I hear all the time about multiple runtimes but admittedly I am unsure of the logistics of pulling it off.

If I have a single runtime that is already filled with items am I able to easily split that up or organize it into sub categories without affecting saved files?

I am a Poser novice and know very little about its inner workings so I don't know if saved files are calling to certain paths to load the items used in them or how these things work. I'd just like a little advice before I go rearranging files and creating huge head aches for myself when I reload old saves.

I did search the forums but couldn't really find an exact answer to my question that clarified things to my satisfaction.

As a rule, you can make any folders you want in the library part of the runtime (characters, props, poses, etc.), without harming anything.  Only geometry and texture files need to be where the file expects them to be.  Library files must be under the appropriate category, or they won't show up in Poser, i.e., no props in a character folder.

One exception is that some CP stuff has the geometries file in the character folder.  Just keep them together and they'll work fine.

Now, actual multiple runtimes differ slightly depending on your version of Poser, and only work on P5 and up.  What version are you using?

Also, on the making of new folders, in P5 and up you can have subfolders.  P4 and before couldn't do that.

John

Above is a zip file of an empty runtime. You can save it to your hard drive. Change the extension to .zip and unzip it.  Rename the folder to whatever you want. That will give you one empty runtime to use as an external runtime. Copy it as many times as you need and rename it as needed. 

The "poser.exe" file inside is just a text file that was changed to .exe in order to give Poser an .exe file to search for in the event you wish to allow Poser to search for the runtimes and install automatically.

You have 2 options that can help you with organizing and being able to find things:

1.  Create sub folders inside the library folders.

This is the preferred method for many. It uses one single runtime with lots and lots of sub folders within the main library folders, in order to organize the content.  The learning curve is minimal. If you can right click and create a new folder and drag and drop, you can do this.  The learning curve is knowing what folders you can move files around in and what folders not to touch.

You can move around the files inside the library sub folders. 

Don't move, touch or rename files or folders  in the top level of the library folder that carry the name of the merchants, or the "Morph" or the !DAZ  folder because those are morphs and need to stay where they are.

Just work with the standard ones inside the Library folder such as camera, faces, hand, pose, props, hair, lighting, character. 

Leave the files inside the geometries and texture folders alone.

Right now you have a hodge podge of files for various figures in each folder plus props, poses, lights etc.

Open the character folder and create sub folders for each of your figures IE: V3, V4, M3, D3, Aiko, Apollo etc.  Do the same for each of the other library sub folders.  You can also create other folders too, such as "Poses" or "Props" or "Backgrounds" or "Hair" etc.

Then go through your files in each of the library subfolders and move them into the appropriate folder for the figure they belong.

Things like lights, and poses and hair and props are universal items really, and can be used across figure, so I like to have those separated instead of filed by "figure" because I often use V3 poses on Aiko and hair for Posette on V3 etc.

You will run into a problem for items that are for more than one figure. Like where do you file those?  For exxample an outfit that is for V3 and M3 and Aiko and SP3: where do you file them? If you put them in the V3 folder, then you forget that they can be used for M3 and Aiko and SP3 too. It was this complication that prompted me to move onto using external runtimes (described below).

I did it this way at one time and it worked well enough,well except for items that could be used on a few figures like I described above.   I decided I wanted even more organization, and I didn't like having one huge runtime because it was impossible to really burn it to a CD/DVD without having to break it into bits and pieces.  Plus it took Poser forever to load because the runtime was so big.  So I tried option 2 below.

**2. Multiple External Runtimes
**
Many find this method difficult to learn. It does have a small learning curve, but once mastered many like myself wouldn't use any other method to organize their content.

It's important to understand that a runtime is a runtime is a runtime no matter where on your hard drive or external hard drive it sits. 

All an external runtime is, is a runtime that is not inside the Poser folder.

All "multiple external runtimes" mean is that you have more than one runtime sitting outside the Poser folder. They all have the same folder structure as the main runtime in your Poser folder.  I have 42 at last count and I  know exactly what is inside each one and I know where to look for files.

Another nice thing about external runtimes is that you can have specialty runtimes for various holidays such as Christmas or Halloween or different themes that you like to use sometimes but not everyday. The benefit of this is that the runtime is often small enough that you can burn it to a couple CD's or a DVD and save yourself some hard drive space instead of having stuff on your hard drive that you only use once or twice a year.

The following is the link where I learned to create and use external runtimes. When I was trying to do it I was really confused about the concept but I eventually caught on and now I won't ever go back to using just one runtime.

http://forum.daz3d.com/viewtopic.php?t=9060&highlight=runtime

Some of the runtimes that I have are:

V3 Character addons (includes the V3 figure and her morphs)
V3 Clothing
M3 Character Addons (includes the M3 figure and his morphs)
M3 Clothing
Aiko
Christmas
Halloween
Angels and Faeries
Mermaids
Millennium Kids
Backgrounds and Environments
Props
Poses
Hair
Lighting
etc. etc. etc.

I like knowing that when I want to add some hair, that all I have to do is go to my "Hair" runtime and all of my hair files are inside. If I want a prop, then I go to the "Props" folder.

If I want to make a mermaid, I go to my "V3 Character" runtime and load V3, apply a MAT POSE and morphs. Go to "Hair" runtime and find a hair figure/prop that I want to use. Go to "Mermaids" folder and load up my mermaid tail and textures and anything else mermaid related including mermaid poses. Go to "Lights" and find a nice set of lights that fit my scene and then render. 

I know some don't like to go runtime to runtime, but I find that having so many runtimes that each one isn't gargantuan and doesn't take very long to load. And  as I said I love to know where I can find things directly without having to search through unrelated stuff. If I am looking for V3 clothing, that's all I want to see. I don't want to wade through M3 and Aiko things or Poses and Hair etc.

Setting up an external runtime is easy.

1. Create a new folder;
2. Name it whatever you like IE: V3 Character Addons;
3. Open folder;
4. Create new folder called "Runtime";
5. Right click and create a new text file. Change the name to "Poser.exe". Accept the warning that changing the file format etc.  You want to change it.
6. Create a new folder called "Readmes". Use this to place all of your readme files for easy reference.
7. Create a new folder called "Templates". If you do texturing you can place the  texture templates that come with some packages in there. Or you can just delete them if texturing is not you thing. In that case you won't need a "templates" folder.
8. Open "Runtime"
9. Create the following folders inside "Runtime"

• Geometries
• Libraries
• Reflection Maps
• Textures

That's it, your done.  Copy this structure for as many runtimes as you want to create and rename them to whatever you want your runtimes to be called.

Your runtime paths will then be something like this:

Runtime Folders V3 Clothing Runtime
Runtime Folders M3 Characters Runtime
Runtime Folders Halloween Runtime
Runtime Folders Christmas Runtime

You can place your runtimes anywhere you like. On my old computer I had them inside "My Documents" on my C Drive in a folder called "My Runtimes".

On my new computer I have them on my partitioned D Drive in a folder called "Poser Runtimes", and I back them up on my G External Drive..

You might also read my post in the following thread on how to further organize your multiple runtimes using naming continuity so that you know what belongs with what as you go from folder to folder in your library.

http://www.renderosity.com/mod/forumpro/showthread.php?thread_id=2704637&page=1#message_3024920

There's nothing wrong with using the system you employ now as long as the sub folders are set up logically, in fact there are many here that prefer the sub folder route.
Having one runtime also makes backing up easier as you only have the one to back up and with a decent system the loading time isn't affected, in older systems it maybe a bit slower for Poser to initialise but not with newer pc's!!

Attached Link: "Multiple Runtimes" Pictorial compliments of Dr Geep Studios

*(click the image to view full size) (CLICK the LINK above the image to view the complete pictorial - 13 pages) * [**This pictorial**](http://drgeep.com/p5/run/run.htm) may help explain some of the mysteries of [**Using Multiple Runtimes**](http://drgeep.com/p5/run/run.htm).

View it in good health.

cheers,
dr geep
;=]

Awesome, thanks for all the info this was exactly what I needed!

Much appreciated!