As I am in the process of reinstalling a considerable amount of stuff on my new laptop I was wondering why some  Zip files all go into the right place and some do not (yes use folder names is checked) about 90% work ok and go to the right place and poser 2010 search finds them. The file path is C:/Program Files /Smith Micro/Poser Pro 2010

and this is where I unzip to . now a large number of files have :

Character name/authors name/Runtim/etc etc these just end up in the poser 2010 folder and poser dosn't seem to find them so either I move every thing by hand to the correct folders very time consuming or just add them as another runtime for poser ,will poser end up with problems if it has a large number of runtimes or am I just doing something wrong? thanks in advance for any help

ps I know / is wrong way this is my wifes Thai keyboard and cant turn on all the right English characters! so / is better than ฃ or ฅ which is on same key as backslash

You don't say if you're on a PC or a Mac. Here is some help if it's PC:

It depends on whether or not the creator of the item saved his/her files with paths attached. If they did, it unzips fine. If not, you're out of luck.

In my experience, most of the lousy zips are freebees. The people who make them either don''t know how to package them or don't care. (Could have something to do with not being bothered because it's free?)

At any rate, if the various folders are there in your root directory, all you have to do is drag them to their peers in the runtime. FI, Libraries is located just under Runtime. So is Geometries. Just drag like to like and you will get a message that you are about to merge two folders with the same name. OK it and you're in business.

If there are no folders... just files... make a folder for it. Drag all of the files into said folder. If the main files is a PP2, drag it to the Props folder of the runtime. If it is a CR2, drag it to the character folder.

Poser will find these folders and should assemble the product, even though the file structure is not actually right.

See if this helps.

open the .xx2 file (cr2 pp2 etc) in a text editor and find out what folder structure the file uses for geometries and textures

ok first yes I am on a pc some of the stuff was free and some not 1 vender in particular i have quite a few items bought and paid for everything is in folders but there character name is part of the file path if that makes sense? will try what you suggested

Look just under the character name. There is probably a folder called "runtime". Drag that out to where your main runtime is and let it merge.

Here is a valuable tip:  open the compressed file.  If the very first folder you see is runtime then you can 99.9% assume that all associated files in the Libraries hierarchy are correct.  You can decompress into a temporary folder and further examine content.  Now, this is a good opportunity to delete files not necessary to your current Poser version.  P4, P5 files, not necessary for PP2010; those are older file versions which have no association with the Material Room.  DAZStudio files; unless you own DAZStudio and have it installed, no need to retain those files.  Unfortunately, you appear rather new to this, so picking out what is necessary and what isn't is totally unfamiliar to you. 

Once you have given this runtime a thorough inspection, move the entire runtime folder to it's final destination.  You will be prompted that you will be replacing the existing runtime, but under a PC that only means you will be adding new content to the folder, not replacing old with new.

As Basicwiz posted, vendors try to maintain a cohesive integrity with compressed content adhering to how the runtime is structured in Poser.  Free content is usually haphazardly put together with the right intention but do not strictly follow the Poser runtime rule.

yes there is and that works many thanks for your help it will save me loads of time

As a matter of correction, P5 does have Mat Room capacity IIRC.

I have a folder called "Where the ____ will it install" and I put everything in there and then move it after I find out what it does upon installation.

I think a lot of this comes from wanting their items to be under their name, or handle as the case may be.  My own will all install under "Greybeard", but that can't be the first folder name,  As mine are just props, when I create the zip, the archive itself will be named for whatever is in it, but the unzip does not contain the prop name until it's inside say, runtime>libraries>props>Greybeard>(prop name).  It follows suit that the materials also have the same setup, when it unzips, the files go where they should go.  A lot of older files depended on the user to unzip into a temp folder then move the files to their proper location, but I don't believe anyone is doing that anymore.  I would hope they aren't.

If I were to put a "Greybeard" folder in front of runtime, when it was unzipped, it wouldn't show up, because there would be a folder in the poser folder called Greybeard where nothing could find it.

D.

Quote - I have a folder called "Where the ____ will it install" and I put everything in there and then move it after I find out what it does upon installation.

I used to just unzip to the runtime if there was runtime folder but I was amazed at the number of variations for the 'Read Me' file and folders.  Now, as many have suggested, I have a folder I unzip to and then move the files to the folders I want.  If only I had done this from the start. 

Interesting. When I purchase something and it uses the author's name as the main folder, I go in and move the actual item name up one level and delete the name folder. It is far more useful for me to know what the item is than to know who made it. This is just ego, and it's not helpful.

Quote - Interesting. When I purchase something and it uses the author's name as the main folder, I go in and move the actual item name up one level and delete the name folder. It is far more useful for me to know what the item is than to know who made it. This is just ego, and it's not helpful.

Yes. Especially if it's a texture set... I then rename the folder to include the name of the item it textures.

That said, having collected a certain large amount of content, there are certain vendors that I have bought so much stuff from and whose stuff I like so much that it is worth organizing their content under their own names.

Hmmm. I'd rather have JoeBlow/FrillyDress & JoeBlow/SillyDress than having a separate folder for each item underneath the base folder. I agree that the vendor name usually isn't informative for finding an item but, on the rare occasions that I'm going to be looking for it - say to alter the texture, I'm going to be using a search utility (Everything strongly recommended: http://www.voidtools.com/), not scanning the folders by eye so it's not really a factor.

That's for textures. For characters, I'm more likely to put all of JoeBlow's creepy crawlies inot 'Monsters' or something. One man's logic is another's chaos or at least inconvenience :-)

I'm actually with you lmckenzie...

I have folders under the main... dresses, tops and bottoms, undies, swimsuits, etc. and place all the like items in those so it's not searching through chaos. But that's something we all have to come to in our own time. I really think ANY scheme other than the vendor's name makes sense if it's how you think.