Back in the '70s in college I took a course in Software Quality Assurance (SQA).   Two of the main attributes are consistency and standards.   When it comes to DAZ products, DAZ has set the standard for consistency.

I get a little irritated when I see folders like "prop" or "readmes", as well as misspelled folder names.   So, I thought I would post a list of the DAZ implemented folder names.   These are folders found at the library level (i.e. My DAZ 3D Library as default).

When you put together packages to sell or give away, these are the key folder names that DAZ uses at the My DAZ 3D Library level (ignore my date and time stamp.   For accuracy, I simply did a "dir" command to get the list):

10/12/2022  10:39 AM    <DIR>          Accessories

12/06/2022  10:49 AM    <DIR>          Animals

12/15/2022  10:18 PM    <DIR>          Architecture

12/15/2022  10:18 PM    <DIR>          Camera Presets

12/15/2022  10:28 PM    <DIR>          Cameras

12/20/2022  12:32 PM    <DIR>          Environments

03/02/2022  12:36 PM    <DIR>          Fabrics

12/07/2022  10:09 AM    <DIR>          Figures

11/13/2022  06:47 AM    <DIR>          General

12/21/2022  01:36 PM    <DIR>          Geometries

09/07/2022  09:06 AM    <DIR>          Hair

12/17/2022  07:26 AM    <DIR>          Light Presets

10/05/2022  08:32 AM    <DIR>          Lights

12/20/2022  01:05 PM    <DIR>          Materials

12/18/2022  07:28 PM    <DIR>          People

12/20/2022  01:05 PM    <DIR>          Presets

12/26/2022  11:54 AM    <DIR>          Props

12/18/2022  07:06 PM    <DIR>          ReadMe's

12/15/2022  10:28 PM    <DIR>          Render Presets

09/28/2022  03:16 AM    <DIR>          Render Settings

12/18/2022  06:31 PM    <DIR>          Scene Subsets

12/18/2022  07:09 PM    <DIR>          Scenes

12/22/2022  07:24 AM    <DIR>          Scripts

12/21/2022  03:35 PM    <DIR>          Shader Presets

12/17/2022  07:27 AM    <DIR>          Shaders

12/26/2022  11:58 AM    <DIR>          Templates

12/26/2022  11:58 AM    <DIR>          Textures

11/09/2022  11:35 AM    <DIR>          Transportation

As many DAZ products deal with "people", inside the people folder it should be broken down by the character's base figure.   Here are a list of folders used by DAZ in the People folder:

04/18/2022  09:23 PM    <DIR>          Genesis

09/23/2021  08:41 PM    <DIR>          Genesis 1 Female

10/02/2022  10:11 AM    <DIR>          Genesis 1 Male

11/01/2021  05:08 PM    <DIR>          Genesis 2

07/22/2022  01:38 PM    <DIR>          Genesis 2 Female

10/21/2022  01:28 PM    <DIR>          Genesis 2 Male

12/10/2022  12:59 PM    <DIR>          Genesis 3

12/08/2022  06:02 AM    <DIR>          Genesis 3 Female

09/28/2022  12:22 PM    <DIR>          Genesis 3 Male

12/15/2022  04:49 PM    <DIR>          Genesis 8

12/22/2022  06:11 AM    <DIR>          Genesis 8 Female

12/08/2022  11:25 PM    <DIR>          Genesis 8 Male

07/22/2022  01:39 PM    <DIR>          Genesis 8.1

12/07/2022  05:05 PM    <DIR>          Genesis 8.1 Female

09/17/2022  08:17 PM    <DIR>          Genesis 8.1 Male

12/07/2022  03:49 PM    <DIR>          Genesis 9

Inside EACH of the above you'll find more consistency:

12/05/2022  09:51 AM    <DIR>          Accessories

12/06/2022  01:55 PM    <DIR>          Anatomy

12/15/2022  10:25 PM    <DIR>          Animations

12/26/2022  11:54 AM    <DIR>          Characters

12/24/2022  06:37 PM    <DIR>          Clothing

10/05/2022  05:11 AM    <DIR>          Daz Originals

05/14/2022  08:39 PM    <DIR>          Developer Kit

12/21/2022  01:58 PM    <DIR>          Expressions

11/12/2022  09:41 AM    <DIR>          Footwear

12/21/2022  03:51 PM    <DIR>          Geo Shells

12/17/2022  07:24 AM    <DIR>          Hair

12/17/2022  07:33 AM    <DIR>          Materials

12/22/2022  06:11 AM    <DIR>          Modine

11/19/2022  08:46 PM    <DIR>          Nails Factory

12/24/2022  11:17 AM    <DIR>          Poses

12/18/2022  06:31 PM    <DIR>          Props

It's important to note that the Props folder in the people subfolders are props that are specific to that character.   Example, a sword that is fitted to the hand of a G8F will be in People/Genesis 8 Female/Props.  Whereas, if it is just a general prop, not specific to a character, it is found in the library Prop folder.

In each subfolder, most vendors organize their products in their own folder.   For example, in People/Genesis 8 Female/Characters you might find a sub folder for Sabby if you own some Sabby products.   That folder would contain various characters for Sabby's products.   However, it is also acceptable to preface your products with a name.   An example of that is in my Character folder I see that the SASE products are prefaced by SASE instead of being in their own fold.   Either is acceptable, but should be consistent.

Feel free to share this, and if you have input, please add to it.   It's to ALL of our advantage to be consistent.

Per DAZ, there are no 8.1 folders in people.

confusing in my Daz there is an 8.1 folder, should I put them under Genesis 8 Female's folder?

donnena posted at 2:43 PM Mon, 26 December 2022 - #4452538

Per DAZ, there are no 8.1 folders in people.

That's interesting, because that's where DAZ Install Manager installed 8.1 figures as well as some other assets.  For example DAZ's Brook 8.1, Victoria 8.1 and other DAZ purchased products got installed there by DIM.

donnena posted at 2:43 PM Mon, 26 December 2022 - #4452538

Per DAZ, there are no 8.1 folders in people.

Okay, I've done some digging.  Perhaps it is the case, and other vendors are creating those folders to store their assets for the 8.1 characters.  

Frankly, I'm surprised that DAZ WOULDN'T put them in their own folder as you can get yourself jammed up if you try to use a G8.1 asset on a G8 character.   The other direction works (applying 8 to 8.1), but you can't get away with apply an 8.1 asset on an 8 character.

Then, 9 comes along and they do away with any gender identification.  Uhg.

With my background in software engineering this is one of the first things I noticed about Daz Studio when I began using it around Thanksgiving 2021. I mentioned it in at least one of my YouTube videos as well, and I have pointed out the misspelled/duplicate folders to vendors. No standardization, no standards for content pages or documentation, inconsistencies everywhere, effectively no instructions or communications between developers and end users. Many products don't even work after using Daz's own installers, Daz suddenly takes away the "free gift" content they previously gave you and then try to sell it to you, and the largest content folder in Daz Studio is "Lost & Found" - useless junk, which you paid good money for. Daz Studio is just a hodgepodge of fun "stuff" from a bunch of confusing and overlapping generations that is enticing enough to lure people to the Daz Store, where every manipulative sales tactic in the book is used to drain customers' bank accounts, with endless "sales" that ultimately still costs far more than the content is worth. I enjoy creating renders with Daz, but it is a deliberate failure as creativity platform. The free software was never meant to benefit users. It was created to sell content, and nothing more. If it wasn't for non-Daz sites like Renderosity I would have dumped it a long time ago. Daz should be ashamed that a homeless customer knows more about running a competent professional business, more about software engineering, and more about business ethics, than they do. But Daz just doesn't care.

Lost and Found is a category, not a folder. It is things that don't have a proper category assigned, some because they are oddities (e.g. site links), some because of packaging errors or because they are very old content from products that do not have proper metadata.

RHaseltine posted at 3:42 PM Wed, 1 February 2023 - #4455164

Lost and Found is a category, not a folder. It is things that don't have a proper category assigned, some because they are oddities (e.g. site links), some because of packaging errors or because they are very old content from products that do not have proper metadata.

Good point.  Thank you.

IAmNobodySpecial posted at 10:01 PM Tue, 31 January 2023 - #4455126

With my background in software engineering this is one of the first things I noticed about Daz Studio when I began using it around Thanksgiving 2021. I mentioned it in at least one of my YouTube videos as well, and I have pointed out the misspelled/duplicate folders to vendors. No standardization, no standards for content pages or documentation, inconsistencies everywhere, effectively no instructions or communications between developers and end users. Many products don't even work after using Daz's own installers, Daz suddenly takes away the "free gift" content they previously gave you and then try to sell it to you, and the largest content folder in Daz Studio is "Lost & Found" - useless junk, which you paid good money for. Daz Studio is just a hodgepodge of fun "stuff" from a bunch of confusing and overlapping generations that is enticing enough to lure people to the Daz Store, where every manipulative sales tactic in the book is used to drain customers' bank accounts, with endless "sales" that ultimately still costs far more than the content is worth. I enjoy creating renders with Daz, but it is a deliberate failure as creativity platform. The free software was never meant to benefit users. It was created to sell content, and nothing more. If it wasn't for non-Daz sites like Renderosity I would have dumped it a long time ago. Daz should be ashamed that a homeless customer knows more about running a competent professional business, more about software engineering, and more about business ethics, than they do. But Daz just doesn't care.

I'm going to have to agree with the majority of what you've said.  It really rubs me the wrong way when you get a banner at the top of your DAZ screen saying, "We have a gift for you", and you click on it and it's noting more than a BOGO offer, or discount based on an expensive purchase.   A gift comes as something FREE with no strings attached.   If you have to make a purchase, then it isn't a gift.

As to Lost and Found in "Smart Content"...

I find stuff in that category that I have to scratch my head and ask why DAZ doesn't fix it in the product folders and meta data.  Many times I find it is poser content installed in folders that overlap with DAZ folders (this is my theory).   So, I've just stopped letting DIM install Poser content.  I'll install it manually and not worry about it not showing in Smart Content.

Going back to my original comment that started this thread...

I'm more irritated about folder names and locations from non-DAZ sources.  I manually install a LOT of content and it is a royal pain if I have to rename or relocated downloaded content so it will show up with other products of the same nature.   Add to that Apple users that include .DS_Store  or PC users that include ANYTHING that is a .INI file.