I got an idea last night, and forwarded it on to the makers of WinZip, the most popular windows zip/unziping utility. The idea, would be that when you unzip something, winzip would store the unzipped folder contents, and either a user created name, or the actual zip's filename in a database. Then if you decided to remove something you had installed, you would just load winzip, and then select the file in question to remove! Every file in every folder that had unzipped would then be removed. (and if a file was not found, a search requester would come up, and allow you to search a partition, or target folder.) If you like this idea, then drop Winzip a line at help@winzip.com and let them know it sounds like a great new feature. (I'm looking at a 14.7 gig runtime right now, with over 69,000 files, and 4,500 folders!)

Wouldn't it be easier to go in the other direction? Get Rendo to require full InstallShield EXE installers for marketplace items?

Ok, but then you need to get every single poser store to write dedicated software for something like this.. what do you think the chances are of them spending money for that? You really think Sixus, Polymage, Rdna, Poserpros, Animotions, ect will all do something like this? Everyone DOES though use the zip or rar formats already though... and it would be a huge benefit to 3dmax users, bryce users, lightwave users, ect.

" Wouldn't it be easier to go in the other direction? Get Rendo to require full InstallShield EXE installers for marketplace items?" they do allow them.. and here's the joke.. they have to be inside a zip file. think on that a minute...

That's a good point. Basic install usually doesn't require special coding, but a good installer costs a lot more than WinZip, and is always harder to use.

Why did I just hear a rimshot? LOL!!

I wasn't only thinking of Poser when I emailed them.. I also have a good number of free lightwave objects and their associated files, and this would allow them to be cleaned up as well.

"...but a good installer costs a lot more than WinZip... Inno is great and free (www.innosetup.com). I use it. Maxon (Ciname 4d) use it. ... is always harder to use... Well, you are right here...

Zip has many advantages over InstallShield EXE installers, it cannot be contaminated by a virus (Poser files), you can install in any folder what you want, you can extract only one file that you want and you can view a file inside the zip. I use WinRar and have associated *.pp2, *.3ds, *.obj and *.dxf with my PropViewer (free stuff). When I open a zip with WinRar, I can click on the pp2 or obj and I see how the model is, if I click on a jpg it open Paint Shop and I can see how the texture is, all without extracting or installing, a very handy tool for managing large collections of 3d models.

Hello, everyone, I think Gareee's idea is basically a good one but since using a machine with WinXP I never bothered to install WinZip. I simply use the MS provided interface. Most times I install items by hand anyway because while the Geometry has to go into the pathed statement I place Characters/props/etc and , sometimes, textures where I CHOOSE. I noted that DAZ included an uninstall in one of my recent purchases ... pretty cool. My two cents may not be worth a penny;)

If anyone likes this idea, make sure you drop a line to the winzip people...

I hate, hate, hate installers. Stick with zips! Better yet, get DAZ to lose those lame installers, too.

It sounds like a nice improvement for WinZip, but I don't think it would make my runtimes any smaller. I tend to rename things and move them around. And I really don't want to uninstall anything, because I'd lose all the references I fixed.

Attached Link: http://www.jrsoftware.org/isinfo.php

FlyerX

I don't know that WinZip would do something on these lines. Even though the concept could be applied to so many areas.. As to runtimes, you can always make your own installers (winzip/winrar Self-Extractors) and uninstallers (BAT) if your on PC. Don't know if there is anything that equates to BAT files on Mac OS.

I've been tackling the problem of install/uninstall myself. Install really isn't the problem, in my opinion. But, uninstalling stuff is a real pain. So, I've made a little utility that you can drop folders or zip files onto. This utility will dump the contents to the specified folder(s). Since the utility makes a log of everything that was installed, the utility can go back and delete anything that was installed by the utility. It's already in late alpha stage, so I should be able to unleash it to the poser community in a week or so. I should mention in passing that this will be freeware.

I'd love to see WinZIP be able to do this. As it is, right now I am moving Pose, Texture and Character folders daily out of Poser onto my external hard drive just so I can use P4. Half the time I can't access the folders at the bottom of my Pose library.

2Dimensions, it sounds like your utility is exactly what I was hoping winzip would incorporate. It won't help already bloated runtimes, but after a cleanup, it should help us uninstall any added installation, and that's exactly what I want to do. I'll install something for a project or two, but rather then leave it bloating my runtime, I'd rather just uninstall it after use. I can leave all the zips on the HD somewhere else, and they will be much smaller as well. And I can make large backups of those on dvds, to conserve HD space.

I've got a "current projects" runtime for things I don't want to install permenently. It's easy to clean it out when I'm done. Or archive it, if I want to keep all my work for the project.

I don't like the present EXE Installers, because they don't let you specify where to put their contents. Ususally, they just dump everything into PoserRuntime without letting you rename and reorganize things. I always unzip to a temporary directory, then move the unzipped contents manually to my Poser5 directory. That way I can organize things in a way I see fit. I always rename my MAT .pz2 files to .cm2 and store them in Cameras. I put my V3 and SP3 clothing .cr2 files under V3Clothes and SP3clothes respectively. Maybe people should build their installer .exe(s) with some prompts for options.

Yes, I'd like the installers better if you could choose where to put things. I have my runtimes organized by character: one for V1/2, one for V3, one for SP, one for Luke and Laura, etc. If packages contain versions for Mike and Vicky, or V3 and SP, I install it twice (or more), then delete all the extraneous files.

I could install to a dummy runtime, but that's even more of a pain, creating all those folders and moving the files there.

With zips, you can just select the proper files and extract each to its proper runtime. Or not extract them at all, if you don't need them. (P4 MAT files if you use P5, templates, readmes, etc.)

"Get Rendo to require full InstallShield EXE installers..." Err, this'll work on my Mac, right? (kidding. I already know the answer.) The only downside is that you'd possibly end up with a menu 400 miles long, full of uninstallers... /P

Drat! Someone has stolen yet another one of my great ideas :-) Actually, I had been thinking more along the lines of 2Dimensions, a separate utility. It's still a good idea for WinZip or other archiver programs with the adition of the option whether or not to log the operation. There are one or two free Poser uninstallers available but I don't think they will handle the process as easily as the Zip logging concept.

The other thing I really hate is the way people start their foler names with "!" or some other special character so their stuff will be at the top of the list.

"...start their foler names with "!" ..." It can be annoying but I've actually found it somewhat helpful when I install several things and don't necessarily remember what or where they all are, they show up at the top of the list. This is the only rationale other than vanity that I've heard for people doing it. Presumably the idea is that once you're familiar with the items, you can rename them. Flimsy, true but at least it's a reason. Unfortunately, some people also use "!" on texture and geometry folders that are going to be referenced inside files so simply renaming wouldn't work then. The Zip logger application could have a flag to automatically strip non-alpha characters from the foldernames but it would then have to do a search and replace in all the files to reflect the change. I do see that Daz has used "!" on the more frequently useful poses for the Aiko 3 files within their folder, pushing them to the top of the list which is a good use of the practice.

7SeAs (I think that's right) already have a small install/uninstall utility in the marketplace - Poser Product Manager. It installs runtimes directly from zip files, records the contents in a directory and then uninstalls the files when you don't need them. As for DAZ installers, I install to a temporary directory and create a zip file - everything is then kept in themed, labeled CD ROMs - this is what makes using Poser possible for me with a 6Gb hard drive! The utility is small enough to have running whilst you work in Poser - but I would shut it down when you're ready to render. Off the top of my head, I believe it was about $15 - well spent!

Thanks for the mini-review. I'vd had my eye on that product for a long time, but wasn't sure how well it worked.

Attached Link: http://market.renderosity.com/softgood.ez?ViewSoftgood=22380

"Do you want to be able to Install and Uninstall Poser Models? Do you want to SEE what you're installing? Do you want to KNOW what you're uninstalling? Now you can! The Uninstaller is a smart Installer that adjust to your needs."

.exe installers?

I wish that DAZ didn't use them. As some others have stated in this thread: I greatly prefer the file-placement flexibility offered by .zip files.

Of course, so many third-party products are based upon the default DAZ file locations........that moving/renaming any of the DAZ files probably isn't a good idea in the first place.

At least not if one wishes to use character pose files, etc. without a lot of extra work thrown in.

For this reason.....if one company has to use .exe installers, I suppose that company should be DAZ.

But, please -- no .exe's here at Rendo. They are irritating.

Hi! Just wanted to say that the Poser Installer I talked about is in beta. If anyone wants to take it for a test, please IM me. Thanks.