A feature I dream to see in a future version of Directory Opus (10 maybe).
An option similar to the one found in Adobe Bridge - "Automatically Export Cache To Folder When Possible".
I am a 3D content creator, and I have a huge amount of pictures on my hard drives (Textures, renders, reference images ...). I also have a few external drives + network drives. They are many digital content managers around, but actually, I love staying in Directory Opus.
The problem I have now, is the fact that the cache becomes very fast unmanageable. I remember, the paint shop pro browser used to store its previews (and maybe metadata, not sure) in files that were stored in the same folder as the files for which they were created (and so does Adobe Bridge). I really think, it would be a great option to have in Directory Opus too
Okay, I guess I didn't explain myself well enough
The problem has simply to do with the crazy amount of images I have (and I guess, I might not be the only person like that or I wouldn't request a feature only for myself ).
With the amount of pictures I have, it would be a lot more manageable if the cache data were stored together with pictures they represent rather than trying to store them all in one folder on the root drive (incidentally, coming from a unix background, my system isn't organized to store data on the c: drive, at least, only when I have no choice, so my c:/ partition is only 50GB in size).
I guess, for me it's more an efficiency thing than anything else.
Let's say, I have a folder with 500 images, it more logical in my opinion to have a file containing all the informations pertaining to these 500 images in a "side" file within the same folder rather than trying to store the thumbnails for my roughly 7TO of images in one single cache folder.
Besides, when burning the photos on a DVD, it would be easy to include the cache data so that Directory Opus wouldn't need to generate the thumbnails again (provided the data don't rely on any path).
Sorry if it's not really clear, I know my English is very far from good
Incidentally, it's by no mean a critic against Directory Opus. I'm perfectly aware of the fact that Directory Opus isn't a digital photo manager, it just happens that I love this program, so I try to do as much as I can with it. (I did try ACDSee, but actually, the situation is a lot worst, after a few days, the cache was more than 20GB and the program just crawled).
Personally, I dislike it when programs store thumbnail caches with the images. You get hidden files (that aren't always hidden ) cluttering up the directories and you can end up with cache files from multiple programs (e.g. separate cache files from Explorer, Vista Media Center and Win7 Media Center in the same shared folder). On shared drives people may run into cache files for programs they don't even use.
The main downside I see from storing the cache files in a separate location is that you don't share the cached data when you access the same location from another machine (e.g. network share or USB drive), but that's not entirely a downside... Some aspects of the thumbnail generation depend on your preferences and those preferences may not be the same for every person/machine accessing a shared folder, so the cache may not always make sense for everyone. (Cache formats may also differ by version, e.g. with the Vista/Win7 Media Center thing I mentioned earlier.) Opus will also clear out affected parts of the cache when certain preferences are changed & require affected thumbnails to be re-made, which would be problematic if the same cache files were shared with multiple users.
I also have a small C:\ drive so I have moved the thumbnail cache to a data drive. I did that by replacing %USERPROFILE%\AppData\Local\GPSoftware\Directory Opus\Thumbnail Cache with a folder-junction which points to a folder on another drive. (Let me know if you want to do that but aren't sure of the steps and I'll write a guide. It might make a good tutorial/FAQ entry.)
Thank you Leo,
I understand your points and I guess it's really a preference thing (or maybe has to do with the really huge amount of data I have to deal with). I would definitively be interested in more informations on how to move the default thumbnail storage yes (I try to have all the data related things on my d: drive ("Home") which is a LOT bigger than my c: drive (A little explanation about that: I back-up my c:/ drive using Acronis on a regular basis - anyone who had to reinstall a full system, reinstall all licenses, reconfigure all preferences after a bad driver / windows update can understand that - so, I try to keep this c:/ drive as "lean" as possible).
I'm sure if you make a tutorial, it will be interesting for a lot of persons (I have no issues doing that kind of file system manipulation on linux or OS-X but I'm clueless when it comes to windows).
Thank you very much in advance
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