Using Daz on multiple computers
kingkye262_8c0718d981
Posts: 14
I recently started using my laptop and desktop simultaneously while on daz. Both of my libraries are about 93% mirrored with a few discrepancies. Was wondering if their were any alternatives to manually installing content twice, it's kind of tedious and i'm horrible at keeping track of what got installed where. I thought about synching them both to my onedrive, which is where all of my scenes and presets save to, but i am deathly afraid of the content manager not finding items. Which is what happened last time i reinstalled daz. Even after confirming the file paths and locations half my scenes were messed up so i am absolutely terrified of that thing.
Another matter is my .obj folder, which is located in my onedrive. I know it should be placed in my daz library, but i put a few things there simply for efficiency's sake while on a month long trip away from my desktop. Now with plenty of items saved there and new scenes saved using items located there it has basically become a dedicated .obj folder shared between both computers. It typically works well enough. I can pull a scene up on both computers with no issues. But sometime it seems to pick an object at random and forget where it is despite "knowing" exactly where its located. I get the “can’t locate this file” message, click on locate, and it takes me directly to where it is. Sometimes it skips that all together and just says objs not found. I know it's not a syncing issue since I always make sure the drive finished syncing beforehand.
Just hoping for some good tips on dealing with these issues.
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Comments
I'm no expert, but I believe what you're trying to do won't work, at least it won't work consistently or predictably. You really need to have everything you need in one location, on a drive on your computer. Even then, I don't think your can synchronize between computers the way you like.
Greetings,
I use Dropbox to synchronize my Mac and Windows desktops, and I have my entire My Library folder underneath it. My Windows box syncs Dropbox to my D:/Dropbox directory, and my Mac to /Users/{username}/Dropbox, so I had to do a little configuration of DAZ Studio to look in the right places on each system, but once that was done it works pretty well. I don't do that with Renderosity items, mind you, I manually rsync those between the computers when I install a bunch more items.
I also have a 'Shared Scenes' folder, which I save my scenes in, and I can load them from each machine. This became SUPER important as Iray became 'the thing', as my Windows box has a 4GB nVidia 740 GTX so it renders a LOT faster than my CPU-only 27" iMac. But I vastly prefer doing scene setup on my Mac, since the monitor is so much better. So...in summary, it's entirely doable to sync like that, but it does take some fiddling to get right at first. But I did that fiddling years ago, and it's been pretty smooth ever since.
I'll admit that DAZ Encrypted Content is potentially a problem with this kind of layout, but I honestly haven't noticed if it's being problematic yet.
-- Morgan
[Edit/Ps. Just to be clear, I pay for Dropbox, $8.25/mo.]
Wow, I'm impressed. I have a 2014 27" iMac, and gave up on iRay myself. I tried using Dropbox for the DAZ Originals, and DIM. I got too many error messages. One Macintosh had my DAZ stuff installed in one area, and the other had installed stuff in a different place.
I like to use external Hard Drives for my Daz content, I have 2 - 2 TB eternal HHD drives for my runtime / content folders..it keeps my systems drive free from clutter and when I'm not using daz I turn off the external drives . I also use a 1 TB SSD drive for my shared project folders drive for projects that I'm working on. I created a dupilcate data folder in the shared project drive.. that allowed me to share my content drive with my Lap top and my 2 other desk tops. running in a home group network. I tie into my drives like a home server. all my computers using their own version of daz studio and using the same runtime & content drives. . I set it up this to allow me a faster work flow for creating animation. while I'm rendering on my big i7 systems, I can be working on and building scenes for the next render on my lap top or my other desk top pc behind me. , this frees up my resources on my big systems for rendering animated scenes.
Thats is why if I were to ever use daz connect it would break this work flow.
You are absolutely correct sir. It is consistently an unpredictable a**hole.
Renderosity items are exactly what i'm trying to get sorted. Whenever i buy from there I have a habit of getting large quantities of different items from different vendors all at once. So it always takes a while to load them to one PC then I get lazy and only do the most pressing items on my other installation. Procrastination, man's greatest enemy.
Sounds kinda like my setup, although yours looks like it was made by someone with competence. Can you give me some more info on the homegroup shared drive setup and how you configured daz to properly use it? It sounds really promising.
There may be issues with Connect-installed content, particularly encrypted items, that I'm not aware of, but it shouldn't be an issue for DIM or manually-installed items. You need to make sure the content location is available and has the same drive letter before launching DS.
As far as the .obj folder on OneDrive, you can specify that as an "Other format content folder" in DS.
I had a little help getting set up. but the way it was explained to me was , it starts with I have one huge PC system. the one i am on tonight. I'll call it Thor..lol its the Master PC. I do all my major rendering and film editing ect on it. I connected all my external hard drives too it. using 2 Acestar useb3 HHD docking station. for my HHD and I use the extras SSD socket in my PC case for my projects drive. separate from my C/ drive. . . Then I use the Internet set up option on the Master to allow the Internet router as a tool to communicate with other computers in my home group and each other. The communication speeds is as fast as your slowest computer being used on the home network. . it does not run on the internet strength or use your ISP band width. but it will allow all computers to access the internet . The home network group just uses your internet router to create the home group connection to communicate with each other. , you can find the set up in Network groups which is in windows 7 pro, under internet set up as a option. ..this in turn allows my Master system to communicate with all the slave system computers in the home group. which I have 3 those computers can all share the same external drives and work projects on the drives with computers. just be mind full if you update one version of daz on your master system make sure all your slaves systems have the same version. so to avoid getting errors when sharing projects on the different computers. if you use a different drive just for projects, I found that it helps to create a data file in the document of the project hard drive this will allow you to share the content , scenes and settings you create in your daz projects without having to keeps going back to the original data file. in the content folder. this is a great set up if your animator like me that uses multi computers to to work on your animated projects because you can cross share scene DUF files in a seamless work flow. most animator studios now days I think have similar sets ups .
I have my runtime on a raid on my server box. Haven't tried using connect but DIM works fine.
Actually you can put content on a shared drive, the trick is you have to Map the Drive in the OS (so it has a drive letter in windows or a mounted drive in MacOS), then both systems have to maintain their own Database, but this would only work for Content, which is not Connect installed. BUT before you run off and build the super server for your content; I do believe that somewhere in the EULA -- we all agreed to when we started using Daz 3D Content -- is a bit about not installing DAZ 3D content on a shard drive; such as a NAS (Network Attached Storage) or Server. A USB drive, while share able, is only connected to one computer at a time.
That is Installed content, not installable content, you can also use your NAS with the DIM, if you keep your install files, but again you have to Map the drive in the system first. I tend not to do that, and get a fresh copy each time I do a Library rebuild. It is part of the reason I keep all my Content by Store, so I can wipe out one section of my library without affecting another. (While testing the DIM I did that about six times, without affecting content from other stores.) This is why Connect puts each product in it own folders, so you have less orphans. I do keep my installable content on my NAS and I use my Mac and Rendoinstall for MacOS to install content from Stores other than Daz 3D (because they have the nifty DIM and Connect.
Edited Note: If you are doing content creation, it is best ot keep each project in a seperate Content Directory for the same reason, there is less chance for corrpution of your Main Library. (You may build several different versions of the same asset and only like one of them, if they are in your main Library you have to deal with removing all the little parts of just leave them there to cause trouble.) Also when you go to pack it up as either a Freebie or to send off to a store for sale, you don't have to Hunt for all the bit and pieces of the project, they are already all together in the directory. Also Daz Studio will create a Data folder for anything in that Content Directory. Get to know your way around the Content Diretory Manager.
You can however map a Content Directory on your NAS, as well as a Render Library and several other things. Here you can save your Scenes, Renders, and Projects, butI suggest you use a 1GB Network speed, which most system are capable of today, that way if your main machine dies, you don't loose your work and can pick it up with your backup machine. (You do know you can move the Connect folders off the C-drive. same with your cache and Database Directories, thus saving both from a Format C: Reinstall)
I do like CyberFox’s idea of Dropbox, but it requires syncing, which I know is done automatically. Same with iCloud or OneDrive. But it also gives you an external backup of you work and that could be good for catastrophic failure; your House burning, Earthquake or the like. It is one advantage of the “Cloud”. (I think hat should be said like you are talking to a Mystic.) The best of both worlds would be a NAS with a Cloud Solution. You use the NAS and it backs itself up to the Cloud. This way you don't have to wait for the sync to switch machines sne you ge the backup for catastrophic failure.
The EULA doesn't contain the word "server" and "network" only occurs not in reference to storage. To my knowledge, and I've not read the EULA in detail lately (I did skim it for this reply), there is nothing in the EULA to prohibit putting content on a "server" so long as the location only (serves the content/is accessible) to a single physical geographical location or address at a time. You should be in your rights via the EULA to serve content to all of the machines in your domicile, but allowing access to other apartments in a multi-family unit would not be permissible.
Here is the portion on "copying":
The best solution is to contact DAZ Customer Support and ask.
Kendall
Yes, you are correct, I am incorrect. ( http://www.das3d.com/eula ) It may have been in there at one time and the EULA is a constantly changing document.
This means that CyberFox's DropBox solution, may be acceptable as a DropBox is controlled by the User, then again it would be considered Off Site Backup, seeing you have to sync the files down to a computer to use the content.
I think dropbox, et al, would probably not be allowed. A NAS or server is a "computer" that is physically in the control of the user. Cloud servers are not "under the control" of the user even though s/he may be paying for storage. If the account, for some reason, were to be put into a receivership of some type (think megaupload) the content would be outside of control of the user or DAZ.
However, only DAZ can answer to the Cloud usage questions.
Kendall
My server lives on the dining room table and the network isn't wifi enabled... so the only people who have access to my content are myself, Darc (who's intrests in 3D art doesn't go past helping me with UV mapping and rigging, and being my muse), and our roommate (who's knowledge and interest of 3D anything doesn't got past his video games).
We all need one of those, a Muse that is. Servers are optional.
But to get back to kingkye262_8c0718d981's question.
The answer is yes you can install content on a shared system and you can use it from that share, as long as you own and control said system.
if you are using Windows you have to Map the Drive to a Drive Letter before you call it out in the Content Directory Manager.
Using both system could be useful, during a long render, you can locate assets or pre-built sub-scenes, like dress a characters, to maximize your time. (BTW: V4 as a Subscene loads faster then V4 from scratch and so does Genesis.)
Yep, if you don't do that you can still see it in DS but DIM doesn't work. (and content managment probably won't work either)