if you are not going to use the DS / Hex brigde, one of the best ways is to export the item as .obj and than import into DS.
Workflow:  In Hex delete everything but the item. Use 'export' and save it as .obj. 
Open DS and use 'import'. Maybe you have to tweak the percentage values to get the results right (I often use custom scale, 800%).
The use 'Save As', 'Support Asset','Figure/Prop Assets'.
From now on you can use the saved prop in DS as usual.

One of the first model packs I bought waaaay back was Maxx by Soto. It's a great model, and I love the freckled skin textures (the bear paw tattoo on his bum is cute too), but I did notice that it's missing some maps like Normals. I create models in Daz, and then import over to Blender, so I need all available maps. For now, I just substitute in other G8 models for the missing textures, but as they're not originally made for Maxx, this sometimes creates issues. Seams, bump and specular not aligning, etc. Sidebar: the Darius 8 Veins normals look really good on him since he's a buff character by default. Are there alternatives/similar textures available? I've been using G8.1 more frequently, so I'm fine bouncing back and forth between the two generations. All my models are built on the G8.1 frame now, ever since I learned that Daz will automatically divide the G8 Torso into Body and Head for me. G8.1 looks really good with the micro-normals, but as I said, I'm fine with either generation. Okay, I'm just rambling now . . .

Right, it's just a shape ~ You know what... I guess that the author first of all posed the figure to such a "shape" (also plus some partial body morphs...), export the figure to OBJ, zeroed the figure and import the OBJ file as a morph with MLP.

So I afraid if you do need to "convert it to a Pose", you have to align both figures to the world center, pose G8.1F according to that shape AMAP... and you might not get a 100% same result as you never know what posing data / PBMs the author used...

No, that just gives a link to the file from anothe regular folder. if your goal is to have it in the Presets tab then you need to tell the Content Management System more about it, which is where dragging it into Smart Content or editing the metadata comes in.

That gets you presets you can use, and if you right-click on them you can make them Custom Actions available in the Favourites or Scripts menus without having to go to the folder. Now you have those you can potentially use the adding metadata steps to make them available in the Presets tab.

If you are looking in Smart Content, there is nothing, as Daz decided not to put Metadata in the transferred products.

It might come later, but I doubt.

The presets tabs are not showing you files as theya r arranged on disc. Theya re showing you files that DS, from its database, are presets for shaders or materials arranged in the categories (the folders down the left of the tab) that the database lists them under and thata re compatible with something selected (for shaders that means an object that has at least one of its surfaces selected). If the files don't appear in the Content Library under Daz Studio formats, wherever you saved them to, then they will not show in the database views like Presets (I think).

Usaing Smart Content is one way to get the necessary information added to the database (the metadata - it describes the file, rather than being the information in the file) because Smart Content is also a view of the way files are arranged in categories in the database, so setting things up there will also set them up for the presets pane. It isn't the only way - you could right-click on the file in the Content Library and select Edit Metadata from the menu - but it is probably the most naturally accessible, especially if the files are not all grouped in one actual folder on disc.

While I appreciate your reply and I'm sure it makes absolute sense to you, it is thouroughly confusing to me.
I don't understand "suitable target"
I don't understand "drag the file". What file? My new shader is not in Daz content Library?
What is "Daz Studio Formats"?
What "Catagory"? Where?
Why is "Smart Content" involved in this transfer?
Popup Dialog???
Metadata??? Huh? Why is this so complicated? All I want to do is add my new shaders to the existing Daz shaders directory???
When I have a texture to add to my library I simply

1) Open the Content Library, then
2) "Browse to Folder" and
3) Drag the new texture from the original folder that it's in, to the Daz folder and
4) "Refresh" the Daz folder.
This process does not work with new "shaders" and Daz "Presets" tab.
When you drag and refresh as above Daz ignors the new additions.
What I need to know is what the "step by step" method is.
Is there a tutorial some place?

The presets tabs, like Smart Content, need the files to have categories, compatibilities, and types (for presets the type has to be the right one for the pane - in this case Shader or Materials presets). The simplest way to do it is to have a suitable target selected in the Viewport, then drag the file from the Content Library under Daz Studio Formats into the desired category in Smart content, then select the type in the pop-up dialogue. You may then have to right-click>Edit Metadata to adjust the compatibility to be broad enough.

I've tried in the past and after numerous fruitless attempts, given up on adding new shaders into the Daz presets directory.
Copy and paste doesn't seem to work.
Does anyone know of any tutorial that clearly and simply instructs you on how to add/import a new shader (.duf and .duf.png) file into the Daz presets directory that doesn't include 15 pages of step by step BS on building the watch?
All I want to know is how to add or import these two shader files into the presets library.

Yes, the Runtime for the Poser files merges with the Runtime for textures and metadata for native DS files in the root folder of your content directory. Mac users do have to be careful when trying to merge two folders, but that is generally true - not just for a particular file type.

crosswind said:

Nirguin said:

I already did it and had the same problem
Yes I did it in blender, I didn't use any modifiers, just the sculpt mode
Even if I just export it and import it again as a morph without modifying anything I still have the problem that the geometry doesn't match

Okay, Blender is just the culprit... Have you noticed that 1 vertex is lost after importing OBJ into Blender ? ( turn "Statistics" on firstly...)  The vertices count in DS is 22733 but 22732 in Blender. (screenshot 1)
Neither of the latest or Legacy OBJ importer in Blender helps. (Legacy way is discontinued in ver 4.0+)

Never check "Remove Unused Vertices" if you want to export an object and bring it back to DS as a morph... because if you check it, you'll get a "wrongly exported" OBJ from this sort of case. If you uncheck the option, at least you can correctly send it to other non-Blender 3D applications for manipulation and bring it back to DS as a morph with no issue...

How to fix this case ~~
- It's pretty similar to another case I ever helped with trouble-shooting: https://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/692276/import-problem-from-blender#latest
- Import the scene into Blender with Diffeomorophic Daz Importer... It's the only way to make this sort of case work in Blender as far as I experiment... (screenshot 2)

 OOOooooo, it hadn't occurred to me to see the total number of vertices, this is the first time this has happened to me, I'll be careful next time, thank you.

mwasielewski1990 said:

Nirguin said:

I already did it and had the same problem
Yes I did it in blender, I didn't use any modifiers, just the sculpt mode
Even if I just export it and import it again as a morph without modifying anything I still have the problem that the geometry doesn't match

Try importing and exporting (to and from Blender) as Legacy OBJ instead of standard. Had the same issue a while ago. Also, try to import the morphed item "as-is" to DAZ to check if the axis orientation is correct, because blender by default does

Forward: -Z

Up: Y

while DAZ needs:

Forward: X

Up: Y

Hope this helps :)

I think Legacy OBJ is for older versions of blender since the one I use is not available (I use the 4.1)
But I found the solution 
I thought that for some reason the buttons were causing the problem so I hid them with the geometry editor but I also had to delete them but by mistake I clicked on "delete unused vertices" apparently there was only one vertex that was causing the error, I exported and imported again and the morph no longer gave me the error
I don't know why it worked but I'm happy, thank for the help!.

Nirguin said:

I already did it and had the same problem
Yes I did it in blender, I didn't use any modifiers, just the sculpt mode
Even if I just export it and import it again as a morph without modifying anything I still have the problem that the geometry doesn't match

Okay, Blender is just the culprit... Have you noticed that 1 vertex is lost after importing OBJ into Blender ? ( turn "Statistics" on firstly...)  The vertices count in DS is 22733 but 22732 in Blender. (screenshot 1)
Neither of the latest or Legacy OBJ importer in Blender helps. (Legacy way is discontinued in ver 4.0+)

Never check "Remove Unused Vertices" if you want to export an object and bring it back to DS as a morph... because if you check it, you'll get a "wrongly exported" OBJ from this sort of case. If you uncheck the option, at least you can correctly send it to other non-Blender 3D applications for manipulation and bring it back to DS as a morph with no issue...

How to fix this case ~~
- It's pretty similar to another case I ever helped with trouble-shooting: https://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/692276/import-problem-from-blender#latest
- Import the scene into Blender with Diffeomorophic Daz Importer...  (screenshot 2)
or, as OP found it himself, delete unused vertecis !

Nirguin said:

I already did it and had the same problem
Yes I did it in blender, I didn't use any modifiers, just the sculpt mode
Even if I just export it and import it again as a morph without modifying anything I still have the problem that the geometry doesn't match

Try importing and exporting (to and from Blender) as Legacy OBJ instead of standard. Had the same issue a while ago. Also, try to import the morphed item "as-is" to DAZ to check if the axis orientation is correct, because blender by default does

Forward: -Z

Up: Y

while DAZ needs:

Forward: X

Up: Y

Hope this helps :)

I already did it and had the same problem
Yes I did it in blender, I didn't use any modifiers, just the sculpt mode
Even if I just export it and import it again as a morph without modifying anything I still have the problem that the geometry doesn't match

Hi,

DazStudio was widely used to create animations for Second Life before the appearance of Bento which corresponds to the improved skeleton.

When Second Life increased the number of bones for the bodymesh, DazStudio lost some of its interest, because it cannot create animations for the bones of the hands and other facial bones corresponding to the new skeleton of Second Life.

DazStudio can however create animations for the main bones which in some cases can be sufficient, even if the result is a little old-fashioned.

Currently the best tool to create animations in Second Life is Avastar which is used with Blender.

If you want to use DazStudio, you can export your files in BVH format and import them into Second Life with your viewer.
I do not use the Black Dragon viewer, but Firestorm which imports animations in anim or bvh format without any problem.
In conclusion, you don't need to worry about the unit used to describe the value of the angles of rotations.

teechurz_7c41d96282 said:

I thought about trying to send it into Blender, but my knowledge of Blender is limited, to say the least. 

Any tips?

Have you tried setting different values of Angle... it still didn't work ?

Anyway, if you want to remesh the mirror in Blender, try these steps:
- In a new scene, load the car. With Geometry Editor, select the surfaces of Mirror only, Ctrl + /, Delete Selected Polygons. Export the mirror to OBJ and Import it into Blender. (ss1 ~ 2)
- Use QuadriFlow Remesh to remesh the mirror. Export the mirror to OBJ. (ss3 ~ 4)
- Import OBJ into DS, the scene you're making, add SubD as you wish and parent it to the Car. Hide the original mirror surface and test the render (ss5 ~ 6)

jim_doria said:

• Similarly, I still never use the Smart Content pane. From what I understand, it's selective and won't show non-DAZ content like freebies etc. I've always just used the Content Library pane.

Piggybacking on what @crosswind offered, it’s very easy to create a Daz Studio Product from anything in your Content Library.  I’ve done this hundreds of times for content manually installed from Renderosity and other third-party sites.  A Product can have assets from one content item or from several different items.  For example, you could create a Product just from the items in Content A, or from items in Content A, Content B, and Content C, etc.

Once created, a Product appears in Smart Content.  You’ll need to add metadata (not difficult) via the Content Library and assign Categories to items and create a thumbnail to store in the  Runtime/Support folder.

I'd attach a screen capture of an example from my Content Library but the forums are not taking attachments at present.

Edit - Image now attached.

Iray Decals have certain limits in handling and exporting, and handling LIE through the LIE editor is, well, only fit for easy tasks as well. If you want to add a local texture element on characters, say a scratch, mud splat, vampire bite, whatever in a specific spot you have to do it yourself.

This means exporting to an external program, re-import etc. 

If we had a projection system that lets you position a decal in Daz, not Iray, then bake it into the LIE layer by command we could have arbitrary positioning. 

Artists could sell elements instead of fixed position overlays.