smart collections - "does not contain"

[Bishop]

Hi,

Just decided to make a purchase of daminion standalone and I like it very much aside from being little slow on import and re-scanning side of things.

I would like to but I can not fully switch from Lightroom yet as I was heavily using smart collections lately that do not exist to the same level in Daminion. Or at least I am not aware of it if it does.

 

I see there is "search" option to find images that "contain" words but nothing that "does not contain"

 

I know you are very likely aware of lightrooms smart collections but here...

 

Here is some of the ways I was using smart collections in lightroom and maybe someone can tell me how I can do this in Daminion, please.

 

 

Sorting rough pass example...

In my family lightroom catalog, I have 50'000 images I did not keyword. I have been putting it off until next week for the past 10 years :)

 

So now before keywording I wave been doing rough pass separating all images into quick collections (for example) location, event, people, etc.

With location example I have collections start with something unique that I can search for later like "locGen_" (locGen_atHome, locGen_public_park, locGen_vacation, etc)

 

Now I create "smart collection" that finds all images that are "not" in collection that contains "locGen_"

All 50'000 photos are in there and now slowly I start rough sorting photos into locGen_ collections and as I do that it removes sorted photos from smart collection so I know which ones are not sorted.

 

Once in collections I go to keywording but using smart collection to separate unfinished from finished.

 

My many keywords contain sub-keywords but in a "rough pass" I assigned top level keywords only so I can come back I do finer sorting later.

 

In art catalog I have main method or technique keywords such as "drawing, painting, sculpture, etc"

painting contains sub-keywords "acrylic, fresco, oil, etc..."

 

Once I assigned painting to images, I would like come back to it and do finer keywording, so I would like to create "smart collection" to find all images containing "painting" keyword but that do not have sub-keywords "acrylic, fresco, oil, etc..."

And as I sort them out images keyworded would be automatically remove from smart collection letting me know how many more I got to finish.

 

 

I read somewhere on the forum that you do not have option for "does not contain" or similar like that.

Will this be added for smart searches in the future?

Or is there a way I can create similar to "smart collections" like in lightroom?

 

I hope what I wrote makes any sense.

Cheers

[Murat]

Daminion's Saved Searches are similar to LR's Smart Collections. You need to compose a query and then saved it. However there are some limitations:

 

- You can't combine Saved Searches with other tags. Perhaps we can improve it the future (without promises). So you need to combine Saved Search with other tags you need to refine it (Right click and go to Edit to add new filters)

- "Doesn't contain" condition is not available in the Advanced Search, however you can locate a tag in the tag tree that you want to exclude, hold the Alt key and check it. This tag will be excluded from query results.

[Bishop]

Alt thing might work.

I will play with that next time I am on pc.

 

thank you for your help.

cheers

[Bishop]

Hi, I got a chance to look into this and it works GREAT.

Eexcluding collections from search and saving the search is good.

Thanks

 

First thing I noticed that could be a bug while I was testing.

 

When I created 3 collections, then created a search excluding those collections.

Once search was saved it did not show up under saved searches and 2 created collections disappeared.

I had to restart Daminion after which all showed ok.

 

 

Second thing I notice is refresh problem with that smart search.

When I go to (click on) smart search (saved) I see all images not in those 3 collections.

I drag images to those collections (from smart search), numbers change in smart search indicating they were removed from smart search and added to those collections that were excluded from search but images stay displayed in smart search until I click off of it and on smart search again.

 

cheers

[Murat]

Thanks for the information. However I can't recproduce both issues with my 4.5 beta version. Perhaps they were fixed or I need more detailing information for this.

 

Can you record a brief screencast video that demonstrates this issues and send me it to support/at/daminion/dot/net. You can use this small utility for this.

[Bishop]

Thanks, sorry I did not see this.

Most likely works fine in newer version. I have 4.1.

If and when I find some time I will record the screencast but if 4.5 is available sooner I will see if it works fine on it once I get it.

 

Thanks a lot.