Calculate Folder Size on Selection

Help & Support
1

Preferences/Folders/Options:
There is an option to Calculate folder sizes automatically"

But there should be an option for:
Check/Uncheck: Calculate folder sizes when folder is selected

Right now, I have "Total Bytes Selected" in the status bar. The problem is that when I select sub-folders in a directory, the status bar only shows "0" bytes selected. If I hover over each selected folder, the "Total Bytes Selected" updates correctly as it calculates the sub-folder sizes.
If I click "Get Sizes" Command, the selection goes away and it still says "0" Selected Bytes!

To get around this, I must use "Get Sizes" first and calcule all the folders (tedious if there are "other" large folders not selected) and then make the selection. Then the status bar show the correct sizes because they've been pre-calculated.

From the manual, I see this is possible:
"GetSizes Parameter:
NODESELECT/S: If this switch is specified, the GetSizes command will not deselect the folders after calculating their sizes. This switch only works if the Postpone file deselection until end of function option is turned on in Preferences."

But that's not as nice as what I'm suggesting which would make the option always available exactly when needed.

If that setting was possible, I'm sure I could program a toolbar button to also toggle on/off the "calculate selected folders" setting. Or I could assign the toggle to the "Get Sizes" RMB which currently does not have a RMB set.

In Summary:
As I select a folder, it should calculate the size for that folder and update the status bar "total bytes selected". If the folder is not selected, I don't need the size to be calculated.

Is what I'm suggesting possible now or not?

I think I'm done making suggestions for now. I've been using DO the last few days and its amazing!

2

If you just hover over a folder its infotip will appear, which should include the size by default (if not it's easy to configure), and that will cause its size to be calculated and displayed in the lister as well.

I think having size calculation happen on selection would be very annoying when you didn't care about the sizes. (Which, for me at least, is almost always.) When I do want sizes, I select some files and click the GetSizes button to get the sizes of just the selected folders.

3

And then you have to select them all again to get the total size? I want to just be able to select a bunch of stuff and see the total size I selected automatically in the status bar.

Yes, it would be nice to have the option for "calculate selected folder sizes" in preferences and then have a toggle button on the toolbar to be able to turn it on/off when I need it.

But its not that big of a deal - just a suggestion. I can always right click and select "properties" to get the total size.

The reason I want this feature is because sometimes when I copy folders to another location, I sometimes select those folders and get the size. And select the original folders and get the size. Its a quick way to check the copy worked and I copied everything intended. With this option, I can just select the copied files and the status bar would show me the size of the bytes match exactly. I also wouldn't need to close two property dialogs. I do this a lot. The synchronize command works for entire folders but I often do this just on a few subfolders within a folder. That was one reason I wanted Opus actually - because windows 7 explorer started "Auto-sorting" folders. So I couldn't find what I just copied over! Directory Opus has a setting which doesn't sort the folder until it is refreshed. So I know all my copied files/folders are on the bottom. If I could just select those unsorted files/folders that were just copied and see the total bytes of all of them, it would make things easier. I don't know if I'm explaining myself well enough but I tried.

Again, it would be very convenient to have that functionality for quick checks of total selected sizes. In simplest terms: right now, if you simply select a bunch of folders, the total select size in the status bar is not displayed correctly. I don't understand why it isn't an option to always make status correct even if it slows the system a bit when enabled.

4

You don't need to reselect anything. Just select the stuff you want to copy, then click a button which runs GetSizes NODESELECT and it will calculate the sizes of the folders (if they aren't known already) and include them in the totals.

5

Yup Leo, this works great.

I just used the "three buttons" mode to add a RMB to the Get Sizes Button. And I edited the funtion for RMB to GetSizes NODESELECT as you suggested.

It works great. My first modified button! :slight_smile:

Thanks for the help.

6

I submitted a "program suggestion" for the original suggestion. "Calculate Folder Size on Selection" is still a functionality I would like to see added to Directory Opus.

Even if GetSize NoDeselect is an acceptable workaround, I don't like selecting a bunch of folders and always seeing (0 TOTAL BYTES SELECTED) in the status bar. Also, I shouldn't have to always hit the "Get Sizes" button or a user defined hot key to make "Status bar Total bytes" correct, and I shouldn't have to automatically calculate all of the folder sizes for everything in the folder (which can be way too much if there are thousands of folders).

Right now, one must point at a folder for a moment to get it to start calculating the size which is much slower than just selecting files or groups of files. With my suggestion, one could just group select a bunch of folders (and files) and the status bar will automatically calculate the total size. It's a very logical suggestion that should be a togglable option and I'm still surprised the option isn't already a part of Opus...

I probably wouldn't use the "Calculate Folder Sizes on Selection" MODE all the time, but I would probably leave it on most of the time. At the very least, I would definatley use it sometimes.

Right now, I'm actually comparing a lot of individual folders and the synchronize tool doesn't work because I will only be comparing partial sets of folders. All I need is to see the total bytes are the same. I set F8 as a hotkey to GetSizes NoDeselect and now I need to hit F8 twice each time I compare selections with two or more folders. Otherwise I need to leave Auto calculate Folder Size on which is even more annoying because there are lots of large folders that I don't want to be auto-calculated.

I just want the ones I select to be auto-calculated!

*** Hence, my original program suggestion still stands. ***

7

If it's not something you'd use all the time, why not just turn on the existing mode which calculates folder sizes automatically, before selection when you want it?

1 Like
8

No, I probably wouldn't use it all the time. But right now, I would leave it on for at least the next few weeks. Currently, I'm cleaning up a large raid with a lot of stuff on it. And I'm comparing selected groups of folders by size often. Some folders could have hundreds of subfolders which range from small to hundreds of gigabytes (which take a long time to calculate size). I don't want to have to auto-calculate large folders which I'm not comparing. I only want to auto-calculate the folders I select. I don't want to hit F8 all the time to do the comparison.

Example: I have to select say 10 folders out of 100 on the source. Then I have to hit F8. Then I select 10 folders out of 200 on the destination and hit F8. Then I can quicly see if the two match sizes by looking at the status bar where I have both byte sizes displayed next to each other. Its a LOT easier than crappy windows explorer where I used to select the 20 folders and right click the group and hit properties and then select the 20 other folders in another window and right click the second group and get properties. Often, I would need to reposition the windows because they would be on top of each other. Then I'd look at the two properties windows and compare byte size. Then I would need to close both windows. Windows Explorer was terrible - but I did this quite often!

But Directory Opus could be more efficient than it is FOR THIS FUNCTION. I want to just select the 20 folders (out of 100) and see the proper byte size for the source in the status bar. Select the other 20 folders (out of 200) and see the byte size for the destination. The extra efficiency is that I wouldn't have to hit GetSizes NoDeselect at all to make the comparison. I simply look at the status bar and look at the two numbers which are right next to each other (I love the configurable Status Bar!). I also don't want to have to calculate the size of the 80 other potentially large folders in the one directory and the 180 folders in the other directory every time I show the directories - I just want to auto-calculate the ones I'm comparing...

Again, it may not be something someone else will use much. But isn't that what Directory Opus is about? Making it possible to be configurable to how different individuals need to use the program. I would guess that as people's picture/media/whatever collections grow, they will want this functionality because it is more efficient to manage large collections of files.

Think about it. This is actually a very logical function.

Right now, there is:

Auto Calculate all the folders in a directory (which can take much too long with many large folders - many of those large folders do not need size calculations)
...
MISSING: Calculate folders on Selection (This is a reasonable compromise between above and below - very useful with large drives and lots of folder comparisons)
...
Calculate Folders with GetSizes NoDeselect (Need to hit this button or hotkey twice each time a comparison is made - less efficient.)
...
Calculate folder size when pointing at the folder for a second (which cannot be used for group select or Control selecting which makes this useless for comparing sizes of groups of folders!)

At first I thought I wouldn't mind hitting F8 all the time and that it would be fine. But I realize I do folder size comparisons all the time and I'd really like the functionality. DO is already so much more efficient than Windows Explorer, I'll never be able to go back. But this feature would make it as efficient as possible to quickly compare groups of folder sizes without having to ALWAYS calculate ALL the folder sizes in a directory.

I do appreciate the help Leo... hopefully you can at least understand why someone would want the functionality even if you wouldn't use it. I am satisfied enough for now with the hotkey for GetSizes NoDeselect but I still think "Calculate Folder Size on Selection" is a very logical option which should be included at some point in the future - even if its in Directory Opus 14... Hopefully, it will be included eventually.

9

Makes some sense... I might use it. Though:

a.) Some additional care might need to be taken by GPsoft to queue up folder reads to avoid disk thrashing - I think currently, running get folder sizes via a button in two different listers (or different sides in a dual-pane lister) runs the calculation in parallel... maybe that wouldn't be a big deal... but I tend to wait until until one side is done before hitting the button get folder sizes in the 'other' side...
b.) There might need to be some sort of selection time/delay that would trigger the calulation... otherwise, people who might like to use such a feature but who navigate around folders with cursor keyboard likely wouldn't want every folder they cursor over for just a second to trigger the calculation :wink:...
c.) I imagine I'd still like a raw command to toggle it on/off on demand without having to open up Prefs to do so... but doing this "frequently" begs the question of what kind of sense it would even make to replace a button/hotkey press to do the calculation with another button/hotkey press to toggle such a "calculate on select" feature on and off...

Probably a niche thing in any case though, as hitting a button or hotkey to get folder sizes is not something (in the use-case you've described and how/why "I" use it) that I think many folks would really need to do in "rapid succession"... i.e. you'd select some folders in one pane or one lister, hit the button/hotkey... select some more folders in another pane or lister, hit the button/hotkey... and depending on actual size/file counts of selected folders it'd take some bit of time to get the sizes, then it's take some additional bit of time to visually inspect and compare the results... Point being - I don't think there's a lot of button/hotkey pressing "time" thats being spent in such scenarios that you'd necessarily be doing "other things" with by having the feature - so much as just a level of "convenience" in not having to press the button at all.

I'm all about "middle ground" options... I lobbied for awhile for the FULLROWSELECT=Display enhancement to just display the "highlight" across the full row rather than actually cause file "selection" by clicking anywhere along the full row :slight_smile:...

10

steje,
I don't worry much about disk thrashing for just calculating disk/folder sizes. Although I try not to calculate disk sizes while also copying or moving from the same hard drive.

Yes, if this feature were available, a button or hotkey would need be able to toggle it.

I would mostly use it when I'm doing a lot of sorting and comparing. Sometimes I will spend a few hours basically comparing stuff. I end up hitting F8 a lot and I'd like the functionality.

It seems like there's already a kind of queue system in place when it auto-calculates an entire folder. Maybe it would be difficult to implement for selected files.
As for keyboard users - a small configurable delay would be fine. Its more important to make it a raw command so it can toggle.

I was thinking this function would be easy to incorporate into Opus. But if it isn't, then it seems like other things like a queue for copy/move functions (needed feature) would be a better use of the developer's time. Maybe one day this feature will be added but I won't pretend its that important.

Your idea of just displaying FULLROWSELECT seems like a great idea. I like the idea of using FULLROWSELECT now for visual sake but then its a lot harder to double click in the lister and have it go up one level which I use all the time. So your idea is a good compromise. Maybe I'll make a "program suggestion" for that too although I think the developers must be sick of me by now. Well, I'm almost done configuring Opus the way I want so I probably won't be touching it too much until Opus 10 is released. Its been a lot of fun though - DO is definitely the most configurable program I've ever seen. Its like a visual programming environment specifically for file systems!

11

[quote="Orbidia"]steje,

...

Your idea of just displaying FULLROWSELECT seems like a great idea. I like the idea of using FULLROWSELECT now for visual sake but then its a lot harder to double click in the lister and have it go up one level which I use all the time. So your idea is a good compromise. Maybe I'll make a "program suggestion" for that too although I think the developers must be sick of me by now. [/quote]

Err, unless I misunderstand, this already exists. See Preferences -> Lister Display Modes -> Details Mode and check both Full-row selection and Display only (selection by mouse is unaffected).

12

@Orbidia and rcoleman1943:

Yes, the "display" otion for FULLROWSELECT does already exist, and aside from the Preferences page rcoleman mentioned - you can toggle it with the command: Set FULLROWSELECT=Display,Toggle

I was using the delivery of this feature of an example of there sometimes being sense behind "middle ground" options and slight modifications to existing behavior - such as you (Orbidia) are asking for regarding folder size calculation...