Library management?

[duke2]

After a while, I have the same tree, cars and people everywhere. Some I tweaked and made better and then end up using an old version in my next project, so i'm really looking to keeping everything in a central location. Has anyone had experience with this? Do you just keep everything in Library drive with sub-directories or something? I would have done this a while ago but I bring things home with me so if my library is mapped to \\george\3DLibrary, that's pretty useless to me if i'm at home. Maybe I just need to make an L:\ drive here and at home so it doesn't matter where things are located, as long as it's mapped to L:\

[andrewjohn81]

if you name both computers the same and name the drives the same it might save you some troubles because then you could use UNC paths.

For instance, name your computer ComputerName, and your drive LibraryDrive. Your paths would look like - \\ComputerName\LibraryDrive\Textures\Wood\walnut2. jpg
Something like that. That way, if something ever happens where your drive letters change it'll still work out. Computer names don't change by themselves, and it won't matter what the drive letter is so long as you name it the same name. You can actually have multiple names for a drive also. You just have to set up a share (with yourself) and allow it to be shared under that name. Some might say that would create some security holes, but I really wouldn't be too worried unless you have no password on your router.

We don't actually run Anything off our own computer. All projects are done off a shared drive on one computer. Every computer maps them the same, even the renderfarm, so there are no mapping problems.

Also, all our texture, models, and scenes are set up in subcategories. Think about all the type of work you are going to do and build the different types of categories you might want. Don't go too crazy because many textures and scenes will easily fit into multiple categories. It's hard to make the right ones. For instance I have texture maps > Metal and texture maps > Wood > Walnut
We don't have too many different types of metal maps, but Tons of wood. Other people may have different ones.

I would avoid doing something like texture maps > construction materials > metal and also haveing texture maps > organic materials > metal
I think you can immediately see the problem. You'll get duplicate, or at least similar, maps in both spots and you'll have to look at both places any time you want metal maps.
We had a meeting all together to try and decide on how to do it. It's good to have multiple ideas talking together to come up with the best solution for your workplace. If it's just you it should be easy.