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OK, I think it is time that I finally dare ask that question that has been "haunting" me for a long time.
But before I start, if I'm touching a delicate subject that should not be discussed here, rest assured that I will take no offense if a moderator needs to delete that post.
Over the years, I suppose that most of us have accumulated hundreds, when not thousands (or even 10s of thousands) of 3D assets from various sources.
Not taking into consideration the huge storage space this represents, this also requires a serious "filing" organisation to avoid duplicate downloads, make sure all the pre-requisites are met for a certain asset (you know those assets that require another one installed to run properly ?) or just keeping track of where is what and eventually in which version (with all the G8 conversions that have been flourishing lately).
Some are particularly keen on a given artist's work and have a goal to "own" all their production. Others are fond of cars, or weapons, or middle-age gowns or I don't know what else...
How do you organize yourselves ? I'm not asking how you organize your library in DAZ, this has already been discussed and @eelgoo was of very good advise on the subject. No, I'm talking about your archives ? How do you keep track ? Are you using Excel or maybe Microsoft Access ? Did you build your own tool that you upgrade when needed ? I just can't believe you just dump everything on the first hard drive that has some space left and forget about it. Surely, the huge collectors are more thorough than that. Am I the only one for whom an asset with no identified vendor, or no SKU number is a nightmare ? I'm sure I'm not !
Please, tell me I am not the only one with huge OCDs and, tell us about your organization 🙂
Cheers
Math
PS : I don't have 1.000.000 points for each of your answers, this was a rhetorical title 🙂
I just use listary. If I want to find something (or see if I have it on my storage or not) I just start typing the name, and it will either show up or it wont.
Best tool ever.
I actually considered creating a software to organize with pictures, it would simply take the name and query results from search engines and find the shops main page for it (daz,renderhub, etc), and images, and scrape text. I may still do this at some point in the future if/when I get time, but for now listary helps me quickly determine if i have something or not and where its located. (but not pictures or other details).
One key word
Nomenclature.
Ensure all files are named with the same information format
Creator / Base character (if any) / Item name / Store (SKU) numberThe folder heirarchy is also important to keep organised
Despite the terabyte size of my archive, I can quickly find if I have an item, if I know what it is & who created it.On pages 2 & 3 of the 'Manual Install' sticky I show some of my archive folders.
The answer I have to the original question is.... I don't.
I do not save or archive a single installation package.
I back up the Content/My Library directory to two external storage locations. Same with the old Poser-style runtime directories.
The reason why is simple: If I lose my local copy, restoring it meticulously one package at a time would be completely nuts. It would take far less time to simply copy over the whole thing from backup in one go. Takes 12-15 hours at the most, with just one small number of clicks.
This also explains why I don't rely on SmartContent, CMS, or any other similar features.
But if you installed everything, hasnt your DAZ install slowed down to a crawl? It must take an eternity or two just to load a character, no?
Firstly, I don't mindlessly download everything that is widely available. I am quite picky about the quality of modeling and the things of very many PA never get into my collection at all.
Secondly, I mark already downloaded items as favorites in official stores. So I'm sure I won't download what I already have.
Thirdly, I want to create a visual database based on my content. These are just folders by category with pictures inside. So, for example, a folder with shoes has inside pictures of all the shoes that I have and each is signed with the correct name for easy search in the database. But I've been putting off this step all the time 🙂Diogenes took with him the few belongings he considered necessary. It is curious, because of its name, the so-called "Diogenes syndrome", where "garbage" accumulates in a spiral of collection of the useless, just the opposite of the dispossession of the unnecessary.
There is an answer: Common sense.
Imagine that terabyte of clothes, hair/wigs, furniture, entire houses, etc..., physically: taking up space in your storage room, that attic full of cobwebs... that you step on twice a year...
Like that huge warehouse that appears in the final scene of "Raiders of the Lost Ark" by Indiana Jones. 😀I've already dug myself a hole and downloaded/purchased a bunch of assets and let DIM handle them. Sometimes I want to kick myself for that mistake, but I'm much pickier now and if I don't like an asset after the first run and I can't save it, I'll remove it.
The solution I've been trying is to set up different databases and folders for Genesis 8/8.1 vs. everything else (mostly G3). It's... kind of frustrating. A lot of assets work with G3 and G8, so I've got to try and split the files while also duplicating some files and crossing my fingers it doesn't break. It's really not worth the trouble, in my opinion.
My current plan is to try and move the database to a scratch drive I have - it's a small SSD meant for lots of read/writes or temporary files instead of permanent storage. It's a headache because Daz freaks out when you do something like that, so we'll see if it's worth it.
Finally, I periodically go through and do a manual cleanup. This is much easier for items with an installer package that fit in Smart Content - Renderosity stuff is a train wreck of inconsistent names/paths anyway.
@Yngvarr "Firstly, I don’t mindlessly download everything that is widely available.".... ditto
In my backup content folder I remove the underscores and hyphens so I can easily find stuff with the Windows search function. I know I can use unique search expressions to ignore grouped words or symbols from a search string but for me it's easier the way I do it.I'm extremely lazy and bought 2 2TB SSD drives and everything else to dropbox or onedrive. One day I hope to create an archive. I started one in excel long ago but stopped updating it.
When I first started rendering Daz stuff I downloaded everything I could find. Now I know better, I only download stuff I will immediately use in a scene I'm working on. Sometimes I have to download more than one item to find the perfect match, and this is when the collection grows.
I built my own tool to help me catalog stuff, I'm a picture person, when I'm working on a project I like looking at the different pictures with variations and features items have. So my tool will (given the item filename has the SKU in it) scrape the marketplace and get me the overall info and pictures and try to put it in the right folder.
It does a few other nifty things, like building a DIM Package (still working on automatically assigning compatibilities), zip and unzip files, move them to the DIM install folder, etc.
I update it as I go, but it is forever in beta and half broken stage, plus very much tailored for my particular needs.
That's pretty cool @Hioushi. Sorry I went off at you before:)
@frank22, no worries, I knew before I posted it was a touchy subject, I have been called an opinionated jerk more than once.
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