How do you organize your 3D clip art files?

[Rcnewcomb]

As your 3D collection grows what methods do you use to organize your files so you find the design you want? I now have over 400 3D files, most of them purchased and a few that I made, and it can be daunting to quickly find what I am looking for and browsing is much slower.

One of the things that I like about the Design and Carve Series is that James created files such as All-Animals and All-Scenery. I've contemplated doing this with the rest of my designs.

What do you do?

[tmerrill]

Hi Randall,

For now I have them in sub-directories based on the collection name, such as VA3D Animal Collection, Aspire 3D Clip Art, etc. Then I keep a printout for each collection by my computer. For the individual ones I have downloaded and for those I created, I just try to give them a descriptive name and sort them by subject, such as Animals, Nautical or Home Improvement.

But like you, as the collection grows it is getting harder to stay organized. We sure could use some type of previewer/organizer.

What James did with the All Animals and All Scenery is a tremendous time saver. Preparing and maintaining something similar with a growing 3D collection would probably create problems on its own.

Tim

[ssflyer]

Hi Randall,

I separate mine by categories and sub-categories in the file system. This makes it easier to browse. I also further separate by 2D and 3D files, and create images of the models/projects, with the same name, so I can, at a glance see which is which. I've also installed the newer Windows Search (I hated the old one - too slow and too many computer resources) I use it a lot. Fast search, and thumbnail previews.

Ron

[tmerrill]

Ron,

I assume the windows search previews the images you have made, not the 2D/3D file formats directly?

Tim

[ssflyer]

Tim,

Yep. I wish I had Explorer add-ins to preview all my file types!

[js11110]

One thing that I STARTED to do awhile ago but never finished was to create a preview .jpg and name it the same as the 3D file and put it in the same directory. This way with Windows file view you can see what is what. HUGE task if you have alot of files.........


Jason

[Adrian]

One thing that I STARTED to do awhile ago but never finished was to create a preview .jpg and name it the same as the 3D file and put it in the same directory. This way with Windows file view you can see what is what. HUGE task if you have alot of files.........


Jason

I cheated and wrote a macro with AutoIt3 that uses Aspire and Cut3D (Partworks in my case) to loop though all my files and save a preview.