Downloading and Installing DAZ Studio: a guide and FAQ

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  • fixmypcmikefixmypcmike Posts: 19,565
    edited December 1969

    You can keep DS3 installed alongside DS4.6. To use your DS3 content in DS4.6, go to Content Library tab Options menu (rectangle with horizontal lines in the upper corner) > Import Mapped Directories
    If you used Categories in DS3, you'll also want to do Migrate Old Content Database.

  • edited December 1969

    I am using daz studio 4.5 in windows xp. I've been trying all afternoon to get genesis into the right spot and get it working. So far, no jCan someone tell me the exact path required to place the unzipped folders? Now I can see genesis but it does not load because it can not find data files.

    Any help would be appreciated, this has been a crazy maker (don't get me wrong, i'm sure its Operator Error!)

    thanks
    mystmaiden

  • fixmypcmikefixmypcmike Posts: 19,565
    edited December 1969

    I am using daz studio 4.5 in windows xp. I've been trying all afternoon to get genesis into the right spot and get it working. So far, no jCan someone tell me the exact path required to place the unzipped folders? Now I can see genesis but it does not load because it can not find data files.

    Any help would be appreciated, this has been a crazy maker (don't get me wrong, i'm sure its Operator Error!)

    thanks
    mystmaiden

    If you manually unzip the Genesis Starter Essentials, make sure there's no extra "Content" folder underneath your content folder (e.g. My Library/Content). What's underneath the Content folder in the zip needs to go directly underneath the My Library folder.

  • edited December 1969

    Thank you for the prompt reply, sorry to just now be getting back.

    If you manually unzip the Genesis Starter Essentials, make sure there’s no extra “Content” folder underneath your content folder (e.g. My Library/Content). What’s underneath the Content folder in the zip needs to go directly underneath the My Library folder.

    I think I actually wound up doing this wrong again. Under My Library should there be a file called Content or just the actual content?

    Also i bought the genesis v4 and m4 shapes, do they go into the people file or into the Genesis file?

    Thank you again. Sorry to be so danse about this.

    mystmaiden

  • JaderailJaderail Posts: 0
    edited December 1969

    All your content should go into My Library without any content folder at all. The best method is to open the content folder Select All and copy. You then paste that into the My Library folder and do a Merge. You do the same for all DIM zips. Copy from inside Content and Paste into My Library. That will place all content into the proper folders. The are designed to Auto Load the Content inside to the My Library folder if used with the DIM.

  • tyler.slatontyler.slaton Posts: 2
    edited December 1969

    Hello! I heard about DAZ 3D 4.6 pro recently and was instantly impressed and interested. I downloaded it yesterday, and I've been coming up against the same problem: none of my files will open! I can't access any dsf, dsa , or png files.

    I have already downloaded the Genesis Starter bundles and have tried to solve the problem - from changing the content directory to re-downloading and re-installing the program itself multiple times.

    Whenever I open the program, there are no files or products in my Smart Content, and there are no items in my Content Library aside from 'DAZ studio formats' and 'Categories'.

    Please help! I was really looking forward to using this program.

  • fixmypcmikefixmypcmike Posts: 19,565
    edited December 1969

    Go to Edit > Preferences > Content Library > Content Directory Manager and make sure your content location is listed as both "DAZ Studio Formats" and "Poser Formats". Did you install the content with DAZ3D Install Manager, manually, or with a stand-alone installer?

  • Techrat3DTechrat3D Posts: 3
    edited December 1969

    Regarding the downloaded content via DIM.

    After the content has been downloaded and installed via DIM, there are 2 files (.ZIP & .DSX) in the DIM download folder.
    To save space on my HDD (Laptop), can I delete the .ZIP files?
    I assume the .DSX file is needed by DIM to remember what has been installed?

  • Scott LivingstonScott Livingston Posts: 4,331
    edited December 1969

    Yes, that's correct. If you prefer, you can set up DIM to automatically delete the installer files (.zip) after installation. Click on the "Ready to Install" tab, and check the box "Delete Installer Once Installed."

  • Techrat3DTechrat3D Posts: 3
    edited December 1969

    Thanks for the fast reply. :-)
    Settings changed.

  • tyler.slatontyler.slaton Posts: 2
    edited December 1969

    I installed the content manually. I was unable to use the Install Manager.

  • Scott LivingstonScott Livingston Posts: 4,331
    edited December 1969

    If your content isn't showing up, it either wasn't installed correctly, or DAZ Studio isn't looking in the right place for it. Fixmypcmike's previous post about the Content Directory Manager explains how to make sure DS is looking in the right place. Jaderail's post just above your first one explains how to properly install the content if you are doing it manually. If you did something different when you installed (for example, if you put the Content folder inside your My Library folder) your content may not show up as expected.

    There could be other things going on with Smart Content, but as long as the content is installed properly, and the correct location is listed in the Content Directory Manager, your content should be listed in the Content Library at least. Once you get that far, if you're still having trouble with Smart Content please let us know and we can help you with that.

    If you're stuck and still can't find your content in the Content Library, then can you provide a screenshot of your Content Directory Manager, and also tell us the full path of where Genesis.duf exists on your computer?

  • mtnmaster2360mtnmaster2360 Posts: 0
    edited December 1969

    I am completely lost her. Trying to get started in this stuff, dowloaded 4.6. Can't get the "installer" to run. It says my password is wrong. Can't find any content in the content window or even figure out how to find it or what I am looking for. The best I've found was somehow a couple times I got some "robot" looking thing to load and it was pose-able. Can anyone direct me somewhere to find out either how to get installer to work so I can start over, or what to do with all this?

    Thanks.

  • JaderailJaderail Posts: 0
    edited December 1969

    The DIM (DAZ Install Manager) uses the VERY same login, user name and password, you use to get on the DAZ3D site. It must match perfectly. The DAZ Studio Program will make a Folder called My Library in your Documents Folder. The DIM will make a Folder in your PUBLIC Documents Folder called My DAZ 3D Library. I use a Default DAZ Studio 4.6 install and a Default DIM install and all I needed to do was edit my Paths to the content in the DS4.6 Prefs. Here is what it looks like.

    Capture2.png
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  • mtnmaster2360mtnmaster2360 Posts: 0
    edited December 1969

    Thanks I found that path. That directory is empty. I guess I need to know what gets loaded there. I don't know the file suffix's so I have no idea what I'm looking to have in that directory.

  • JaderailJaderail Posts: 0
    edited December 1969

    If you have not FIXED the login and Downloaded and Installed content it will not have any content in it.

  • mtnmaster2360mtnmaster2360 Posts: 0
    edited December 1969

    The only differnce between my "online" info and my "installer" info is that Tim Jackson is "online" vs tim jackson "offline" . I tried to change that but when I loaded the Caps it says that user already exists. I'm just lost. I changed the online password, then tried the new pw in the installer and it still says something is wrong.
    I'll keep trying. Thanks for the input.

  • mtnmaster2360mtnmaster2360 Posts: 0
    edited December 1969

    Can I load content manually? I was able to install the studio manually.

  • SzarkSzark Posts: 10,634
    edited December 1969

    Yes there is nothing stopping you from installing everything manually. I still do.

  • ShelLuserShelLuser Posts: 748
    edited December 1969

    It's a nice explanation, however I also noticed that the information has become a bit out of date; with the current DIM it's perfectly possible to get the whole deal these days.

    And if I may; I'm somewhat missing a reference to the extensiveness that is DIM. Of course you can simply start it and tell it to grab your goodies, but then you might end up disappointed when you're using a specific setup (like I am).

    First DIM; you can grab Daz Studio 4.6 straight from the DIM itself. Just fire it up, provide your credentials for the DAZ3D webshop and your copy of Daz Studio should soon appear in the "ready to download" tab.

    But here's the thing.. You might want to go over to the config screen first (click the cog icon in the upper right corner) and pay close attention to the downloads and installation tabs as these can become important.

    Downloads: This tab does 2 things. First it points to a location on your computer where all the contents which you download from the Daz3D shop will end up. This is important. Because although you can somewhat rely on the Daz website to provide you with your purchase again it's obviously better to make sure that you can recover yourself should something does go wrong.

    That's where this directory comes in. Here everything ends up which you got through the Daz store. So if you're short on disk space then it might be a good idea to point this directory elsewhere. Or to move the files in this directory to another location (after you installed them of course). That's what I'm currently doing. After everything has been setup I move the whole kaboodle to an external USB disk for storage. Saves me room, and should something odd happen then I can quickly restore my Daz configuration, even if I don't have an internet connection.

    All that you need in case of an emergency is to make sure that the directory DIM points to here is then filled with all your packages again. After that you can re-install with a 2 mouse clicks (one to select all packages and one to start the installation ;)).

    Another important thing to keep in mind is the product list. All checked products are used to provide you with goodies. But if you're on Windows then you obviously don't have much use for Mac downloads. Or if you're on 32bit then you can easily ignore 64bit. That's what you can (and should) do here. For example; I got Daz, Hexagon and Bryce so that's what I have checked here. (well, that and the installation manager, general, software and plugin) ;-)

    Installation: This is also an important tab because it determines where your software ends up. For example; on my setup I keep C relatively clean (only system software and specific tools) and everything else (especially software for leisure or software which gobbles up much disk space) goes to D.

    That's what you can do here. So if you normally use "D:\Program Files" for your software then you should fill that out here as well before you install anything. That will make sure that software such as Daz Studio ends up on the right place as well.

    And another thing...

    Daz Studio uses a "library folder". Actually it uses more than one (you save your own work in a (personal) library folder as well) but there is one library folder where all purchased contents will get installed to. And that's what you can find and configure here as well. It might be a good idea to point this to a good location before downloading too.

    For example; I've grabbed my share of stuff and freebies and my main library folder is already easily 6Gb whereas my "3rd party" library folder (I like to separate between 'official' stuff and other stuff I collected) already sits around 3Gb.

    As you can see in the screenshot I simply added a new reference to a library (which is what I'm using) and then pointed the DIM to it by using the selector at the bottom. And with that said I'll also attach a screenshot which shows you that you can indeed download Daz through the DIM these days.

    Right, although this might be a little bit more indepth for a newbie I figured it's still useful information.

    To be honest I ended up a little annoyed when I noticed that Daz Studio ended up on C while I wanted it on D. Even though it is only 200Mb...

    So, my take on the matter. Hope this can be useful to someone as well.

    dim_cfg.jpg
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    dim.jpg
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  • Scott LivingstonScott Livingston Posts: 4,331
    edited December 1969

    That's really helpful...thanks for posting. I'm aware that my original post requires an update...I'm working on one but it's on hold as additional changes to DIM are in the works, which should hopefully streamline the process even more.

  • ttnnttnn Posts: 99
    edited December 1969

    Dear Volunteers, Power Members, Addicts … :

    Ready to degust the wonders of triax and Genesis2, at long last,
    I boldly download DS4.6.0.18 with things like Genesis Starter Essentials
    and Genesis2 Female Starter Essentials, but when I unzip those,
    I get what you see below. No installer.
    And DS4 doesn’t want to open a .dsx file. What now?

    P.S. I don’t dare to use the DIM, because my system [Mac OS 10.6.8]
    is case-sensitive and partitioned in a way that confuses the heck
    out of most DS3-level installers,
    so I’ve been downloading and organizing by hand, for DS3;
    but now I don’t know what to do with these .dsx files. :ohh:

    GenesisStarter.dsx_.png
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  • SzarkSzark Posts: 10,634
    edited December 1969

    The "Content" folder is the same as the "My Daz Studio Library" (which I think it is now called) or just My Library which is what mine is called but mine is a left over from when DS4 first came out.. So using logic place everything that is in the "Content" folders in to the My Library folder. This will be where you instructed Daz Studio to place our content.

  • ttnnttnn Posts: 99
    edited December 1969

    Szark said:
    ...place everything that is in the "Content" folders...

    Aha.
    Believe it or not, I actually purchased DS4 in 2011 (for over a hundred and fifty dollars),
    took it for a spin, and the folder structure that arose out of that
    is a structure that I would dearly like to keep(!), meaning that a particular Content
    and a particular data folder of mine are the ones I have to keep groomed,
    for figures and all that.
    Thus, what you say I should do, is get into all the subfolders shown above
    and distribute their contents into the ONE Content folder [one to rule them all].
    Is that it?

    What about the advice I’ve read, to not ignore the Poser-version of things?
    E.g. ⋯EssentialsPoserCF.zip ?

  • JaderailJaderail Posts: 0
    edited September 2013

    ttnn said:
    Szark said:
    ...place everything that is in the "Content" folders...

    Aha.
    Believe it or not, I actually purchased DS4 in 2011 (for over a hundred and fifty dollars),
    took it for a spin, and the folder structure that arose out of that
    is a structure that I would dearly like to keep(!), meaning that a particular Content
    and a particular data folder of mine are the ones I have to keep groomed,
    for figures and all that.
    Thus, what you say I should do, is get into all the subfolders shown above
    and distribute their contents into the ONE Content folder [one to rule them all].
    Is that it?

    What about the advice I’ve read, to not ignore the Poser-version of things?
    E.g. ⋯EssentialsPoserCF.zip ?Poser CF files are needed if you run Poser as well. All content in those two packages should be stand alone as they are in DAZ Studio. You will need to watch for items, older ones mostly, that will have PS and DS downloads, as they can and often do need both versions to work in DAZ Studio.

    The way you plan to install the content will work fine.

    Post edited by Jaderail on
  • SzarkSzark Posts: 10,634
    edited December 1969

    ttnn said:
    Szark said:
    ...place everything that is in the "Content" folders...

    Thus, what you say I should do, is get into all the subfolders shown above
    and distribute their contents into the ONE Content folder [one to rule them all].
    Is that it?
    No I said everything inside those folders called "Content" in your screenshots should go in the your main library folder, what ever it is called. I didn;t say the contents of each folder but the folders themselves. If you look at your original content library on your hDD you should be able to work it out. Runtime folder gets merged with your origiinal Runtime folder and so on..

  • JaderailJaderail Posts: 0
    edited December 1969

    Szark said:
    ttnn said:
    Szark said:
    ...place everything that is in the "Content" folders...

    Thus, what you say I should do, is get into all the subfolders shown above
    and distribute their contents into the ONE Content folder [one to rule them all].
    Is that it?

    No I said everything inside those folders called "Content" in your screenshots should go in the your main library folder, what ever it is called. I didn;t say the contents of each folder but the folders themselves. If you look at your original content library on your hDD you should be able to work it out. Runtime folder gets merged with your origiinal Runtime folder and so on..MAC does not have Merge Szark, not that I know. And I read it has them moving the proper things to the proper places by hand. AS I did before I had Merge on a PC.
  • SzarkSzark Posts: 10,634
    edited September 2013

    Again I didn't say use the Merge function I said merge them together.

    anyway I am just making things worse so I will leave you all to it.

    Post edited by Szark on
  • MythmakerMythmaker Posts: 606
    edited December 1969

    Win7/64bit Dell Precision Xeon. Am a relative new Daz user. After half a year of break from Daz, I return and bought a bunch of stuff from the store.

    I did not update to 4.6. Sticking to 4.5 after reading horror stories on the forum. Daz3d as a tool is wonderful and under-estimated, but their content installation and organization universe is the most confusing one I have encountered in my 3D pro-sumer ware universe.

    Still, after reading helpful users's suggestions on this forum, I managed to get the new install manager to work. Found the missing new content by including the new directory. The products are showing now.

    I'm just not sure - with Install Manager -

    1. if I still need to install the typical "additional resources" or texture templates under the Product Store/ What's Included & Features. Based on the FAQ it seems I don't need to.

    2. If I forgot to install the "additional resources" of pre-2013 contents I bought from the store, will Install Manager detect that and automatically update for me? Or do I need to poke at Install Manager to check latest product update one by one? If so, how?

    Please kindly clarify.

    Thanks!

  • JaderailJaderail Posts: 0
    edited December 1969

    Those are just the TEXTURE templates for the items. DIM will not Download them and they are not needed by most users. If you decide to create your own textures in the future then you can get them. They are only Image files to be used in a 2D art program and DAZ Studio will not need or use them. They can be saved to any place you like on your system.

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