Smart content, Carrara sees categories but not what is in them.

Peter Wade

I'm sure this used to work but I haven't used Carrara for a while. Now when I go to categories in the smart content tab Carrara shows the cusom categories I created in Studio but when I select one it doesn't show any content. If I use the content tab I can see my Studio content and load it OK so Carrara must know where the library files are, and it is showing the categories I created so it must be connecting to the CMS but why isn't it showing the category content? Does anyone have any ideas?

Dartanbeck

Yeah.... funny thing, that "Smart Content". From what I've heard, it works great in Daz Studio.

They tried. I guess. 

Try looking under "Files" at the top, instead of "Categories". Keep in mind that you might have to wait a bit. It's not as instantaneous as the far more finely tweaked DS version. I'm sure that, if Carrara development would have continued, this would likely work much more smoothly.

Also note that, when Smart Content came out - at least for Carrara, that is, it was always meant to be context sensitive. So if we have something selected in a scene, we'll only see items related to what is selected. So to see full population, try to have nothing selected.

Props, Environments, architecture... so we also have to decipher where in the library stuff has been put.

Peter Wade

Thanks, Dartanbeck. Files does show some stuff, I'm pretty sure that not everything is there but I never could find anything in Smart Content in Daz Studio, that's why I created my own categories. Products seems to work OK.

On the whole I think it will be easier to go back to using the non-smart content tab and finding things in the library, and maybe try and work out another way to do this.

Philemo_Carrara

Category works for me, but differently than Studio. In studio, when I click on a category, I can see everything in the category, including what's in the sub categories, the sub - sub categories and so on. Carrara just show what's directly in the category. To find what is in the sub categories, you have to actually click on them.

Peter Wade

Philemo said:

Category works for me, but differently than Studio. In studio, when I click on a category, I can see everything in the category, including what's in the sub categories, the sub - sub categories and so on. Carrara just show what's directly in the category. To find what is in the sub categories, you have to actually click on them.

It doesn't work for me. I don't see anything in the top level categories and when I click on the sub categories there is nothing in them either. I've found this CMS a bit flakey in general. I used to have lots of problems with it, now it mostly works in Studio but sometimes I have to re-import metadata for a product before it will appear in categories

I am having other problems with Studio content in Carrara. If I load a Genesis 2 figure from the library sometimes it renders OK, sometimes Carrara locks up when I select the render tab and I've had one render where sampling lights stopped at 20% and never got any further. I don't think these are directly connected to the category problem, just another symptom of the unreliability of this Daz Studio library system.

UnifiedBrain

Peter, I guarantee that you know much more about content management than me.

But I wanted to mention that I use the smart content tab in Carrara frequently, and it works very well on about 95% of Daz content (which has metadata).  I have not altered the categories in any way - I just allow DIM to do what it wants.

I am very grateful that Daz added the smart content tab.  For me, it is often a big time saver.

3DAGE

also check that your'e using Postrgres,. not Valentina

Peter Wade

3DAGE said:

also check that your'e using Postrgres,. not Valentina

It is Postgres. I used to have both but I did a complete Windows re-install and only installed the Postgres CMS.

Diomede

I never used to use the smart content tab at all.  I was afraid to even touch it for fear that the database thing would start churning and using system resources.  But now I like to use the product tab in smart content.  I search the Daz store for the category for what I am looking for and uncheck "hide stuff I own."   I identify what I am looking for from the store search and the little icon that says that I own it.   I then use the smart content product tab to find my stuff by product name in the store load my stuff.  They are in the smart content "products" tab alphabetically.

Dartanbeck

Peter Wade said:

Philemo said:

Category works for me, but differently than Studio. In studio, when I click on a category, I can see everything in the category, including what's in the sub categories, the sub - sub categories and so on. Carrara just show what's directly in the category. To find what is in the sub categories, you have to actually click on them.

It doesn't work for me. I don't see anything in the top level categories and when I click on the sub categories there is nothing in them either.

Same here, unless we're talking about Files > Categories, which does work for me.

However, if something is selected in the scene, Smart Content will automatically diminish the results to only what is made to work with the selection.

I never use Smart Content in my normal operation - but I must say, in testing this I am finding it pretty fun to peruse the various categories and look at what turns up (as opposed to my going directly to what I wanted to go to in the main Content tab)

Peter Wade

Dartanbeck said:

Peter Wade said:

Philemo said:

Category works for me, but differently than Studio. In studio, when I click on a category, I can see everything in the category, including what's in the sub categories, the sub - sub categories and so on. Carrara just show what's directly in the category. To find what is in the sub categories, you have to actually click on them.

It doesn't work for me. I don't see anything in the top level categories and when I click on the sub categories there is nothing in them either.

Same here, unless we're talking about Files > Categories, which does work for me.

However, if something is selected in the scene, Smart Content will automatically diminish the results to only what is made to work with the selection.

I never use Smart Content in my normal operation - but I must say, in testing this I am finding it pretty fun to peruse the various categories and look at what turns up (as opposed to my going directly to what I wanted to go to in the main Content tab)

Interesting. I haven't got Files > Categories, I've only got Categories at the top level (which doesn't work). Under Filles I've only got Default and Light Sets. Light Sets only has SY's Starry Skies for Iray in it, Default has a lot of stuff which isn't set out how I expect. Genesis, Genesis 2 and Vicky/Mike 4 are in Files > Default > Figures although they are under People in the library and in my Custom categories. Files > Default > People has only got Vicky 3 and a fantasy figure called !Kuril in it. I don't know where it's getting this layout from.

UnifiedBrain

Diomede said:

I never used to use the smart content tab at all.  I was afraid to even touch it for fear that the database thing would start churning and using system resources.  But now I like to use the product tab in smart content.  I search the Daz store for the category for what I am looking for and uncheck "hide stuff I own."   I identify what I am looking for from the store search and the little icon that says that I own it.   I then use the smart content product tab to find my stuff by product name in the store load my stuff.  They are in the smart content "products" tab alphabetically.

Like you, I mostly use the Product tab.  But all the Smart Content tabs work.  I think that veterans here who have gone through the different versions of Carrara, and who have gotten accustomed to using the regular Content tab, tend to not use the Smart Content tab.  I came from Daz Studio, and really like using Smart Content.

For those who have not used Smart Content, there are three tabs, Files, Categories, and Products. 

If you click on the Files tab directly, be prepared for a wait, as it will eventually show a huge amount of product icons.  Best to not click this, and click a Files subcategory instead.

Clicking the Categories or Products tabs directly doesn't do anything.  To see icons, you must click on their subcategories.

Below are examples of how the Smart Content tree appears in Carrara.

Dartanbeck

Peter Wade said:

Dartanbeck said:

Peter Wade said:

Philemo said:

Category works for me, but differently than Studio. In studio, when I click on a category, I can see everything in the category, including what's in the sub categories, the sub - sub categories and so on. Carrara just show what's directly in the category. To find what is in the sub categories, you have to actually click on them.

It doesn't work for me. I don't see anything in the top level categories and when I click on the sub categories there is nothing in them either.

Same here, unless we're talking about Files > Categories, which does work for me.

However, if something is selected in the scene, Smart Content will automatically diminish the results to only what is made to work with the selection.

I never use Smart Content in my normal operation - but I must say, in testing this I am finding it pretty fun to peruse the various categories and look at what turns up (as opposed to my going directly to what I wanted to go to in the main Content tab)

Interesting. I haven't got Files > Categories, I've only got Categories at the top level (which doesn't work). Under Filles I've only got Default and Light Sets. Light Sets only has SY's Starry Skies for Iray in it, Default has a lot of stuff which isn't set out how I expect. Genesis, Genesis 2 and Vicky/Mike 4 are in Files > Default > Figures although they are under People in the library and in my Custom categories. Files > Default > People has only got Vicky 3 and a fantasy figure called !Kuril in it. I don't know where it's getting this layout from.

My bad. Yup. Files > Default

Dartanbeck

UnifiedBrain said:

Diomede said:

I never used to use the smart content tab at all.  I was afraid to even touch it for fear that the database thing would start churning and using system resources.  But now I like to use the product tab in smart content.  I search the Daz store for the category for what I am looking for and uncheck "hide stuff I own."   I identify what I am looking for from the store search and the little icon that says that I own it.   I then use the smart content product tab to find my stuff by product name in the store load my stuff.  They are in the smart content "products" tab alphabetically.

Like you, I mostly use the Product tab.  But all the Smart Content tabs work.  I think that veterans here who have gone through the different versions of Carrara, and who have gotten accustomed to using the regular Content tab, tend to not use the Smart Content tab.  I came from Daz Studio, and really like using Smart Content.

For those who have not used Smart Content, there are three tabs, Files, Categories, and Products. 

If you click on the Files tab directly, be prepared for a wait, as it will eventually show a huge amount of product icons.  Best to not click this, and click a Files subcategory instead.

Clicking the Categories or Products tabs directly doesn't do anything.  To see icons, you must click on their subcategories.

Below are examples of how the Smart Content tree appears in Carrara.

Sweet! I'm not sure about all of us, but... yeah. I just got into the habit of going to the Content tab as always. I almost always know what I'm after before I dive in. But that was when I was in Carrara every day. Now that I've been dragged (kicking and screaming the whole way!) away from it for a while, I'm finding the Smart Content tab to be a fun little perusal of my inventory - well my duf inventory, which is the only stuff I install to the "My Daz3d Library". I still install all of my Poser files content into my specific Runtime structured organizational system I've used for years.