Organising files

[Sibo25]

Heya all, Im having trouble keeping stuff organised lol. Ive downloaded a few Free Content ones and when install, they are all in random folders all over the place. Under creators names, Genesis instead of Genesis 3 etc. Finding any thing is impossible 🙁

How do you get them to populate in correct folders. Can you move easily - anyone got a link or youtube video that explains.

Almost need a big shared cloud folder of all free stuff properly organised. The ones from this site when extract are almost always in correct places. Kudos to you guys

[Frank21]

@Sibo25 "How do you get them to populate in correct folders."
Manually install the stuff into folders you have named yourself, or you could move the folders after installation into logical locations and re-name them. You only have to make sure the Data and Textures files go in without altering their paths, but the rest can be put anywhere and renamed anything you like.
For example Cleaning Day 2 poses- the poses work with STZ Cleaning accessories and STZ Modern room 2. If you just let it auto install good luck with finding all the other things related to it and matching them together. So create a folder and put into it the poses, the accessories and the room altogether, wherever you want in Props or Poses or Architecture. Christ only knows the stupid places they'd go if you just auto-install them, and you'd have no fucking hope of finding them in nested vanity folders.
Some characters come with hair and clothing and there's no reason you you can't separate them into your own folders where you can easily find them later. I have a folder devoted to just G8F shoes.

[Abad]

The best thing is that you use a software called "Content package assist", which generates the dsa, dsx in "support", or a "dson editor" to delete references from third parties. If you preserve the original files, create a folder and unzip it. Normally, they will be a "My library", which is NOT your path. Then, take the files inside it, to the root, and create, through "Content package assist" a new DIM. Then, if the DIM said, some like, exists XXX files, then, as Administrtor, Replace.
This is for content from Rendorosity, Rendorotica, etc ...
This does allow you to manage, a posteriori, the entire location or asset management.
Never use a Drop& drag, or Copy&Paste!!!
Then, rebuild the metadata.

[eelgoo]

Or you could follow the sticky here:

' https://zonegfx.com/forums/topic/manual-install-to-ds/ '

[YanOma]

I do everything manually within the Content folder, and it takes a lot of time as I break them all up into even more categories from the defaults (Leave data and runtime unchanged).

For things like Clothing, I have Casual Wear, Formal Wear, Professional Wear (Cop, firefighter, doctor,etc.), Swimwear, Sleepwear, etc. And every file I download I sort into the categories. Even breaking those downloads apart so that if if has Rings, necklaces, and other accessories, (or panties and bra's) I move those to coinciding folders. Too many times I went looking for a bracelet, or ring or something and forgot which outfit it was part of, so everything is now separated for easy access.

I further break those categories down into dForce and non-dForce outfits, and as my collection grows I'll likely break it down further into Pants, Shirts, Dresses, Shorts, and so on. I've never liked the daz installer for stuff.

I sort poses into categorical folders as well (Dance, Modelling, Utility, Adult, Environmental, with Props, etc.) and then further sort them into creator (Z, Layla, Thunder-3D, Ensary, CDI, etc) within those sub-folders. It's a lot of extra work, but I do think it saves time in the long run not having to scroll through dozens (if not hundreds) of assets looking for a particular one.

This sorting is one of the reasons I automatically upload any files I purchase, because after it's shared, I take those zip's apart and categorize it appropriately there and then re-zip it. That way, in case I ever need to reinstall stuff, I can just drag it all to the content folder and it will be sorted properly.

[Niala]

I tried many things (restructuring the content library, using smart content, categories, etc), but now I just use the default installation path (with the exception of textures that I always repackage under the original asset).
And independently, I have a structured textual database with information on all the assets that I have. And this database includes the path to use the asset in DS with the content library.
This presents several advantages.
1/ I do not need to have the asset installed to get information on it. I have several (or maybe many) assets "just in case" and they do not clobber my DS interface, unless I really install them in order to use them.
2/ I include in the DB all useful information that I have concerning the asset: link to the product page, forum discussions, personal notes (when did I use it, what problem did I have, etc)
3/ a hierarchy (as a file system) does not allow to perfectly fit a classification. An outfit can be at the same time a dress, a casual cloth, have a cheap look, but well adapted to summer, etc. And depending on texture, it can even become slutty or very elegant, formal, etc. Impossible to fit it in a simple hierarchy and using DS categories takes quite a long time.
4/ I do a lot of kitbashing. If I find a subpart of the asset that is original, or very interesting for some reason, unusual, and so on, I just write it in the comments and a simple search with a text editor allows me to find it in seconds. Otherwise, finding a nice hanging chair, a fancy katana, or very original boots that I have somewhere hidden in an asset would be a PITA.

I presently have maybe 7k or 8k assets referenced and I am very happy with this method. I spend a large time describing the asset and building this DB, but, with a good text editor, it is much much faster and richer that using the daz tools (content library, smart content, categories, etc) and I regain this time it when I use the asset,

[Niala]

@Ethiopia I do not include images. Actually this is not a real database. It would be more flexible, but entering the information would be quite long. It is in the form of a free text file in ascii. I tried integrating images, but instead of having 20 assets on my screen I just have a couple and adding images really slows down the text traversal. I use the links to the product description in order to see the assets.
Actually, I use a great text editor that allows to structure the file and to rapidly hide large subparts, add internal or web links that can be followed, to extremely rapidly search a word, display all lines matching a word, and so on.

(For those that are interested, the text editor is emacs, with the org-mode extension. Its UI is harsh and most people consider using this kind of tool as a punishment, but I use it for tens of years and when you master it, it is incredibly powerful. But there are alternatives that may be more user friendly and that can allows to build a good asset database https://www.slant.co/options/4411/alternatives/~emacs-org-mode-alternatives )

[GAMI SETA]

said it many times, daz shoul have 5-6 folders tops. eg folder hair, fodler clothes, folder props etc. Anything to make the crappy folder system easier.

But no lets have uber3dspecialist/genesis 8/clothes/2dpa/scratchmyballs/greatdaytoday/yawn/hair/props/materials/anyideasformorethingstoadd/etc

But let daz do their thing because hopefuly this will lead me to use more and more that iclone program

[SkippyTheMeh]

I do pretty much exactly what @yanoma does with a few tweaks. I keep all the naughty stuff from 'rotica in a separate runtime as A) I can use NTFS permissions to block access to the folder to anyone but me, so if one of my grandkids is on my PC they're not going to find something I'd rather they didnt, and B) it makes finding that sort of thing much faster for me. I've also got separate runtimes for 'botanicals' because I don't use plants very often and can keep that folder off-line on my OneDrive as well as a couple of others for things like Anime characters.

I also use the default 'My Library' runtime to keep all my 'most used' characters, props and materials; I've got a Character folder with subfolders for male and female, then sub-subfolders for their hair (copied from my main runtime) and materials (High quality individual 4K maps for close ups and 2k/1k maps that use shared imagemaps for background/distant rendering).

[yngvarr]

@ethiopia, Just recently accidentally stumbled upon this.
As for the topic, I'm a little surprised by the size of some people's collections. My approach to organizing a library is simple: just don't download something that might be useful to you someday, but that's not for sure. I carefully approach the selection of products. And if the product doesn't look good enough for me, I avoid it.
At the same time, I almost like how the figures and hair section is organized in smart content. Almost, because there are claims to eyebrows that fall into the hair folder, then anatomy, as well as to the constant confusion of RSL and MDL materials, to which materials from G8.1 have recently been added. A vivid example is Sharon HD from Mousso.
I also hope I have the patience to sort everything with the Content package assist when it's time to reinstall Windows.

[eelgoo]

I just stick to a well defined folder structure & a strict file nomenclature.

Then I browse it with ACDSee.

[eelgoo]

Well, you sort of can.

Daz usually bimbles along quite fine once you have told it where everything is.

The only real wrinkle is that Poser stuff needs to be accessed via the Poser Runtime / Runtime folder heirarchy for Daz to read it.

🙂

[yngvarr]

@ethiopia, I apologize for my inattention. I specified the wrong link. I was referring to this product. And it is here on the zone.

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