I am running DAZ Studio version 4.12.1.117 and today my workspace was changed without my consent. When I look in layout I see nothing -- only a black box but no choices in layouts. 

There was a problem I encountered when DAZ Central wanted me to get an update for DAZ Studio. The update went badly. 

I have since been able to revert back to the look and feel I had before this updating problem this morning.

I believe DAZ Central is not really ready for the general public to use.

For this one I've failed the rule of thirds, even though I was going for rule of thirds

I did get the main character's chest and head into the central right third but I should have selected his head (or chest) and rotated the camera enough to get the droid and the guy going down the stairs into the left third. They're just not close enough to that third to be considered good composition - so I've failed. But that's what I'm all about right now - learning what I should and shouldn't do, but not being afraid to make these mistakes as I go. I keep trying.

He has a Central Asian / Slavic face to me (which, as a Cimmerian, he should).

Interesting. I've never read any of the books, but I've always thought of Cimmerians as Teutonic.

For finctional Cimmerians (with a soft C), a lot of post-movie Conan imagery is heavily inspired by Arnie, so they would have a Teutonic look.  In REH's books, Cimmerians are basically Saxons, so also a Teutonic look.  In the real world, however, Cimmerians or Kimmerians (with a hard C) are mentioned in a few sources from the 7th to 8th centuries BCE, and while there's a lot of confusions, seem to have originated around the Black Sea.  Probably to the north, but maybe to the south.  So they're in that area where the Thracians bump into the Persians/Iranians.

As for this bundle:  I'm a big Conan fan, even if the original stories are a bit problematic now.  The actual character looks awesome, the Cimmerian outfit is usable, and the tundra wanderer outfit is something I don't actually have already.  The weapons pack is useless to me - there's nothing there I don't have except for utterly ridiculous double-ended weapons that (as a student of armed martial arts) I just cannot suspend my disbelief over.  The barbarian helmets aren't quite as bad, but still not really my thing.   One expects a certain amount of garbage in a bundle, though, so this is overall not bad.  Thus, I'd get behind this figure, and even put up with the ridiculous double-ended weapons and please-kill-me helmets... if this wasn't dropping directly after the PC+ sale.  I'm massivly overbudget right now, and just can't afford it.

He has a Central Asian / Slavic face to me (which, as a Cimmerian, he should).

Interesting. I've never read any of the books, but I've always thought of Cimmerians as Teutonic.

I'm impressed. Facially, he doesn't seem to resemble anyone else from the G8M Core crew. He has a Central Asian / Slavic face to me (which, as a Cimmerian, he should). The HD is appropriately detailed, as I hoped. Hugren looks useful as a heavy. I'm disappointed that they once again put tweezed brows on an action man and didn't give us fibre brows again, after establishing it as a regularity for Core males.

I like Sixus' Tundra Wanderer (I wish someone had made extra textures for it) and the boots/necklaces from Mada's Cimmerian. I feel cheated on the samey hairs, but I'm glad Propschick has a new workflow (and the helmet pack does atone for the hair shortage, although we were given the helmets and a weapons pack rather than a fourth outfit).

I may not be into Conan, I am into men who look that they can put on Sci-Fi armor and stand up in it, much less fight in it. Scar does. And I like his look. Add the BoneBreaker outfit and the dirt shell, yeah, match made in heaven.

I do wish the painted on brows had had color options. When I removed them, the face turned dark and left a line in the skull from the different materials. I had to reaply skin materials, remove brows again, settings, then increase the Seok Hair length to hide it better. I did switch out the eye materials. Brows are also fibermesh. Body hair from other characters also.

 

Thanks for the renders, @memcneil70 and @SereneNight, and the render secrets @CakeOne (not to mention all the fabulous UltraHD hdri's).

The Download through DIM button is now under the Daz Central button on the checkout success page. Thanks for that! Nice to have the button back.

I went through my mobile PC, and gave rights to myself - every kind of right I can think of. I'm the only user on both mobile and desktop and the only account - both admin.

1. Restarted.
2. Tried using Studio and got the usual Windows error Cant Find Your Software, Buddy.
3. Tried using Install Manager and got the Cant Find Your Software, Pal.
4. Reinstalled DIM from manual download, while Daz Central is closed.
5. DIM installed with no issues other than needing to reinstall modules/whatnots that had previously been installed.
6. Ooookaaaaay...? Makes about as much sense as everything else so far.
   666. Check workstation for demonic possesion or possible gremlin infestation
7. After DIM updates, and confirms Daz Studio is/was installed, I click the desktop shortcut thats still missing its graphic and lo-and-behold, Daz Studio activates with this PostSQL error.
8. Hmm...the issue I'm having with my desktop also has to do with SQL or some sort of find-the-daz-server error, when I try to login to DIM and Daz Central. This is why I can't login to DIM or Daz Central from my desktop, actually - well, its the only error I could find.
9. Okay. Time to take a break after finding some common bond between the laptop and the desktop. Back on this first thing in the morning!

Okay. Time for the update:

Uninstalled Daz-everything from the desktop PC. The only thing Daz-anything is inside Poser, exclusively. Uninstalled every anti-virus, anti-malware, VPN, firewall, protocol, etc.
This is in an effort to eliminate Daz software or the safety software as the culprit of things. All my Daz content is gone, so this had better work!

 

The mobile workstation...the one I've had no problems with? Put that on the home network for the first time in months, and Daz Central reached Daz servers without any problems. Wait. After doing this, and immediatly after opening, Daz Central stated Daz Studio was not installed. Daz Studio was installed and had been working without any issues, whatso ever. Next, my desktop icons for Daz Studo and DIM loose their icons. Why - no idea. Next, Daz Central tells me that DIM is not installed - it was, and as far as I knew, was working. One moment after my desktop icons star going blank, I try  "Open" Daz Studio in Daz Central, and Daz Studo popped-up with this message about my possibly not having the appropriate permissions to access Daz.exe. I dont have to tell anyone reading this, that I DO and have always had persmissions for everything on my mobile workstation.

Daz Central is designed to simplify the new user experience. As a result ti uses a feature like the Install sets in DIM - so "Daz Studio Installed" means a number of packages installed, and if some of them are missing itt will mark the package as uninstalled. If you wish to be selective then you should use Install Manager.

DAZ Central should not be showing DIM as an installable application, nor should DIM show Daz Central. What is the Permission alert you are seeing? Just that error about being unable to copy?

I absolutely agree with everything you've stated, Richard. In fact, I'm sure of it since I've been tackling this issue for some time with little success but a lot of learning through failures. Learning is great!

What I learned today is that whatever is going on with the mobile workstation...it seems to be resolving itself or one of the outlandish steps I've taken hit a nail toward getting this fixed. I just hope that something I'm learning works on the desktop..

Okay. Time for the update:

Uninstalled Daz-everything from the desktop PC. The only thing Daz-anything is inside Poser, exclusively. Uninstalled every anti-virus, anti-malware, VPN, firewall, protocol, etc.
This is in an effort to eliminate Daz software or the safety software as the culprit of things. All my Daz content is gone, so this had better work!

 

The mobile workstation...the one I've had no problems with? Put that on the home network for the first time in months, and Daz Central reached Daz servers without any problems. Wait. After doing this, and immediatly after opening, Daz Central stated Daz Studio was not installed. Daz Studio was installed and had been working without any issues, whatso ever. Next, my desktop icons for Daz Studo and DIM loose their icons. Why - no idea. Next, Daz Central tells me that DIM is not installed - it was, and as far as I knew, was working. One moment after my desktop icons star going blank, I try  "Open" Daz Studio in Daz Central, and Daz Studo popped-up with this message about my possibly not having the appropriate permissions to access Daz.exe. I dont have to tell anyone reading this, that I DO and have always had persmissions for everything on my mobile workstation.

Daz Central is designed to simplify the new user experience. As a result ti uses a feature like the Install sets in DIM - so "Daz Studio Installed" means a number of packages installed, and if some of them are missing itt will mark the package as uninstalled. If you wish to be selective then you should use Install Manager.

DAZ Central should not be showing DIM as an installable application, nor should DIM show Daz Central. What is the Permission alert you are seeing? Just that error about being unable to copy?

Well, this is a fantastic mess. My mobile workstation that had been working, is now having all kinds of permission access issues after hitting my home network(I'm thinking thats the milestone. What do I know?) All the permission issues have to do with Daz software. Nothing else on the mobile workstation is affected.

Trying to access anything other than Daz Central brings up the same permission alert. Worst still - DIM and Daz Studio(default install locations on C drive) are still installed yet unable to function. I verified both software were still installed and mistakenly let Daz Central try to reinstall them; I really should not have done this. Daz Central and manual download & install...both encountered errors when trying to reinstall the .EXE file, again encountering [permission?] issues. Maybe something changed my Windows Content Manager settings...Any ideas?
 

I removed the program and I found my CMS folder back in Daz Studio so I got my Content menu back. Yes I moved my Content Cluster to it's on drive because my C: Drive was running out of space. I don't know why Companies force every program you install to install only on the C: drive. The Content database has been a bane in my side ever since I started using this program. You guys really need to make it much more easier to manage.

DS itself will use the Documents folder, wherever that is at installation.

Also this DazCentral needs to me more universal, Daz products aren't the only thing people use in Daz Studio. All the work I put into getting outside products to work in Daz Studio Content Database never showed up in DazCentral when it worked the first time I installed it.

Daz Central is a tool for Daz content. The full Install Manager is more flexible.

Okay. Time for the update:

Uninstalled Daz-everything from the desktop PC. The only thing Daz-anything is inside Poser, exclusively. Uninstalled every anti-virus, anti-malware, VPN, firewall, protocol, etc.
This is in an effort to eliminate Daz software or the safety software as the culprit of things. All my Daz content is gone, so this had better work!

The mobile workstation...the one I've had no problems with? Put that on the home network for the first time in months, and Daz Central reached Daz servers without any problems. Wait. After doing this, and immediatly after opening, Daz Central stated Daz Studio was not installed. Daz Studio was installed and had been working without any issues, whatso ever. Next, my desktop icons for Daz Studo and DIM loose their icons. Why - no idea. Next, Daz Central tells me that DIM is not installed - it was, and as far as I knew, was working. One moment after my desktop icons star going blank, I try  "Open" Daz Studio in Daz Central, and Daz Studo popped-up with this message about my possibly not having the appropriate permissions to access Daz.exe. I dont have to tell anyone reading this, that I DO and have always had persmissions for everything on my mobile workstation.

Well, this has stuffed up my system! It's trying to install the DAZ programs to my runtime (E: RUNTIMES) instead of where my programs are (F: Programs). I have an SSD drive as my C drive, and no matter what I do, DAZ does weird things and insists on putting files on the C Drive. This new DIM version is screwing it all up even more! I now seem to have program and library files all over my C, E and F drives. And it won't install a bunch of stuff it told me I have to have - I get the same messages someone earlier on this board did. I am struggling enough with space, I really didn't need a rogue installation. SIGH! I have to go finish a job now, will spend time later going through all the replies here. Very disheartening. :(

Install Manager or Central? If it's Install manager check the path settings

Have I missed something, or has Daz just quietly stopped developing for MACs? The current built of 4.12 doesn’t seem to have a MAC version, only Windows (my product library only has a windows version of Studio, the Beta version is also only for Windows, and Daz Central only has a Windows download button, not one for the MAC). If so, this would appear to be the case because nVidia is no longer producing MAC drivers for nVidia gpus, but I’d like a formal statement from DAZ anyway, just for clarity’s sake. For example, will the MAC never be developed for in the future, or only for now? Has all developing of Studio for MACs been completely abandoned, or are limited-feature versions (that can run on previous nvidia gpus) in the works? This also effects future scripts and add-ons sold for Studio that are not developed to be backward compatible with versions of Studio that still run on MACs. MAC folks presumably won’t be able to use them. Big changes like this are normally addressed by software developers so that their fan base can draw conclusions and make plans accordingly. 

There are four ways to install content for Studio (DAZ is the company, not the software). 1. Manually, 2. Daz Install Manager (DIM, my preference), 3. Connect (which can be used from inside Studio, but has issues w/ some products), and 4. DAZ Central (new but buggy). If you installed while the Studio application, then that is Connect. @V3Digitimes is asking you to uninstall from Connect and use DIM.

OK I have an idea. Can you check that you have no daz connect install, and if it is the case, uninstall the "cloud" (daz connect) version?

Unsure what you mean?  I installed this via Daz software itself, as it pops up in there since purchase?

 

Thanks a lot, this is more clear! Well manual or DIM, depending on what's easiest... The most important being to uninstall the connect version first, this is what can "corrupt" the CMS.

There are four ways to install content for Studio (DAZ is the company, not the software). 1. Manually, 2. Daz Install Manager (DIM, my preference), 3. Connect (which can be used from inside Studio, but has issues w/ some products), and 4. DAZ Central (new but buggy). If you installed while the Studio application, then that is Connect. @V3Digitimes is asking you to uninstall from Connect and use DIM.

OK I have an idea. Can you check that you have no daz connect install, and if it is the case, uninstall the "cloud" (daz connect) version?

Unsure what you mean?  I installed this via Daz software itself, as it pops up in there since purchase?

Just a hint, i do not recommend to go on the newest Daz version, its still full of problems. Version 4.12.1.0 something the version 4.12.0.8 is much more stable.

the series number is something like 0.8 and the new 1.0 is unstable, even if it got released as stable version.

 

Welp, that sucks. I clicked install in DAZ Central and my desktop shortcut got deleted. Guess I have to wait for the next stable version to be able to use DAZ again.

The public build seems to be alright so far.

Thank you for the advice though. I'll be sure to remember that for future reference.

I've been a long time DAZ user and now for some reason when I decided to update through DAZ Central it won't actually install DAZ.

I click "install" it asks if I want to allow DAZ Install Manager Helper to make changes, I click "yes" nothing happens.

Open DAZ Install Manager, I go to "Ready to Install" tab, DAZ 4.12 shows up, I click "Install", it goes from 0-100% and moves into the "Installed" tab, nothing happens. No DAZ.exe anywhere to be found, no desktop shortcut. What am I missing????

Okay, sounds like you have your hands full.

First, let's take care of OneDrive. It might have included your Documents folder, which probably also contains your default DAZ Studio installation folder. You could (dare I say should) change the installation folder to somewhere OneDrive wouldn't look, like a second drive (your content will grow to fill all available space, so consider your storage options), or any other folder outside of Documents. Uninstalling OneDrive probably gets overridden by the cloud-end configuration which is trying to reconnect to the PC to sync the data, because it hasn't been told not to. (Unlinking and not connecting automatically should avoid all that, but who knows for sure how this stuff works?) Since the account has been created, you will probably have to set it up to remove the folders you don't want to include anymore so that it doesn't try to sync again. Get to the OneDrive Control panel and choose the folders to include, or not, in the Account settings. You can then move or delete the content on your PC and it shouldn't bother you with that any more. Not sure if that will clean up the cloud-end copy of the content, so you should check it from the View Online browser access and delete it from there. Then you can try uninstalling OneDrive again, or just leave it, since it won't be trying to sync the content anymore.

Now you should be able to install the content where you want. There are many discussions about how to do that (DIM, Central, Connect, Manual) and how to organize it to your liking, but that is a real basket of snakes. I use DIM (DAZ Central is apparently the same functionality in a different UI) which makes it a snap to update and uninstall content, but you must live with contorted folder structures (I categorize everything without touching the original locations). Connect is made to work with Smart Content, but it, too, has shortcomings. Manual is for the ultimate control freak, but be prepared to fuss over it.

OneDrive is a Microsoft thing ... can sign into your Microsoft account and delete everything from said cloud storage service.

When downloading anything from anywhere, have to watch where it's being downloaded to ... setting the browser's download locations, etc. too.

I have not installed Daz Central or DIM ... but there are likely 2 locations to pick, one to download to and another to install to. Comb through all the options to be sure there still isn't a link to OneDrive.