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amyaimei — How to Locate Your DAZ Studio Content Directories
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Published: 2017-04-08 15:23:19 +0000 UTC; Views: 11007; Favourites: 26; Downloads: 131
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Description
Install DAZ Studio Content Manually
Many freebies are packaged in zip files. Some zips contain folders set similar to the DAZ Studio folders. For my freebies, the content is under the Content folder or the My Library folder. The content is expected to be copied manually to the corresponding folder under the DAZ Studio content folder.
The PDF contains the instructions of how to locate your DAZ Studio Content Directories. Click the Download to get the PDF.
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Comments: 21
👍: 1 ⏩: 0
Great job Amy!
Just wanna add my $0.02... Be careful when messing around with the directories, especially if you are new to all of this. DAZ with their infinite wisdom, by default, has two places to keep your files! Oh, not to mention the differences on OS X and Windows too.
Also keep in mind that some creators have Poser versions of their creations, which DAZ also recognizes if properly loaded. The Poser 'way' and the DAZ 'way' are similar enough that they are confusing.
One last thing for newbies, especially people who are creators: OS X does not do the 'copy and paste' style of copying files. Also, when/if you do that in Windows and there are similar files? Well, things go crazy. If you purchase from DAZ, let the loader do the loading. If you purchase from elsewhere, do it manually by dragging and dropping. It's safer and you will only have to do it once.
👍: 0 ⏩: 1
Thank you for the information. I hope it will be helpful to the person that asked for this.
I really want to know how to make the package like what the professionals do.
👍: 0 ⏩: 1
What do you mean by professionals? Are you thinking of DAZ's creators? If so, they don't do it any different. They have access to making the script for the DAZ loading mechanism. They recently changed it because some one, I forgot who, figured out how to make it work for non-DAZ stuff.
As for me, I make sure that the "read me" is clear as it can be, though there will be mistakes. The only time I've had problems was when my 'data' folder contained a folder inside with the same name. I did do that on purpose but people who did the 'copy and paste' method on PCs ran into problems... only a few, out of hundreds. My 'read me' files states clearly not to do that, so, I think I could have had a bigger mess.
If you want to see what my files look like, let me know in private and I can get one or more samples to you.
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Yes, I mean the DAZ's creators.
I guess the files I did are similar to yours, right?
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Yes, I think so though to be honest, I only look at the 'read me' files to see if I can use renders for commercial purposes. It's mainly because I download a lot of 'free' files and know where things should go.
As for my read me, I do put more than what is typical of what others do, be it a free file(s) or paid. Here is what I have in the my read me file:
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Installation Instructions -
1. Locate the downloaded zip file.
2. You can either un-zip the file there or move it to a more convenient location.
3. Make sure you have the folder you use for DAZStudio opened as well as the folder with the now unzipped files.
4. Both folders should have a data folder inside. This will let you know that you are on the right track. From the unzipped folder, you need to place the corresponding files to the DAZStudio side.
4.1. - If you are a PC user, you may see an unusual folder called "_MACOSX." You can disregard this folder and toss into the waste bin. Macintosh users should not see this folder. If you do, toss it. Your Macintosh will make another.
4.2 - If you see .DS_Store files, you can toss those too. These are tiny database files that try to keep everything straight in Mac OS X. Windows has them too and Macintoshes can see them. When OS X tries to create the .DS_Store files and it cannot because it is on a FAT32 disk, then it will create "_MACOSX" folder.
5. After moving the files in their correct places, you are all done.
6. Launch DAZStudio and XXXXXXXX should be in People/Genesis 3 Female/Clothing/XXXXX/ directory. If you already had DAZStudio running, just right click on the top most line in the "Content Library" tab and select "Refresh."
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Notice that I do not say anything about the 'copy and paste' way of merging files.
I also create a 'User's Manual' for products too. Most of my stuff 'break' the rules of 'DAZ' in that I try to allow for more natural movement of cloth. I try to explain, in simple terms (not using 3D artist jargon) to explain what is going on and how to easily get better renders...etc.
You and many others may think that DAZ's artist are better at doing this kind of stuff and you may be right but I've seen some stuff that is sold in their store that is done in a lazy fashion. As an example, all of my clothing creations, if they are meant to be sewn together, it is one piece of virtual cloth. This means that you can make them into what is known as 'Dynamic Cloth(ing)' and it won't fall apart like many of what is being sold in all of the stores.
Sorry for the rambling everyone. Feel free to copy and paste portions of what I used for your 'read me' files and if anyone has questions, please don't hesitate to ask.
👍: 0 ⏩: 1
I guess you are using Mac OS X. I want to know if the name of folder or file is case-sensitive or not. Even I'm using Linux. With wine, the DAZ Studio acts the same way as Windows, i.e., doesn't care about the case of the folder/file name. I always use the same case for the folder name as the models from DAZ 3D.
👍: 0 ⏩: 1
Sorry for such a delay in my reply. DA has been acting strangely on Safari (Mac OS X's browser) but now it seems to have cleared up. Here is my reply I wrote a couple of days ago...
In Mac OS X, it is possible to format one's hard drive with case sensitivity in the 'on' position but that is not the default. It is also not recommended by many software companies. I'm not even quite sure why they put that it there for user's to find easily. So to answer your question, it is possible to have an OS X partition with case sensitivity 'on' but it should be noted that it is not the default or recommended formatting or partitioning method.
Did I answer the question? or just make it more confusing?
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Not really.
I just want to know if the folder names in Mac OS X for DAZ Studio have to follow some form of rules regarding of the case.
For example, the folder "Runtime" has to be "Runtime", not "runtime".
👍: 0 ⏩: 0
This is good. Some things seem intuitive for me now, but when I started guides like this were helpful. I separate my content in 4 folders. Freebies, Daz originals, my purchases from non daz sites and anime related. In addition, I try to use the category database to organize my files.
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The category database is not working well for me. I'm not sure if it is because I'm using it in Linux environment.
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It's not great and doesn't update on its own, but I have so much content, I need it just to find things.
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Oh! If "doesn't update on its own" is as expected, then it is working as "expected" in my Linux environment, nothing wrong.
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Yes, that was a big disappointment for me. I have not been able to get that to work.
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I was just thinking a few days ago that a tutorial on where things are installed would be useful for newcomers - that was somewhat confusing for me when I started, especially since I started at the beignning of the Genesis era: Genesis content is primarily in one place, and V4/M4 and earlier content is largely in another place. It took me a long time to finally recognize that significant difference!
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I did that because someone asked about how to install my freebies. As I remembered, when I posted my first freebies for DAZ Studio, I missed one folder. Then, l learnt about where the files suppose to go.
FYI, the Content Directory Manager screen shows how I organize my content. There are 3 directories in total. The Z: drive is my external drive using the Linux wine mapping. I also separate the DAZ original content and the content I got from other places.
👍: 0 ⏩: 1
I was thinking about your external drive idea, but I ultimately decided it was better to replace the C drive with something twice as large - that helps with the space issue on the drive, but the hard drive is also rather old, so this should avoid a hard drive crash. Now I just need to plan when to do the drive change, which will probably be Tuesday or Wednesday.
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Changing the system drive is a difficult job for me. Just to get the correct drive and put it in my laptop can be risky
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I felt the same way for a long time, but then a colleague (who doubled as our office's IT expert) showed me a number of things about computer maintenance, and I saw that it was indeed possible for a non-professional to do things inside a computer without damaging it. if you do decide to replace your internal drive, there are a number of videos on YouTube showing how to do it - the best thing is to find a video specific to your laptop model, since laptops tend to have components in different places.
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