I have a number of freebies I've downloaded over the years, and finally deciding to look at ones I haven't used, I unzipped - and in some cases unrared - into a folder called, oddly enough, Freebies.

Now, the problem, such as it is, some - many - of the files were archived with an extra top level folder which is no use and, to help speed up the process of getting to 'em - there are a lot - I'd like to know of a way to safely delete all the top level folders in one go, leaving the inner ones intact.

I know I can simply open the things up but believe me, after 20 or so, it gets real old.

Just for clarity, I've tried Unzip here, unzip to *.*, and every other possible combination but there's still an unwanted top level folder on a lot of the damn things.

Note to Admins/Mods... this is in Poser because:

Many people have Poser Freebies, which is what I'm discussing, and

If it's moved to another forum it will probably never be viewed or answered.

I share your pain.  I've looked into this and from my determination, there is no way of doing this on a multi-file basis.  I did discover in Winrar that you can actually move folders around within the zip by copying them to the clipboard and pasting them to the new location.  Unfortunately, you need to go back to delete the original files but you don't need to decompress the files at all.

Hey Sam, I don't recall off-hand if you're a Windows guy, or a Mac guy, but if you happen to be a Windows guy, I would suggest you get 7-Ziip.  It's free, and one of the features I happen to like is I can select a zip file, and instead of clicking on the Extract button, I double-click the file and it will show you what's in the zip, and if you keep on double-clicking, you'll eventually reach the folder you want.  THEN you select it and click on the Extract button, and select the destination.

I usually upzip to my desktop, as I always manually install everything where I want it.

Hope that helps. 

Ah, ok.  Thank you.

Looks like I'll be doing a lot of CTRL-A, CTRL-X, CTRL-V.

Hey Sam, I don't recall off-hand if you're a Windows guy, or a Mac guy, but if you happen to be a Windows guy, I would suggest you get 7-Ziip.  It's free, and one of the features I happen to like is I can select a zip file, and instead of clicking on the Extract button, I double-click the file and it will show you what's in the zip, and if you keep on double-clicking, you'll eventually reach the folder you want.  THEN you select it and click on the Extract button, and select the destination.

I usually upzip to my desktop, as I always manually install everything where I want it.

Hope that helps. 

Ahhh, OK.  I missed the "multi-file" basis issue, so yes it won't work for you.

In Winrar, you can open hierarchy folders in one panel and extract those files you select.  I do it all the time.  But it would be nice to have a standardized system for freebies so you can extract directly within Poser and your files wind up where they're supposed to be.

Well, they're from all over the place, so they tend to be however the site owner felt at the time, I guess.  The ones which seem to have the most folders and subfolders are Japanese, in my experience.

You see the same thing with DS freebies where the vendor purposely places the files within a primary Content folder.  Why?  That particular hierarchy is relevant for the DAZ Install Manager but not for any third party zips that can't be installed with DIM.

IMHO, you must inspect each such zip's content, frown, try to decide easiest approach. Frequent breaks for caffeine may help...

Some Zips unload by default to give Runtime as top folder. This can be a real nuisance if there's any 'baggage'  such as ReadMe, template and licence files. Must unzip such some-where safe, lest baggage is misplaced. Your un-zipper may have option to unload into folder of that name, simplifying things. Rename that, move in Zip, web-link and product piccies, craft a 350x350 folder.jpg, smile.

Some unload by default as a generic folder holding the Runtime plus its baggage. This is okay, because convenient to re-name, add a folder.jpg.

Some manage to put Runtime two or three levels down. This is common to dual Poser+DS models, as DS needs extra admin levels atop the Runtime tree...

Then, there are truly classic models that lack any Runtime: OBJ if any, PP2, textures and thumbnail just fall out. I keep a vacant  'Runtime' folder tree for such. Copy into a new folder, rename, consult arrivals' ReadMe, shuffle files into appropriate sub-folders. Sometimes, everything is properly pathed. If necessary, edit PP2 path-calls with Notepad, Wordpad or one of the  PP2 editors...

Asian models, including many real-neat props from eg RDNA era, often have the added complication of glyphs in file-names. Unwary PCs set to 'Western' may un-pack such as 'dipthong soup'. IMHO, these need Bandizip. The free version has its own quirks, such as polite nagging and, yes, living a right-click menu-level higher than eg 7Zip or IZarc. It will let you select the file's code-page then un-pack with intact glyphs. After that, 'Google Translate' is your friend...

FWIW, many recent MMD PMX freebie props can also use this 'Bandizip' workflow. Happens free PMX_Editor can export their mesh as OBJ+MTL. If 'handed', remember PMX has reversed sign-convention, so use PMX_Editor's mirror tool before export.

Please DO NOT port ANY MMD mesh or material derived from TDA source, due TDA's non-port T&Cs...  

this might be possible with a python script

this might be possible with a python script

Buttons or snaps

Buttons or snaps

Lateral thinking SamTherapy...

Lateral thinking

OMG 3.49 GB of La Femme content already! more content to check out

Enjoy.