Questions regarding product storage location - Mac

solarview

Hey guys,

So as the title indicates, I'm on a Mac system. Last night I wanted to clean-up my 10 years worth of installing files over multiple generations of DAZ Studio, and a couple of Macs.

So I uninstalled everything using Install Manager. I went through, to the best of my searches could find, and cleared everything out (Library/Application Support/...etc.). Essentially going for a complete 'clean-install' of Daz Studio. At that point I then, using Install Manger, re-installed everything.  

So my questions now are, Why would DAZ Studio install to multiple locations? The bulk of my products all seem to install to my main 'User' folder, under a master heading folder of 'DAZ 3D'.

But, then it also created new folder in the Main 'Macintosh HD/Users/Shared' folder. It created another 'DAZ 3D' folder, as well as 'My DAZ 3D Library' folder at this location.

Is this normal? Or did a miss some legacy preferences settings when I uninstalled and it's telling items to be located in multiple locations, including maybe older location settings? So I, for instance, have two 'My DAZ 3D Library' locations on my overall system, newly installed.

Just really seems that they should all being going to the same location, as far as products and accessories go.

 

solarview

For the record, in looking at the settings in Install Manger/Advanced Settings, it shows two paths:

LABEL: Recommended DAZ Studio/Poser Content Folder.  >>>   PATH: /Users/Shared/My Daz Studio Library

LABEL: Custom       >>>   PATH: /User/UserName/Daz 3D/Applications/Data/DAZ 3D/My Daz Studio Library

I haven't touched these in years, so I don't remember if these are Daz Studio preset locations for Mac, or something I may have done years ago.

Suggestions are welcome. 

 

Richard Haseltine

Main Documents folder has two locations for content in /Daz 3d/Studio/ - My Library for your own files and, possible, My Daz Connect Data for content installed through Daz Studio. The My Daz 3D Library folder in the Public folder is the default for Instal manager's installations. All can be configured - in the Advanced Settings>Installation tab for DIM and in Daz Studio>Preferences>Content tab>Content Directory Manager for DS (which also nees to be told there if you have changed the folder used by DIM, it won't auto-detect that).

solarview

Hey Richard,

What is the reasoning for having them in two separate locations?

Is it to keep Studio and Install Manager from getting confused on similar file names?

Richard Haseltine

solarview said:

Hey Richard,

What is the reasoning for having them in two separate locations?

Is it to keep Studio and Install Manager from getting confused on similar file names?

I am not entirely sure why Install Manager uses the Public folder - its settings and the content databse are not public by default, though the record of what it has installed is. But yes, they are each separate to avoid conflicts and also so that you need back up only the My Library folder, with the user-genreated files.

Elor

When I tried to move DIM download folder outside the Users/Shared folder on my Mac, DIM could not install applications and plugins anymore. I wasn't able to find a way to get the same permission on the folder on my external drive and the default one.

solarview

Richard Haseltine said:

solarview said:

Hey Richard,

What is the reasoning for having them in two separate locations?

Is it to keep Studio and Install Manager from getting confused on similar file names?

I am not entirely sure why Install Manager uses the Public folder - its settings and the content databse are not public by default, though the record of what it has installed is. But yes, they are each separate to avoid conflicts and also so that you need back up only the My Library folder, with the user-genreated files.

Thanks for the feedback, Richard. As I'd said, I was just trying to consolidate everything more so. I guess I'll leave them as is.

solarview

Elor said:

When I tried to move DIM download folder outside the Users/Shared folder on my Mac, DIM could not install applications and plugins anymore. I wasn't able to find a way to get the same permission on the folder on my external drive and the default one.

Thanks for the feedback, Elor. I guess I'll just leave them all where they are.

Elor

You can move the 'My DAZ 3D Library' folder to another location, even with products already installed: Daz Studio itself only care about the relative path, so as long as you're changing the location of 'My DAZ 3D Library' inside Daz Studio, it'll be able to find everything without a problem.

DIM on the other hand is using absolute path, so if you already have products installed, you'll have to do something, because DIM will not know where they are installed once moved, and will failed to remove them if you want to un-install some of them.

I batch edited with a crude Shell script (I'm not sure I kept it and it was too crude to share it) every file in the ManifestFiles folders to replace <UserInstallPath VALUE="[old_installation_path]"/> by <UserInstallPath VALUE="[new_installation_path]"/> but I think I read a message by Richard Haseltine explaining how to do it properly but I was not and I'm still not able to find it.

Edit: I forgot, but of course, you'll also have to tell DIM to install products using the new location for 'My DAZ 3D Library'.

Richard Haseltine

and it doesn't have to be called My Daz 3d Library - mine is called DS Content. Whatever name it has will appear under Daz Studio Formats 9and Poser Formats) in the Content Library pane.