Question about Organizing Content and Content Manager

CathyM

Since Daz Studio 4 came out, I set up my own categories. No matter how confusing my Daz Studio's two "My Library" and "Contents" folders were, I could still easily find each of the thousands of items I'd installed and add them to my scene.

But a few weeks ago, my categories disappeared. I tried for about an hour to hunt down each item I wanted to add to a scene. Since there's no apparent rules to how these things install, this was impossible. I no longer even felt like creating any art after so much frustration. I can't even tell what I have installed from the random names that appear on the item folders.

So now, I have to reinstall everything to a new runtime. I have read through several tutorials about organizing runtimes, but I am not sure I've really understood it. For example, is there a reason I cannot put most everything that I consider a "set" into the CHARACTER folder in an organized manner? I've noticed some of the sets already come with their mats in an attached folder, so is there any reason I can't cut the mats folder out of the POSE folder for an item that's in the character folder (say a building) and paste it into that building folder? Can I also cut the props for that building out of the props folder and add it to the buildings folder as well? I have - as per the tutorials I read, been careful to not touch the "data" file in the Daz folder, and not to touch anything in the Runtime folder outside of the Libraries folder.

Same with Daz Studio folder. for example, is there a reason there is a lights folder, and a lights presets folder? Why do I have to search through all these folders for what I need to use?

My content manager runs, and the DIM seems to work fine, but I don't have any smart content for anything, and I never have, even before I started this reorganizing. I

've done all the uninstalling/reinstalling Content Manager/Daz Studio etc. and the deleting of the database files, but nothing works. Does reorganizing the content myself affect the smart content? I am worried that something is broken, and although I don't care too much about the smart content, I found that when I tried making a morph I couldn't get the Presentation Editor to show any content type in the drop down except for NONE, when I needed Modifier/Clone, and was told that this was tied to the Content Manager in some way.

Sorry for the length of this post, I am really frustrated since I've spent a week reinstalling and reorganizing files and am now worried that I will have to start over AGAIN. Argh! Thanks for any help anyone can offer.

-Cathy

Jaderail

Your database Has Corrupted for the CMS. Your Smart Content can be recovered and you should be able to make a new Category also, after the bad database is fixed. I have had this happen as well, but we do have a way to Backup our files and restore just for this reason. It is in the Content DB Maintenance Menu.

CathyM

Hi Jaderail! I figured it was corrupted, but I've tried deleting the database files, uninstalling/reinstalling Daz Studio and the Content Manager, I still never see any Smart Content. And, I don't mind that - I would just like to be able to learn how to make morphs -

Do you know if it causes any problems for me to be moving files around in the Daz My Library and Runtime folders as described above? I'd feel much better at being able to organize the files in the Daz Studio Library myself so that everything is in a logical place with a logical name, and that way I don't have to worry about setting up Categories - I don't want to go through that again! Thanks! -Cathy