit: typos)
My version of the mentioned cards/sheets is to print-to-PDF each product page (at each site), and save those promos with the downloaded installer(s). No paper copy catalog yet. (I also add -add-ons, templates, and forum-posts that relate to the same per-product folder). My frustration with the print-to-pdf is not being able to see/save the various full-size promo/info images for those products (the print-to-pdf model only shows the thumbnails, etc.). I liek @taozen's picture pullers for that, but my stuff is available but not very well corrdinated.
Ironically, DAZ' DIM and product manager pages are so convenient and reliable, I've stopped grabbing pdf pages at DAZ, but still grab the pages at the other sites. I love some of the old RDNA promo pages... and for many products that DAZ' didn't pick up, those are the only records I have of what's in those old zip files.
Obviously, it's not an easy problem to solve (ask any librarian...). I can't imagine the resources required to manage the digital data resources in a movie like Zootopia - let alone the rendering and production data-management...
Thanks to all for the feedback so-far. This is interesting and relevant to me.
cheers,
--me
When setting up a new store for the CMS you give a template URL, with a placeholder for the segment that identifies a particular product. When adding a product to that store you give it a toke, which is the unique bit of the URL (for example, the SKU for the Daz store). When you select More Info DS will drop that token into the template for the product and pass the result to the OS default browser (so for Daz store items it opens the readme page). There's sonme work to get it all set up, but the tools are there to, for example, have a Rendo item open the product page or the readme at Rendo when More Info is selected.
Thanks Richard, I wasn't aware of that extendability of the DS/CMS system.
Given the differences and wide variation in packaging of runtimes and the-like, I don't think a program/script could be written (cost effectively) that could automagically assess and re-organize any/all of the differing possible input packages. Even the vendors struggle with their own conventions over time, and between their respective 'PA' submissions. Too many humans involved to be consistent :^), even when the business has an interest in that consistency. Lord help me when I tackle the re-structuring of my gigs of freebies... heh.
Bottom line, no matter how good the CMS/librarian tool, the input archive (zips/rars/etc) variations are wide enough that properly inserting them in *any* CMS is probably going to be a grinding manual process. Bless those souls who have gotten their archives under control. I'm both impressed and envious!
I gotta repeat that the P3dO tool is the best thing I've found for browsing, assessing, and sorting my various zips/rars, especially my 'can't-deal-with-it-now' dumping ground of zips. Invaluable.
I don't know if others have noticed, but older stuff that's discontinued or removed from vendor sites may stillbe available for download, but usually the promo/sales pages are removed or reduced to placeholders. For this reason, grabbing the main promo page(s) for purchased items may be the only way you really know what you've got in 5+ years... Very seldom are the documents/readme's that come in the archives as complete as the sales/promo pages regarding the product description/details. Most assume you know what you're looking at, and simply describe (if even) thei product use.
--ms
I learned early to sort/manage all my stuff in the Content Library, as I bought it. Like Ken above, this still left me with multiple content libraries after I stopped using Poser though. It's why I made a utility to allow me to use a single Content Library for all my daz/poser stuff. Since I had each one organized, it just took a day to merge them all into one (including creating the links), that is accessible from one folder in DS.