How to manage thousands of products ?

leonardo_3285321d

Hello, to manage DAZ products I recently created the app "DSX Catalog" that you can find on the Microsoft Store. I am charging few bucks to cover the development cost, but if you can't buy it I can send you a coupon code.

Works with DIM (DAZ Install Manager), just open the folder with .dsx files (usually C:\Users\Public\Documents\DAZ 3D\InstallManager\ManifestFiles) and installed products are shown, you can download thumbnails, print the catalog, create a .pdf of the catalog, etc.. useful to visually check what's installed without opening DAZ Studio. It's a kind of extension of DIM with additional features.

The cool part is that works with non installed products too, I usually use the app to visually choose what to install before starting a new project.

kraftwerkd

von Hobo said:

I agree. It's hard to manage and keep track of so many products.

I have created my own subcategories under Favorites. So for instance, I have grouped all the figures, clothing, weapons, and poses that are used for my Anime scenes into one subcategory under Favorites, called "Anime". 

This makes it easier for me to find things because I usually worked in "themes" with my designs, and it beats looking through the Wardrobe, Figures, Props and a bunch of other categories for all these items individually.

 

 

Is this in Smart Content or just in the folder structure? Would you mind sharing a screenshot? I've always just chucked everything into My Daz3D Library and I'm heavily regretting that now.

Worlds_Edge

leonardo_3285321d said:

Hello, to manage DAZ products I recently created the app "DSX Catalog" that you can find on the Microsoft Store. I am charging few bucks to cover the development cost, but if you can't buy it I can send you a coupon code.

Works with DIM (DAZ Install Manager), just open the folder with .dsx files (usually C:\Users\Public\Documents\DAZ 3D\InstallManager\ManifestFiles) and installed products are shown, you can download thumbnails, print the catalog, create a .pdf of the catalog, etc.. useful to visually check what's installed without opening DAZ Studio. It's a kind of extension of DIM with additional features.

The cool part is that works with non installed products too, I usually use the app to visually choose what to install before starting a new project.

You might want to put up a youtube video to show how it works and what it shows. I took a look and it says to dl all your products manually so I'm not exactly sure what the setup steps are (as my interpretation might be wrong) and exactly what the result is. It sounds interesting. Also, can you search for terms?

leonardo_3285321d

@Worlds_Edge yes, very soon I will publish a video. Keeping a copy of your content is best practise, but you can see already DIM installed products too.

The input are .dsx files (one for each product) and, after the automatic thumbnails download, the output is a visual catalog that can be customized (image size, sorting, etc..) and that you can filter by product name (ex. "Victoria" will list all products containing "Victoria" in the name), printed or exported. There is a button "Docs" to open a side panel that shows the documentation of the selected product. Very useful during the product selection and to create a printed (or .pdf) catalog.

Do you means something else with search for terms?

leonardo_3285321d

Here we go, video tutorial: https://youtu.be/akbSsVcbcck

Worlds_Edge

leonardo_3285321d said:

@Worlds_Edge yes, very soon I will publish a video. Keeping a copy of your content is best practise, but you can see already DIM installed products too.

The input are .dsx files (one for each product) and, after the automatic thumbnails download, the output is a visual catalog that can be customized (image size, sorting, etc..) and that you can filter by product name (ex. "Victoria" will list all products containing "Victoria" in the name), printed or exported. There is a button "Docs" to open a side panel that shows the documentation of the selected product. Very useful during the product selection and to create a printed (or .pdf) catalog.

Do you means something else with search for terms

Thanks, just saw this. Will watch the video. Regarding my question, I meant, can you search for "clothing" - so you don't get characters images when you look for clothes, etc. I think you answered the question though. If I understand correctly, words used in the product sales page can be searched.

Noah LGP

Finally I decide to use Tagspaces to manage the digital content that I owned (3D, AI-generated art, video game DLC and mods, ...).

 

paulawp (marahzen)

I've created multiple databases to keep track of my stuff - fully searchable and categorized. IRL, I do software and database work.

And then I don't have time to keep them updated...

Granville

I use a notion database. 

csaa

leonardo_3285321d,

Thanks for the tip! Glad I perused this thread. The .dsx files are in XML format, and answer a number of questions I've always had about Daz assets as files in the installation folders. Very, very useful indeed.

Cheers!

leonardo_3285321d said:

Hello, to manage DAZ products I recently created the app "DSX Catalog" that you can find on the Microsoft Store. I am charging few bucks to cover the development cost, but if you can't buy it I can send you a coupon code.

Works with DIM (DAZ Install Manager), just open the folder with .dsx files (usually C:\Users\Public\Documents\DAZ 3D\InstallManager\ManifestFiles) and installed products are shown, you can download thumbnails, print the catalog, create a .pdf of the catalog, etc.. useful to visually check what's installed without opening DAZ Studio. It's a kind of extension of DIM with additional features.

The cool part is that works with non installed products too, I usually use the app to visually choose what to install before starting a new project.

memcneil70

Google spreadsheets for characters and another for hair. My downloaded promos are sorted into folders closely aligned to the breakdown of Smart Content, except Environments where I sort that by PAs, unless it is a one off, then by type.

I also broke down Smart Content's categories into further categories in how I look for things and what drives me nuts searching for them.

For example footwear. One big mess. I want boots, pumps, sandals, flats, historic, ... it gets me close and I can use more than one with an item. Boots, Western. Pumps, Sandals.

Or within Props, there is plants. Trees, flowers, edibles, shrubs, grass, alien, ...

Furniture: Desk/Tables, Seating, Chests, Beds, Bookcases/Shelving

Decor: Art, Carpets, Clocks, Holidays, Lamps/Candles, Linens & Things, Mirrors, ...

And then there is: Food, Kitchenware, Effects, Containers, ...

Clothing keeps evolving on me. G9 is its own special case now.

It takes times, but once you get the pile done and keep up with new purchases, it is easier to find items faster.

Look at how YOU think of your purchases and how YOU approach your work. And how much time you want to invest up front, to save when you are creating later.

 

Silver Dolphin

Here is the only thing that truly works for keeping track of 3D content. Don't do it ever!!!!!! It is too much work!!!! I Uninstall anything I'm not using and just install what I need. Otherwise it is a complete mess. let  the Sellers of content keep track and just install when you need it. Good Luck.

Padone

I totally agree with Silver Dolphin. To keep a huge database of daz assets in the content folder is a nonsense. Just install what you need for the current project and bakup the content folder. When you change the project just switch the content folder, simple as that.

Singular3D

I used word files with images and basic information sorted in various chapters as documentation. Then I also used mind maps for categories and dependencies. Updating is definitely quite some work. Finally I probably will set up an Excel file with additional information in columns. This will help filtering the content I already have. Most of my content is still stored in *.zip files and only a few items are manually installed. Since I will get a new PC till summer, I will set up everything from scratch again. I will install the content as needed. V4/M4 content, as well as G3 content will be converted on the old PC and then installed on the new one. So, a lot of work ahead...

Saxa -- SD

As Diva wrote in post2 of this thread, DS custom categories.  Yes it took a long time but enjoying the sweet fruits now.

Want a product? Yup its in the one of the many categories that made sense to me.

Also made many custom icons as default 91px are way too small.  Hate previewing stuff, and going what was that?

Visual Menus rounds it out for organizing many of the frequent stuff.  Hot key call up the visual menus.

Was worth the pain to set up.  (And several backups made. )

Astraffel

I feel extremely technically inexperienced browsing through this thread. Though the idea of using a markdown editor is interesting...

If anyone is looking for something simple, I just crossed 500 items installed and my method is very primative. It's just an image index of JPG files in Windows Explorer folders of all the products I have installed.

For me though, I just wanted a visual collection with custom categories of all the options I have to work with. So whenever I get a new Item, I download a product image with it and toss that into an appropriate folder. Finding them in Studio can still be a challenge, but my main proirity was remembering what I had available. It's minimal, yet I like that. 

I am considering adding the Daz Studio category it exists in to the file names. That might help.

A screenshot of my index is attached below, if it's of interest for anyone else...

edit: just noticed my method seems like a primative version of @memcneil70's, and there may be others who mentioned something similar, but yeah, +1 for that approach.

Astraffel

memcneil70 said:

I also broke down Smart Content's categories into further categories in how I look for things and what drives me nuts searching for them.

For example footwear. One big mess. I want boots, pumps, sandals, flats, historic, ... it gets me close and I can use more than one with an item. Boots, Western. Pumps, Sandals.

This is interesting. I'd considered doing subfolders, but do you crop full outfit images and separate them or just duplicate the entire image into the relative wardrobe categories?

I'm thinking about revising my method, and yours seemed much more detailed. All I've got beyond pure alphabetic chaos right now is basic prefixes on the file names sorting them into general styles. (athletic, casual, environmental, formal, tactical, under, etc)

AZDigitalArtist

I'd just like to download it all to an external, including non-Daz content, and use that, but I just have no clue how to do that and still have everything work. For example, I purchased horses from a competitor that was going out of business and downloaded all of them, but how do I get them to fit into the categories I need to make them work with Daz, and have all of it in one place, that also doesn't make my sanity fly out the window?

FirstBastion

custom folders always helps organize the content.

FirstBastion

Granville said:

I use a notion database. 

 I am curious what that involves?

lorraineopua

FirstBastion said:

custom folders always helps organize the content.

That's my jam too. Plus using Everything to find things if I need.

memcneil70

Astrafel said:

memcneil70 said:

I also broke down Smart Content's categories into further categories in how I look for things and what drives me nuts searching for them.

For example footwear. One big mess. I want boots, pumps, sandals, flats, historic, ... it gets me close and I can use more than one with an item. Boots, Western. Pumps, Sandals.

This is interesting. I'd considered doing subfolders, but do you crop full outfit images and separate them or just duplicate the entire image into the relative wardrobe categories?

I'm thinking about revising my method, and yours seemed much more detailed. All I've got beyond pure alphabetic chaos right now is basic prefixes on the file names sorting them into general styles. (athletic, casual, environmental, formal, tactical, under, etc)

Before you go creating sub-categories, first think carefully about how you 'think' about things. I learned this when I had to design relational databases for government use and later private business. Pencil and paper before coding. Use something like a scratchpad, I use Google Spreadsheets, so I can open it on each computer, and list things. Before I did Footwear I did some research on the subject and then I looked at what I had in my runtime at that time. I tried to generalize too, not be specific, but in my head I know what I mean by the title.

Military, police, first responders, all go into a bucket in my head of 'Military'. Short. Same as 'Sports' for any type of footwear worn in athletics, outdoor activities, biking, and basic tennis shoes that never, ever get dirty. I combine 'Historical' 'Boots' 'Military' together and if I search on Boots, I will see the other two and know that the PA took the time to create a pair that is period correct. Otherwise I use 'Fantasy'. I might have 'Sci-Fi' and 'Fantasy' together with a pair of Boots that are over the top, but if on a foriegn world might work. 

I added 'Afro' to Category 'Hair' because I was ticked off at the amount of time it took me to track down hairs I wanted for my Black characters. I have bought almost every hair offered and include others I have seen my friends wear in the past, or seen historical pictures of Black women or men wearing.

But really think about your work and how you approach it.

Astraffel

memcneil70 said:

But really think about your work and how you approach it.

Yeah. "A failure to plan is a plan for failure." As it goes.

I should keep things minimalistic and focus on making things rather than polishing hardly used tools. 

fred9803

If you have big problems with keeping track of stuff, it's an indication that you have too much.

 

Astraffel

fred9803 said:

If you have big problems with keeping track of stuff, it's an indication that you have too much.

 

I have to disagree there. A library doesn't have too many books if a librarian needs to use organizational methods to keep track of them.

Noah LGP

Astrafel said:

I have to disagree there. A library doesn't have too many books if a librarian needs to use organizational methods to keep track of them.

 

Except if you include ebooks, I know some librarians who are overwhelmed by the amount of online resources. It's a huge mess.

Google bots are more efficient than humans.

 

Maybe the next step will be to find an AI to organize efficiently and quickly our digital content.

FirstBastion

beware of freebies,  they can add to un-necessary and rarely used clutter.

 

Astraffel

FirstBastion said:

beware of freebies,  they can add to un-necessary and rarely used clutter.

 Yeahhh, I made that mistake early on. If it's never usefull, it is just junk.