Digital Art Zone

I did post the same question in the old forums but as the search doesn’t work in it I’m posting again (and as I’ve got confused again!).
My content for DS4 in DS4 is a mess - I was fine with DS3, it was organised and I knew exactly where to install it and where to find it in DS3. But since moving to DS4 I’m finding it a nightmare. I have to look in various folders to find content and have lots of folders that don’t contain any and shouldn’t be showing. All the older stuff under Poser Formats is fine (just like it was in DS3). But I’m still not sure where I should be installing stuff now in DS4. Looking at the documentation it says:

PC USERS (WINDOWS XP)
C:\Documents and Settings\[your user account]\Application Data\DAZ 3D\Studio\My Library

I’m using XP but I don’t want to install it to Documents and Settings/[user name]/Application Data….and I don’t want to use the CMS.

I want to be able to keep all my content in my folders set for DAZ Studio. So my question is how do I do that? Do I just need to make sure I have a folder called ‘My Library’? So could I for example have ..Studio\content\My Library / I remember reading before that you had to have a ‘My Library’ folder somewhere. 

It really is driving me nuts….

That’s wrong - it should be Documents, not Application data. But no, in general you don’t need to have a My Library folder - just pick a folder (can be a folder you are already using for DS3) when you install and install any Genesis add-ons that contain morphs to that.

Thanks for the reply Richard. But I don’t understand - with DS3 everything installed to \Sudio\Content and then stuff woudl go to the right folders e.g. libraries, textures, geometries etc. (or I could manually put them there). But with DS4 I don’t understand where all the DS specific content should go. I’m assuming they don’t go in the same libraries, textures folders etc. that I use for DS 3 content (poser compatible stuff).

I’m about to do a reinstall so I’d like to get it right this time.

It works the same as in DS3—whether the content is in Poser or DS format, install to the content folder as it’s set in Content Directory Manager—the defaults (although you don’t have to use them) are:

DS3:  ..\My Documents\DAZ 3D\Studio3\Content
DS4:  ..\My Documents\DAZ 3D\Studio\My Library

If you prefer the Folder view in DS3, use the Content Library tab and look under “DAZ Studio Formats” and “Poser Formats”.  For the Category view, use the Content Library tab and look under “Categories”.  (Categories requires the CMS.)

When you first run DS4 it should ask you if you want to “Import Mapped Folders” and if you want to “Migrate the Content Database”.  You can access these options from the Content Library options menu if it doesn’t prompt you automatically.

First “Import Mapped Folders”.  If you then look at the Content Library tab you can click on “DAZ Studio Content Folders” or “Poser Content Folders” and see the folders as they are on disk, equivalent to the Folder view in DS3.

Then “Migrate the Content Database” to import the Content Database used in the Category view in DS3.  After you do this, clicking on “Categories” in the Content Library tab in DS4 will give you the equivalent of the Category view in DS3, plus an extra top-level category “Default” for the DS4 content.  You can now categorize the DS4 content from Default > Unassigned into your own categories.

[Note: Migrating will skip items which have non-English characters, such as diacritical marks.]

fixmypcmike - 09 July 2012 05:35 AM

It works the same as in DS3—whether the content is in Poser or DS format, install to the content folder as it’s set in Content Directory Manager—the defaults (although you don’t have to use them) are:

DS3:  ..\My Documents\DAZ 3D\Studio3\Content
DS4:  ..\My Documents\DAZ 3D\Studio\My Library

If you prefer the Folder view in DS3, use the Content Library tab and look under “DAZ Studio Formats” and “Poser Formats”.  For the Category view, use the Content Library tab and look under “Categories”.  (Categories requires the CMS.)

When you first run DS4 it should ask you if you want to “Import Mapped Folders” and if you want to “Migrate the Content Database”.  You can access these options from the Content Library options menu if it doesn’t prompt you automatically.

First “Import Mapped Folders”.  If you then look at the Content Library tab you can click on “DAZ Studio Content Folders” or “Poser Content Folders” and see the folders as they are on disk, equivalent to the Folder view in DS3.

Then “Migrate the Content Database” to import the Content Database used in the Category view in DS3.  After you do this, clicking on “Categories” in the Content Library tab in DS4 will give you the equivalent of the Category view in DS3, plus an extra top-level category “Default” for the DS4 content.  You can now categorize the DS4 content from Default > Unassigned into your own categories.

[Note: Migrating will skip items which have non-English characters, such as diacritical marks.]

Thanks very much mike. That helps a lot. I’m not sure I understand your instructions in the last paragraph, as I don’t remember doing that before, but I’ll see when I reinstall. I’m not clear on the folder structure within MyLibrary - what should be in there? Should I have folders called Geometries, props etc. like in the DS3 Runtime folder?

EDIT - silly question, I can see what folders are in there after install.

Finally! I’ve got it sorted - I have my content installed to DAZ\Studio\My Library andit all seems to be working okay - yay:)

what a mess I have. content is scattered everywhere. I never got Daz 3 to work because of content scatter issues, so recently tried going to daz 4 and installing all of my old downloads fresh. Since I’ve also changed OS lately, PPC installers are no longer functional.
I keep running the intel installers, but fresh content not showing up, or scattered. for the PPC installers, i don’t think i have a soluble fix.
so I have figures from poser 1999 scattered with random newer figures. complete garbage.
Think i’ll try to start over and make a virtual windows PC of content.
guess that’s the end of using the mac for 3d.

Most of the older content that had PPC installers has been converted to plain .zip files