I have a few idea i would like to throw up in the air.
Library -
I would be nice if you could allow drag and drop from the files (images) to the folders. For example, you can take a dress from one file, drop it into another file. I say this because the biggest pain is to organize all the runtimes to match across the Camera, Character, Face, etc.. The way I am organizing it now is, making a folder inside each of these directories, like Aiko 3, then putting all the associated files inside it. That way when i fire up AL i just click on Aiko 3 and all of the associated files are listed under that. But then I have to go deeper with each product i load, make sure its under the required product, etc... Very time consuming. BUT .. if we could just install all the programs inside the runtime, then organize it from AL side, it would be SO MUCH nicer, faster, and easy to keep new installations organized. Sorry about being long winded on this, i wanted to make sure you understand what I am trying to say.
Trees -
I would be nice if we could select our own icons for the trees. I noticed that once this is enabled, you have the option to change the icon, but the choices are limited to the 10 you have defaulted. This would allow users to pump up the size, and put some custom icons of their choice on some of the folders.
Also, if you could make the tree more adjustable, so the offset between the parent and the child would be more offset, it would be nice. With 1000+ installed products, its hard to determine where you are in the tree, to easily jump from one section to another. If they were a little more spread out, you could see the hierarchy tree a bit better and easier to navigate through. Example: Jumping between "characters" and "clothing", with each of them having 10+ subfolders between. Always find myself stuck reading each folder name as i move up to located what I am looking for. I know its nice to keep it close for sake of room, but now does everyone has bigger monitors, or dual. I have AL running on its own monitor, so I have plenty of room to expanding it and get the full effect of the program.
Anyhow, this is my 2 cents on some ideas that really mean alot to me, and i am sure others would see them as most helpfull also. This is an incredible product, and you have done an awesome job.
Thanks,
Xajar
Here is a sample of my tree, so you can see what i mean.
(http://www.rccasework.com/images/Tree.png)
Quote from: Xajar on September 06, 2009, 06:36:23 AM
Library -
I would be nice if you could allow drag and drop from the files (images) to the folders. For example, you can take a dress from one file, drop it into another file. I say this because the biggest pain is to organize all the runtimes to match across the Camera, Character, Face, etc.. The way I am organizing it now is, making a folder inside each of these directories, like Aiko 3, then putting all the associated files inside it. That way when i fire up AL i just click on Aiko 3 and all of the associated files are listed under that. But then I have to go deeper with each product i load, make sure its under the required product, etc... Very time consuming. BUT .. if we could just install all the programs inside the runtime, then organize it from AL side, it would be SO MUCH nicer, faster, and easy to keep new installations organized. Sorry about being long winded on this, i wanted to make sure you understand what I am trying to say.
I'm not sure if I'm going to implement drag and drop for me that's part of the organization and can be achieved with the "Runtime Installation Helper" (picking various differently named folders and moving the files to folders with just one name in all categories).
Here's how the "Runtime Installation Helper works" (you can try that already in the latest beta from the "Settings"/"General" tab):
1. Select a folder that contains a item ready to install (unzipped version or a test runtime you've installed a DAZ product to) or a parent folder that contains multiple of those folders via "Change Folder". The folder structure from the installation is presented (blue colored folder names contain files)
2. Select the runtime you want to "install" to from the dropdown (the merged library is displayed (meaning character/pose/... folders are displayed as if they were the same folder) and find where you want to install to (e.g. "V7/Hair")
3. Check the folders on the left which you want to copy to the runtime.
4. If you want to create a subfolder choose either "Prepare new folder" (you'll have to choose the name) or "Prepare with selected name" (a folder with the name choosen from the left tree will be created") from the contextmenu of the right side.
5. Now either choose "copy checked folders to folders with this name" (this will copy the items from the left side to the right side, creating the folder from step 4 if necessary to the appropriate folders (character/pose/...)) or "reference checked folders with this name" (which would just create shortcuts to the folders and not move anything - necessary for my runtime setup only probably ;-))
6. Select all the geometry folders and choose "copy to runtime" from the left side context menu...
Shift-marking a checkbox will select / deselect all items on the same level.
"copy to library" will copy to the "runtime/libraries" folder
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Trees -
I would be nice if we could select our own icons for the trees. I noticed that once this is enabled, you have the option to change the icon, but the choices are limited to the 10 you have defaulted. This would allow users to pump up the size, and put some custom icons of their choice on some of the folders.
You can place any images you'd like to have as icons in the Advanced_Library\images folder, even replace the existing ones. Chose "Explore" from the "Misc." tab of the "Settings" tab to find that folder.)
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Also, if you could make the tree more adjustable, so the offset between the parent and the child would be more offset, it would be nice. With 1000+ installed products, its hard to determine where you are in the tree, to easily jump from one section to another.
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I'll look into that as I get a lot more spacing.
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Anyhow, this is my 2 cents on some ideas that really mean alot to me, and i am sure others would see them as most helpfull also. This is an incredible product, and you have done an awesome job.
Thanks.
Sorry, my bad for not looking into the "installation helper" like i should have. I see what you are trying to do with this, and it makes total sense.
What would the possibility be to add a "move" feature to the installation helper? This way you have 1 runtime that you load all your new content in (or 1 at a time) then MOVE the files over to the destination runtime you want it in, leaving a blank clean runtime for the next new installed content? I understand the issues with the geo files, and also the texture files, but as long as you (the user) moves them to the new runtime also, you shouldnt run into any problems with poser reading the files.
Bottom line, I have over 1800 poser add-ons, and trying to find the best fastest way to organize them. Currently I have them broke down into character runtimes, but there are so many that cross reference each other, its sick to try and make sense of it all.
I also understand the way you have your runtimes set up, you have runtimes with all the categories you want, then you make a virtual directory (with just links) to point to each runtime. This may be the solution that I need to go with, and then have 1 runtime with references to all of my other character runtimes. But if I can make each runtime independent of each other, that would be the best.
Thanks again!
Quote from: Xajar on September 06, 2009, 08:35:51 PM
Sorry, my bad for not looking into the "installation helper" like i should have. I see what you are trying to do with this, and it makes total sense.
Well, you really couldn't know what its purpose is ;-)
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What would the possibility be to add a "move" feature to the installation helper?
That's not too hard to add, will probably be added.
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Bottom line, I have over 1800 poser add-ons, and trying to find the best fastest way to organize them. Currently I have them broke down into character runtimes, but there are so many that cross reference each other, its sick to try and make sense of it all.
I also understand the way you have your runtimes set up, you have runtimes with all the categories you want, then you make a virtual directory (with just links) to point to each runtime. This may be the solution that I need to go with, and then have 1 runtime with references to all of my other character runtimes. But if I can make each runtime independent of each other, that would be the best.
Actually, I only have one runtime (besides those of the Poser versions).
All geometries are moved to the appropriate folders in the runtime. The libraries parts are actually outside the libraries folder in folder per store and item, maintaining the original vendor's folders. E.g. content from store S, vendor V is in "runtime/_org/S/V/libraries/pose/stupidnamedfolder/" and "runtime/_org/S/V/libraries/character/anotherfoldername/". Inside runtime/libraries/... I then have useful folder names and shortcuts (regular ones from Windows) to folders/items in "runtime/_org". The idea was that I don't have to remember where I moved stuff when there are updates to it (e.g. not remembering that I changed "stupidnamedfolder" and "anotherfoldername" to "/vehicles/cars/oldtimer/xyz"). That library was also still browsable with with Poser prior Poser 8...
Anyway: Check out the latest beta for options for indent for the tree items, that should help with the offset you wanted in your first post.