How to Categorize Different Character Versions? i.e., V3, V4, V5 - M3, M4 etc.
White Rabbit
Posts: 231
Hi there,
I have been working from Adam's awesome Content Manager Tutorial v20081013 which has really helped me out to get started organizing my DAZ content. I have started to set up a hierarchy but I am not sure how to organize the multiple versions for example, V3, V4, V5, and the other DAZ guys and gals? Perhaps the following would be okay?
People>Victoria>V3
V4
V5
And under each of these add sub-directories of Characters, Clothing, Hair, Morphs, etc.
It seems like a lot of redundancies though?
Any feedback would be appreciated as usual!
:-)
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Comments
It depends on what you're going for. From what I've heard, that approach you're mentioning works well if you use the models from previous generations.
I use genesis only, so I'll give you an idea of how I've organized mine. These are my main categories off the top of my head: cameras, creatures, characters, lights, shaders, tools/utilities, environments, lights, props, models, and wardrobe. I might have missed some, since I'm not on my home computer.
My model category is only for the actual base models and their morph packages. Which I separate out by Genesis, V4, V3, etc. For characters, I've subdivided it into the following areas: bodies (for when I get around to GenXing them), complete character packages, eyes, lips, hair, lashes, nails, and skin. Each of these are subdivided into the different models they belong to. (Genesis, V4, V3, etc.). This is so I know what UV map to apply if need be. Once down to that level, I separate out by character name.
I pretty much do the same system for the other categories, or whatever makes sense. Shaders are separated out by function. Metals, leathers, etc. The big one I spend a lot of time in is the wardrobe. I like to kit-bash, so I have a bundles category as well as the separate clothing items, such as shoes, pants, shirts, outerwear, dresses, etc. I also have an accessories category in here, which includes anything extra that touches the character, like jewelry, headware, eyeware, etc. With the clothes subcategories, I like to subdivide by genre (fantasy, sci-fi, historical, real time, etc.) or by type of clothing, such as boots, sandals, heels, etc. Sometimes it's just not practical to divide out by genre.
Anyway, after that I have been subdividing into people, V3, V4, etc. But I'm finding that's too many subcategories to see a lot of things at once, and it's a pain to search through 5 fantasy categories. So I'm going to go through and append a V3 or M4 or whatever to the end of the name of each product and then get rid of that last subcategory. This way I still know what to tell autofit, but then I can scan my categories easier. After all, since I can use everything on Genesis, I don't need to have the clothing separated out by model. I just need some way to know what model it came from. Now that I'm thinking about it, that would probably work for my character folder as well...
The big thing I do that I'd recommend is putting your material file as a sub-folder of the product you're categorizing, so you don't have to go searching everywhere for it. (I also do this for the lights, scenes, and poses that come with an environment as well. Having it all in one spot is very nice!)
And here's a neat trick: when you create a new category, you can use a / to create a subcategory at the same time. For example, with the new de Winter product, I would put the name as "de Winter/DS Mats" and then I would have two categories, "de Winter" and it's subcategory, "DS Mats." That saves a lot of clicking!
This is just what I've done. Different things make sense for different people and for what their purposes are. Good luck!
I was struggling with this as well and also made a post about it as how to get my library sorted.
What Sikeus discribed with the different (sub) categories works pretty well for me.
Here's an image to give you an idea, good luck, I found it very tricky as well at first!
Oh, I'd almost forgot!
If you buy or download anything, install the items one by one and right after installation categorize it immediately.
A very useful tip I got from someone here on the forum
And one last note ;)
M5 is in the Genesis section because the 5th gen are Genesis shapes.
Same goes for V5 and S5 (Stephanie).
Hi Sikeus. Thank you for the awesome reply, I very much appreciate that! :-). There is quite a science to the organization process it seems. I will follow your guide for getting my characters sorted in DAZ... Get my ducks in a row as it were hahah... Thanks again!
Hey Estroyer. Thank you too! I am going to use your screen shot as a guide as well as it seems logical.
I unfortunately have a lot of content already installed so I'm not sure how to tackle all that? I very much like the idea of installing and categorizing one install at a time, instead of having to pick through a mass of folders :-(.
Anyway, thanks again for your time and help!
:-)
Good thing is, you don't need to touch the folders, it's even better to stay away from them ^^
Can't find the other thread so I think it's faster if I make some screenies for you...be back in a sec
it was a lifesaver for me, so I'll take the time as well to explain it to you, as it was to me :)
#1
Go to the categories and right click on it. Then you'll see the option to add a subcategory, click on that.
Then, you name the category you want to create, I am making a clothing category here. Then click OK.
Now you'll have a clothing category added to your list.
Now comes the part where you put an item into the category you just created.
Go to an item in your Poser formats or DAZ formats folder and look up an item you want to toss into your clothing folder.
I picked "Gaia".
Right click again and choose "Create a category From"and then "This Folder Only" or, if it has subfolders for materials or something, you need to click "This Folder & Sub-Folders".
Then, you will get a new window asking where you want to put the item in and now you can select the clothing category you created earlier.
And now the Gaia dress sits nice and snug into the clothing category :D
Note that there may be other ways to categorize, but I found this working very well for me so far.
If anyone has any add-ons, please say so :D
Thank you Estroyer, for a newbie screenshots really help ...brilliant!
Great demonstration, Estroyer!
No worries if you've already installed a lot. Other people have different methods for this, but I always open a readme upon installation, then I don't close it till I categorize it. With the stuff you already installed, go to the my library-->readme folder, and select and open all the readmes of products you haven't categorized yet.
This next part may take some work, since they've started putting some readmes online as well. So you can check to see what readmes aren't there by checking them against your alphabetical list of purchases online, and then open those online readmes here.
The readmes are nice because they tell you where all your files are, particularly the DS mats. And believe me, that can change from product to product.
Another method I've heard of is to go into the unassigned folder of the default category and look there. That doesn't work great for me because sometimes I've accidentally installed the poser and DS version of a product, so it takes me ages to figure out why I've got the same product in the categorized and uncategorized areas. And often there are things I don't want to categorize, since I know I'll never use them. But that approach may suit you more than it does me.
Glad you found the earlier information useful. :)
Haha, I also make sure to open the Read-Me or finding your item can be tedious!
I also had a lot of stuff already installed and I just started with on top of my Poser/Daz folders and sorted them one by one :)
i feel it is manageable i have just started now to organise and already have a question! I started with a clothing folder and i am moving the items over, these clothes are for kids4, victoria4, genesis etc.....so do i put them all under clothing ? then when i get to people repeat under kids4, victoria4 etc? i want to get it right ;) plus in the clothing there are shoes, jewellery etc do i just leave them in the bundles that they came in? thanks for both your help.
This depends. If you're using Genesis as your main figure, then I wouldn't seperate out by figures as a primary means of categorizing. I'm including 2 screen shots. Please click on the picture to be able to read it.
On the very right hand side, you'll see that I separate out by people there for the main purpose of knowing what to tell autofit when the dialogue box pops up. But this is somewhat of a pain, since I can't easily scan through my smallest categories. I instead have to click on however many people I have to see all my fantasy outfits. So I think I will end up deleting my people categories here, and instead appending a V4, Gn, S5, etc. to the end of the product name so I know what model the clothing was designed for. Hope this helps.
If you like kit-bashing, like I do, then you may want to have the items both in the original bundle, as I do, as well as creating shirt, shoes, pants categories, etc.
But if you use the older gen4 models primarily, then you'll want to separate everything out by the model, like you were describing. Since you can't use K4 stuff on V4, etc.
Edit: I pull the shoes, jewelry, etc. out of their bundles and put them in their own categories. Actually, I have them in both places, in the bundles, and in their own categories. That's the great thing about categories, you can make as many as you want wherever you want by right-clicking on the individual icon and choosing "categorize."
This is fantastic! i can relate to what you have done, when i started buying i bought what i liked and what i could use rather than the figures, i will be following Genesis as for me it would be less complicated! though i also like cute and animals and props!!! The explanations you have both given should be tagged for other newbies as when we start out this is the kind of explanations we need so once again a huge thankyou. I will continue now but will pop back if i need more help ;)
Well i will tell you how anal i am! I have written on a 5 x 7 card each and every item bought, order number, date and where i SHOULD be able to find the file, plus if any other item was required for them to work! I did this mainly as i couldn´t find what i wanted when i expected it to be in a certain place! But now following this system my anal problem may be over ;) THANKS
Sure glad this helped. I have to give credit where credit is due. Adam's youtube tutorial helped me tons in this area, but I have to admit it was a few months before I figured out how best to set my content library up for what I needed. (It took months since I was still learning how to do what I needed. :) )
Thank you!! :-). Thanks to the screen captures too that you provided I have a good feeling now for the Categorization process. There are some really good tips here for anyone starting out with DAZ.
By the way, if you go to the DAZ Studio Formats or Poser Formats section you can right-click on a folder and create a category from it. That way you can get everything you had installed before into categories quickly, which you can then reorganize gradually.
Ah, very cool! I will give that a try too! Thank you! It seems that DAZ's Categories really give a great advantage for flexibility for referencing the content any way you like! That's awesome!