DAZ Install Manager configuration
Ron Knights
Posts: 2,038
I decided to give DIM and Smart Content another shot. I'm reading the documentation. Unfortunately, confusion abounds. This page mentions options I can't find when it comes to installing content.
I don't see options like Install all Files, selected files, one file at a time, and Install to Where, I don't see a way to control how or where content gets installed. In the past I've complained that DAZ appears to scatter all our content around. People had stated that we can control exactly where content is installed. I don't see any documentation about that. Are these docs outdated? It would help if more accurate, closeup screenshots were provided.
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To have complete control over DIM installations,
1. Go to the Ready To Download tab and uncheck Install After Download.
2. Go to the Ready To Install tab and uncheck Delete Package Once Installed.
y3kman, thanks for the response. However, none of those options allow me to choose exactly where my content gets installed.
Ron - maybe this will help.
Fire up DIM and select 'work offline' for now.
Click on the gear, upper right, and select 'advanced settings'
Select the 'downloads' tab. Check (or set) The "Package Archive" - this is where DIM saves the downloads to install from. I'm using my 'G' drive. (image 1)
The "Thumbnail Archive" is where DIM will store thumbnails of the products if you download them - I just run the default, they don't eat that much space.
You also need to select the products you want DIM to download - this is my laptop, so I just do a subset here.
Now go to the 'installation' tab - this is where we define the install locations for DIM. (image 2)
I'm installing the software to my 'E' drive in the 'bits-32' and 'bits-64' directories and moved the cms to my 'E' drive as well.
I have two install directories - 'gen5' and 'shaders' - they're on the same drive on my laptop but different drives on my main system; both directories MUST be defined in Studio as both Studio and Poser content directories.
Click 'accept' to save changes and leave the config.
I run download and install as two separate steps - all the downloads (no checkmark in 'install after download) and then the install. You'll want 'Show Details' checked in the 'Ready to Install' tab - this gives you access to a drop-down list of defined installation directories. (image 3) Pick the one you want to install to and select the products that go in it and click 'Start Queue'.
You can do this kind of stuff if you click on the gear icon in the top left. You can filter your downloads, change dirrectory paths for content or applications, and set up different accounts. I don't think you can go deep and filter by character or that kind of thing, the filters are just too general. I think you can do pretty much the same thing by using the 'filter' button on the download tab.
Gus
Add a new installation path(s) if you don't want to use the default one (C:/Users/Public/Documents/My DAZ 3D Library).
1. Open DIM and click on the gear/settings icon at the top-right. Select advance settings.
2. Go to the Installation tab and click on the [+] at the bottom-left. Create directories and labels for your new installation paths.
Thanks, guys, for your input. But let me try to explain. Take this screenshot. The installer wants to put MS-DIner in the Environments folder. I want to place MS_Diner into a scenes folder.
...every time there is an update I have to go through this all over again for some reason. I find that the Manifest.JSON file is installed to my desktop and the sign on .ini goes into the wrong folder which triggers an invalid login error I find I have to un-check the "remember me" box and manually input my password each time I use it, or it keeps happening. This happened totally out of the blue last year and has nothing to do with my system settings (AV, firewall) as those did not change before this started occurring.
As of this latest update I decided to just use the IM offline and manually download new purchases into the downloads folder as I have other targets for where content is supposed to go than C:/Documents.(My C drive is small, reserved primarily for boot up and programme installs).
doesn't work like that . you can manually drag 'MS_Diner' into any folder you want, via an Explorer( or Mac version) window afterwards. it will show up in most views. But that will break the Metadata that DS uses for Smart Content.
if you want stuff to show in other folders than the one in the DS Metadata, you will have to create your own Metadata to replace it.
DIM uses the Daz supplied product Metadata to install the products to the appropriate Category Folder.
If you want to set up multiple runtimes for the various categories, you can. but you need to create a folder for each, and point DIM to any particular one you want.
be warned, you cannot multi select various products at the same time and expect DIM to install to any alternate runtimes you have. you need to set the runtime folder, select items you want installed there, then hit the install button.
you will need to do that for every 'category' runtime. plus DIM will 'remember' the last path used, so you need to check before installing a new batch, everytime.
after, you need to point the database manager in DS to the runtimes you need to use( if a runtime is not 'linked' to the DM, you will not see it in available libraries in the Content Tab.)
You could use the Categories folder in DS for setting things up the way you want, it uses virtual folders and presets so you don't have to move any actual content files.
...that's sort of what I do and why I stopped dealing with IM updates since the issue I mentioned about above keeps occurring. Instead like I mentioned, I manually DL from the Content Library in my account to the IM install folder and install in offline mode as every time I've allowed an update to install itself, it wipes out all my install paths and resets everything to the Default C:/Documents folder again. Yeah my setup is somewhat intricate and took a while to rebuild after the crash, bit it's so much easier to find things as they are grouped how I feel they are supposed to be. As long as Data, Geometry, and Textures go into the appropriate folders, everything works fine.
I also don't use Smart Content because one, it takes up too much screen real estates, and two, the custom categorised setup I have that I outlined above, so the Metadata is not all that important.
Must be something wrong with your setup since DIM does that, I'm using it every day to download and install, everything is working fine including DIM updates. And I'm using custom paths for everything. Have you checked the DIM config file?
..as I mentioned, nothing was changed in my system setup before the suspect update. There was some sort of glitch occurred with that particular update (don't remember the version number off the top of my head) but it was the one where a few new options were added to the advanced settings). I do remember a few others were having trouble getting to download and install as well . When I finally got it to install, that's when the sign on errors and change to default settings began..
OK, thanks for your replies. You've confirmed that DIM really doesn't do what it says it will. And the docs are wrong as well.
I started organizing my DAZ content manually, back around 2000. That was when Poser had problems if your content library was too large. When DIM and Smart Content arrived, I had already been doing manual installs for a few years. The best system I have now is to divide my installs into a few categories.
I still have many years' worth of older content, such as the Generation 1-Generation 4 characters (Michael 1 to Michael 4 etc.) I created a folder called "Gen4" for the old content. Much of that content doesn't have "png" thumbnails. That's a major problem. I can use rsr converter on a PC to handle that chore. I don't think there is a Mac app for that. Then I have folders for Genesis, Animals, Scenes, Toons & "Stuff". The "Stuff" folder is for the PoserCF files and other stuff I don't want. This procedure makes it easier for me to find or organize my content.
Smart Content doesn't work. It fails to show too many Content items. DIM helps only if I manipulate it to install content closer to my own desires.
What does DIM say it will do that it doesn't?
You can use links, created in DS, to leave the files where DIM puts them but have a reference in the desired location for ease of access without breaking updates/uninstalls.
Richard I answered that question at the beginning of this thread. Now I'm busy reinstalling my Content, and doing things my own way.
You can save yourself a lot of time and work, and get things the way you want anyway, by using DIM and Categories. Categories is not Smart Content, it's a way to rearrange your files the way you want without the problems the "old way" of doing it can cause.
Thanks Taoz... I did that a few times over the years. I'll likely go back to Categories once I've reinstalled everything.
A tip, by the way, if you come from a "rearrange the files on disk the way I like them" background (as I did): you can right-click on a folder in "Daz Studio formats" or "Poser formats" and choose "Create Categories from" > "this folder and subfolders", and now you have Categories set up the same way the folders are arranged on disk (whether it's the way they are in the zip or how you've rearranged them). So for things you've already arranged, you've got categories the way you like them, and for things that you haven't rearranged, you can arrange them using categories the same way you would have done with folders on the hard drive. The stuff you already rearranged is probably older stuff that isn't likely to get updated, and as you install new stuff you can arrange them using categories and have the best of both. Just make sure to Export User Data periodically so your custom rearrangement is backed up and can be restored.
Those features are available, though the access to preferences has been changed slightly. I thought you had been receiving answers.
There is a check box in the bar above the file listing - click that on to select all. To seelct some use the checkboxes next to each package.
Just click the Download, Install, or Uninstall button to the right of the package name
Click the gear icon at top-right>Advanced Settings and add your desired folder in the Installation tab. You can see, and chnage, the target folder in the main interface by checkingg the Show Details option at lower-right (requires that Install After Download be checked if looking at the Ready To Download tab since it is an installation option)
Correction: should be "(requires that Install After Download be UNchecked"
Not for me - Show Details is greyed out if Install After Download is unchecked.
Fixmypcmike, yeah I'm aware of that. I will be using categories. I've actually resorted to dual copies of each folder. For example: Gen4 DAZ & Gen4 Ron. THe Gen4 Ron contains files which I have sorted and also contains rsr files that have been converted on my PC to PNG files. My goal is to copy the folders containing the converted rsr files over to my Mac.
I really appreciate everyone's responses here.. This thread was just a way for me to be sure I understood DIM and Smart Content. Now I can proceed with my own methods.
Oh, I see, on the ready to download tab. I have it on the Ready to Install tab, so it's persistent and I don't have to remember to turn off install after download.
I've decided just to ignore Smart Content & Categories. If I move the content around myself, I will always be able to find it.