Rocketship Software: Database and AI Systems Development

A: PzDB is an intelligent data-mining program that is able to "understand" the relationships between Poser Library Items in a way that those other programs never will. While AL does allow the user to manually tag individual Items, both AL and P3DO are "folder-based" and make you browse through your existing Library folders and subfolders in order to find Items.

PzDB transcends folders. It automatically sorts your Library Items into Groups based on common usage. It allows you to create your own Groups to organize your Libraries the way you'd like, and it has a powerful Boolean Search Engine to find (and use) any Item you want no matter where it is.

	PzDB	Advanced Library	PBooost	P3DO
No Typing Required	Yes	No	Yes	Yes
Automatically Groups Content	Yes	Only in identically named folders	No	No
One Item in Many Groups	Yes	No	No	No
User Created Custom Groups	Yes	No	Manually created "Banks"	No
Boolean Search with Saved Search Patterns	Yes	No	No	No
Automatically Finds Related Items	Yes	No	No	No
Automatically Displays New Items	Yes	No	No	No
View and Use Items from Multiple Libraries	Yes	No	Yes	No

A: The Access 2007 is a remarkably powerful database engine and is the core technology upon which PzDB is built. No, you do not have to purchase it separately. PzDB comes with all the Access components you need and the appropriate licenses. If you already own Microsoft Office Access 2007 (and only version 2007) you do not need to install the Access components.

A: Microsoft Access is actually much smaller and requires much less computer resources than even the smallest installation of Poser. And if you’re a "power user" use Poser a lot, have a very large Library and as a result need PzDB, then you certainly have more than enough computer resources to run Poser and PzDB side by side.

A: Yes. PzDB works perfectly with all other versions of Microsoft Access. We have taken special steps to ensure that the Microsoft Access 2007 components we install do not cause conflicts with any existing Access version you might already have. You will not have the lengthy “Installing Microsoft Access…” routine that normally occurs when you switch between Access versions, nor will you see any unnecessary security warnings or have to setup any special permissions to get PzDB to work (Note: Vista users may have to set up permissions to get Poser to work, but not PzDB, see the next FAQ).

A: Yes. PzDB works perfectly under Vista, its Poser that has problems. If you are using Poser on a computer with Windows Vista, you have undoubtedly encountered User Access Control (UAC) issues. Smith-Micro recommends a number of workarounds for this including installing Poser to a folder other than the “Program Files” folder, (they even recommend installing it to the “My Documents” folder), or just disabling UAC altogether.

A: Yes. PzDB works under Windows 7, again, there may be issues with security and UAC. You may need to install PzDB as an Administrator, you may need to run PzDB as an Administrator. (We are looking to these issues and may have a special Windows 7 update available soon.)

A: PzDB is able to Inventory any Poser Library from version 3 on, including PoserPro. Using pRPC Remote Launch requires Poser 4 with ProPack or better, and using Automated Collections requires Poser version 7 or greater.

A: Yes, PzDB works with Poser 8. There is one minor issue when you combine PzDB, Poser 8 and Windows XP. We have a patch available now for this issue (contact Tech Support). Smith Micro says they will have it fixed with the release of Poser 8 SR1.

A. Yes. But PzDB only indexes Items located within the "Libraries" folders. All files with extensions of .DS .DSB and .DAZ are classified as "DAZ Scripts" regardless of the files actual contents, (i.e. a Character, a Pose, a Material, etc). And because there are no “Collections” in DAZ Studio, you’ll need to use Poser Remote Mode and get: “PRPC for DAZ Studio” which is a free plugin from Pontari Productions, go to http://www.pontari.com/Products/DazStudio/PRPC/default.htm for more information.

A: Yes, PzDB is able to inventory Poser Figure Artist Libraries too, However, Poser Figure Artist does not support pRPC Remote Launch, nor Poser 7 Automated Collections, so there currently is no way for PzDB to Launch content in Poser Figure Artist.

A: All of them. There is no limit in PzDB to the number of Items, the number of Groups, or, how many Items could be in how many Groups, or even how many Libraries you can index. Microsoft Access 2007 data files are limited only by the size of your hard drive.

Given that your Poser Runtime content is a set of files that are already on your hard drive, and that your PzDB data file will be approximately two one-hundredths of a percent (.02%) of the size of your Runtime folders (i.e. PzDB stores the index to a 50 gigabyte Runtime folder in a 10 megabyte data file) the real question is: How many Poser Library Items can you store on any computer? And we estimate the answer to that to be less than one million.

A one million Item Library (or Libraries) would be about a one terabyte (1,000 gigabyte) Runtime folder (or folders) and a 50 megabyte PzDB Index file. But yes, PzDB could index that size Library, even though you’re not likely to have one. (If you do have a million Item Library, please contact our Technical Support team, because we would like you to join our Beta Testing Group.)

A: When you Import a Library into PzDB, it has a lot of work to do. It (1) scans all the files in the Library, (2) fixes any missing icons it finds, (3) identifies Poser Items that aren't in the database, (4) finds new keywords, (5) Groups new Items, and finally (6) cross-references all the new Items.

The first time it does this every Item is a new Item. This is the most work you will ever ask PzDB to do at once. If you have a Library of 50,000 or 100,000 files (and you very well may), PzDB's first import may take thirty minutes to an hour or more. Please be patient, the results are worth it.

A: Any time you double-click on any icon, PzDB will attempt to launch that Item via Poser Remote Mode (pRPC). You must have BOTH Poser running and the Poser Remote (pRPC) script loaded for that to work.

If you don’t, PzDB will attempt to launch that Item but nothing will happen. (It is worth noting that nothing bad happens either, it is simply ineffective.) We are working on making PzDB “aware” of Poser and the Poser Remote script (and even making PZDB be able to launch those things on demand) in the future.

A: Yes. PzDB uses SND2SOCK.EXE to communicate with the Poser Remote (pRPC) script, so it must be ALLOWED to serve locally (but it does not need Internet access), and you should save that setting. During Product Activation, the program MSACCESS.EXE needs to talk to our web servers, to that must be ALLOWED. And each time you start PzDB (after you Activate) it checks for updates, so REGISTRATION FILE should be ALLOWED (and saved).

Q: Can I use wildcard characters in the Search Engine?

A: Yes. The three standard wildcard characters work in our Search Engine. The Number Sign (#) can be used for any single digit. The Question Mark (?) represents any single character, (a letter, a digit, a space, or even punctuation. And the Asterisk (*) means any set of characters of any length.

V#Clothes would find: V2Clothes, V3Clothes, V4Clothes but not “VaClothes,”or “VicClothes.”

V*3 would Find Victoria3, Viki3 and V3, but also find “Vic2 Skirt3a,” even “Valley Forge PA 14523”

A: In our Search Engine the wildcard character Asterisk (*) performs the same function as the operative “And.” So instead of searching for “red and shirt” you could just enter “red*shirt.” However, please note that the Asterisk wildcard is directional. So you might want to enter: “red*shirt, shirt*red” to find all the Items with both “red” and “shirt” in their name. On the other hand, we really don’t recommend that either; see the next FAQ:

A note about using Boolean AND in the Search Engine (i.e. the asterisk character “*”):

In our tests we have found that almost all Searches using a wildcard asterisk, end up being either too vague or too specific. In the above two examples, the Search for “V*3” would find everything including “Valley Forge PA 14513,” and while a Search for “red*shirt, shirt*red” would find you all the Items with “red” and “shirt” in their name, it certainly would not find all of the shirts you have that are (or might become) red.

It is simply far more effective to create Custom Group, and then filter that Group with regular Searches.

A. Yes. In PzDB1.1 you can add any Keyword to any Item of set of Items you wish.

Q: I noticed that I have a few duplicate Icons, why is that?
A: That’s because you have duplicate Items. If you click (once) on each of the dupes, and look closely at the File Path in the Item Detail View, you will notice that these Items are not in the same folder. This is a common result of users trying to “clean up” their Libraries, which we don’t recommend. See Best Practices for more information.

A: Because those are not the same things, even though some people use those words interchangeably. The Library Folder is, in fact, a subset of the greater Poser Runtime Folder which also contains the Geometries Folder (that holds all the 3d models of people and props and things) the Textures Folder and lots of other folders. It is the Library Items that bring all that content into Poser. When a vendor distributes content, they have to distribute an entire Runtime Folder. The current version PzDB however, only indexes and cross-references the Library Items.

Q. What’s this about a Microsoft Access Runtime, is it like my Poser Runtime?

A. No, those are very different things. Poser users and Microsoft programmers use the word “Runtime” in entirely different ways.

The actual meaning of “runtime” is: “What the computer needs at the time a given program is running.” So in Poser we have a folder called “Runtime” that contains all the 3d models and textures and things Poser needs when Poser runs. Poser users have come to call all that Content itself their “Runtime.”

The Microsoft Access 2007 components we install with PzDB are a set of files that Access needs when it runs. Microsoft officially calls it “The Microsoft Access Runtime Edition.” It has nothing to do with the Poser Runtime Folder. If the PzDB installer notices that you do not already have Microsoft Access 2007 installed on your computer, you will be prompted to install the Microsoft Access Runtime Edition.

It’s actually a little funny that many PzDB users will be using the Microsoft Access Runtime Edition to index their Poser Runtime Folders, and do you know when they’ll be doing this? At runtime.

A: There really is no “Free Trial Version” of PzDB. There’s only the “Full Version,” it installs itself in Free Trial Mode (and under a Free Trial License) for up to thirty (30) days, after which Registration and Activation are required.

Q: What is Registration and Activation?
A: When you purchase PzDB you are given a Serial Number. When you click “Register” on the PzDB Welcome screen, enter that Serial Number and click “Activate” PzDB will contact our web server to let us know that Serial Number has been used, and our web server will issue an Activation Code, at that point your copy of PzDB is fully licensed and Activated.

First, PzDB can’t delete any files, because all PzDB does is inventory your files, it never does anything to them. However, in order to be fast, PzDB keeps a special cache of “the-stuff-you’re-looking-at-right-now” and as you search, or move from Group to Group, it clears out that cache (deletes everything in it) and makes a new one. Now, if PzDB were to freeze or crash at the wrong moment, or make some other error while refreshing this cache, it might display the word “#Deleted” over and over again.

Should this occur, please know that you can usually move past the error simply by doing a new search, or relaunching PzDB. Secondly, we are looking into this problem, and should you see the word “#Deleted” pop up even momentarily, we would like you to fill out a Product Support Request immediately.

A: Not really. The only difference would be that when you add a Keyword to an Item you can Search for that Keyword. This means you can add Keywords like “Hair” that don’t belong to Groups but are very useful in Searches. Then again, you can also have Groups that don’t have any Keywords at all, so you can only add Items directly to those Groups. But as far as Keywords that already in a Group (like V3) there really is no difference.

Q: The “Related Folders” list doesn’t seem to be really relevant to the Items I click on. Can I improve the accuracy of Related Folders?

A: Yes. Uncheck more Keywords in the Current Item view. Remember that Keywords that are unchecked (or “disabled”) stay that way (until you change them back). So as you use PzDB over time and continue to disable irrelevant Keywords, the accuracy of your Related Folders list will continually improve.

Let’s say you’ve clicked on a material pose for Kozoburo’s “Kozlong” hairstyle. It might have Keywords like “Kozoburo” “Kozlong” “Brunette” and “Hairstyle.” Clearly, “Brunette” and “Hairstyle” are not relevant and would link to bunch of Items you don’t want right now. So they should be unchecked. “Kozoburo” doesn’t help that much either so turn it off too. Now you’re left with “Kozlong” and the only Folders left in the Related Folders list have Items with the Keyword “Kozlong” and they will be the ones you’re looking for. Later, when you click on other “Brunette” or “Hairstyle” or “Kozoburo” Items, those Keywords will already be disabled. And your Related Folders list will automatically be that much more accurate.