If you have installed it both with DIM and Connect you have 2 seperate installations, and Connect will take precedence.

And I wouldn't expect it to have metadata, as it is a part of the bunch transferred products.

What does your log say when you try to apply it (Help > Troubleshooting > View Log File)?

Is it possible to import strand based hair into unreal engine 5.4? I seriously doubt it 

Richard Haseltine said:

Couldn't you just save in Blender and work there, if that is to be the end result? Extra export/import steps do seem likely to introduce issues.

I thought so too at first.
But then I realized some problems with this method

1 In blender it is very difficult to copy only the selected weight map.
I have to use the mesh data transfer addon

2 Geograft breaks the mesh and it becomes impossible to load it by vertex id
Loading Geograft as a separate mesh is also not suitable because 1 subdivide breaks the mesh, 2 normals cannot work properly and the shadows are not even. 

Couldn't you just save in Blender and work there, if that is to be the end result? Extra export/import steps do seem likely to introduce issues.

Carolinian said:

UPDATE:
So I downloaded/installed Blender (yea.. never used Blender. yikes.) 
-Model imports all screwed up. 
Purchased and installed better FBX importer/exporter. 
-Model APPEARS to import perfectly. Model is intact. Textures look perfect. I can see the rigging is there and aligned with the body (this was where DAZ went haywire).

I can not however figure out how to properly export it. I try saving an export and re-importing my save back into blender, and all i get is a jumbled mess of rigging bones. No model or textures. 
I've fiddled with the export options that would make sense, to no avail. I've googled. Youtube'd. I just cant figure out what Im doing wrong on the export. 
Really. Not. Liking. Blender. on this first experience with it. 

Never easily loose confidence in a software just because of a couple of fails. Now you have a pretty good start as Better FBX Imp / Exp has brought your model into Blender with no big issue.

Have you tried giving it some poses for checking how it works ?  If it works well, still use Better FBX Imp / Exp add-on to export it as an FBX, just with the default setting but change the scale value and fbx version).  Then try importing this FBX into Daz Studio, see how it works.

If this workflow makes the mecha work well in both Blender and DS, you need no other add-ons. You never have to make things more complicated to achieve a simple goal ~~

Thank you guys for the clarification so far. With your help I found a way to get these (for me very helpful) pose controls into Blender!

About the Daz favorites: I've managed to actually get the expression / pose control into Blender as a slider under "Custom morphs" by defining the pose control as a favorite in Daz and checking "Daz favorites" in easy import in Blender / Diffeo. What I needed to realize is that you set the favorites in Daz for each character on it's own. It's not a kind of general / global setting what I've assumed before. On the one hand this seems quite good to pick only individual pose controls for each character which may help to give the character an individual appearance and behavior. On the other hand (in my case) I just need a wide range of pre-defined expressions to mix them...

So my remaining very nitpicking questions are: a) is there a way in daz to add multiple pose controls as favorites at once? At the moment I only see this function when right-clicking on a slider with edit mode disabled. As soon as I enable edit mode which allows to select multiple controls I don't have the "add to favorites" function. And b) can I re-use the favorites for other characters within daz? I found out that you can save these controls with diffeo from within Blender: Under Daz Setup > Morphs > Save Favorite Morphs a JSON file is saved which can be loaded to another character I've imported to Blender with diffeo so at least this could save me from the right-clicking on many controls in daz for each character but I wonder if daz itself allows to re-use a favorites list for other characters?!

UPDATE:
So I downloaded/installed Blender (yea.. never used Blender. yikes.) 
-Model imports all screwed up. 
Purchased and installed better FBX importer/exporter. 
-Model APPEARS to import perfectly. Model is intact. Textures look perfect. I can see the rigging is there and aligned with the body (this was where DAZ went haywire).

I can not however figure out how to properly export it. I try saving an export and re-importing my save back into blender, and all i get is a jumbled mess of rigging bones. No model or textures. 
I've fiddled with the export options that would make sense, to no avail. I've googled. Youtube'd. I just cant figure out what Im doing wrong on the export. 
Really. Not. Liking. Blender. on this first experience with it. 

Am I using the script wrong? Do I save the import to Daz file that the script generates somewhere specific????

I stopped using Daz Connect for a long time so I don't understand... Resetting DB empties metadata in cms cluster but why it cleaned the folders and file physically in your Connect folder in OneDrive ? If you check the folder in OneDrive, you lost everything there ?

Anyway, if you just want to resolve the issue "I've had a number of bad references that were mainly under my presets or scenes directory that I wanted to remove", you never need to Resetting DB ~

In Content Library, go to the bottom: Products - L - LOCAL USER, you'll find all bad references there, Ctrl + A to select all, RMB menu - Remove Orphaned References.

Better not delete DUF files in File Browser or elsewhere... delete files in Content Library, then you won't get bad references.

That is saying that DS cannot connect to the database engine that handles all the content panes/lists except The Daz Studio, Poser, and other Import Formats in the Content Library pane. Is PostgreSQL installed (you may have only one version, usually 64 bit General reelase though the beta is the same)? Assuming it is there could be several causes of that, including the roll back (especially if PostgreSQL was running when the image was made, and was included in the snapshot) so troubleshooting can be tricky. One thing to try is chnaging the Content Cluster location (in DIM or Daz Studio) - make a note of the old value as the fiels don't get copied, but if this fixes the error the issue is in the database or in fdolder permissions while if it doesn't something is probably interfering with communication.

A duf file is not a custom morph, it may be a pose thus to load with "import pose" in  "daz runtime > posing". Custom morphs are dsf files. Of course daz favorites don't work for poses. You may also look at the blender console if you get any error (windows > toggle system console) and eventually increase the error verbosity (daz setup > global settings > verbosity).

Dissendior said:

another question: Are you sure that these expressions are not morphs? When I apply an expression in Blender bei using "DAZ runtime" > "Import Expression" on the character I see the expression. But when I want to remove this expression I need to use the button "Clear morphs" - when I click "CLear pose" the expression stays. It seems that Diffeo still thinks that the expressions are morphs?!

Yes, I'm pretty sure. Pls check the below screenshot ~

So when you import Custom Morph with Diffeo, this type of Properties won't be imported. But Diffeo places these Favorites dials under "Custom Morph" list, so as per my understanding, that's why only Clear Morphs works on it. Clear Pose action clears rotation values on joints rather than such Expression control dials...

Dissendior said:

Thank you for this clarification. Is there any way for me to find out if an expressions product for DazStudio uses pose ccontrols or morphs? For this specific product I already saw that the sliders can be found under "pose controls" section in Parameters tab - so I guess this might be a hint?!

With the way that you suggest I only can import one expression which is directly applied to the rig / mesh. I have no sliders / dialers and I cannot mix the expressions. So the only way would be to mix the expressions in Daz and save this as a new pose preset. As I already had these face expressions in Blender as sliders under the "Custom morphs" tab I still think that there must be a way to get them all into the blender file?!

Yes, that's right. You may also check Parameter Settings of the property by clicking that Gear Icon, you'll see Path and Type showing it's a Pose Control property ~~

As for 2nd point, you should mark all Pose Control properties into Favorites in DS... then import and mix them in Blender.

another question: Are you sure that these expressions are not morphs? When I apply an expression in Blender bei using "DAZ runtime" > "Import Expression" on the character I see the expression. But when I want to remove this expression I need to use the button "Clear morphs" - when I click "CLear pose" the expression stays. It seems that Diffeo still thinks that the expressions are morphs?!

Thank you for this clarification. Is there any way for me to find out if an expressions product for DazStudio uses pose ccontrols or morphs? For this specific product I already saw that the sliders can be found under "pose controls" section in Parameters tab - so I guess this might be a hint?!

With the way that you suggest I only can import one expression which is directly applied to the rig / mesh. I have no sliders / dialers and I cannot mix the expressions. So the only way would be to mix the expressions in Daz and save this as a new pose preset. As I already had these face expressions in Blender as sliders under the "Custom morphs" tab I still think that there must be a way to get them all into the blender file?!

Well, IIRC, I've explained such an "issue" in another thread ~ The expressions from 100 Must... product are all Pose Controls dials rather than Morphs. So, Import Custom Morphs function doesn't import any of them.

You did correctly in terms of using Favorites in DS, but also have to check Fase Units (this product use Face Units rather than FACS...) when Easy Import. Then Import Expressions from Runtime tab, locate an expression preset file to load.... or directly dial one in Favorites list.

richardandtracy said:

Mary, I've PM'd you.

Regards,

Richard

Thanks Richard. After I finished adding metadata to some of VanishingPoint's Arteria3D and Dark Anvil sets, I came up for air and looked at my emails. Very kind of you. 

Mary

At the moment I struggle a lot when it comes to get morphs / expressions into Blender. The point is the following: like explained here I found out some time ago that you can use poses / expressions /  morphs like 100 Must Have Expressions for Genesis 8 Male(s) in Blender acidentally as I'd checked "import missing moprhs" when I imported a pose I've made in daz into Blender. This lead to an import of many custom morphs which then showed up under "Custom Morphs" in the Daz Runtime tab. I now completely fail in getting these morphs into Blender by purpose.

What I do: Import a character into Blender and then go to "Daz Setup" (tab) > "Morphs" and here I've tried "Import custom morphs" > go the the folder with all the duf files with the expressions and chose "Import custom morphs". But even when I choose a specific file nothing happens: Under "Daz Runtime" (tab) > "Morphs" I now find "Custom morphs" but it is empty. 

I also tried to add all these expressions to my favorites in Daz by right clicking and choosing "add to favorites" and then I've tried to use the button "Import DAz favorites" in Blender - no success. I also wonder what this "Add to favorites" within Daz really does... I can't even find the favorite expressions anywhere.

Can somebody give me a hint?

felis said:

FantastArt said:

wow, you did an amazing job on this! I really don't have any expieriences in dfore and I tried one time yesterday, but it didn't work, so I stopped trying...I don't have patience to do it. I would need a step by step tutorial for dummies

What I did might not be the easiest, although not really that complicated.

You need a coat that are (or can support) fully dForce. Some clothing have weightmaps, and if part of the coat has 0 dynamic strength, it will just hang in the air, instead of adjusting to the character.

As mentioned, I usually always use Timeline for simulation, and most often 'start from memorized pose' Off. It was also the case here.

At frame 0 I bend her arms in close to the body, and scaled her to 80%, and raised her in Y direction so her shoulders was in line with the coat. The purpose of bending arms and scale is to ensure that she doesn't clips with the coat.

Then at frame 10, I scaled her up to 100%, and set Y back to 0.

And then at frame 30 I set her pose, with 40 frames in total.

As I said it might feel a bit complex, but I would suggest you try to get more familiar with dForce, as you can get some results you couldn't get elsehow (unless modelling in a 3rd party app, and import as a morph).

Thank you very much! Yes, I guess I'll have to get more use with dForce

It's not Daz Studio's issue but the product issue. As Gordig said, the issue must result from the wrong metadata file or even missing metadata DSX file in the product package. This issue also happened to some of the products made by other emigrees from Rendo a while ago.

If you filter in Smart Content with the product names or SKUs but find nothing, most likely there was no metadata imported... You may open DSX file with Notepad++, check if the product metadta are correct, especially if the path of the product items are as same as the product folders you can locate from Content Library ~~

Besides, the category "Lost and Found" just stores the product items to which no Category is given in metadata of the product package. So, no DSX file or wrong metadata leads to no metadata or wrong metadata imported into cms database, then you'll have no way to find the product items either in Lost and Found.