diogenese19348, I understand that you prefer the way you do things. That is fine. No one should even try to tell you how you should be organized.

For me, I keep my zip filed products on an external hard drive and I have only what I need to use in the next month installed other than the products from DAZ 3D.

I have several programs I use for my artwork; three modeling programs, one UV mapping program, four paint programs, one program I use for creating backgrounds, and of course DAZ Studio as my central application where I usually bring everything together. All together I think this takes up perhaps a little over three or four gigs of memory space on my internal hard drive.

Like you I invested in a 1 terabyte external, and I also have a 320 gig external. Along with the 500 gig internal, and that gives me plenty of memory to play with.

I do have my own organizing setup which normally works well for me but I can say without being ashamed that it could use a good bit of work. Finding the time to do that work is another thing entirely. For now, what I am doing is reorganizing a little at a time, as this is at best a tedious task that I can only work at for so long before I need to stop and find something else to do.

Quote - > Quote -  I often ctriticize vendors that don't include nude promos with a character as in my mind you are leaving out important promos for an important part of the actual product. I have sent emails asking certain vendors about this and it usually comes down to their personal preference which makes absolutely no sense to me based on the nature of the product, textures.

Even as someone who doesn't do a lot of nude renders, it does strike me as odd/annoying when a vendor doesn't do that unless it's a sitewide mandate.  What's probably just as annoying when they only show one angle.  Then again, "vendor promo complaints" is a topic for another thread and I've been trying not to start ranting about.

Something you must consider when you create a product and upload it for sale or as a freebie. It is this: Who are the people that will be able to see the promos? If the underaged people are allowed on the site, as they are here at Renderosity, then nudity in any form would not be appropriate. If only adults are allowed on the site, then the packaging and the promos should be up to the creator of the product. If I'm the one that made the product, I will market it as I see fit. Anybody that gets mad because of the way I market my products, is just wasting an emotion on something that he or she has no control over. So I say live with it. Let the vendor market the product in his or her own way.

It is not yet a requirement that 3rd party vendors include metadata, and I hope things stay that way. I think the creator of a product should have full control over how he or she packages it.

If metadata is wanted for a product that does not have it, installing the product, loading it, and saving it to the relevant preset file type, ie pose, chararacter, materials, wearable, or what have you will put it in your Smart Content directory, at least for DAZ Studio 4.x and 4.5 Pro. This works similar to metadata if it isn't metadata in actuality. I save poses, materials, wearable, character, morph, and even scene presets, and all of these appear in my Smart Content.

One thing I have noticed about my version of DAZ Studio is that when I save Presets and Scenes, a thumbnail is created from what is in the scene window, and the preset or scene file becomes automatically accessible in my Smart Content. As I understand this (I may be wrong about this) that is what metadata does, (not the first part so much as the second part (underlined). I know that all of the products I have that came with metadata appear in Smart Content. I can grab what I want by opening the Smart Content tab, or I can navigate to it by opening the Content Library tab. If I am already in the Content Library, I usually navigate to what I want there, even if it has metadata. If I'm not using the Content Library and need an item that has metadata, I open the Smart Content tab and grab it there.

I would definitely like to see a database of high quality metadata made for items that don't come with it.

I think another thing that could help if it could be done, is a file organizing program that intelligently reads your content files and knows the best places to put them. It would prompt you with recommendations on where to put the file, and allow you to decide if that location is right for you, and if not you could tell it where you want the file.

DAZ's BitRock Installer is a good example of what I'm talking about. Of course this one would work this way for anything you install for DAZ Studio, whether it is 3rd party or not. Don't ask me to create it though. I would not know how to do that as I don't know how to write program code.

I agree Razor42. It really is a matter of experience and knowledge as well as preference. Also, I cannot see how metadata would slow anyone down because it actually helps find relevant files without you have to do a manual search.

It is odd that both DAZ Studio and Poser have the same type of Content organaization system, but that said, they are able to use many of the same products as each other.

Another program that has Content  Storage Files is Bryce; but the organization is far different, and much easier to navigate. Materials are kept in files attached to the Materials Lab, While object presets are kept in a completely different location under the Create tab. Then you have the Skies Library kept within the Sky & Fog Lab. You cannot place other types of things in either of those Libraries; however, if you know how to do it you can access the Materials Library from many of the other Labs. The Labs that can do this are the Sky & Fog Lab, the Deep Terrain Editor, and the Tree Lab.

It is far easier to navigate in Bryce than in DAZ Studio or Poser; and Bryce is a DAZ product.

Another little thing is that you can have the same item in multiple places.  For example if a set of expressions goes with a set of poses, you can make a second folder off of the pose folder for the expressions, and keep them in two places.

One thing you have to consider when you put the same thing in more than one place in your Content Library is the fact that each instance of that item takes up memory space on your hard drive. For someone that has a lot of memory to burn so to speak that may not be a problem; but if you are trying to save as much memory as possible (like me), having more than one of anything in your Content Library is not an option that will do that.

As it is I remove much of my 3rd party content and save it in Zip form on my external hard drive. That way I can retrieve it when I need it for something I am working on. And because it is in Zip form it takes up less memory space.

Another thing that I have noted is that many wearable products get made to fit different figures. Like a top made to fit V4, and another version of the same top for say Aiko 3, and yet another for V3, and so on. Now it is possible to make just one fit all figures with a little tweaking; but if you prefer to have each version so you don't have to tweak it for each figure, you can still have just the one texture file for all of them if they share the same UV maps and templates. What I mean is the texture for one version will work with the others that use the same templates of UV maps. So you don't need to have more than one of the same texture for those items. I advise looking into the textures folders for each version to see if the templates are the same. If they are, only put one of each texture into your Runtime folder. 

Thank you, Razor42. You have more or less said it all perfectly. I only wish the metadata option could be included in all products. I would say it should remain an option rather than a requirement, simply because not everybody wants to use it. 

At the DAZ Store all products made recently for DAZ Studio have metadata included. The staff at DAZ 3D is actively working to create metadata for the older products as well, and much of it has already been done. I recently had to reset my downloads for a product that was deleted from my hard drive. The original did not have metadata, but the reset did.

Many products have metadata as a separate downloadable file, which to me is how it should be. There are a lot of the recent products that have it built in, and it automatically installs when the product installs. When you open DAZ Studio after installing 1 or more products, a window appears that lists the new metadata that has been added. You can accept it as it is, or you can tell it what you want it to do with it.

Either way the metadata can be allowed to exist, or you can opt it out if you wish. I personally always keep it, simply because it makes finding what I want a lot easier than scrolling through hundreds of products to get to the one I want. My workflow goes much faster because of this.

man, that does sound pretty confusing. I don't have that problem, I have seperate poser runtimes for V4 with sub categories for poses and characters, same for M4, hair, creatures, architecture, props and ones for other figures such as miki, etc. All my genesis specific files install into the same directory for DAZ files and I know where all my files are without metadata. All in all 67.9 gigs of content plus another 32 gigs from an old gen3 runtime on my backup drive.

I have only been using DAZ for a little over a year, and just as I was getting to know what I could do with the earlier versions of 4, I see the 4.5 Pro is offered for free. Well I had to get it because it has features the others do not have. Through it all though. I have been frustrated with the Content Library Setup. I don't know anything about organizing my Runtime for either of the directories. I also don't know much about creating metadata, but I do know that the metadata I have helps in a big way.

I have product hidden somewhere in my Content that I cannot seem to find. Some 3rd party vendors don't include a readme, and some that do don't tell you how to find the product. To me metadata would most certainly help.

I think metadata is good for what it does. I have a lot of content in my Library that occupies different locations with in it, even though they are the same type of product. Example: High Boots for V4 is found in my props folder in the My Library part of the Poser directory. Another footwear product for the same figure is found in the Figures folder of that same directory, and yet another is found in the My Library part of the DAZ Studio directory in the People folder of the Content folder. Obviously, this can be confusing. Three different footwear products in three different locations, and none have metadata.

I think the real problem is that the system for the content in DAZ is flawed by the way it is setup. If I understand correctly, Poser is not any better with this. I can't back up that last statement, however, as I do not nor have I ever had Poser. Even so, many of my friends on line do have it and from the way they talk the same problem exists for them.

Have you installed all of the files you received with you copy of 4.5? If not, that may be your problem. Also you should register your copy with DAZ 3D. Some things are not active until you do that. If these things do not solve the problem, I suggest putting a request in at the DAZ 3D Help Desk. The good folks there should be able to tell you what to do.

Good luck.

Quote - *I am thinking about trying out DS4.5 to check out some of its new features, but the thought of having to reinstall all of my content is causing me to put it off. *

I updated to 4.5 Pro about a month ago, and have not had any problems with it of any real significance. All of my installed content, in both the DAZ Studio and the Poser formats, are all in the places I had them before and working correctly. When I first opened DS 4.5 Pro, some of my content did not appear in the Library. After closing and re-opening the app., it had reappeared where it belongs.

I think the reason the content remains installed is because it is actually stored in folders on your hard drive, not in the application itself. The application is written in a way that allows it to read specified directories that lead it to the content you want to load into your scene. You may notice when you load a content product, the words "Importing ___________" appears in the loading panel. Some things load so fast you do not have time to read the text in the loading panel, but others such as Victoria 4.2 have so much data attached to them that the panels stay onscreen long enough to read what is in them. 

As for the Starter Essentials, I agree that you need to install them even though the same products found in the previous version are found in this one. This will ensure that your Starter Essentials content is up to date and user ready for the new version of DAZ Studio. If you have certain extra morphs for the Genesis figure, (like head, face, hand, foot, and body morphs), the installation of the Starter Essentials package will ensure that they work as they are designed to work. If it does not, I suggest downloading the latest versions of those morphs and re-installing them. Of course you will need to uninstall the originals and delete them so that they do not interfere with the new version installation process.

I must say the new version is awesome. Practically every plugin is active. The AniMate 2 plugin stays active for just 30 days, unless you have the pay version already installed. If you downloaded 4.5 Pro in the last month, you should not need the free updates for the plugins. This will save a lot of time and trouble.

I hope this helps.

I tried the suit out and got a render done. I'll upload the image as soon as I get it to an acceptable size. 

I still don't know how to use the shaders. Perhaps someone here can help me with this?

Any advice, links to tutorials, or suggestions will be most appreciated.

Update: I finally got the card problem resolved. I have already purchased the Genesis Supersuit basic package, and installed it. I have yet to open DAZ Studio 4.5 Pro to see what can be done with it. As soon as I post this comment, I'm going to look into it.

I will probably be relying on help from all of my friends here and elsewhere to learn the ins and outs of the product.

I don't mind telling you all "I'm Happy Now!"

Stay Awesome!

Agent0013.

Thanks for the advice ldgilman. I tried it once before but could not get it to work for me. I think it's probably because of me rather than Pay Pal. At any rate, the money is already on the card so I have to work with what I have for now. I'm planning to call the company tomorrow if the problem has not yet been resolved. Don't want to jump in their throats but I'll do whatever it takes.