HEEEELP! Content management???
murph101
Posts: 68
I have installed DAZ, Carrara, and all my purchased content on a brand, spankin' new machine, and I cannot find the majority of my stuff.
I used the Install Manager and was so excited to FINALLY have all my components where they should be.
This dire want stems from having another laptop for four years, and things getting installed in a mish-mash of locations, deleting everything, re-installing everything from scratch, but having things left over in the registry that pointed me to old, manually installed locations. It was a confusing mess, but I got to know, generally, where to track things down. Even then, I wasn't ever quite sure I was able to even see stuff I know I had purchased, but "out of sight, out of mind", I never got to use.
Then I acquired a beefed up gaming machine with 24GB of RAM (for faster renders and program loading), a solid state drive (for faster project loading), and the latest, greatest Intel processor for faster renders (none of which said performance improvements did I realize). At the very least, I thought I would finally have a completely fresh install of all of my content so that I wouldn't be missing anything tucked away in a folder reference from 2010.
But now I can only find a fraction of the content! I used the install manager to put it all in the appropriate place. But my "Smart Content" tab shows next to nothing! The Content tab shows more in the My DAZ 3D Library, but that's not where most of my stuff should be found.
Would somebody tell me, please, please, PLEASE, how to install the content so that it winds up being in the right place? Or, BETTER YET, if there is some kind of Content Manager, whether internal or external to Carrara, in which I can easily locate my content, then be able to drag and drop select content into a project?
I thought the insanity was over.
John
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Comments
The Smart Content pane is controlled by Metadata and the CMS (Content Management Service) which has to be running before any smart content appears at all. If you have some things appearing in Smart Content, then it must be running.
Do you mean in DAZ Studio or Carrara or both?
DIM (DAZ Install Manager) installs content by default into C:\Users\Public\Documents\My DAZ 3D Library unless you tell it different.
Also, if you are talking about Carrara, what version? The release version of Carrara 8.5 uses Valentina/CMS to display Smart Content, but the latest Beta version uses PostgreSQL.
Hello I had the same problem no content in carrara-This worked for me =Go into Daz Studio (not Carrara) and just above the Smart content menu there is a little square box-click and select Content DB Maintenance ,then click re-import metadata accept -you will see a screen running though all your content It will take a few minutes (this process is importing the smart content library into Carrara.)
When it is finished click ok shut down your Daz studio and open up Carrara go to Browser -smart content -products all your smart content should be there. I hope this works for you -This is as far as I have got LOL I cannot use Carrara yet ,let me know if this works.
Okay, here's the thing:
I have yet to figure out how to use "Smart Content" in a way that is actually efficient (for me) in getting to my content especially when it comes to browsing what I have available.
DAZ Studio content has been unfortunately been being produced in a very chaotic method which works fine in DAZ Studio but is incredibly disorganized in Carrara until we begin to understand how it's set up. In Carrara we see all of the crazy folders that published artists were (and still are, I think) allowed to add to the same level where we need to "see" our main categories. I dislike this to the point where the only thing I install to "My DAZ 3D Library" now is Genesis and Genesis related content - just to keep my own listing less chaotic and unnecessarily long.
So here's how I control my content installation via DIM:
If it's Genesis related - install to "recommended path" ("My DAZ 3D Library")
If it is, or is related to any of the new DAZ 3D animals, like Dragon 3, Horse 2, etc., also - install to "recommended path" ("My DAZ 3D Library")
If it is a building, scenery set, plant, vehicle, older figure than Genesis including animals and monsters, if t is a non-Genesis-related prop or accessory - actually anything that is not Genesis, Genesis related, or any of the newest animals using the new DAZ Studio Triax rigging:
I install all of that stuff in the old standard method of Poser Runtime Structures. This is even fine if you only wish to use a single location, but can be incredibly efficient if you take advantage of the setup to categorize and organize your content as you install it, which is really easy and fast using DIM. Please allow me to quickly look and see if I can find the articles I've already written on these subjects....
While it's quite a lengthy read, it does go into explaining how to set this all up using DIM after talking in length about how and why to set up a Poser Runtime Structure for organizing your content:
Daz Install Manager - Installing Custom Poser Runtimes
This also has another great benefit for Carrara users in that Poser versions of content (Not DSON for Poser Genesis content... that won't work at all in Carrara) has been reported to work much better. Probably because Carrara has been set up to work very well with Poser content several versions ago, while DUF (DAZ Studio content) compatibility is brand new. While the Genesis stuff works quite well, some folks have reported that DS versions of things like vehicles and robots - things that have moving parts haven't been working as expected. I have no experience with this, since I love the runtime structure system, so all of my Poser content is already easily available to me.
Now, if you don't want to go through all of that, we may still access all of our content via the Content tab and/or the Smart Content tab.
Smart Content
I have very little experience with this so I cannot get too heavily into detail.
It might take a bit of practice to figure out the best way to use this service, but I've seen Mike Moir use it with great success. It just takes getting used to since it really doesn't seem to work the way one might expect. So far I haven't had the patience to get around to figuring it out. I've had my runtimes so organized since 2010ish that I simply know where my content is and don't really need to adapt to a new database system - though I keep it all installed for future learning since I may want to take this route eventually. Note that there are articles available (and a video on DAZ 3D's YouTube channel, I think) on how to create metadata for content that you have that doesn't have any yet - if you wish to add things to the Smart Content database.
Content Tab
My DAZ 3D Library - all things Genesis and Triax (non-Poser Runtime)
My DAZ 3D Library Runtime - All Poser Runtime listed files and content
This is where you'll find the Poser versions of content which will work more accurately in Carrara as mentioned above.
Genesis, Triax and related content - the My DAZ 3D Library
Try to not get frustrated with the fact that most of the folders in this list are utterly useless, literally. When we use DIM to install everything to My DAZ 3D Library this level becomes a total mess, which just baffles me. The DAZ 3D library, as I understood it, was a fairly new system. So why on earth did DAZ 3D allow artists to make such a mess out of it completely escapes me. So here's how to try and wade through the BS:
For Dragons, horses, etc., go to "Animals"
For everything that has to do with Genesis including clothing and props, go to "People"
Although the rest of the folders appear to have a purpose (due to their names), most of them don't and really should have been put on a different level within the structure. Really. This is worse than how runtimes end up after spending years upon years of grabbing and installing piles of disorganized free content from the web!
If you're looking for a building, scenery, furniture, older figures than Genesis, other figures made by other artists for Poser, plants, non-Genesis props, etc., go to the "My DAZ 3D Library Runtime" and use the Runtime structured system to find your content.
I really hope this makes sense and helps you decide how you wish to proceed. My nexrt post in this thread will explain that it might be a lot easier and less headachy than you might think ;)
If you decide to switch from having everything installed into the default location (or a single custom one), the process of switching over to a more organized system is MUCH easier and faster than one might think. Allow me to explain:
Using the DIM can become an amazingly cool thing!
If you want to make new content install-to directories the DIM makes this incredibly simple and if you have several install-to directories, you'll likely want to keep the "Show Details" box checked in the Download and the Install tabs of DIM, because this will give you full access to the system that you create, as well as even the ability to build it!
I'll have to chack and see if I have a video tutorial already available on the subject. If not, I'll make one. I've typed all of this so many times, and I'm running out of time tonight to be able to describe the entire process in detail, but I can say this: Looking at the Install tab with "Show Details" checked can really help to answer any questions you might have. That lower box allows us to add new categories to install to.
In both the Download and Install tabs, that "Show Details" area a the bottom gives us a drop-down to select our currently created directories to which we may install our content. This is very useful especially since we have the ability (by default) to have everything we download install immediately afterwards. So we must first select the desired directory before starting the download queue.
Knowing what I've just said in the above paragraph is where content organization becomes really fun with the DIM.
We go to the Installed tab and start placing check marks in each piece of content that we want to add to our new category and start the uninstall queue. What we uninstall immediately appears into either the Download or the Install tab, depending upon whether or not the "Delete after installation" box is checked. Either way, we then select all of that and, with the appropriate directory selected in the drop-down, re-install the content, which is really quite slick - and light years faster than how we used to have to do it - with much less (like - none) babysitting involved!
Have fun! Ask Questions! Try it - Love it!!! :ahhh:
Oh... through all of this I've forgot to mention that whether or not content has metadata is visible in the Installed tab via a column of check marks - column named: Smart ;)
A bit off topic, but while we're talking about DIM, I just wanted to add:
DIM is an amazing new addition to the DAZ 3D content buying community. Sure, it doesn't work for items not sold through DAZ 3D... not a big deal and and thoroughly understandable. But it is so cool that whenever something gets an update it shows up in the download tab. So even folks like me whom might have to go for quite some time without following any news... I get the update anyways! Right now I havea brand new Carrara 8.5 Pro (new version 8.5.1.19 - official release) in my DIM ready to be added to my downlaod/install queue! I love that! Buy stuff for DS and it's getting updated quite a bit lately.
I enjoy keeping all of my stuff up-to-date ;)
But I also love how simple it is for me to install to my many directories with a simple, few clicks. A huge improvement from double-clicking each installer and clicking through every darned question - even though the darned answers are always the same! That's why DAZ 3D has us answer the questions when we download/install DIM, and I believe that we have to do it again every so often when we update DIM... which is perfectly fine compared to having to do it for each item.
Just remember that this new Carrara install with the DIM will COMPLETELY IGNORE THE DIRECTORY YOU SET FOR CARRARA
'cause you can waste a LOT of time wondering why it doesn't work, otherwise.
I *suppose* there might be some reason I wanted to keep both the old 8.5 and the new one... not sure what that might be, really... but ... SHEESH... considering just HOW MUCH goes into the actual Carrara directory?
How many emails can I expect asking "I just upgraded via DIM, and now all your plugins stopped working."? 'Cause THAT JUST HAPPENED TO ME.
Yeah... write more... yah, right, sure.
Hi Dartanbeck ,Just reading your reply to Murph101 ,yes i agree the carrara database is chaotic ,I will follow your instructions and set up my own content database Thanks!!
I really like to help when (if) I can. And when I see things like this that I really feel strongly about, I might even accidentally go on a bit too much! LOL
But I just hope that my sharing in how I've alleviated certain issues will someday help others ;)
If so, here's a quick tip for plugin users:
Copy the "Extensions" folder from the previous Carrara installation to the new one. No need to overwrite, just in case... we don't want to screw up anything new DAZ 3D may have done in there... all we want is the extra stuff that isn't in there yet, so again... no need to overwrite any files when copying over.
Thanks, Dartanbeck, for all this useful information.
I seem to recall Diomede (?) providing lots of help also.
When I get round to properly organising myself and my aims (if ever!) all this will help greatly.