I'm struggling with managing all of my Poser content (both what I own & all the items I'd like to own) so am wondering how the rest of you deal with this. I created a (really basic) app to help make it more manageable, but realized I should step back and hear what other people are doing. Any input would be super appreciated. Thanks!!

1. How do you manage your content (what you own + what you'd like to own or have flagged as interesting for a future render)?

2. How do you select what content to use for a new render? (e.g. where do you look to browse your options)

3. What parts of this process work well for you? Don't work so well? Is there some way you'd like to see this improved?

And then... if you have tried a content management app for your 3D content before, what application did you use? Was it useful?

Thank you so much!!
abby

1. Install Poser app separately from default content.  Store external runtimes on a physically external, removal hard disk drive.  Organise external runtimes by year - trust me, after several years of careful filing followed by disk crashes, this is the only practical method.

2. Decide on theme, rely on own memory to recall items related to theme, do search for items using library function.

3 / 4. duh ? I live with what I have.  Tried a couple of commercial content management products (paid money!).  Nothing really suited me.  Using non-Poser related file cataloguing apps.  I prefer not to mention those apps which I bought and did not find useful. Thanks.

Additional: I would love to have a cloud-based content management system, but realise this is still a bit far away yet.

One big runtime on extrenal drive:

Character
 - Clothing
 - People
 - Animals
 - Other Figures

Hair

Poses
 - People
 - Animals
 - Other Figures

Props
 - Buildings and Structures
 - Weapons
 - Domes, Spheres, etc
 - Outdoors
 - Other
 - etc...

Of course, subdirs under those.  (i.e. people has Daz/Poser/other...then under daz, a3/v4/m4/etc) 

The rest of my runtime is a mess

When I download, I put into a fake runtime, then move from there to the right spot in real runtime.

**@infinity10 & @**3doutlaw - Thanks! What about "wishlist" types of items - things you see and like but aren't ready to do a render yet with. Do you just buy them if you like them so they're included with the rest of your Poser content? Or do you keep wishlists? 

I feel like I need something that shows me - in a single place - both the content that I have AND the content that I like but haven't bought.  

**@infinity10 - **Interesting on the cloud-based content management system, do you mean getting your runtimes from the cloud? Or just a list of your content that's stored in the cloud so you can browse it?

I have a wishlist at Rendo, RDNA and Daz...I open em up periodically to see if anythings on sale, and if not, close em and move on. 

Sometmes I buy wishlist items when I feel I can definitely use them for a specific project in the future, especially if there is a sale or an impending Clearance Item being taken off the marketplace for good.

When my budget for a period has been exceeded, I discipline myself and delete all wishlist items.  Ah, but before I do that, I save the wishlist as a record for future review.

I don't think I can store content on the cloud, as current terms of use would make that a breach.  Cloud based CMS - well, I think some some large production studios (films / movies / advertising ) are already using such (as I saw at Siggraph Asia 2012).  That type of CMS may not be economical nor practical for a single user scenario.

I have a number of runtimes on a drive seperate from the main C drive as this is a smallish Solid State Drive.  The Runtimes are set up in a similar manner as 3doutlaw.  I use a library program, which appears to be no longer avaliable, with the fields set-up to match the Runtime names.  That way I can search in something like spacecraft when I am looking for ideas using items I already own and can go straight to the item.

I used to maintain wishlists at Rendo and Daz3d but these days only do so at Rendo.  I tend to buy from this when there is a sale on unless there is an idea in my head that can use the item right then.

i keep installed runtimes on an external drive and backup the original installers to DVD disks organized in folders by character, props, architecture etc. I also backup my huge runtime folder on a (not so) regular basis. I then use a program called Disk Catalog Maker (on Mac) to keep track of where everything is stored. I use Delicious as my cloud based bookmarker and use tags to keep track of my potential Poser purchases. I'm also experimenting with keeping a folder full of jpgs so I can visually identify what different products are.

I have mutiple external runtimes on a dedicated hard drive, all organized and subfoldered to death.  I don't use any programs other than Windows Explorer to keep it all organized.  Though a database would certainly be handy.  I just don't have the time to get one up and running at this point.

My V4 runtime is heavily subfoldered into clothing, type of clothing, etc.  And I've copied the accessories and footwear of the outfit sets into dedicated folders for accessories and footwear.  It takes a bit of work and dedication, because you can't let it slack or it gets out of hand very quickly.  But it's worth the effort in being able to find what I'm looking for with relative ease.

Separate runtimes for every base figure, including its clothing and poses.

Only Python scripts are installed in the main Poser runtime. Everything else has its own runtime.

Other runtimes:  Hair, vehicles, buildings, rooms, living room, bathroom, dining, kitchen, bedroom, office, equipment, outdoors, plants, animals, materials, vss, etc....

I have it all on an internal hard drive, backed up on three external hard drives and every now and then I back it up to DVDs.

I use a file synchronisation utility to keep the backups up to date. My husband wrote it for me. It is very similar to Allsync, which would do the job just as well.

I rely heavily on my memory and on Poser's library search to find stuff when I need it.

Another great utility (not 3d-specific) is Copernic Desktop Search. This is useful because I don't keep all my runtimes linked to Poser all the time, and it really helps me find things I have forgotten about.

All my runtimes are backed up once a week to an external hard drive and once a month to another hard drive held in a safe.   This hard drive also carries an image of the C drive.

For file sychronisation I use Karen's Replicator.  I have used this for a number of years on a number of PCs, it is quick as it only backs up the changes each time.  I have had to use it for a restore and it worked without a hitch.

I have a single runtime (with subfolders)

I use PzDB to search content. It indexes everything new when you instruct it to. It searches all your runtimes and puts it in a database with keywords.

When I need something, I enter its name and a few seconds later I have the item and can drop it into poser. Or I can browse it like in pants for V4. You can add keywords or categories if you like to have more

When I am thinking of what elements to use I use the browse function and limit it to the type of thing I am looking for - like "interiors". I have set up my runtime in easy recognizable categories like furniture, interiors, buildings, transport, etc. This makes browsing easier

Thanks all so much! I think the areas I'm struggling with are:

1. I want to browse my own content in a format a little friendlier then the poser library structure. Classifying it in the categories I choose and tagging it the way I want.

2. I want to browse my "wishlist" in the same exact place/browser that I browse the content I own. That way, I can puruse all of it when trying to figure out what to put in my next scene.

So - like, here's what I've done so far. It's sort of Pinterest for my 3D content. I create lists of whatever categories I want (e.g., Scenes, V4: Clothes, M4: Characters, etc). Within lists I have both the items I own AND my wishlist items. I can tag everything to find - for example, all the Steampunk V4 Clothing. I can also see what/filter on I already own so there's no confusion.  

Oh! And the thumbnail images are nice & big so it makes for easy browsing. 

So here are my lists:

And if you click in you see all the content for that list with tags at the top you can filter on:

I like this because now when I like something I just add it (I've got like a "pin it" kind of bookmark - like pinterest, to add content I like from it's webpage) and I only buy it when I'm ready to render with it.

Is anyone else doing (or have you seen?) anything similar?

BTW, @infinity10 - my current version is just hosted locally on my PC, but if I decide to keep developing this, it would absolutely be in the cloud. 

I have lots of runtimes to keep things seperated, about to 40 of them right now. I have been using Poser for years and have a lot of stuff...

Anything thats new goes into a runtime that I can delete later, that way I can easliy find what I just installed and figure out where I want to put it in the other runtimes.

If I get a set that has lots of things in it. Ie charaters, props, lights mats, etc. I may not always put them into the same runtime either.

Things like props get seperated into different runtimes depending on what they are.

Clothes are sorted by character runtime, and type.

Poses are sorted by character runtime as well.

Lights and camera settings usually get deleted. I don't use many preset light sets since a lot of my renders are interior ones with internal and external lights based on the room.

Everything from Poser 5 and prior, is lumped in one runtime. I used to keep everything in one runtime but it got to the point that finding things was next to impossible. That runtime is huge and I still use things from it a lot...

I have an animation runtime, that is just for storing things used for animations. That one could really use some cleaning up, I have been putting stuff in there for years and it is a mess... lol

I need to make a hair runtime, but I have been putting that off for a while now. Many of the hair sets out there will work on lots of characters. And technically you can use any hair set you have, on any character with a little work.

If you use Poser for work, also keep in mind that you should seperate things based on comercial usage rights as well. There are lots of sets out there, that can not be used for comercial work. Just about every runtime I have has a Non Comercial section in it.

Seperating runtime like I did can be very time consuming depending on how much stuff you have. But once it is set up the way you want it, it is worth the effort.

In the end, the best way to set it up is whatever works for you. We have search now, so one runtime will work fine, if you can remember what it is called.

Backing them up is something that you should get in the habit of doing on a regular bases, especially if you invest the time to rearrange it. My runtimes are mirrored on multiple machines and synced on a daily basis well.

Quote - BTW, @infinity10 - my current version is just hosted locally on my PC, but if I decide to keep developing this, it would absolutely be in the cloud. 

Runtimes in a cloud could be slow as a snail depending on your connection speed.

Also keep in mind that some cloud services assume that once you put it on there, they get the rights to it. Which means you can't put anything on it you didn't create for the most part. You also relinquish your rights to it on many of them, as soon as you put it on there.

Choose your cloud service wisely... Read the fine print before choosing a cloud service. then read it again....

I would much rather have runtimes stored locally than in a cloud server. Imagine sitting down to play with Poser and your runtime is in a cloud you cant connect to because your internet connection just went down. Or worse yet, the cloud service was shut down over copyright issues and your not going to get any of it back, ever...

For a long time I had a single runtime, but it got huge. Also, trying to find content if installed by default path/file structure is a nightmare... how can I remember what developer X made 3 years ago? I renamed EVERY folder so I could find it and trace it (ie, go to textures/locations/home one will take me to the textures for that product, rather than trying to remember it was made by Maclean. The problem with that is if you want to transfer morphs with the available commercial products; they all read the internal files, look for the geometry and if the path isn't right it won't work.

What I have now is a small collection of runtimes; V4A4, M4H4, Gen 3, Locations and the default runtime from Poser itself. All the content that spreads across multiple characters (like clothes for V4 AND A3) go in the default poser runtime. All the stuff I don't use much (toons, K4) are all in the default Poser runtime). I still rename the folders, but only the folders in the Character folder of each runtime. If I need to find geometry or textures now I open the cr2 file and read it in wordpad.

As to thumbnails, I have P3DO explorer. Really good for that and a lot of other stuff as well.

here is a snapshot of just a part of my poserall folder.

then click apply...

then say I wanted to use one of their morphs but the other one's textures, but the first one's eye colours I could easily do it as it is all in one virtual runtime now.

When I buy new content, I just give the enclosing folder which is around the runtime folder, a name that will help me search it easily and drop it straight into my poserall folder.  That makes installing new content much quicker.  No sorting etc.

It is really handy having an item of clothing and it's matching props, and poses, mats etc all in the same runtime, so that is all i need to see.

Also I can just right click on a mat or group of selected mats, and apply smart mat and it will change the textures on every item of clothing that the mats are for all in one click.

I got the ShaderWorks Library Manager recently, when it was in sale... on your original recommendation Esther, but not had time to do much with it yet... had too much work to do lately.

Do you use the meta data feature in it at all?

I reckon I'll need to put some time in, to set it up fully, but looks like it could be a pretty powerful indexing system once I did that...?

I use P3dO Explorer Pro for nearly all my library usage. I very rarely use the Poser library palette at all.

P3dO enables me to load content from anywhere, without having to obey the Poser library structure. For example, if I'm looking for shoes for Victoria 4, I go to Z:PoserLibrariesFiguresFemaleVicki 4 - S4 - A4ClothingFootwear, which is part of my own custom folder hierarchy. ALL my V4 footwear is in there, and the MAT poses, foot poses and materials that correspond to them are in sub-folders off that. Easy. :)

As well as Figures, I also have top-level library folders for Objects (small props, vehicles, weapons, furniture etc.); Places (buildings and environments); and Utilitites (lights, cameras, and anything else).

Hair has its own folder structure and is treated differently, since it can often be fitted to other figures and my criteria for choosing it are different. I made a spreadsheet with all my hair items in it, categorised according to the figure(s) it fits, the style, and the technology (prop or conforming; transmapped, dynamic, or "plastic hat"). I'm also in the process of adding thumbnails to the spreadsheet, so I can sort by figure and style and see, for example, all the short transmapped hair which has a fit for M3.

I can heartily recommend P3dO, and Yarp isn't paying me to say this. (!)

The only problem I have is that the best-organised library in the world is no good if you can't remember that you even have a particular thing in the first place. But no Poser vendor has yet offered a solution for old age. (And why not?!? Come on, vendors, up your game!) :)

As for the stuff which may be interesting for future use, that's what wishlists are for...

Quote -  

Seperating runtime like I did can be very time consuming depending on how much stuff you have. But once it is set up the way you want it, it is worth the effort.

 

I think shvrdavid makes a very good point that spending the effor to arrange everything is well worth it.  Also dealing with new content needs to have a process so that the method is kept up to date.  It is easier to send a few extra minutes with each new purchase/download than trying to maintain the database every few months, no matter what method you decide on.

My approach is basic, I have a single 'core' runtime set up on the main drive. Thats all the stuff I use on a regular basis and is shared by all versions of poser installed on that machine. It's backed up regularly onto DVD and 2 mirrored external drives. Purchased/free content is also stored in that way, in named folders like hair, transport etc. All in CD sized folders, so it's easy to find things and to backup. Then when a new version of poser comes out/drive crash etc, I simply copy the runtime onto that machine or install the stuff thats needed. If new content is added and it's not needed after a few weeks, then it's easy to simply view folders by date and delete it. Which keeps the runtime clean and saves drive space. BTW - Bobs right about P3dO - I use the old free version and it's just so useful along with a collection of 3dDimensions tools.

I'm handling about 100Gb on Poser / DazStudio /... content in five areas:

• content coming with the software (which gets replaced at new versions)
• Girl stuff (V4 and everything)
• Other Beings
• Scenes (transport, anything lifeless, backgrounds, ...)
• content I made myself

each area contains poser runtime, plus folders for template, non-poser daz-studio and so on. On top of that, my Vue stuff is in a separate area, as is my good old Bryce.

Next to that I save all packs before installing in a very detailed Lib structure.

To get structure in my content folders itself I use P3dO-pro (like English Bob), first because I've already spend a lot of time building an elaborate structure in favorites (so I can put links to the same stuff in multiple places), second because I have one single structure for Poser, Daz Studio etc - which is at least a band aid when one gets older :), third because Yarp repeatedly added functions to P3dO to meet my needs :). He's that good.

have fun.

hah, okay - I guess clearly the bigger challenge is keeping the runtimes organized. I think I've redone by own runtimes at least 10 times over the years so totally get that.

I did just buy ShaderWorks Library Manager during Runtime DNA's sale too and really happy with the big thumbnails and all the awesome options that tool provides over Poser's own UI!

I guess I'm more trying to solve the central wishlist problem then the how to manage the content I already own problem.

I found that as soon as I'd see something I really liked, I'd buy it. But then way too often I wouldn't get around to actually using it! So I want a way to really easily pull those items up in a central browser so that it's super easy to find them when I'm ready for my next render. But then only actually purchase when I've decided to go ahead and use it.  

And then... if I'm going to have all of my "wishlist" items browsable, I want to also include the content I've already got because maybe instead of buying something new, I can actually make do with a piece of content I already own. 

Wish I could find a way to solve the "easier way to manage the content I already own" problem in an app I could make for everyone, as clearly that's the bigger problem. I'll noodle on that a bit. But for now, think I'll keep playing with the wishlist problem a bit more.

I find the best solution to wishlists is don't bother.Way sales are going for many sellers means theres no certainty it'll be be there 6 months down the line. So if something looks good enough I'll get it soon as I can. Even if that does mean not using it for a while. Plus it means it'll be there for other people to get it.

that's probably a good way of doing things mrsparky.

you are quite right.

Love esther

I've been dealing with this issue fior years

My current approach and one I've been using since poser supported multiple runtimes:

Each figure gets its own runtime: m4, v4, milkids, k4, lycantropos, etc

Then separate runtimes for Props, Hair, Animals.

I actually split the V4 runtime into V4Clothing and V4Characters, since it got cumbersome. Some things like clothing get split into origin folders - DAZ, Rendo, etc since for promos I need to use content from that store only if I can. The Conforming Hair folder is sorted by figure.

Hair and clothign textures are sorted by item so for example all the Amarseda textures end up in one folder.

This way when I am not using a figure I simply pack up its runtime for storage.

Issues: addon textures for clothing/hair that are not clearly labeled as what item they go to. When installing dozens of items at once it can be ahrd to keep track of what goes where

Issues: some items installers go to multiple figures such as m4/v4

DS content dolders go next to their mathcing runtimes, with essentially the same structuring excepting Genesis content which has to go in the base Library folder.

For a while I used a poser database program, actually 2 of them - one for Purchases and one for Installed items.

I stopped using the first one when DAZ changed its store and the creator charged for updating the purchase update script.

I stopped using the second one for Installed items when I relised that the programmer had not accounted for removed items

My installation process for new content

1- sort the new acquisitions into holding folders by destination runtime

2- copy any items that have multiple destinations (m4/v4 characters, etc)

3- install all items to a temporary runtime in their holding folder. Delete any extra thing. Adjust folder names as appropriate. I dont care who made a thing, I care what it is called and what figure it goes to.

4 - add these new items to my existing runtime and pat the pose files & etc into shape.

The only thing I would like to do that I can't is deletion. How to remove an item and its associated parts without breaking anythig else. CRPro has this as an option, but it was cumbersome.

L

I much prefer having a runtime that just has all the clothes, mats, poses for that item in it's own runtime.  Occasionally I put things together like all of the greenpots school stuff as the subfolders he has make it still easy to find things even when there is a lot of stuff.  I cannot imagine doing it any differently.  But without the advanced library manager from runtimedna it would be more difficult I guess.  I would have to remember what I named every external runtime containing folder.  Well because each hair external runtime folder starts with the word hair, even if I use the default library with poser, I scroll down and see all the hair in one big list all together so it is not impossible to find what I want that way too.