Where is your content installed exactly? You say your files are showing on E: drive but DS preferences and paths in both DIM and Central in your screenshot point to C: so that would explain why you can't open them.

 Hopefully someone can give me some guidance.

I did an install of daz3d the other day and today i wanted to install some of the content that I purchased. Originally I had the install of the daz program and central on the c drive. Today I uninstalled everything for Daz as I wanted to move everything including the install files to 2TB Drive. I did the uninstall viz Daz Central and then I uninstalled DAZ central. I noticed that all the install directories were still on my system. So I wiped everything for Daz off my PC to do a fresh clean install. Rebooted my system and redid the install moving everything to the external drive. The install went fine and daz and Central reinstalled fine.

Here is where the trouble started, So I started to redownload the assets in central and I open daz with no issues but I noticed that none of the assets were installed. But in central they showed open. So I clicked open and I got the error message resource error could not open file (path name appdata/roaming/DAZ3D/InstallManager/LaunchStudioProduct.dsa) File does not exist. I did change my content manager because I have 3party asset on the e drive that i purchased for my project. I tried to add the asset in to the directory and it did not show up so I removed the line for external drive, I have it set back to default. In Searching the forums for the error message I download DIM to see if I can install them that way and I kept getting file could not be installed. So I figured I would wipe everything again and leave it as default and try and still running into the same issues. I am not sure why a company would not allow for a clean up of all it assets. I really want to use Daz as I will be looking to create the characters and then plan to import into Unity once I have the look of my characters.

I have attached all screen shot of where all the directories are pointing to, the only program right now that installed into the correct place is Daz Central, all the files are showing on the E- Drive. I want to get everything onto the E-Drive as that is what I plan on using this includes all assets. any help would be great.

DAZ Studio sets up a default library folder (C:/Users/Public/Documents/My DAZ 3D Library), which you can use, or not. You can make another wherever you want (many use a separate internal or external drive). There will be a folder in Program Files for the DAZ Studio program, and associated files, that you do not touch, and do not use to store files. Plugins and scripts might go there, but not manually, there will be a standalone installation program to deal with that.

All of your content can go in one library. Some users choose to create a separate library to keep third-party content that doesn't install with one of the automated methods (DIM, Central, Connect). Whatever you choose, the Library will have a structure that you must respect when adding content manually. Basically, maintain the entire folder structure from the zip file under any "Content" or "MyLibrary" folders so that the files fall into their proper place. Attached is how an idealized folder structure would look like for a content library with both DAZ Studio and Poser formats.

If you have not installed  and/or updated the Genesis 8 Starter Essentials within DS ("Smart" Content/DAZ Connect), but used DIM/DAZ Central/Manual installation to install it;

Making the G8 base expressions (and any expressions that are using them) work on G8.1 requires removing dummy/placeholder expressions that are installed to G8.1 morph folders - These dummy/placeholder expression files have no other function than to prevent the base G8 expressions from loading. 

The dummy/placeholder files are located in;

...\Data\DAZ 3D\Genesis 8\Female 8_1\Morphs\Daz 3D\Base Pose Head\ (255 files)
...\Data\DAZ 3D\Genesis 8\Female 8_1\Morphs\Daz 3D\Expressions\ (24 files)
...\Data\DAZ 3D\Genesis 8\Male 8_1\Morphs\Daz 3D\Base Pose Head\ (255 files)
...\Data\DAZ 3D\Genesis 8\Male 8_1\Morphs\Daz 3D\Expressions\ (24 files)

Please make sure you are removing the files from G8.1 morph folders and not G8 morph folders.

The "..." is the root folder of your content library.

angelikmayhem said:

I noticed that Daz supports the exonym "Gypsy" for some of its products. For what it's worth, that label is considered offensive by most Romani. The term "Gypsy" was a slur used in Ancient Rome to denegrate Egyptians--who the Romans saw as inferior--that continued beyond the fall of the Western Roman Empire. It's the equivalent of "Mic" to describe the Irish or "Munt" to describe Central Africans.

Most, if not all, of the products that had gypsy in their names were renamed. I assume it's still there so people searching on the old name can find the products.

I noticed that Daz supports the exonym "Gypsy" for some of its products. For what it's worth, that label is considered offensive by most Romani. The term "Gypsy" was a slur used in Ancient Rome to denegrate Egyptians--who the Romans saw as inferior--that continued beyond the fall of the Western Roman Empire. It's the equivalent of "Mic" to describe the Irish or "Munt" to describe Central Africans.

Daz Central is not an option - if you see a product that lists only Daz central as an available emthod then it doesn't have any downloads.

The lack of downloads is being investigated, I'm sorry it hasn't been fixed yet.

Alewis478 said:

Beginner Challenge (landscapes)

Above the clouds

Daz studio

I'm going to try a couple different things on the mesa, instead of the city, but this is what I'm working on.

I love the clouds and mountains - is that a backdrop? The little tower works very well but the Forsaken Keep doesn't quite look right in all its entirety. Perhaps try just the central Keep and Tower bit. I also like this particular set  Dark Tower | Daz 3D - I could see it being up high for your Gargoyles.

Same here. I want also a manual download for the product, because I don't want to use DAZ Central.

Faeryl Womyn said:

I spend my time downloading files, checking folders, renaming folders, manually installing folders, having to create or rename folders because the creator seems to have no idea how to properly set up folders and Daz can't find the folder the files are in, guess how to use a product because there's no readme, resave files because they also are not named correctly and Daz can't find them.

And I have to repeat that hundreds of times. And some suggest I use DIM, Connect or Daz Central on files that are not properly set up so I can't find them after they are installed.

Now I must track down a vendor for an item I got a couple years ago because I keep getting an error using it. Fortunately she is someone who actually cares about those who use her products.

Why? I have gigs of content and rarely have to do any of that and have no issues finding content (using DIM, manual installs and the content library). I would say I have to rename or move files about less than 2% of the time and that is usually due to vanity folders or being buried to deep in folders.

I spend my time downloading files, checking folders, renaming folders, manually installing folders, having to create or rename folders because the creator seems to have no idea how to properly set up folders and Daz can't find the folder the files are in, guess how to use a product because there's no readme, resave files because they also are not named correctly and Daz can't find them.

And I have to repeat that hundreds of times. And some suggest I use DIM, Connect or Daz Central on files that are not properly set up so I can't find them after they are installed.

Now I must track down a vendor for an item I got a couple years ago because I keep getting an error using it. Fortunately she is someone who actually cares about those who use her products.

Set it up the way you think is most useful to you and your current setup wether that be multiple monitors of something that makes use of other editors, DAZ3D for most people here is just one program that bridges into others, when setting up make sure that it's easy for you to manage many editors and the movement of files from one to another with whatever setup you'll eventually use. You'll probably also need an area to do full conversions or have custom files for things like shape injector script where you'll need to create folders and sub folders in a file tree for the items your injecting morphs into

I have my DAZ3D editor and content set to a seperate drive you can make the directories to where you need them to go just make sure the file links work for whatever your setting up by having the correct directory or it won't detect where you have setup your new content area.

Some reason it will still place certain files on a main C:/ drive like user files and renders which you can still change via other settings, You'll need to link it upto the install manager and daz central so it can read where you have put the editor. Always check all file locations are going to the places you want them to go or things may not work. Plenty of information on how to setup your studio just do a google search on whatever you need generally it will lead you too a page here in forums where someone explains how to get it working.

FSMCDesigns said:

You can always go to your product library and do a manual download and open it to see where it is installed.

The product library is how I find everything, and have since Studio version .8. I find the CMS is pretty useless: I haven't been a DB Admin in years, and don't want to be one any more. Without being one, and coddling the CMS, rebuiling it and refreshing it, CMS doesn't work well. I manually install everything now, as DAZ Central was a joke.

Turns out the "L.A. Pool and HDRI" is NOT in any form of "L.A. Pool" folder in \Environment\Architecture, but in a "Pool in L.A." folder, which is about 40 down from the "L's" in my folder. (I have a lot of environments.)

Nothing like obfuscating something to make people have to hunt for it...

..Joe

PerttiA said:

How many different methods of installing content are you using / have used?

If you have installed content inside DAZ ("Smart" Content/DAZ Connect) and/or updated them there, the content is installed in non traditional location as the other installation methods (DIM/DAZ Central/Manual Installation) are using the traditional locations.
The DAZ Connect installed stuff gets always priority

It sounds very much like having stuff installed in multiple locations.

An other way to have similar problems is saving stuff as "Support Assets" without understanding what it does.

THe only installation methods I've used are:

DAZ Install Manager- Stopped when the new one came out

DAZ Central- Use that for all DAZ purchases

Manual Install- I created a separate folder for any third-party items I get.

Everything I download goes to the E drive of my computer. The filepaths in all the install managers go to the same location. Weird thing is, this happened randomly. I hadn't installed anything. In the morning, it was fine. In the evening, it was stuck on Midori and smart content wouldn't load.

How many different methods of installing content are you using / have used?

If you have installed content inside DAZ ("Smart" Content/DAZ Connect) and/or updated them there, the content is installed in non traditional location as the other installation methods (DIM/DAZ Central/Manual Installation) are using the traditional locations.
The DAZ Connect installed stuff gets always priority

It sounds very much like having stuff installed in multiple locations.

An other way to have similar problems is saving stuff as "Support Assets" without understanding what it does.

Scene files and presets do not store absolute paths for files in a content directory, they store only the relative path. The same is true for the Content Management System. Only DIM/Daz Central store absolute locations for the files they isntalled. The relative paths should work as long as the new system has the content directories correctly set - the main potential pitfall is if the old system had one content directory inside another, in which case the relative path may include the name of the inner content directory.

Richard Haseltine said:

barbult said:

The Daz product web page says 

Install Types:

•  Manual Install

Is that not true then????

Everything seems to say that, hence all the confusion when downloads were often missing and people thought it was a ploy to make them use Central.

I will ask about downloads.

The product will have a folder structure for Poser or DAZ Studio. If it starts off with Runtime (or maybe MyLibrary or Content then /Runtime), and then sub-folders geometries, libraries, textures (and maybe others) it is in Poser format. If it has folders like data, people, runtime (maybe under a Content or MyLibrary folder), it is in Studio format.

The folder structure can deal with both in the same place, but they must align to function properly. Runtime from one format must be in the same place as Runtime from the other format.

The top-level Library folder is where you would drop the product folders. Try to avoid vanity folder names if the rest of the product's folders follow the "standard". If you have a runtime folder, use that runtime folder. If you have a data folder, use that data folder. Everything should line up properly in the product archive. If the product has a top level folder named Content, or MyLibrary, don't use them, as they are intended to be equivalent to the Library root folder.

Now, it looks like you have not properly defined the Library for DAZ Studio formats and Poser Formats. The data and runtime folders should not be visible in Studio. In the Content Directory Manager, change the path you have defined to point to the root folder where the next level folders are located. For DAZ Studio, it is the folder you use for installation (you didn't specify DIM, DAZ Central, Connect...) and should be the one with Animals, Environments, People, Vehicles, etc.. For Poser, it is the folder that contains the Runtime folder. If you use one location, the two should be the same, since DAZ Studio uses the Runtime folder for textures, at least.

barbult said:

The Daz product web page says 

Install Types:

•  Manual Install

Is that not true then????

Everything seems to say that, hence all the confusion when downloads were often missing and people thought it was a ploy to make them use Central.

I will ask about downloads.

The Daz product web page says 

Install Types:

•  Manual Install

Is that not true then????