DIM Questions
Geminii23
Posts: 1,327
So, after I inadvertently wiped out all of my Categories in my Content Library, I have decided the best way for me to get things back in order would be to just reinstall everything clean.
Currently, I use DIM so everything DAZ related is fine. But all my third party (RTDNA, Rendo, etc) is a total mess, worse than before actually. So would the best option to get back to a clean slate be to remove everything through DIM first?
Thanks.
Daz 3D is part of 
Connect
DAZ Productions, Inc.
7533 S Center View Ct #4664
West Jordan, UT 84084
Licensing Agreement | Terms of Service | Privacy Policy | EULA
© 2024 Daz Productions Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Comments
That makes no sense to me at all...I mean, all the content is STILL on your drive and reinstalling it isn't really going to change it's actual location (well, to some degree you may be able to move it, but you can do that without reinstalling it, too). Since the vast majority of content is in zip files, it's going to end up where you put them, anyway. Why not just rebuild the database? It can't take much longer to do that, then reinstall everything.
Let me clarify. All of my third party content are not .zip files. I possibly have all of those on backup, but I have one large Runtime in My Library. So basically over the last year and half I had been manually installing all my third party (RTDNA, Rendo, etc products) into that folder. But I understand that DIM installs all the poser compatible files in there as well.
So basically in order to start over with a new organization method for all my third party content, I figured it would be best to remove everything through DIM, then start over. Once everything is reinstalled, My Library would not have any third party content at all. Then I can install all of them one by one and organize them as I go along.
Does that make more sense?
The only difference between deleting and reinstalling everything and just going ahead to rebuild your Categories is that you'd have taken the extra time to delete and reinstall. In other words, no benefit at all — you'd still end up with everything pretty much the way it was before you started deleting, and you'd still have the job of rebuilding Categories once you'd finished reinstalling. Also, if your internet connection is capped to a certain amount of downloading per month (some are, some don't tell you they are until you've blown past their limit), you've just used up a big chunk of your limit to no benefit.
Note that adding stuff to Categories does not change or move the files as stored in your Content folders. The Categories view is not a content view, it's a database view. When you wiped the Categories database, the files making up your content were untouched.
Also, "removing everything through DIM" would only delete the items DIM installed. This doesn't touch all your third-party content, if you insist on deleting that as well you'll have to reinstall it all over again. You did save all your installers, did you?
I don't want to hammer on this too hard, but a lot of people with problems like yours have found that "just reinstall everything" makes no difference at all to their situation, and can easily make things worse. Just rebuild your Categories database, back it up so you don't accidentally lose it again, and that should be all.
Thanks for that info. I actually don't need to re-download everything. I have DIM set to store all the downloads on a separate drive.
I guess I thought it would be easier to figure out how to put my categories back if I added things back in one by one but I see your point.
I have been wishing (probably like you are right now Geminii) that there was an easier way to categorize things. Going through all of my content that doesn't have metadata and assigning categories is painful to say the least. I have over 1400 installs from DAZ via DIM and about the same from other sources. Having to browse through, right-click, "Assign to categories" and then navigate the hierarchy over and over again is a daunting task.
Yeah, that was pricely the reason I posted originally. I am trying to figure out the cleanest way to get my Content Library back in order. I had been doing the Category things for months as I would install third party content. But right now it feels like a huge incomprehensible mess.
I also had been contemplating doing an alternative method that I saw online awhile back where some people setup multiple Runtime folders. One for hair, one for clothes, etc.
Personally I wish someone would make some sort of Metadata/Content Editor tool so that I could just send the time modifying all my files so that they would just show up in Smart Content.
In this example: http://dazaholics.deviantart.com/art/Easy-Organized-Daz-Runtime-338083074 (A bit hard to read cause the resolution isn't that great) I see that they are doing some sort of external categorization. This was the direction I was leaning towards. Which because my Runtime is a huge mess right now from years of just adding content into the typical Runtime folder (which is shared with DAZ gen 4 stuff) this is why I was looking at reinstalling everything in the first place.
I would right now need a clean state to redo multiple runtimes or external categories otherwise I will have a tremendous amount of duplicated content which will be even worse to contend with.
One other "trick" that I have used in the past since I use DAZ Studio and don't use Poser at all...
DS doesn't care where the files actually are in your runtime\libraries structure. You can put figure (cr2) files in the Props library, put poses (pz2) files in sub-folders pretty much anywhere, etc. Poser would go crazy if it tried to read my runtime folder, but by taking advantage of the flexibility of DAZ Studio, I cleaned that up a lot.
For example, I don't care if a particular hair piece is a "figure" or a "prop" or a "hair" from Poser's point of view. It is hair. It should be in the Hair folders! And if I have a particular hair there, I should be able to see a sub-folder called "Colors" that lets me set the color. I don't care if the file is a "pz2" or not.
Similarly, it drives me nuts that just because a piece of content is rigged, it is suddenly a "character" ... No, a shirt is a "prop". Characters are people, animals, creatures, etc.
The nice thing is that this type of organization is easy. It's just opening up Windows Explorer and moving folders around.
BUT! Don't do this if you're also a Poser user. Poser expects all files in a certain library to be of the appropriate type. If you move your skin texture settings into the runtime\figures folder, you won't see them, because pz2 files aren't supposed to be there.
That is great info. I do not use Poser and have no intention of every using it. I have way too much invested in DAZ content at this point.
I have no problem with blowing away My Library and starting clean. I won't have to download everything again because I do have all the DIM installers on a separate drive. So, if I was to start cleaning this up, what would you recommend the following strategy:
1. Remove everything from DIM first.
2. Delete anything left over in My Library, or delete the Runtime folder.
3. Reinstall everything through DIM
4. Create New Folders in My Library for Hair, Props, etc.
5. Manually re-install third party content to respective new folders
If this strategy seems sound, then hopefully what I would end up with is a Content Library that has all DAZ (non-smart content) listed in the My Library tab, and subsequent folders for all other categories. This would also seem to eliminate the problem of losing all my Categories if I reset the DB through DAZ.
Thoughts?
Just a few quick notes.
1. It isn't recommended that you install 3rd party content to the same location that DIM installs to. They should be separate directories that can both be mapped into DAZ Studio using the Content Directory Manager. If you insist on putting non DIM content into DIM's content install location you could end up with problems in the future (especially if products share files). I don't think this is the source of your problem though and if you already have everything set up you probably won't want to move it.
2. Creating your own categories is a time consuming process. If the database gets corrupt you run the risk of losing hours of work. If you export user data every time you do your categories then you can instantly get your categories back by re-importing your metadata.
Ok, then I must have had My Library setup poorly from the very beginning. I had installed all of my Third Party Content into the Runtime folder under My Library.
I also just discovered that somehow I have DIM now pointing to /Users/Shared/ which must have happened after a DIM update, because I originally had everything pointing to my secondary Hard Drive. So now I have two My Library directories. One on my secondary drive with the majority of my Content and now another that seems to have far less content. This is probably why I can not find a ton of stuff that I know I bought in the DAZ store.
I am starting over entirely now. Ack.
However, unless you have some really odd 3rd party content (stuff that replaces the standard files that DAZ installs), the chances of a conflict should be very remote.
A couple of caveats about that type of organization...
Some, mostly very old items, have their geometry in the same folder as the pp2/cr2.
And lots of stuff has 'absolute' paths as opposed to 'relative'. So you may end up getting 'not found' errors.
Ok, so since my DIM somehow went back to all defaults, if I do not use Poser at all, do I need any of the Poser items checked? DSON importer for Poser, Poser 9+ or Poser?
I think I also don't need Vue or Carrera or Bryce.
If you aren't using them or have plans to...then probably not.
Poser tags are added to everything that works in Poser. If a package works in both Poser and DAZ Studio (ie legacy content) then it will get both tags. So long as you are have it set to show DAZ Studio items you won't miss that item. Things that are tagged with only a poser tag are things that only work in Poser (python scripts), or things that are only needed in Poser (ex. .mc6 files). The DSON Importer tag is used for Poser Companion Files.
BTW, that misplaced geometry files thing seems to have been started by whoever it was who owned Poser before Smith Micro — I used to buy the occasional item from Content Paradise, and it was extremely annoying having to fix the files to point to the .obj files that I'd put back into their proper places. I have a copy of Poser 7 I haven't reinstalled for a couple of years, and its legacy P5/P6 people are broken for use in D|S because the figures have been moved into a "legacy figures" library folder so the absolute paths to the .obj files and external morph files that are now all in the wrong places won't work.
Absolute paths, fortunately, seem to be pretty much a thing of the past in paid content, but unfortunately some freebie makers still don't know any better. The main thing to watch for are texture and geometry absolute paths that only exist in the work-in-progress folder of the freebie maker's computer. :-/
Knew this was gonna be a pain.
Ok, so I removed all content. Setup new Library. Installed everything through DIM. Opened DAZ, Reset DB then Reimported MetaData. But murphy's law...nothing shows up now what so ever. No Smart Content. I have also tried stopping and starting CMS.
I'm on MAC btw.
Check to see if your CMS is running. It sounds like it isn't
Ok, so I was able to confirm that CMS was running in Activity Monitor on MAC. This time I wiped all the DB files and then restarted CMS. Then reimported metadata. So far everything seems ok now in Smart Content, but I see several items with No graphic and the Yellow Exclamation point. Anyway to fix those?
Make sure that the path DIM is installing to matches the path DS is using for both DS-format and Poser-format files.
Make sure that the path DIM is installing to matches the path DS is using for both DS-format and Poser-format files.
Ok, so yeah the path for both is set to /Backup 1 HDD/DAZ 3D/Studio/My Library/
It seems like just a few items show up in Product View with an exclamation. Examples: Banshee Flyer StudioCF, Bee Texture Map, Castlekeep 2 - Glimmering Tales StudioCF, Cherry Hair PoserCF and Cherry Hair V4
Aside from that so far other stuff seems to be working. I started creating some individual folders such as one for my AMR Scripts for DAZ Studio Render Preferences so now that just shows up right under My Library in Content Library view. Which is nice because now I don't have to tunnel down through the library to find those quick render settings.
If you only use the Render Settings most of the time as I do Right click and do ADD as Custom Action that will place a Script menu on your interface with them in it for fast use.
AH! Nice tip! I like that. Even faster access then before. Done!
Ok, so now I am trying to rebuild my third party content. Which is proving to be a bit of a challenge. For instance, I have a couple characters that I got (I think from RTDNA) that have both a Genesis and V4 version. So the only I can figure that would make sense is breaking this character up and creating a v4 character and then create a third party genesis folder. Thoughts?
Ok, so after a day or two of re-installing everything I think I am finally happy with my Content Library. Aside from a few anomalies where some items don't have a proper graphic preview in the Smart Panel, everything seems to be working good. Thanks to everyone for the great tips.
So, basically what I think is going to work well for me, and this was imho a bit easier than trying to sort through everything and setup Categories (although that is still an option for me), I setup the separate Runtimes as others had suggested. Here are some snap shots of my new DAZ Content Libary view and the Poser view.