database
donews
Posts: 51
Hello,
I am looking for informations about database management in Daz3D.
I use Smart content (Product Metadata) and Categories (User data) to organize my content but I need further explanations.
What are exactly the files in the /database directory (four ContentDB files and master file)?
What are the options of Content DB Maintenance menu ?
What are the difference of the management of Metadata and UserData ?
Usually I reseted my database and re-imported Metadata without problems when i Installed new content (recents ones). After that they appears in Smart Content Tab.
But I had problems with UserData. After saving them, if I try to reimport them with the related option my PC freeze (4GB ram).
To avoid that problem I re-imported Metadata without database's reset (datas seem to be overwrited) and without the UserData import option.
So a complete tutorial about Databse management would be very useful to me.
I thank you in advance for your answers.
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Comments
I'll tackle a couple of your questions and try not to get to technical.
The Four Files in the databases folder are ContentDB.blb, ContentDB.dat, ContentDB.ind, ContentDB.vdb, Master.VDB
Beyond that i couldn't tell ya what each does or doesn't do.
Various attempts to edit or view the contents have resulted in no useable information, or broken files.
The options for Maintenance are
Mark all content as seen:tick this to keep new content from showing up with blue, and new on icons.
Remove un-mapped base paths and orphans:removes removes full paths and orphan folder/files
Remove orphaned file references:Removes references in the database for stuff that is removed or it's position has changed.
Consolidate file references:haven't used this one so i have no clue.
Condense data base:Compresses the data base
Process Metadata queue:Any meta data that was not imported at startup, can be imported with this option.
Re-import metadata:Any metadata gets reimported. Unless the Mark all content...is also checked, this will show new content as blue highlighted, and with the new icon overlapping the individual items.
Export user data:used to create a recovery file for custom categorization.
Reset database:Clears out the data base, and resets to initial installation point.
The difference between meta data management and user data is fairly simple.
Meta data is a physical file created when content is installed.(generally under Support folders, afaik)
User data is only database information, beyond the Exported user data, there is no additional files created with user data.
Their management, within daz, is the same.
It is unnecessary to reset the database and reimport meta data each time you install new content.
This may be part of the problem.
And unless your structure is broken(missing folder and files), you don't need to reimport the data any way.
For reimporting user data:
It generally takes between 2-3 times as long to reimport, as it did to export.
Lets say it took 2 hrs to export, it'll take 4-6 hrs to reimport.
The last time i reimported(3 userdata files), it took a day(full 24 hrs).
That was also the last time i used CMS.
The Biggest problems with cms, is when it decides that it's going to randomly loose the category folders you've made, or not show content, and then when it won't reimport user data even with a clean install.
The latter part is why i don't use cms any more.
3 months of organization lost.
Personally i dropped using smart content about 3 months into daz, and Cms after a year.
Gone back to basic folder management, and organizing stuff where it makes sense(at least to me).
just my two cents here take it for what it's worth.
I thank you for your answer.
>> Export user data:used to create a recovery file for custom categorization.
>>User data is only database information, beyond the Exported user data, there is no additional files created with user data.
I organize my stuff in two parts with two different runtime directories. The first one is for all that concern the M4V4 content and the second for the Genesis 5 and 6 content.
So I use Userdata for the categories M4V4 and Metadata for the new content. For that moment I don't change the default order of the smart content.
But I don't understand exactly how DazStudio is managing my Userdata, I don't know where it is saving them and how it works with them.
When you Export User Data, it creates one or more files names UserData_1.dsx in the Runtime:Support folder, the same place as the metadata for store items. It's the same kind of file as the metadata files, with relative path information and the various attributes of each item (note that since it has only relative paths, if you export user data and import it on a machine with the content folders in a different location, if will still work). It seems to freeze up when re-importing if you have a lot of customizations, but it isn't really freezing, it just takes a while to process. I have over 150GB of content and every item is custom categorized, and it takes about half an our to import or export. Adamr001 has several hundred GB and it takes several hours, even though his computer makes mine look like an abacus.