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As it turned out I had to uninstall everything and reinstall DS 4.5 and CMS, then managed to install the category setup. Now to start installing and categorizing...maybe, just maybe I will get to render something by next winter lol
Ok so now I have reinstalled the Genesis Essentials and have them in the uncatagorized folder..BUT...that folder is in the default folder not under catagories like I thought it would be...that's kinda awkward for moving files around NO? or do I still have something wrong in how I am doing this?
My usual for organizing has gone by the wayside so I don't mess up what the Smart Content tab does. If you do want to move files around you really need to do that through DAZ Studio. If you do it through the Explorer in Windows or what ever on MAC then the meta data won't get updated. So while it looks a mess from a folder view in your OS browser it will be better organized via Smart Content. That's my findings so far.
Oh, I think I finally understand your problem. ^_^;; Why not just point DIM to reinstall things to your previous location? That's what I did. Aside from a few duplicates, it wasn't hard at all.
So I spent the day reorganizing my categories and then got all kinds of errors saying it couldn't find the data. Is there any rules to where you can move stuff to in categories? I was moving the files for the Genesis essentials bundle to characters, clothing etc...the problem seems to be when I moved files from the genesis/data folder...needless to say I reset the database and now its all gone :((( I could cry>>>>all that wasted time!
No no, you can NEVER move stuff on the file system if you want to use categories.
adam what do you mean? I was moving files in the unassigned folder into different categories in your structure. Can you not move the files that come in the essentials? I was under the impression that moving files anywhere inside categories doesn't affect their association to each other.
You shouldn't see anything in the Data folder inside the Content Library. Can you go to Edit > Preferences > Content Library > Content Directory Manager, expand the "DAZ Studio Formats" and "Poser Formats" sections, and post a screenshot?
this is my content directories now. Is sthere s step by step of how to move stuff around in categories? I think I have really messed it up now as the folders from adam's folder structure are now integrated into my categories but not all of them ...only the ones I moved stuff to from unassigned category. I just don't get it...sorry
mike this is the data folder I am refering to...how and where can I catagorize the morphs and uv folders in here?
Re categorizing stuff within DAZ Studio, esp within the Smart Content area.
The problem is that you have nested content folders, "E:\3D Content" and "E:\3D Content\Genesis Characters". Nested content folders will cause many problems, one of which is having special folders displayed that shouldn't be visible.
Oh, I think I finally understand your problem. ^_^;; Why not just point DIM to reinstall things to your previous location? That's what I did. Aside from a few duplicates, it wasn't hard at all.
Sorry if I wasn't making sense ;-( I've been tossing between a clean install and over-writing my current setup. My IT head likes the clean install putting all DAZ content together, but without a relative easy way to sort the orphaned files I'm back to plan A and install over my previous setup ;-)
sorry RAMWolf I do not know what you mean by this statement???
But that doesn't make sense to me ...isn't everything nested even when you install to the default...all the way down to the My Library folder?
So what would the correct way of installing on a separate HD and still using categories to organize? I want to install on separate drive so its easy to move from laptop to desktop.
I am feeling a litttle dense about all this...I thought categories was easy.
As for my previous question about stuff in data folder (see image above) does it have to remain in that long path to work.. My idea was to move everything for each product into the same category such as magus would all go under Genesis/clothing/magus and there would be the product plus materials, morphs, UV set etc...it won't work like this?
Sounds like you are physically moving files into different folders? As far as I'm aware, categorising in DS, in order to find things in Smart Content, doesn't involve the physical moving of folders, rather a 'virtual' relocation in the database, with the original files staying where they are. You would do this from within DStudio by right-clicking and choosing categorise, and then choose the categories you want that item to appear in. I think that Genesis Essentials needs to remain in the same folder in which it was installed in order to work properly. Someone please correct me if I'm wrong here......
Okay, so the problem you're seeing Kharma, as MIke pointed out is the nested folders.
Let me see if I can help.
Here's the basic problem:
You have "E:/3D Content" defined as a DAZ Studio Format directory.
This causes DAZ Studio to search, recursively, every folder underneath it for content. Including the folder E:/3D Content/Genesis Characters/
Thus when you ALSO add E:/3D Content/Genesis Characters/ you end up confusing DS and it's showing you things it shouldn't.
I'm thinking that your current issue is this:
You have some content (perhaps Genesis Starter Essentials, perhaps more than that) installed to E:/3D Content/
Then later you installed other content to E:/3D Content/Genesis Characters
Is that the case?
If so, the correct solution is to move everything inside of E:/3D Content/Genesis Characters to E:/3D Content/
You'll probably need to reset your database and then reimport metadata to get things straightened out.
If that's not the case, will you try and explain for us what is in E:/3D Content and E:/3D Content/Genesis Characters and why they are separate in your mind?
First I want to say Thanks everyone for helping , I am sure I am making this way more difficult than it should be!
Starting at the beginning - I made a folder called 3D Content on my E; drive, then under it I made subdirectories to install my different types of content to so my Genesis essentials ( the only thing I have installed right now, uninstalled everything else until I figure this out) is installed to E:/3D Content/Genesis Characters and this is also where I was going to install V5, M5, Genesis head and body morphs, etc
I also made folders to install Hair / poses/ to install different types of content to organize better.
then I discovered without mapping the directory in my content directory manager, genesis loaded as square boxes and said the following files could not be found --data/daz3d/enesis base/gesesis.dsf ---, once I added the E:/3D Content/Genesis characters to the directory manager it would load fine. that made me assume I had to put in the path for each subdirectory.
If you look at my previous post I posted a pic of the directory for E:/ (not on my computer right now so cannot repost it)
The main directory E:/3D Content I thought would be the equivilent to the My library folder...No?
what I am not getting is once the content is installed , I was under the impression that you could move anything around in categories in the content library and it would still work as it doesn't change the installed path of the content
I am not moving anything around in windows explorer, only inside Daz Studio from the unassigned category to the folders in the file structure Adam posted and I haven't even looked at the Smart Content Tab during this effort.
Okay, great, this is salvageable. :)
You should not have E:/3D Content/ mapped at all.
You should have E:/3D Content/Genesis Characters mapped as both Studio Format and Poser Format.
If you have E:/3D Content/Hair it too should be mapped as both Studio Format and Poser Format.
Etc.
Much like my setup.
Ok Great!! I can do that part...now how do I move stuff from categories/default/unassigned to the category folders you set up once I set that up again? right now I have reset my database and have all my files in unassigned. At this moment it is only everything that came with the genesis essentials. I don't get understand how to move the categories around
Can I move Genesis from
categories/default/unassigned/people/genesis/characters which contains the genesis.duf file in the genesis folder and in the character folder is basic chld.duf , basic female.duf , and basic male.duf
to Human figures/ -Genesis/Characters in your structure
and also under
categories/default/unassigned/Genesis Characters/data//DAZ3D/Genesis/Base/Morphs
categories/default/unassigned/Genesis Characters/data//DAZ3D/Genesis/Base/Projection Templates
categories/default/unassigned/Genesis Characters/data//DAZ3D/Genesis/Base/Tools
categories/default/unassigned/Genesis Characters/data//DAZ3D/Genesis/Base/UV Sets
how do I categorize this data folder which contains many .duf and .dsf files for genesis essential products
when I moved it all before I put all the folders for Journeyman scout in the same folder under genesis/clothing wearable/fantasy/just clothes/journeyman scout
and got the error about not finding files
does all this come down to having the 3D content directory mapped instead of just the ones below it?
everything I have tried doesn't work...how do I totally uninstall Daz Studio so there is no reference to it at all? My content database is totally screwed, categories are messed up and only data goes into unassigned everything else is getting categorized all by itself into default :(((
I am fed up with these categories...they just don't work for me :(
what are the specialfolders that shouldn't be visible?
So after uninstalling and reinstalling everything including Studio at least 4 times I finally got it working!!! Now how do I save this database so I don't accidently reset it again, I also didn't realize that you can move things around several times, I believe in the default category once the metadata is imported you can't move anything...correct?
thanks everyone for helping me:))
Edit: If you break up sets of clothing items such as Magus like putting boots into the boot category, jacket into jacket cat...how do you remember what goes with what after a while, when you categorize should you put it under Boots/Magus so you know....
Okay, Phew! Glad you got there eventually! Sorry I couldn't help more, but I have a full time job to attend to and can only do this as time permits.
To backup: ON the Content Library tab, go to the Context Menu at the top, select "Content DB Maintenance", select "Export User Data". This will export all *custom* work in vairous "UserData_XX.dsx" files where "XX" is some number, like "UserData_1.dsx" they will be sequential. These files will be stored in the runtime\support folder of the FIRST listed DAZ Format directory.
Copy them to someplace safe. If you ever need to restore you can just re-import metadata with these files in the first defined directory's runtime/support sub-folder and all your custom categorization will come back.
On finding parts of outfit: The way *I* work, every outfit gets one "Main" category for everything and then it's pieces go in the other spots. So Magus for instance, in my mind it's not any kind of armor and it's not a dress, so I put the entirety of it under "Just Clothes" but I *also* categorize the leggings, shorts, staff, earrings, etc. in individual areas so I can find them when I'm kitbashing. For instance, I've got a skirt on Genesis from, oh, the Day Dreamer skirt and the idea in my head is to layer something under... I go to Pants, Tight Long and low and behold, there are the Magus Leggings. :)
Re: Default Categories... You can't delete stuff from the default, but you CAN categorize from there and duplicate the files into another category.
Adam you have been awesome at helping me and everyone else :) I have it all figured out so far, but one thing...yesterday I could duplicate the folders from you Genesis category to the generation 4...today no matter what I do I can't seem to duplicate a directory....how do I do that?
You should be able to just Right Click on the category root that you want to duplicate and say "This category & subcategories"... It won't duplicate in the destination if the root already exists though. Nor will it create the subfolders. It just aborts at that point.
As soon as I install something new and then scan known directories for new files everything I have previously categorized is gone!!! |Including the new category setup I installed following Adams directions...why does this keep happening??? Now I have to start all over again. I don't even have a default categories anymore. what am I doing wrong?