Attached Link: More Info on PzDB

PzDB1.1 has been released, and it’s now ON SALE in the Renderosity Marketplace!

You all know PzDB as the Poser Content Management Database that indexes all your Poser Libraries automatically Groups and Cross References related content and has a powerful Boolean Search engine. But now it’s even better! We’ve added all (ALL!) of our most requested new features from users:
Adding Keywords directly to Items, Adding all Search Results directly to any Group, Searching within Search Results, Removing deleted and moved Items from the database, Renaming and Deleting entire Libraries, and new User Preferences.

And we’ve fixed all of the biggest issues from version 1.0 (all three of them, that is):
We fixed Search Results Sorting Issue, where search results came up sometimes came up in the wrong order, And some PzDB 1.0 Trial Users (less than 1%) reported that their 30 Day Trial copy “expired” either immediately after installation or on the second or third use. But our new Product Activation addresses this issue, and should be much more reliable and be much more tolerant of changes to hardware and software configuration. Also PzDB1.1 is now immune to MS Office Access 2007 SP2 bug. This version no longer becomes erratic after the installation of that Service Pack. and users are now encouraged to install it.

Plus: Its faster! Way faster on importing large libraries and faster at Searching and displaying Search Results.

And as always PzDB is FREE TO USE for the first 30 days! The PzDB1.1 works as a fresh 30 day Trial, even if your PzDB1.0 trial expired.

But wait there’s even more! PzDB1.1 is now in the Renderosity Marketplace! Rocketship Software is now a Renderosity Marketplace Vendor! And to celebrate all of this PzDB is ON SALE!

Buy PzDB before August 1st and SAVE 10%.

So go check it out, as always, I can’t wait to hear from you.
Ben Margolis
Rocketship Software

Ben:

I would like to use PzDB with Carrara.  I know that I won't be able to launch items into Carrara, but it could still be very useful for finding content, then opening it the normal way.  This is somewhat crippled because the field for the item's path is so small that the full path never fits, requiring me to enter the text with the cursor and arrow to the left to reveal the path.  It would be helpful if you had either:

a) a window which displayed the full path when moused over

or

b) a right click pop up tooltip showing the full path

If there's another way to see it, let me know.

Also, it seems that adding a keyword to a folder is one of the most common tasks to ensure that a search finds an item (for example, a set of poses with mat files for an object which were poorly named and do not immediately index to the character object).  In this case, one must use "add keyword", then select entire folder, then type in the keyword.   Couldn't this common task be simplified, for example - right click on a current keyword in the current item pane could have an option to "apply keyword to current folder".  This would help tremendously.  Again, if there's a shortcut I've missed, please let me know.

i still don't understand groups.  Is there a drop down, or other way to access a group once it's created?

Otherwise, after one session of playing with the test version, I have to say this is one of the most impressive poser utilities I've ever seen.

Regards,

Klebnor

Hi Kleb,

The "Copy Path" button is very useful with any program that uses Poser content with a "File, Open" or similar  dialogbox (I don't know if this applies to Carrara) Just CopyPath, goto your app, click file, open and type control-v.

We're looking into improved compatibility with other 3d apps, Bryce and Carrarra especially,

Keywords are automatically derived from File and Folder names, so all the Items in one Folder are probably already related by at least one Keyword.

One note: if your folder names have spaces, PzDB won't automatically find Keywords that have spaces in them like "The Girl". But you can manually add the New Keyword "The Girl" and PzDB will then automatically look through all your stuff an Cross Reference all those Items.

So you really don't want to manually add a Keyword to a Folder, you just want make sure the important words (or sets of words) from that Folder's Name are listed as Keywords.PZDB will do the rest.  (Also we will be trying to simplify the interface for adding and removing Groups and Keywords from Items Folders etc.)

As for Groups, the very top of the Browser Window is one big dropdown list.  Just Click on the Group Name. (Is that what you meant?)

And "Otherwise, after one session of playing with the test version, I have to say this is one of the most impressive poser utilities I've ever seen."

Thank you very much, we aim to please.
Ben

Ben:

Thanks for the quick reply.

I think you will find Carrara integration a challenge as it uses an internal browser which finds poser content and allows it to be imported by click and drop into a scene.  If it could be done, this would be great!

I get the group thing - the big drop down just seemed pretty useless with the character groups that were auto imported.

I do have to reiterate one concern regarding keywords.  You said:

Quote -
So you really don't want to manually add a Keyword to a Folder, you just want make sure the important words (or sets of words) from that Folder's Name are listed as Keywords.PZDB will do the rest.  (Also we will be trying to simplify the interface for adding and removing Groups and Keywords from Items Folders etc.)

I have to assume the group (rather than search) is your key navigation prompt.  I was using the search function.  For example, I have several texture sets for the V4 basicwear.  Some do not have any indication of this product in their file or folder names.  Searching for "basic" "wear" and "basicwear" do not retrieve them.  If I open a folder containing such textures and add the keyword "basicwear" to all items in the folder, then these textures come up under poses when I search for basicwear.  Are you saying that your solution would be to create a group called "basicwear", search for this keyword and add the search to the group, then go out and find other items without the right key words and add them to the group?

Thanks again, and I am very impressed with your adaptation of the sql search routines of access to search, index and retrieve content.  Genius really!

Klebnor von Hinter

Those are just examples of common Groups, go into Group Manager turnoff the ones you don't want, add the ones you do.

As for basicwear, the question is what other words are common to these texture folders (other than basic and wear) are there any? Are they all "Dave" textures? then maybe the Keyword "dave"  Should we use exclude some words? (as in Basic but not Basic Training)

And I wouldn't necessarily make a Group for basicwear but I would save the Search Pattern,
That way you open your V4 group and search for Basicwear,  Or search your V3 Group, or your Jessica Group, because they have basicwear too right?

But you could also make a Group. Its really up to you. You'll find your own way to use PzDB, I fall into the pattern of: Open a Group, do a (saved) search, Open another group which repeats the search in that Group. (still haven't found what I want?) Then I search the All Content Group. or change the Search pattern and so on.

hth
Ben

"Fixed 0 Missing Icon files, 13144 Failed"  (the failure number is always different)

In general, I could expect an error here, but know that there isn't anything wrong with 13144 o fthem.  Is there there some ay to get some more information about this message?  Maybe it means something else I don't understand.

The documentation is just  awful, and the support site has very unresponsive.  This product looks like it has great potential, but it's currently the worst use of $65 that I have made in a long time.  Serves me right for not going with the 30 day trial first.....

 Why do people do things like this?

 Why do people buy something that comes as a free trial without trying it first?

And why do people post things online like “the support site has very unresponsive” when they have never even contacted the Tech Support department?  I know, because I just asked them (and they responded). No one has ever reported anything like this before.

 So I’m going to take a wild guess here: Is it possible that you, at some point in the past, “cleaned up” your Libraries by deleting large numbers of “unnecessary” RSR files?

 (PzDB uses RSRs to make PNG icons if there is no PNG icon for a given Item.)

 Here’s what that Import status window says:

It read 50,000 files, of those some 21,000 were new Items (that would the first scan of this Library) of those, over 7000 had PNG Icons, and some 13,000 didn’t, and so PzDB tried to find and convert RSRs to PNGs and failed on 100% of those.

 The most probable reason for that is that the RSR files have been deleted. There could be other reasons, certain versions of Poser 6 seemed to have trouble with Icons, If you make content in a third party utility (a pose editor or a CR2 maker) those often won’t have Icons. But many Poser users have come to think of RSR files as trash, and just throw them away.

 UAC in Vista could cause trouble, but of course we don’t know what OS you’re on  because you haven’t filed a Tech Support request (which you can do at http://www.rocketshipsoftware.com/pzdb/support)

As for “the worst use of $65 that I have made in a long time” well, we certainly hate to hear that, and we will refund your money (upon confirmation of revoking your license) if you like.

But really, don’t you think you should at least try contacting Tech Support first?

Ben

O.K., just so you get your facts straight, the ONLY thing you got right below is the question, "Why do people buy something that comes as a free trial without trying it first?"  I certainly shoud have done that......

The rest of my comments are inline:

Quote -  And why do people post things online like “the support site has very unresponsive” when they have never even contacted the Tech Support department?  I know, because I just asked them (and they responded). No one has ever reported anything like this before.

resp:  You are just wrong here.  I have contacted the tech support site.  Twice.  I've not heard anything back.

** 
**So I’m going to take a wild guess here: Is it possible that you, at some point in the past, “cleaned up” your Libraries by deleting large numbers of “unnecessary” RSR files?

**resp: You're right;  It was a wild guess.  But it's wrong.  I've done none of that.  I've removed nothing that invloved removing ANYTHING from the library directories.
**
 

 
(PzDB uses RSRs to make PNG icons if there is no PNG icon for a given Item.)

 Here’s what that Import status window says:

It read 50,000 files, of those some 21,000 were new Items (that would the first scan of this Library) of those, over 7000 had PNG Icons, and some 13,000 didn’t, and so PzDB tried to find and convert RSRs to PNGs and failed on 100% of those.

 The most probable reason for that is that the RSR files have been deleted. There could be other reasons, certain versions of Poser 6 seemed to have trouble with Icons, If you make content in a third party utility (a pose editor or a CR2 maker) those often won’t have Icons. But many Poser users have come to think of RSR files as trash, and just throw them away.
 

 Resp: This is pretty useful information.  IT would be more helpful in the documentation.

UAC in Vista could cause trouble, but of course we don’t know what OS you’re on  because you haven’t filed a Tech Support request (which you can do at http://www.rocketshipsoftware.com/pzdb/support)

**Resp: Again, I did fill out a request.  (at that above mentioned site).  You might consider sending an immediate response, with a problem ID#, so 1) people can be certain it's been received. and 2) so they have a reference number to use with further e-mail threads.
**
As for “the worst use of $65 that I have made in a long time” well, we certainly hate to hear that, and we will refund your money (upon confirmation of revoking your license) if you like.  But really, don’t you think you should at least try contacting Tech Support first?

Yeah.  Whatever.  I will likely try a third time to fill out a support request, but it won't be for a few days.  Let's see if that helps.