I have another runtime question that arrises when Poser 7 crashed this weekend by loading a morph target to an incompattable figure. Poser could not started after that and I had to re-installed every thing, and I am still installing.

I am installing every single product to its own directory in a common directory:

C:3D LibraryHair_ZolaRuntime..............(all files in the appropriate directories)
    All files are in the corresponding directories for the Zola hair product for example.
Now in the future I can within seconds find the Zola hair product in the 3D Library directory on my C; drive if I for any reason would like to uninstall. I can also re-install Poser and just draw in the directory again.

I do this for all my products and freebies.

The problem that I have is the way Poser, and due the the un-uniformaty of developers to organise everything the same way, organise where the icons lay. Some figures you can find under character and some under Pose and some with a ! in front, etc.

Currently I copy for example the Morgan figure's icons in a directory Morgan and all her Mat files in a subdirectory Mat and Pose and Face and Props and Morphs, etc. This Morgan directory I move to Poser 7 RuntimeLibrariesCollectionsFemalesV4Morgan. All the V4 figures will be under FemalesV4 and all Hair products will be in each directory under Hair, etc.

I can now only go to Collections and find everything exactly as I want it. I can also find everything

immediately where I have put it because it is logical, and not the chaos that is caused by installing all content into Poser itself. There is however one problem and that is the fact that I have duplicated the icon files and their fellow files. Is there a way to organise the icons without duplicating them? This way unfortunately wastes space but it is logical and cause no frustrations.

I have asked this question previously but nobody in all the forums understood me and only answered how to do the first part on how to call a directory to appear in Poser.

I'm a bit confused.  You shouldn't have to reinstall all of your content when you reinstall Poser. Reinstalling Poser will write over default installed content, not things you added after the fact. Or it isn't supposed to anyway.

Also, your method of organization has me completely confused.  Am I right in thinking that you are turning every single thing you install into its own separate runtime instead of grouping things by figure or theme?

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

Attached File: Runtime_Sample.txt (1.3 kilobytes)

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.

I just saw this thread about a similar thing.... can't restart Poser.  It suggests deleting the preference file. That might have been a viable option for you instead of reinstalling the program.

http://www.renderosity.com/mod/forumpro/showthread.php?thread_id=2742027

prefs files for p7 are in C:Documents and SettingsOwnerApplication DataPoser 7 rather than the program folder. Poser 6 and earlier its in the program folder .

the runtime structure is critical in some area because the item will reference specific folders .

Its not a bad idea to create a backup of your runtime/textures runtime/geometry and runtime/libraries folders to save having to reload. Although Poser should not remove or overwrite the folders .

Acadia,
I was not aware of the fact that I could only delete the preferences file instead of re-installing the whole Poser 7 - But I am learning fast and will remember it.

I am using the second option that you have mentioned.
Firstly I can not install all my content as it uses too much space and I am not going to use everything. Sometimes I do want to get rid of something from my hard drive or I want to replace something with a newer or other version. Because I install everything now in it's own runtime I can at once uninstall something or add to it or whatever.

Some figures you can find under characters for example, while others you find under Pose, and some you find under!Mat Pose and some somewhere else. I am referring to the right hand side of Poser, the icon/thumbnail menu, where you can see what you want or can load. I refer to this menu that I duplicate in Collections, but which I can organise as I wish. Here, because I have duplicated the icons, I can organise it as I wish, under my own rules in any way as I see fit, as long as they stay in collections. I wanted to know if there is another way to do it without duplicating the files.

I think it will work if I delete the icons from the runtime libraries as I do have it under collections. In other words, if I install contents I must move starting icons to the directories where I want them under collections, and then they will only appear there and not under the default menu of Poser.

Quote -
I am using the second option that you have mentioned.
Firstly I can not install all my content as it uses too much space and I am not going to use everything. Sometimes I do want to get rid of something from my hard drive or I want to replace something with a newer or other version. Because I install everything now in it's own runtime I can at once uninstall something or add to it or whatever.

You should look at the following thread. I explain how to use file compression inside Poser to compress your files. It saves gads of space! 

http://www.renderosity.com/mod/forumpro/showthread.php?message_id=3169372&ebot_calc_page#message_3169372

Using external runtimes and file compression I managed to use a 40 gig hard drive for 3 years.

Making every single package that you install into a separate runtime is well... odd.  I only know one other person who does that and that is only because of not understanding the method of setting up a runtime for a "theme" and thought that every character or clothing or texture package that is installed had to be it's own runtime.

Thanx for the link. I appreciate the sharing of knowledge. From the beginning I was asking some questions about the organising of the thumbnails / icons but all the answers showed that the other did not understand my question. By playing and making mistakes I choose this method and I will definitely recommend it.*

Making every single package that you install into a separate runtime is well... odd.  I only know one other person who does that and that is only because of not understanding the method of setting up a runtime for a "theme" and thought that every character or clothing or texture package that is installed had to be it's own runtime.* 
Remember, I can remove a product immediately and I can find single files of a product without any hassle. I know it is not necessary this way, but for forty clothing products in one folder, for example forty products or more for V4 can create chaos again.

I can now remove a product immediately, but I can also re-install it without effort. Sometimes you download a freebie and you don't like it or it does not work and then I just remove it. When I work with WWII on a product for A3 Minnie for example I can file the converted content of coat no 12 in the same directory untill I have finished working with it and remove it, or make a backup and then remove.

Not to plug a product unnecessarily, but I use ahudson's 'Runtime Installer' -- a program that is available in the Renderosity marketplace that makes the installation and uninstallation of most  products a snap.

It handles about 98% of DAZ products and 99+% of all others, and without the need to install each into a separate runtime.

Just FYI.