Since finding the forum my Poserville hard drive has become overly populated, a very crowded environment with no room for expansion. I knew that soon if I did not do something famine, riots (aka crashes) and unsanitary conditions were going to break out. But what a chore to constantly bring each one up in a program for viewing. Then I found a viewer that made the looking so much easier. Survival was based on if I can't make out what the heck it is, especially in things I made, or what I will be using it for. Elimination! Cruel I know * sigh * and later I will probably regret the expulsion of some things. But sometimes the needs of the many do out weigh the needs of the one. (Dr. Spock - I think) Thanks to 3D Exploration, my mixed cultural environment of 3D objects and people will survive and flourish in more comfortable living conditions now. That is until I overpopulate again, hmmmmm... maybe I should use Poser with genitalia off for awhile. However do you control your growing communities? Or am I the only one that over populates? Most of you are experienced in 3D and probably already have this 3d viewer or know of it but I mention anyway, in case someone does not. I was thrilled to find it. http://www.xdsoft.com/explorer/

Outstanding program! For those of you who know it, think of this one as the Thumbs Plus of 3D stuff. Way cool! I'm gonna see how well it translates one format into another... and then I may have a use for all those great COB files I've got sitting around.

Hi LilWolff, I used to have the same problem, so I ended up giving Poser it's own hard drive. A little drastic maybe, but with everyone on the forum creating so many great textures, models, etc, (not to mention Zygotes new stuff), I really didn't have a choice! My own Poser community is way out of control, but I like it that way! Between Poser, Bryce, Ray Dream, Photoshop, Tree Pro and a few other programs, (and the Forum!) I can literally create anything my mind can imagine. It still blows me away. I agree, 3D Explorer is a great timesaver. Coldrake

Addendum to previous comment: WOW!!!

With the price of Read/Writeable CD-ROM drives finally hitting the $150 mark, lack of disk space should be something easily avoided. I do agree that shuffling around trying to find that one model you're looking for is a pain. One extension I'd like to see in 3dE is the addition of thumbnail catalogs. In the old Image Pals program, when most of the archiving was to diskettes (really dating myself here), it would save a thumbnail of the image to the HDD in a catalog. If you wanted to use the image, IP would tell you which diskette to load to retrieve it. Scale this up to CDs and 3D models and you've got a system that would elimate much of that useless browsing. Not an easy task to build with all the 3D formats out there, especially if you wanted to include Poser files.

Looks like is only Sept. and already I have a few items to put on my Christmas list. I better start being good! Thank you all very much for sharing what you do. smiles

One thing I'd like to say is that the most important thing in maintaining some kind of order in "poserville" is to be very organized. Space is essential but organization is a must! I've recently begun to create libraries of my own that I realize will be quite huge in a few months and massive in a year. The best way to make sure you get the most of your space is to be prepared. Here's what I do,

• Create a list of what you would definitely like to save.
• Create folders to place those items in that are in a logical manner, for example: Textures, Props, Figures, etc. rather than things like "Joeysdxfprops, zygotestuff, poserforumdownloads, etc. Names like that can be confusing and are really not neccessary since the full name may not show anyways on the folder.
• Once you've created your main folders you can then place subfolders within them, such as Textures/funstuff/pan.ware :) or Figures/zygote/new figures. Just don't get carried away.
• Make a 'tracking' system so that you don't have to go insane looking in EACH folder. Take the notepad app and make a special file marking it for example Folders 1-24 and then on the inside place Folder 1: Zygote props, zygote textures, zygote conformable clothing. etc. Folder 2: Funstuff downloads, props, etc. Then when you need to check up on a particular prop or other item you can simply look on your list and see where it is.
• last but not least...BE CONSISTENT! Name things the same and don't give any one file 50 names creating 50 versions of it. Like "Man Picking Nose" and Man Picking Nose2" and Man Picks booger V1a" You get it? Same consistent names help bring order and CUT down on extra versions that would take up space.

I'm sure there are better ways to organize out there but this seems to help me out...I store everything to zip disk and search it on my list. Soon I'll be upgrading to cd's and hopefully a better system for filing... hope that offered some help... PAN~

all I can say is a cd burner solves all my problems I keep all my wonderful downloads props etc. in a cd archive then I only have on my hard drive what is neccessary based on project. Another note it is good to clean out your libraries as well I mean does anyone really use those old poser 2 models that you get when you install poser? Anyways that is how I keep my memory light, well, that and a lot of drinking :)

Note about storage devices (notibly CD burners): This is from my professional life as a technician and warranty administrator, so please listen up. If you buy a burner PLEASE read Consumer Reports or get a third party report (not from the manufacturer's!). Do a bit of research first. If you loose data because the burner fails, the manufacturers are under no obligation to do anything but fix the one you bought - you data is your problem. Also- READ YOUR WARRANTIES! If it is repair, you get the same product back, or a re-build of someone else's broken one. Go for a model that has a replacement warrenty. It may cost a little more, but it will be far more worth while. I lost 488 meg of files because the burner I had wrote the FAT and got all the file sizes, name s, etc down... but the files were unreadable. Only 19 out of the over 2,000 files were irriplacable, but I will never buy another Sony CD burner again.

Don't get me started on SONY and their BURNT OUT PLAYSTATIONS!! GRRR...Rrrwoof! woof! Grrrr... I'm glad you posted this info because I am currently working on obtaining a burner to pursue a particular goal. However with the tons of burners out there...and the ever increasing sizes of poser files...what is one to do? Readable? RE-writeable? I dunno WHAT to get...then there's the whole DVD writing thing... Anyhow thanks for the warning on SONY who is shameless for NEVER admitting they are screwing the customers...thank GOODNESS poser is made by Meta. PAN~

Lucky for me I can just use my employers burners. All I need to transport my files from home to work and vice verse is a zip disk. Good advice Ikyoto but I have to say shame on you! You should known better than to only have one copy of those files around. I am sure you already gave yourself a nice big lecture about that though. A few other things I would like to ad: PAN this is especially for you. I am not a fan a Re writable CD's Cd's are so cheap in general that I don't see the need to by re writables and, in my opinion, re writing a CD only adds to all of the crazy screw ups that can occur with your files. Secondly, I would hold off on th DVD writer the tech is way to new and way way to expensive. I would give that a few more years and see were it goes. I have a feeling in to more years you will be able to purchase a device that writes both DVD and CD's and it will be cheaper than a dvd writer is right now. Thats my two cents

From a tech's point of view - Re-Writing a CD actually dose BURN the layer of reflective material away. You can use them about 4-8 times and then you are risking MAJOR data corruption. CD technology was designed from the ground up as a non-volatile storage media... not to use like a tape drive or large volume removeable drive. It is not effected by magnetic fields and as long as you don't scratch it or let it melt, your stuff is safe for good. The new Zip drives go up to 250 meg and have a much better track record. Re-Writables are too risky after 4 burns.

Wow! I've just gotten a WEALTH of knowledge! So what if I got a RE-Writable and decided that only when I really needed to be able to re-write would I use the RE-writables and just simply use the other ones (normal non-rewritables)for every day use? Is the technology so bunk on them that they are not worth it? I mean there has to be some sorta advantage? Frankly...I thought of those 250mb zips but thought "I've never really encountered problems not fitting something on a regular zip" granted that may change in the near future... As for the CD's with Silver backs..what if I wanted to sell my products on CD? How do I get a hold of them then? MADNESS! PAN

check out the Yamaha 4.4.16 SCSI from buy.com

True! Say if you come across any info on getting those Silver backs.....let me know! I'd be very grateful! I would like to sell a few things as well and am currently working a deal with big blue (hence my lack of time to create images for the gallery)..however until I get my merchandise set up...I can't finalize the deal. As for the SCSI from buy.com, Mark, I don't have a SCSI card on my PC...does this then make it impossible to own a CD burner? HELP! PAN~

This is really not a Poser topic, but I suppose you have to put that stuff somewhere Regarding CD recorders: you can get an internal or external, an IDE or a SCSI. I was told an external is a good idea because the recorder is sensitive to heat and it is better out of the computer case. SCSI and external also are a big advantage if you have a PC and an older Mac, or 2 PC's, you can move it from one to the other. On the other hand, the internal IDE should work fine. I have had good luck (so far) with buy.com and they have about the lowest prices. A Yamaha internal ? (I think, it doesn't say) IDE is $188.95 and the external SCSI is $298.95. The Yamaha SCSI comes with SW for Mac and PC. Other brands are cheaper. If you want SCSI you have to get an adapter card. These cards are in the $40.00 to $250.00 range. You will also need to buy a cable. The computer end will be different depending on the type of SCSI adapter you get. They (or lots of other places) have all sorts silver CD-R media. I don't know if this is still true, but when I looked into this a while ago, Mitsui gold was the top rated media. You can look at mitsuigold.com to see their pr. I will find out where we get them if you are interested. CD rewritables can not be read in a regular CD reader and CD-R media is so cheap, why bother with CD-rewrite ? I personally would not trust a Jazz or Zip to hold my stuff. I have had numerous disks fail. We use Zips all the time, but only to transfer data. No magnetic media is "archival".