Yes, it is something wrong at DAZ's end, and has been going on for a while.

Connect is a way to download and install content from within Studio. It uses a different method and installs in a different place than DIM / DAZ Central, and will override anything previously installed with DIM / DAZ Central. Logging in from Studio enables Connect, and will do things behind your back, like trash product icons (not that it was intended to do so).

Simply logging out of Studio will not restore the missing thumbnails. Now that Connect has gotten a hold of something, you will have to clean it out and reinstall the metadata from DIM. See this thread for my version of how to fix it. There is at least one user who can confirm that it works.

NorthOf45 said:

If you install with DIM, and everything is good, you do not want to log in from Studio. Ever. You do not benefit in any way from using Connect (that is what you are enabling when you log in). Lately it has been messing with the product thumbnails, as the many threads discussing that problem will attest, which is unfortunate, since it is entirely avoidable if you are using DIM / DAZ Central to manage your content.

Interesting.
But that looks like an error from Daz not exactly something I'm doing 'wrong'.
That said, I don't 'use' Connect. In fact I don't even know what it is for.
Daz logs in automatically. Always did as far as I noticed.
I presume that you're suggesting I hit the work offline button? Is that what enables Connect?
I did that and apparently nothing happened. I'm now logged off.
Still no icons in some products. Fairly recent one's too.

If you install with DIM, and everything is good, you do not want to log in from Studio. Ever. You do not benefit in any way from using Connect (that is what you are enabling when you log in). Lately it has been messing with the product thumbnails, as the many threads discussing that problem will attest, which is unfortunate, since it is entirely avoidable if you are using DIM / DAZ Central to manage your content.

In Install Manager you can right-click on the paths in Advanced Settings, via the gear at top-right, and select Default. Those look like the defaults for Daz Central first, then Daz Install Manager - whichever was installed second should have respected the settings of the oen that was installed first, but early versions of Daz Central didn't do so.

Someone smarter than me will chime in, but Daz will install content where you tell it to. If you use multiple means of intalling, you need to be sure it is being installed in the right place.

I always use DIM, I have it set up to where to install content and it performs well.

The : C:\Users\Public\Documents\DAZ 3D\My DAZ 3D Library is the default (I also use that one, except I use D: and reserve C: for my OS). 

I'm not familiar with the other path

I don't use Daz Central, but I did find, much to my dismay when I had issues with missing files on some installs, that Daz Connect also has it's own path. If you install from within Daz Studio, it uses Connect.

If you use DIM, check your settings as to where it is set to install (I recomend the default, unless you really know what you're doing, you can customize within Daz Studio)

Also, make sure you check the Content Management System (CMS) in Studio and make sure those paths are the same.

Something seems to be really strangely up with Daz, it has created 2 places where it's storing and expecting the same content:

C:\Daz 3D\Applications\Data\DAZ 3D\My DAZ 3D Library

C:\Users\Public\Documents\DAZ 3D\My DAZ 3D Library

Different parts of the application seem to look in different locations, so things sometimes don't work if content is in one of these paths but not the other. Copying content over so that it's in both of these paths fixes everything.

Like I can have Daz Central install something successfully, then when I open the studio it can't find the file because it's expecting it to have been installed in the other path.

This gets hugely confusing, does anyone know what's up? Why are there 2 paths used to store content?

Well, @Worlds_Edge, I guess you have a solution. Pardon the tone for the rest, but there seems to be a general lack of understanding of how Smart Content works and what it really is.

You do not need to log in from Studio to use Smart Content if you use DIM/DAZ Central to install your products. Smart Content (compatibility, content type, etc) is determined by the metadata that is installed with the product. Logging in from Studio to "update" the metadata will give you no end of grief, as has been discussed elsewhere. The metadata you get from Connect is the same metadata that is installed from the .zip files used by DIM/DAZ Central. Once your content is installed with DIM or Central, you will not benefit from Connect in any way, so do not log in from Studio. Ever.

If you do want to use Connect, use only Connect*. Do not cross the beams.

</rant>

ETA: Except for plugins, which need Studio shut down to install properly.

I have a few different expressions installed, they appear all over the place.

Body/Pose Controls/Head/Expressions/folder

Head/Pose Controls/Head/Expressions/folder

Head/folder

Is there a way to relocate them to one central location?

It would be nice if it was more standardised.

I move folders around all the time in the content library, in order to make more sense, particularly re-colours.

Vladric said:

I am having trouble with the Daz to Unreal install, I am using Daz Central to install and can find the plugin file in the Unreal plugin folder,but when I try to enable it in Unreal I get the massage in the picture. Can someone tell me what is wrong?

 

Thank you

What version of UE are you using? The one included in DIM is for 4.26. You can download older versions from the Git Repository posted above.

dragonspiritpinion said:

This use to be easy. I just got all new everything. I've reinstalled Daz to the latest version. In My Documents there is a Daz 3D folder with 2 folders in that; Hexagon and Studio. I open the Studio folder and get 3 more folders; My Daz Connect Library, My Library, Render Library. All 3 of those folders are currently empty. No Runtime, Data, People, etc. Just empty. I'm not sure what I'm supposed to do with that. I'm hoping there might be an answer here. 

If you are going to use the default folders you might as well just isntall with DIM, Daz central, or even through Daz Studio itself (for most content from Daz).

I am having trouble with the Daz to Unreal install, I am using Daz Central to install and can find the plugin file in the Unreal plugin folder,but when I try to enable it in Unreal I get the massage in the picture. Can someone tell me what is wrong?

Thank you

Ati said:

Cris Palomino said:

ShadowSkillz said:

Also not discounting by the full $20

Ok, guys, in the disclaimer yesterday it said the coupon would be live by noon, Utah time, today so they are turning off the coupon till then to allow Daz to resolve any issues.

That's 7 in the evening in Central Europe, almost bedtime. :( Luckily, I don't have to get up early tomorrow, but if I did, then this would be a really awkward time to activate the coupon--at the very end of the day.

Although this way I might just simply forget to check out. Not much better. 

Cris Palomino said:

ShadowSkillz said:

Also not discounting by the full $20

Ok, guys, in the disclaimer yesterday it said the coupon would be live by noon, Utah time, today so they are turning off the coupon till then to allow Daz to resolve any issues.

That's 7 in the evening in Central Europe, almost bedtime. :( Luckily, I don't have to get up early tomorrow, but if I did, then this would be a really awkward time to activate the coupon--at the very end of the day.

I have DAZ 4.15 (64 bit) installed and suddenly lots of Smart Content Product thumbnails have disappeared and appear greyed out with triangle and exclamation mark. See image.I have used both DIM and DAZ Central to instal products.

Can anyone please help me to install thumbnail manually or make some adjustment which I am unaware of which will do it automatically??

I have tried reading other entries on this matter but don't seem to solve my issue.

I put in a ticket for help to DAZ and had an initial reply but nothing since.

Many Thanks in advance

This may or may not be an easy one. My windows10 OS crashed and burned and I had to reinstall it more or less from scratch which deleted all my programs including DAZstudio. Assets in Documents were fine. Central installed Studio but locked up on everything else so in the end I uninstalled it (I wasn't getting a firewall error or anything but it could have been the problem), then went into my Product Library page and found Studio and DIM and installed those. Studio found my old runtimes. DIM did not. So I got stupid and started reinstalling stuff through DIM and overloaded my C drive to the point where I could only get it to do anything once it had reached the desktop by starting in safe mode. I tried uninstalling assets to open up room on C before it started locking up but a lot of stuff was not fully uninstalling as I could still find it inside Studio and load it into scene. I ended up having to completely remove the DAZ stuff in my documents. Now all the "Starter Essentials" are gone, when I hand-installed studio was there something else I should have grabbed? For instance I had the Alchemy Chasm, Barefoot Dancer, and Base Camp as part of those assets and I want all of that back if I can get it. Help?

Luciel said:

Richard Haseltine said:

Luciel said:

Monthly reminder the "Download via DIM" link after purchase is non functional and just goes to a page about DIM.

It would be nice if they restored the useful functionality to how it used to work (again)..  

Works for me - it might be worth uninstalling/reinstalling DIM to make sure the browser has been told what to do with the DIM links.

DIM links on the Order page works fine, as to DIM links in general, but that's not the issue. It's the link on the page directly after a purchase.

 

On the page shown after purchase the "Download via DIM" button is just a link to an info page about DIM. Before it had the actual DIM link which saved extra steps and was a useful function. That was the original behavior anyway. When Central arrived they removed the DIM link entirely. Then added it back. Then later changed the link to be the DIM info page (there was a few more steps of it coming and going) which it's been stuck at for a while now.

 

Also... the current PC+ "free" item Hot Tub is another "non DIM" item, and wont give the link and is "not currently avaible", yet actually works completely fine with DIM..

I don't recall exactly, but was it passing an order number to DIM (before The Change)? The new Order number format does not work with DIM as it stands now. If it were to pass the date and time of the order, then it might be viable again. I described my observations a while ago in the Daz Install Manager thread.

Hi Alberto, no I used Daz Central. Thanks, I'll do that :)

watchdog79 said:

One question - why on Earth is the bundle only available for download in Daz Central and not in DIM?

It looks as if that has been fixed, but if the bundle was saying that it would be because, by default, everything seems to say it isa vailable through Daz Central - the bundle itself isn't downloadable, the products are 9and as far as I recall all had all installation methods from the outset)

Leana said:

watchdog79 said:

Leana said:

watchdog79 said:

One question - why on Earth is the bundle only available for download in Daz Central and not in DIM?

It should be available via DIM. DazCentral uses the same servers and files.

After I confirmed the payment, I was notified that part of the order could not be downloaded via DIM, only via Daz Central.

I think I've seen someone else mentioning receiving a "some products are not available via DIM" message on one order but they had no problem downloading the products with DIM.

Looks to me that there's a problem with that message displaying when it shouldn't. Though the bundle itself doesn't have a DIM link since what you actually download are the individual product. That might be why the message appeared?

I didn't bother trying, just kept the other two items; I really like the treasure - Daz Dragon would have loved that pile of treasure too.

Leana said:

watchdog79 said:

Leana said:

watchdog79 said:

One question - why on Earth is the bundle only available for download in Daz Central and not in DIM?

It should be available via DIM. DazCentral uses the same servers and files.

After I confirmed the payment, I was notified that part of the order could not be downloaded via DIM, only via Daz Central.

I think I've seen someone else mentioning receiving a "some products are not available via DIM" message on one order but they had no problem downloading the products with DIM.

Looks to me that there's a problem with that message displaying when it shouldn't. Though the bundle itself doesn't have a DIM link since what you actually download are the individual product. That might be why the message appeared?

Oh. I just opened DIm and the items are there for download.

DAAAAZ!!! What teh flip?