Hey guys, I have a question for you all...yes, ladies included...lol...now that I've got ALL these poser models, is there any kind of utility out there to build some kind of 'visual' catalog so that I know what went where? Like with all these hair models and such, they all seem to go into different directories...they aren't all in the 'hair' directory if you follow me. Any and all help in this matter would be GREATLY appreciated!!

Try P3dO Explorer, a great freeware browser utility by yarp. It's available at his website, SENO Software.

Suggestion: If you have the Pro Pack your thumbnails are *.png files. Do some shopping on the net for one of the many bitmap cataloging programs out there. Just make sure you get one that reads png files. Then make an album of your Poserruntime directory. Virtually all such programs will let you view or print the album with thumbnail images of your bitmaps, their file names, and the directories containing them. And many will let you do searches for partial matches in filenames and paths. So you can find everything that has, say, "mike" in its name or path. Then you can find that darned texture you downloaded a year ago but don't remember which directory you put it in. I use Extensis Portfolio to catalog my graphics but I'm not sure it'll read png's. I'm not home right now to check. There are better (and cheaper) catalogers out there anyway. If you don't have the pro pack, this suggestion won't work. I don't know of any cataloger that'll read rsr files except P3do Explorer, which is excellent. But it won't create, save or print albums and won't do searches.

True, but P3dO Explorer does have a Find function, sorting tools, plus a Favorites bookmark-type feature. And yarp will be adding a multi-folder browse feature soon.

Yes, P3dO is in my opinion the best!!!

P3dO is a great program. In fact it's what I use to find my Poser stuff. But it is limited in what it can do. Right now my Poser directories aren't as numerous as most peoples' but I'm nearing the point where I'm going to have to use an actual graphics database like Portfolio or Thumbs Plus, etc. I need the ability to assign key words to files and do searches based on them. Also the searches I mentioned on file names and paths. Soon I'm going to need to create separate albums for all my textures, poses, characters, etc. P3dO can't do that. If you need to find a pose for example, with P3dO you have to highlight a directory and look at each thumbnail. Then highlight the next, then the next, and on and on. With many pose directories that could take quite a while. And if you have large libraries on CDs, forget it. With an album consisting of all your poses and their paths, including CDs, it'd be a lot faster. And if you've assigned key words to your pose files it would be even faster. Plus I like the ability to print my catalogs so I don't need to reload the program every time I need to find something. Every program has its strengths and weaknesses. I love P3dO but for very large libraries, it just doesn't suffice.

Same for me ron, I keep the picture of each download I do. I found this discussion very intersting on the limit you get with P3dO. So may I add my opinion. Fist, I'd like to point out that P3dO does read through Zip files - since last summer. Although the plugin is not perfect and not finished (it only displays .RSR) P3dO does it. Then, P3dO has a function to print a catalog. Menu File | Print. Last, you want something added to P3dO just ask. That's the way I did Rsr2Png, the thumbnail print and nearly half of the addons. I know P3dO has many limits, I use it too ;)) As Jackson said "Every program has its strengths and weaknesses". My weakness is that I lack time. When I began P3dO I did it to fit my need. But although I don't have as much stuff as most of you, I meet the same difficulties to find back a Pose or a model. So what can I do ? I've been thinking about a database but I said to me "I don't even have time to unzip all my stuff, how could I find the time to fill a database". The P3dO concept is mostly based on the file name, same root name is similar file but I can extend it to a database. It seems to me a good idea, not that year I'm affraid.

In addition to keeping the zip and the thumbnail (renamed to match the zip), one thing I wish I'd started doing earlier was adding the authors name and a key word to both files.

So instead of: "p_f6.zip"

I've got:
"p_f6_dress_Sergemarck.zip"
and
"p_f6_dress_Sergemarck.jpg"

I'm bound to remember one of the three elements to use when searching.
And, if it did not come from here, sometimes a reference to the site as well (3DC, 3DCC, PFO, PPG, LAN, etc.)

Yes, we really do need a naming convention for files Nebula had a good idea, slightly mofified by me. Something like Filetype-Target-Filename-Author as in: CR-VIC2-Veronica-Popeye.zip (a Vicky character) PS-P4NF-SittingPoses-JoeBlow.zip (Dina poses) MT-EVE4-Yvette-JaneDoe.zip (EveV4 morph target) TX-MIK2-DraculaHead-Igor.jpg (mike texture) etc. Clothing type, etc. would be nice but I think there too many garments to have a standard. With a system like this, it would be easy to have a database app that would allow you to quickly pull up a list of all your Vicky textures. Thumbnails or small renders, notes, etc, could be added to each record as well. By itself, it would help with organization. The problem, of course is getting people to adhere to it. Making it a standard for marketplace items would be a start. It only takes a few seconds to make a meaningful name and it helps a lot.

Yarp, it would be great if you could add the ability to save user-created "albums" (for lack of a better word) that could span several disks and directories. That way the user could have all their poses in one album (printed or not). Likewise all their textures, characters, props, hair, etc. If you could do that, I'd throw Portfolio in the trash (I hate that program). Thanks for listening.

I found very intersting ideas from here ;)) Naming conventions could be used by P3dO to browse file with a specific patterned name. i.e JaneDoe or Eve from severall folders of course. I'll add this in next release. Jackson, This is an excellent idea. I'll have a look at that soft but I'll do my best to make this before summer. What is left is to find how to retrieve files from CD's an that's true the only way to do this is a database. I've been thinking about this from yesterday. Well it can be an addon plugin after all. Let's think about that.

I just went through most of my Poser directories (new computer) and reorganized everything into categories so that finding things would be easier. The only thing I didn't touch is my Geometries folder, basically. So for example, in my character directory I have Millenium-Characters, P4W-Fantasy, P4W-Modern, P4W-Shoes, Hair, and so on. Now when I unzip a new download, I unzip it to a temp dir and copy stuff to the folders I want them to live in from the start. The most work was the Poses dir, but I sorted those by type, like this: MOR-Morname-Creator, MAT-Item/Character-Name, POSE-Character-Type-Creator. Doing that has been a huge, huge help in that gigantic directory.

There are two problems with large directories/folders. 1.) If you have two many folders in any given category, the names of each folder get chopped off, to 5 characters or even less. It is incredibly difficult to find anything as well. 2.) If you have too many items in a folder, then you can barely get ahold of the slider on the right hand side. I've spent several minutes fighthing with that stub! Right now, the slider looks ok. That is because I've done a recent total reinstall of Poser, and am keeping my libraries down to a bare minimum.

I can't put my finger on a screenshot of showing my "massive installation". This screenshot will at least give you an idea. The list is getting pretty long. Eventually the filenames get chopped off to the point where you can barely identify them. Then you need to scroll forever to get through them.

For these 2 reasons I avoid to put my Poser stuff under Poser Libraries and even Poser Geometries. There are other reasons of course like disk space. Should Poser have a hierarchy way of selecting items (like Windows Explorer) would greatly ease file management. Maybe with P5, I hope so.

I submitted that to the Poser 5 wishlist some time ago. Hopefully it will happen. Perhaps Metacreations never envisioned the number of poses/characters that whould be available or maybe it was a compromise for easy PC/Mac compatibility I don't know. The answer, as you say is simple, clicking on poses should bring up a standard file/open dialog or a treeview ala P3DO with thumbnails.

That's a very good point for P5. I'm really eager to see it shipping out. I think that most Poser weakness were due to Mac/PC compatibility which is a bit difficult to achieve.