first post here people.
here’s the easiest of solutions to the problem.
leave the install alone, leave the current folder alone.
most of the installers are smart enough to find the dang folder through cms(content management service). exception is older installers may require manual insertion of the folder name as they can’t find the current directories, or don’t recognize daz 4 at all.
if they have a pop up of “serching for installed content” cancel it, and just manually put in the folder location.
put a shortcut on the desktop to that directory, so if a program is installing you can easily know where to direct it.
also if you are doing a lot of installs in succession, keep a notepad up with the file path on it.
then if it doesn’t automatically come up, just highlight, and ctrl+C(copy), and then ctrl+V(paste) in the box.
a heck of a lot faster then browsing or typing manually.
and for the most part you should only have to copy the first time and then just past after that.
also in vista and 7 sometimes installers get “lost”, and the product file(cr2) directs to the appdata folder and not the correct file folder. it’s a vista/7 file structure issue. and will drive you nuts at first(especially with a lot of content).
in that situation it’s easier to bring up the shortcut, search for the specific product and then just drag and drop it to the folder it’s looking fin initally, if you select “locate” for missing content. hold ctrl, as this only copies, and doesn’t just move it, as that may cause a whole mess of other problems.
a harder method is editing cr2 files but that’s a whole nother beast.
another thing to keep in mind, especially as you are new, that unless the content you are downloading has a meta data file it will not come up in smart content, it will only be visible in content library.
a quick recommendation:
if you down load content without an installer(there are many), create a secondary folder for the runtimes.
i currently have about 7 directories i use for content, keeping each(including the original) under 4.5GB.
why you may ask?
simple i can back up the directories to a dvd and save a lot of headaches if i have to reinstall.
don’t ask it’s a longer story than i care to get into and is part of my ocd about organization of my computer.
and when you are pushing a TB of content, going through all those installers takes days. not to mention correcting all the misdirected, corrupt and flat messed up files(you will get them even through daz). easier to have the whole library backed up and just copy back and re associate with daz via the content manager.
and if you have installed the meta data files as well, it can come back too.
just have to reimport. right click on the content library and click on content database maintenance. tick the reimport meta data and hit accept. all files with associated meta data pop back up in smart content.
another reason i like to keep them separate is that sometimes installers and zips will over write previous versions of a file.
and then something will gak on you and you’ll never find the file you need.
best example is the blmilbod_v4.obj. file.
this is a victoria 4 file, that was supplanted by blmilbod_v4b.(4.1 or 4.2 i think)
they are not the same file, and most content that uses the v4 cant’ use the v4b.
learned that one the hard way.
took a couple hours to straighten it out and find the correct file. also the reason i started multiple directories.
the last reason is that if you get into custom categorization(trust me you’ll need it), some files literally won’t do it if they are in the same folder(sometimes different folders don’t even work).
for instance i have the uh-60 black hawk(two versions). one has the side guns, and one does not.
the one that doesn’t won’t categorize even when in totally different directories.
and no it’s not a morph or anything, it’s a full figure. just from a different site.
just one of my many wiggy issues as a tech geek.
Happy rendering, and hope that helps.
oh and one more thing, uninstalling the program does nothing to correct this kind of issue.
the reason is that the registry entries also have to be deleted, as well as a couple “hidden” files in appdata.
i’ll bet you didn’t have to put the serial number in when you ran the install again.
that’s why. it also keeps plug in serials and the like in it(may have to reinstall them, but you won’t have to input the serials again.
A lot of programs have this somewhat psychotic structure in vista and 7, mostly to protect the user from unintentional uninstalls.
the real result is registry bloat. but i’ll leave it at that.
