Digital Art Zone

Hi everyone, Im a 100% newbie, I just installed daz, genesis, and the other free downloads I found in my downloads page.

When I open it up I have the genesis figure, the tutorial is telling me to select something from the left, but there is nothing on the left? nothing in files and nothing in products??

Am I doing something wrong? I include a link to a screen capture
http://screencast.com/t/yLYb8KhrY

Im running XP, is daz compatible with XP?

Also everytime I start daz it asks me for a serial number for aniMate2, is this normal? if so where do I get the serial from, its not in my serials?

any help would be greatly appreciated

chris - 29 November 2012 02:33 AM

Hi everyone, Im a 100% newbie, I just installed daz, genesis, and the other free downloads I found in my downloads page.

When I open it up I have the genesis figure, the tutorial is telling me to select something from the left, but there is nothing on the left? nothing in files and nothing in products??

Am I doing something wrong? I include a link to a screen capture
http://screencast.com/t/yLYb8KhrY

Im running XP, is daz compatible with XP?

Also everytime I start daz it asks me for a serial number for aniMate2, is this normal? if so where do I get the serial from, its not in my serials?

any help would be greatly appreciated

Select Genesis in the scene and then [hopefully] something will appear on the left.
Also if you click on “all”, [hopefully] something will appear.
[the smart content takes some getting used to. everytime a different item is selected in the scene, all the items presented change.]

AniMate2 I think works as a full plugin for 30 days and then becomes ‘lite’. It’s a purchase to get the ‘full’ permanently which is why it’s requesting a serial key. For those who’ve purchased it previously, the key is on the page of serial keys in our account. You can check the little box at the bottom of that popup and tell it not to appear anymore. It’s always accessible from top bar help selection.

Hi chris…

Yes Daz Studio is compatible with Win XP…

Ok, do you have the Genesis figure selected?  You should see a box or the corners of a box surrounding the figure…

If not, then click on the figure in the view port…

The Smart Content tab only shows content that is related to the item that is currently selected… once you have the figure selected you should see the tab populate with the installed content that will work with the figure…

Hope this helps… and be sure to ask here in the New Users Forum if you need help with anything… the people here are great with helping new users…

Edit: Also, if you click on Help you will find a link to the basic User Guide and if you select Daz Studio Help a new Help window will open that will link to the Online Documentation Center… There you will find the current Studio help information that DAZ has made along with some instructional videos…

Thanks guys, but yes I have selected it and still nothing showing, even under “all” it shows nothing??

Here is my screen showing it selected etc
http://screencast.com/t/Z0enBfMO9T84

Hi…

If nothing is still showing in the Smart Content, then it seems like the Content Management Service is probably not running…

In Windows, Click Start > Programs > DAZ 3D > DAZ Content Management Service > Start DAZ Content Management Service

and then restart Daz Studio, load Genesis, select and see if the Smart Content tab populates…

The other way you can access your content is from the Content Library tab… If you don’t see it in your layout, then select Window > Panes(tabs) > Content Library ... and then you can drag and dock it right next to the Smart Content tab…

nicci…

Hi…

Ok, I just watched your screencast… and you didn’t have the Genesis figure selected… your mouse was just moving over it and the bounding box was just showing what you could select… you need to click on it to select it…

In the Smart Content tab you’ll see that the drop down box says No Selection and is greyed out… when you select the figure it will say Genesis…

nicci…

Thanks Nicci, I really appreciate it, but that didnt work, I clicked genesis and still nothing, even after starting the CMS, some things do appear in the left if I click shaping, I have done a screencast of what I have clicked and tried in the hope that you will see something Im missing.
http://screencast.com/t/eOeIXhC42Jc

thanks again, this is so frustrating

Chris

I followed your instruction for getting it with the content manager on the right
http://screencast.com/t/tXTUeYYB

so that seems to work OK, but why cant I get them on the left where they should be?

Hi Chris

Have you downloaded the “Genesis Starter Essentials”,. It;s the part of Daz studio which contains all the bundles Clothing , Hair,  etc…
The Content is separate from the Program, just to make it easier to download.

Also,..

On XP,. Open Task manager and see if there’s a “Service” running called “Daz Content management service”

If it’s not listed,..
Go to your Start menu ..All programs/ Daz3D, then look in Daz Content management,.
there should be icon’s there to start /stop the service.

It’s this service which supplies and updates the data for smart content, depending on what item you have selected in the scene.

hope it helps

yes 3Dage, I downloaded genesis, I did as you suggested and checked task manager and it wasnt there, so I went as started it again, I left the task manager running to see if it started, it started but then disapeared, Im guessing thats the problem, but how can I fix it? if I remember rightly it was installed with Daz studio.

Hi chris…

Sorry, I had to get some sleep and then go to work…

Have you got you Smart Content working yet?

If not, it does look as though the CMS (Content Management Service) is not running… as where it says “none” on the right side of the pane it should show a count of the number of products listed in Smart Content…

Let’s make sure if the CMS is running or stopped and set to start automatically…

Make sure you have Administrator priviledges…

On XP go to Start > Run > and enter ” services.msc ”  this should open the Windows Services Application

Then in the list find “DAZ Content Management Service” and see if the status is “started”... my guess is it’s stopped…

Right click and select Start… the status should show now show as started…

In the “Startup Type” it should say “Automatic” ... if it doesn’t, then right click and select properties, a properties window should open…

In the General tab find Startup Type and select “Automatic” from the drop-down menu, then click Apply and then OK

Launch Daz Studio and see if the Smart Content populates with your available files…

If there is still nothing there, then most likely the CMS did not install correctly…

Close Studio, click Start > Programs > DAZ 3D > DAZ Content Management Service > Stop DAZ Content Management Service

Then Un-install the CMS, click Start > Programs > DAZ 3D > DAZ Content Management Service > Uninstall DAZ Content Management Service

To re-install the CMS, run the Daz Studio installer again… you don’t need to re-install your content… just re-install Studio and the CMS…

After re-installing, launch Studio, check the Smart Content tab for your content… if it’s still empty, right click on “All” and select “refresh”

If it’s still empty, try re-importing the Meta-Data… Right-Click on the Content Library tab header and select Content DB Maintenance…

in the dialog window, check Re-Import Meta-Data then OK, click OK to the next windows… recheck the Smart Content tab, refresh the tab if needed…

If none of this works… I’m kind of out of ideas… I know that some others also have problems with the CMS not staying running, and a few members here know allot more about things that can be tried to get it working in those cases…

I hope that’s not the case here… let us know how it goes…

nicci…

Hi Nicci, thanks for all your help, I really appreciate it.

OK, so I uninstalled and re installed, still nothing on the left, but there are things (clothes, props etc etc) in the right pane you “content library” and I can drag them on to the figure, also now the content management is running when i open daz, but still nothing in the smart content panel on the left?
could this be anything to do with my PC? what spec is required to run daz? I couldn’t find any referenced to it on the site

Hi chris…

I’m glad to help any way I can…

Well, at least we know that the CMS is now running…

Have you tried to “Refresh” the Smart Content tab as I said before?  Right Click on “All” and select “refresh”

Have you tried to re-import the Meta-Data?  Right-Click on the Content Library tab header and select Content DB Maintenance…

in the dialog window, check Re-Import Meta-Data then OK, click OK to the next windows… recheck the Smart Content tab, refresh the tab if needed…

If none of that gets the files to show… I’m kind of stumped… unless it has something to do with the actual database files… I’m not sure…

Maybe Richard or one of the other mods or members will have an idea at that point…

nicci…

edit: I almost forgot… here’s a link to the system specs… http://www.daz3d.com/products/daz-studio/daz-studio-tech-specs

VOILA!!! thanks nicci, that did it! I followed your instruction to re-import the meta-data and it worked, at last I can finally start learning.

Thanks again Nicci I really appreciate it, you are a superstar.

Chris

Hi chris…

I’m glad everything is working for you now….

Now go and have fun…. and don’t forget, if you run into problems or just need help learning to do something, just ask…

There are alot of people here that will gladly share what they know…

nicci…

Thanks Niccipb….. I googled and found this thread… I was right clicking the smart content tab looking for the re-import metadata…never thought it was over on the content library tab…. while I am waiting for all my metadata to re-import thought I would add my thanks for taking the time to help other Daz users and let you know its usually more than just one person you end up helping.