I'm doing manual install again!
Ron Knights
Posts: 1,763
in The Commons
I was having some fun. I hadn't done any art for months. Then, suddenly I couldn't find one of my favorite scenes. I tried doing a search through Smart Content, and the Regular Content library. I got no results from searches. Then I stumbled about, and found the scene again. I tried to move it somewhere I could find it, No luck.
I've spent a few hours organizing stuff. I have several hours to go. But it's 2:22 AM and I need some sleep. I'll likely do one "Runtime collection" for scenes, one for People, etc. I want to find my stuff. DIM doesn't help me.
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Are you moving files around? With some of the types you can do that, but you do break some of the database functionality.
It's much better to create Categories for your content. Install something, DIM will tell you the path so that you can find it, then create the Category for that item. Your Categories can be backed up and restored.
One bonus of using Categories, besides all the DB functionality being preserved, is that content from multiple libraries can all show up in one place.
I'd also recommend the Categories. It's a lot easier than physically reorganizing things, plus it has the benefit that you can have various different top categories that you can have any organitional way you want, depending on a project, for example, or theme. The good thing about Categories is also that you can move textures and shapes/objects together into one subcategorie, even things from different products.
And the best thing is, if you want something new, you can just start another top category, while still using the old one and still find your stuff.
I understand what you're saying. I had already created categories etc. But I still couldn't find what I want. One huge problem is the convuluted way DAZ installs everything. For example Scenes might be found under "Props, Architecture, the content creator's name, etc." I'd begged DAZ to make more sense of the way things are installed, but they don't appear to see things the way I do. That is one of the many reasons I stay away from DAZ Studio for months at a time. It was a real buzzkill last night when I suddenly couldn't find what I wanted...
But if you already created categories, you would have sorted the things exactly there were you want them?
I certainly thought everything was the way I wanted it.. But I'd done the categories several months ago. I'd actually deleted everything and used the hard drive for other things. Then I changed my mind and brought everything back from a cloned backup disc. You know, maybe I need to refresh the database or something?! I'll try that later!
The database itself is stoed in the AppData folder - I can't recall the exact location on a Mac, I think it's soemthign like Application Support/Daz 3D/cms/ContentCluster. It uses relative paths (in DS 4.9 and later) but if it wasn't backed up, or if the scene file wasn't in the same place relative to the content diectory, that might have caused an issue.
Thanks, Richard. I'll try to dig into things a bit more later in the day.
Strange how you say DIM does not help, because as long as you know the product name, DIM will tell you exactly where it installed every file, and you can then use the Content Library to locate them. Of course if you have moved them around after installation, then clearly DIM will not tell you where you moved them to.
Where would I look to have DIM tell me where things were installed? I haven't moved things around after DIM. But I did totally delete everything from the hard drive. I brought it all back from a backup drive later.
I've decided to delay a manual install for now. I'll see if I can reset the database instead.
Once you locate the product in DIM in your "Installed" tab, click on the little arrow on the extreme right of the line. A pop up box will appear, and from this select "Show Installed Files", and this will show the exact location of every file in the product. It doesn't tell you where to find your stuff in Smart Content, but will say exactly where it is in Content Library.
I personally don't move anything after installing with DIM, since that way it is just one click to update all the files once an update becomes available.
Oh, you finally told me what I need to know. All too many of my scenes got installed under the Props folder. Now I will go ahead and categorize all those scenes so I can find them!
Update
Well that didn't last long. I spent a lot of time categorizing stuff that had somehow gotten lost. But the stuff never showed up in Smart Content. I've wasted too much time organzing categories. I'd go ahead an manual install. I can have full control and find things when I need them.
Yeah Ron, I hate smart content with a passion. I spent weeks making catagories, then the database got corrupt somehow not too long after. I went back to installing and organizing manually again. It's a pain sorta, but when I download a file, I unzip it to a temporary folder, put the duf where I think it should go, eliminate vendor spam, then rezip it using 7zip LMZA2 on ultra and put that on my backup drive. Only real issue is I have to manually look out for any updates, then if there is one, update my reorganized folder manually.
TheKD thanks for sharing your own experience. I'm working on the manual install right now. I'm making one collection for Props & Scenes. Later I'll do one for People etc.
For now it's time for a nap.
If the items never had Smart Content entries to begin with, ading them to a category will not magically make them show up in Smart Content. Just saying, you know.
Good luck on the reorganizing.
LOL, I hear ya Ron. I don't use DIM, smart content or connect and I install everything manually and I find everything I have just fine.
BeeMKay I'd spent many years installing all my content manually. Then I finally surrendered to DIM. I thought everything was working fine for awhile. Now it appears this whole Smart Content thing is just as much work as installing Manually! I just want to make art.
FSMCDesigns, DIM and Smart Content might be worth the trouble if DAZ took the time to organize their content installations. As it is now, they just scatter stuff all over the place, give it crazy names, and expect us to hunt around and fiddle with categories to make up for the sloppiness of installs. I really miss the days when we could just Make Art!
Exactly. When I am looking for clothes for example, I expect to see all products in the next level, not having to click through one or two more pointless folders just to see what it is. Even more infuriating, to the point we blacklisted some vendors, is addon makers dumping all their addons into a folder under their name, instead of putting it in a subfolder of the item they are upgrading. I don't want to have to click on a dress, then go into 10 different vendor folders to see if maybe there is an addon there for it. That is a production killer, and annoying as heck.
TheKD, you hit the nail on the head. I am feeling maniacal as I manually install and get rid of all the nested and vanity folders. I gleefully look forward to once again being able to find my stuff!
I feel your pain, i dread the day i have to ever start a runtime all over! I had to do so about 4 years ago and shudder at the thought of doing it again at this point of purchasing lol. I think ive just done this so long i cant let a program decide where my stuff goes i have to manually sort it all. Its super time consuming but after the intial hassle of installing all my back catalog i just try and keep up with things as i go lol. I use DIM to install things to a DIM sort folder, i just keep the json file there so it records ive installed it and then i go through the tedious process of sorting it all where i want it to go lol.
You don't need the .json file -- that's for correctly uninstalling files which belong to multiple products, which doesnt work when you reorganize things. It's the ManifestFiles that record what's been installed.
I have a 3TBn external portable drive that I'll use to backup all my DAZ stuff! Sure beats having to reinstall everything from scratch.
Hmm does it store somewhere else besides the folder you install content too maybe Ive been backing up the wrong file then LOL. The InstallManagerFileRegister.json file is the one Ive been keeping so i dont need that one at all?
The ManifestFiles folder is in the same place as the DIM DOwnloads folder -- default is something like ...Public Documents/Daz 3D/Install Manager/ManifestFiles
The InstallManagerFileRegfister.json records when a file belongs to more than one product, so that if you uninstall a product DIM knows that the file is still needed for another product. SInce you're rearranging files DIM can't uninstall them automatically, so the .json file isn't needed.
@ronknights How to find the stuff quickly- USE DIM. Just go to the "i" which is the ReadMe. It will tell you exactly where the product is, using Content Library. Just look at the "Daz Studio Folder" section. Bam, you've got the location.
I NEVER use the Smart Library. In Content Library, you can also use Products (that's somewhat hit or miss so far as having everything, but most of the time it does.)
Believe me, the "find" trick didn't work for me. I've already manually installed most of my Scenes content. I'll work on my People collection tomorrow.
Trust me with Categories... as someone who has done a number of re-installs lately, it does make things easier.
I have two computers, and I had a Windows install go corrupt, and built a new system, then a brand new drive in that system die... Ugh.
Anyways, once you categorize things, it doesn't matter which library it's in - in the default, on an external, across 10 different libraries, whatever. With DIM, you can export & import all the content that's been installed, making it easy to re-install everything that was installed before. And of course, the Categories can be backed up and restored.
I understand what you're saying. I'm glad it works for you. But it doesn't work for me. I make cloned backups of my drives. It's easy to recover from hard drive problems etc.
Updates:
I had started my second day of manual install when I realized I could just rearrange the content that DIM had already installed. Yes, I only rearranged the "facing" files. I left the "supporting" files alone. I was able to complete the job in a short period of time. I'm really glad we've been able to discuss this matter without any arguments. I've long ago decided to accept DAZ's DIM strategy. I just needed to find a way to make things work for me.
This is what I do and it really works well.
Dalkatana, I use Macintosh computers, and SuperDuper! helps me make clone copies of hard drives.