Hi :D

I have a question.

When you buy something from Renderosity or other Poser/Daz stores, do you keep some kind of offline catalog of your purchases? Something like a collection database so you know what you bought, when, and where?

I’m really curious how other people handle this.

I recently started organizing everything myself. I use Memento Database on my phone. I export the CSV file of my purchases from my account (huge thanks that this is even possible!) and since my Memento Database is linked with Google Sheets, I transfer the values from the CSV into the spreadsheet for Memento.

Because I’m also a very forgetful person, I added extra columns for tags and for which figure the item is made for, so later I can easily search for things.

Once I update the Google Sheet, I sync it with Memento on my phone. Then I open a new entry, click the link, and save the product’s cover image from the browser because I feel like that sometimes helps with inspiration. After that I go back into the app, open the entry again, and attach the image I just downloaded.

I’m still in the setup phase, and with more than 3000 items this takes a really long time. It’s definitely one of those huge “busy work” projects for when you are seriously bored. XD

At least with Renderosity it works really nicely. Exporting purchases from Daz is an absolute nightmare. I’m not even sure if I’ll bother downloading images there. On top of that, the seller information is missing.

So how do you all handle this? Or does nobody else go to this much effort?

I thought I could get carried away with organization. What would be the benefit of this? I usually just look at my purchase history on the site.

I thought about whether I should start cataloging everything for a long time too. At first I also thought it was unnecessary, but in the end I think it is just something my inner monk really wants. Funny enough, in real life I am actually completely unorganized. XD

For me it almost feels like scrolling through my treasures.

The practical advantage is that I have a much better search system than Poser gives me. Until now I also just checked my purchase history on the website, but if I am looking for something specific and it is not mentioned in the title, I cannot really find it in my purchases. And if I search for it in the store, it may show up there, but I cannot filter the results to only show things I already own, so items can easily get lost among everything else.

That would be my official explanation at least. 😄

Honestly though, I think I just really enjoy being able to quickly search keywords in the app when I have an idea in my head, and especially being able to look at everything visually. I can scroll through all my V4 characters and suddenly think, “Yes, you are exactly right for this project.”

For me that is much easier than going through all the characters inside Poser itself. Over there it is more like organized chaos. 😅

I have tried a dozen times to approach cataloging my collection, and each time I just gave up because it became daunting, especially finding more information from content no longer available (thumbnails, tags, etc.). Recently, I have taken to downloading the webpage thumbnails of all purchases and freebies and embedding them into my folders as icons. It makes it easier to identify the content without having to open the folders or the zip files.

3000 huh...wait until you get to over 7000 just with Daz. I hate to think how much it is after adding Rendo, what I had purchased from RDNA not everything went to Daz, and many other sites that used to exist and then there are all the freebies. Cataloguing isn't for the faint hearted....

I save PDFs of the invoices. That's nowhere near as good as a database if I ever have to dig up the purchase record, but it takes minimal time. It's a compromise between maintaining a good database and not having a local record at all, which isn't much good if one buys something at a store that later closes.

I learned I want the local record because a long time ago, at some other 3D shop, I bought a bunch of wood textures, and didn't save an invoice anywhere I could find it. And when I realized I wanted to have a proof of license before I did anything with the textures, I couldn't even remember which shop I bought them at, and couldn't track it down. Oops.

I have more elaborate technical-side info-gathering, unfinished as yet, with the end of trying to make sure that I can find my stuff when i want to build a scene. These days I always download a copy of the product's web page, and a second, more conveniently labelled and organized copy of all the product images, to store with the model files, so I can glance through my directories and have some reference to what the heck the product was. (To which end, I bought Directory Opus as a replacement for Windows File Explorer, as it's much more reliable about showing images on folder icons.)

I try to keep notes of what products went into a render, too, so I have some hope of rebuilding it if I want to adjust it after the original doesn't work.

My system isn't designed for speed and elegance in recovering billing records. It's designed to be simple and fast enough at record-capturing to ensure that I actually perform this chore at purchase time, instead of putting it off. I'll have the records if I really need them, but I don't expect to need them often, or maybe at all.

So I put my effort at efficient identification into designing my model collections.

Glad to find someone else who puts this much effort into organizing their library. 🙂

My approach is pretty similar, except I keep everything on my phone in an app.

I've finally finished both of my databases now. One for Renderosity with more than 3,000 items and one for DAZ with over 6,000 items. Every item now has its preview image, invoice number and price, description, tags, and category assigned.

With a single click on a tag, category, or figure, I can instantly see all items that share that attribute. So now I can select M4 and get a complete list of everything I own for M4, or choose something like Scenes and see all scene products, or filter for rocks, clothing, and so on.

The image previews were actually the main reason I started this project. Quite often I see something in the store and immediately think, "Wait, don't I already have something similar?" Sometimes I end up buying it anyway, and sometimes I try to find a similar item in my library.

That search is much easier now. For example, if I see a cool apartment environment, I can quickly check whether I already own something comparable that I could simply convert or adapt.

Well... let's be honest. If I really love something in the store, I'm probably going to buy it anyway instead of recreating it. XD I'm way too lazy for that, and my inner collector wants to own it regardless.

But when it comes to finding specific characters or assets, the app has become a huge help.

Now I just have to keep it up to date. 🙂