Finding content

vindazi

The most frustrating issue I have with Daz is finding content. Sometimes, just as a test, I enter the name of content I can see in the search bar and get no results. I have purchased s lot of content. Since it is installed by the DIM, I have not idea of exactlhy where it is being installed. I depend on the serch bar to find stuff. Am I being unreasonabe to expect the search bar to find content?

For example I purchased the Humpback Whale [https://www.daz3d.com/the-humpback-whale] ; a while ago. I searched for it and it did not appear. I reloaded it. It still does not appear.  I looked in the animals folder, it is not there either.

Lindsey

There are a few ways I locate content:

DIM: Select the product on the Installed tab, right click and select "Show Installed Files"

Search box: I entered humback and the product came up in the Content Library and Smart Content tabs

DAZ Product Wiki: http://docs.daz3d.com/doku.php/public/read_me/index/34529/start 
In DIM on the product entry in the installed tab, click on the i to the left of the status column to display this product readme.

 It shows the Content Library location as:

“Figures:AntFarm:HumpBack Whale”
“Figures:AntFarm:HumpBack Whale:Material”
“Figures:AntFarm:HumpBack Whale:Props”

 

Richard Haseltine

Which search box? If you mean inside daz Studio, the search in the Smart Content pane (assuming the item has metadata) is more comprehensive than that in the Content Library pane.

Paintbox

Richard Haseltine said:

Which search box? If you mean inside daz Studio, the search in the Smart Content pane (assuming the item has metadata) is more comprehensive than that in the Content Library pane.

I wish the content library Search was a lot more comprehensive, I pretty much only use the content library. Sometimes a word that is in the content like “blouse” , doesnt even show up.

The product library (by alphabet) I learned from this forum is the most thorough, all is there, just need the name first.

DDCreate

This is something I struggle with often too but have just kind of accepted it as "the nature of the beast." I know there are tons of people out there that have mastered file managment but I'm afraid to because Daz will suddenly be unable to locate my files. I have a lot of saved environments that I kit bash and moving stuff around is more trouble than it's worth to me right now. I have had to search in DIM a few times but mostly I'll search in the Content Library using a key word. For instance, I bought the Yoga out fit/Pose set that was on sale yersterday. I knew the outfit would show up in Wardrobe in Smart Content (or I had a pretty good bet it would) but the poses? I didn't want to search through all the possible places. So I just typed Yoga in the search, it pulled up anything I had that was Yoga related and boom, there was the pose. So, right click, Browse to File Location and I knew where to find them all. For me, it's a memory game more than anything. Where's that Oriental Rug I like? Search "Rug" and can't find it. Ohhhh right, then I search Carpet and there it is.

Daz is like my dog, very cool and fun to play with. Sometimes he licks the furniture for some unknown reason but I just deal with it because hey, it's just one of those things.

Oh, it's also important to note that not all of the Artists/Stores structure their files in the same way. I can't remember which one it was but i bought an environment and couldn't find it  anywhere in Environments, Architecture, anywhere. So I did my search trick and it was under Props. Now I personally would call it an Environment but the PA felt it fit better as Prop Set. Okay, good to know. You'll find your stuff eventually and until you do, it's just somewhere in your files...licking furniture.

Ostadan

I sometimes use a little shell script (Mac OS) that runs through the content directory trees looking for files with the name (or wildcard pattern) I'm interested in.  Not perfect, and I still sometimes have to guess as to what the name might contain, but it's often helpful, and can also reveal installed stuff I'd forgotten about.

Paintbox

Ostadan said:

I sometimes use a little shell script (Mac OS) that runs through the content directory trees looking for files with the name (or wildcard pattern) I'm interested in.  Not perfect, and I still sometimes have to guess as to what the name might contain, but it's often helpful, and can also reveal installed stuff I'd forgotten about.

Good idea, it's usually easy to go to explorer / finder from the content library.

Paintbox

DDCreate said:

This is something I struggle with often too but have just kind of accepted it as "the nature of the beast." I know there are tons of people out there that have mastered file managment but I'm afraid to because Daz will suddenly be unable to locate my files. I have a lot of saved environments that I kit bash and moving stuff around is more trouble than it's worth to me right now. I have had to search in DIM a few times but mostly I'll search in the Content Library using a key word. For instance, I bought the Yoga out fit/Pose set that was on sale yersterday. I knew the outfit would show up in Wardrobe in Smart Content (or I had a pretty good bet it would) but the poses? I didn't want to search through all the possible places. So I just typed Yoga in the search, it pulled up anything I had that was Yoga related and boom, there was the pose. So, right click, Browse to File Location and I knew where to find them all. For me, it's a memory game more than anything. Where's that Oriental Rug I like? Search "Rug" and can't find it. Ohhhh right, then I search Carpet and there it is.

Daz is like my dog, very cool and fun to play with. Sometimes he licks the furniture for some unknown reason but I just deal with it because hey, it's just one of those things.

Oh, it's also important to note that not all of the Artists/Stores structure their files in the same way. I can't remember which one it was but i bought an environment and couldn't find it  anywhere in Environments, Architecture, anywhere. So I did my search trick and it was under Props. Now I personally would call it an Environment but the PA felt it fit better as Prop Set. Okay, good to know. You'll find your stuff eventually and until you do, it's just somewhere in your files...licking furniture.

So true, thanks for the laugh.

vindazi

Richard Haseltine said:

Which search box? If you mean inside daz Studio, the search in the Smart Content pane (assuming the item has metadata) is more comprehensive than that in the Content Library pane.

I meant this search bar. 

vindazi

DDCreate said:

This is something I struggle with often too but have just kind of accepted it as "the nature of the beast." I know there are tons of people out there that have mastered file managment but I'm afraid to because Daz will suddenly be unable to locate my files. I have a lot of saved environments that I kit bash and moving stuff around is more trouble than it's worth to me right now. I have had to search in DIM a few times but mostly I'll search in the Content Library using a key word. For instance, I bought the Yoga out fit/Pose set that was on sale yersterday. I knew the outfit would show up in Wardrobe in Smart Content (or I had a pretty good bet it would) but the poses? I didn't want to search through all the possible places. So I just typed Yoga in the search, it pulled up anything I had that was Yoga related and boom, there was the pose. So, right click, Browse to File Location and I knew where to find them all. For me, it's a memory game more than anything. Where's that Oriental Rug I like? Search "Rug" and can't find it. Ohhhh right, then I search Carpet and there it is.

Daz is like my dog, very cool and fun to play with. Sometimes he licks the furniture for some unknown reason but I just deal with it because hey, it's just one of those things.

Oh, it's also important to note that not all of the Artists/Stores structure their files in the same way. I can't remember which one it was but i bought an environment and couldn't find it  anywhere in Environments, Architecture, anywhere. So I did my search trick and it was under Props. Now I personally would call it an Environment but the PA felt it fit better as Prop Set. Okay, good to know. You'll find your stuff eventually and until you do, it's just somewhere in your files...licking furniture.

I wonder if the solution is to buy and use less content. Then it won't be so hard to find. My endency has been to buy everything I could afford o the assumption that I might be able to use it some day. On reflection this might not have been the best approach. 

Now I will just have to decide what to delete.

 

Hylas

Cathegorising all your stuff is the way to go!
Here's a tutorial: https://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/146641/dracorn-s-tips-n-stuff-for-newbies-and-the-curious-3delight/p1
(There was a more bare-bones version of that tutorial somewhere, but I can't find it at the moment :/ )

It takes a while to go through all your stuff when you're intitially setting up your cathegories.
But on the plus side, you may find some useful stuff that you had forgotten about, or amongst all the random free stuff that comes by default with DAZ studio.

Once you have your cathegories set up, just remember to cathegorise everything you download/buy/create right away.

(No idea why DAZ is making things so complicated in the first place, but that's the way it is I guess...)