If an item has ngons (a polygon with more than 4 sides), ZB will converts ngons to tris, so the topology of the item will be changed. That was why you got the issue when GoZ back ~~

The padded coat you named just has ngons (a rare case indeed....). If you export it to OBJ, import OBJ to ZB, ZB will inform you about it. (or you can find ngons in Blender....)

The solution is simple, you just import it as new object in DS with GoZ. Export the object to OBJ, import OBJ with Morph Loader Pro to create morph properties.

Padone said:

 It makes animation pretty much impossible since even default morphs that are 0 seem to be calculated by DAZ whenever you make a pose adjustment. 

That is exactly why to import daz figures in blender we bake all the shape morphs and only load the morphs we need for animation. As for addressing this in daz studio, one way is to only install the assets you need for the current project, vs keeping a vast library with everything installed. Then you switch the library depending on the project. That is not optimized as a blender import, but will be much better.

p.s. Another thing to look for is how we use the library in general. For example mixing figures to get a character is way more heavy than using the basic shape morphs, or a single custom figure. In a way we also decide the complexity depending how we use the features.

That is great support for Blender export and I appreciate the information!

However, my issue and question is about native support in DAZ3D so that I can stay in the application longer or perhaps not even have to export anything out to another tool. DAZ is investing a lot of money and work into improving DAZ Studio (currently in Beta) and I was asking if they ever considered natively supporting this in the newer version of studio and if so where it is on their roadmap? I have poured over the forums looking for solutions to the issues I am having with performance and I see a lot of other folks experiencing some of the same issues (which might or might not be the same issue I am having). If there is no native support for this then DAZ Studio 2025 will have nothing to keep users from having to do things like export Genesis characters to other tools to address some of the defiencies in the core platform.

Also, it actively discourages me from wanting to purchase further morphs for Genesis 9 (and other generations) because I know with each new morph link I will be adding to the performance issue; not helping it. And I will have to start drastically cutting my morph list for the genesis generation I am working with; from a product marketing perspective this seems like a bad thing; no? There is functionality (both 1st and third-party) to assist with managing your morph library (content manager and Turbo Loader) that helps users who don't want to export their characters to another tool avoid that; so why not address the linking performance (since zero'd morphs are said to not affect performance directly) or provide a way to save a "paired-down" set of morphs for a character without having to uninstall/disable morph files? It can even be a one-way trip if they want; meaning you cannot add new morphs to the character once you break the association with the Genesis generation you are working with.

This would definately prevent this particular "problem" from generating negative experiences for their end-users. It is a win-win and they are already investing significant development resources (I assume) in the current re-write so there should be scope/capacity to atleast do a feasibility POC on this? Otherwise, tools like yours that export assets out of DAZ will be the only path forward for folks like me. I would prefer to keep my workflow in one tool for as long as possible.

But again, I appreciate the information! It is nice to see that the third-party vendors have thought of these needs and have solutions to address them (even if it is outside DAZ Studio).

 It makes animation pretty much impossible since even default morphs that are 0 seem to be calculated by DAZ whenever you make a pose adjustment. 

That is exactly why to import daz figures in blender we bake all the shape morphs and only load the morphs we need for animation. As for addressing this in daz studio, one way is to only install the assets you need for the current project, vs keeping a vast library with everything installed. Then you switch the library depending on the project. That is not optimized as a blender import, but will be much better.

p.s. Another thing to look for is how we use the library in general. For example mixing figures to get a character is way more heavy than using the basic shape morphs, or a single custom figure. In a way we also decide the complexity depending how we use the features.

morrisonmp said:

I appreciate the information. Unfortunately, "Refresh" doesn't seem to do anything when I click it. I still have to do that weird database refresh every time. As you said, I do not install while DAZ is open. 

And I figured I was just out of luck with the Lost and Found items. I understand the basics of setting up install folders and getting 3rd party items into the content library, but I do not feel technically skilled enough to monkey around too much with the "under the hood" parts of DAZ.

DIM is probably the most straightforward of all of these.  The most important thing is to make sure that DIM is set up correctly i.e. your Daz content is going to the appropriate folders and the database is in the correct location.  Click on the gear on the upper right corner and check the configurations of the installations.  Next, go to Daz studio and Daz Studio Preferences, and Content Manager, and make sure Daz Studio can see the installation locations.  When you install via DIM, Dim retrieves a zipped file, decompresses it, ideally doles out the contents to the appropriate locations such as geometry info to data, textures to Runtime>Textures>specific texture folder, sends a file to the shared Daz 3d> Install Manager>  Manifest files where DIM looks to figure out where and if a product is installed, adds files to Runtime>Support which include the product name and image, and I think lets the CMS know that this product exists in your inventory.  When the locations are wrong, this breaks down.
 
The Lost and Found is a bit more complicated. Products generally end up there because they don't have the proper metadata or broken metadata. The repair is suprisingly simple. The first thing to try is to delete and reinstall the product because sometimes the the installation garbles the metadata.  Other products such as products from other stores may have no metadata.  I suggest learning a little familiarty with selecting the lost and found item, right click on the product, edit metadata, and setting the item to be for a prop for Genesis 8 female for example.  There are endless Youtube videos on how to do this and set up DIM if you would like some visual examples.  We can supply those.  It is all reversible and shouldn't be too scary.

Yes, on the sleeve, I use 0% for the pelvis influence(red). Then I switch to the right and left arm part and use 100% fill. I got it working once but, the fix doe'nt stay when I try to save it as dsf or export as object then import with Transfer utility.

starslinger said:

Hey thanks a lot for the update! I just got around to testing it. Yes now it I can see the eyebrows in blender. They are a mesh object only? They seem to import as mesh object in blender and checking convert to hair curves doesnt convert it.

Hi @starslinger

All the time I took to re-design Sagan for v4 is paying off. Now, all the logic for figuring out what the heck a node is, is in one place and works for both Alembic and the USD that Hitchens uses. All it took was to code up "Even if the classname says it's a fiber, if you've got "faces", then it's a mesh".

Did you look in the log for any clues? I think that because, like I said, the topology of the "fiber" brows is so messed up that the conversion algorithm might be saying (paraphrasing) "there's no way that this is a strand of hair" and ignoring it.

barbult said:

leo04 said:

barbult said:

Richard Haseltine said:

Sorry, I was thinking the conversion had been done and the question was how to save it to a file. I would take features to mean shape, not expressions.

There are, I think, one or two other converters butt here is a limit to how much they can do. In what way was the one you tried disappointing? What modelling/sculpting software and skills do you have?

I think you are right about "facial features" being the shape of the face, not the expression. I'm not sure how I made that leap to expression. 

I have had excellent luck with the ManFriday converter to convert G8 to G9. I haven't tried G8.1, I don't think. The only things that need tweaking afterward are the eyes and sometimes mouth of G9, because they are separate geometry. I don't know if the ManFriday converter is still available in the store or not.

I was able to do it one time. Subsequent attempts failed. It all worked well but for the Breasts, specifically the nipples. When I put a G9 skin on the model the models nipples did not line up with the UV map so I have areolas located below the nipples. Very Fustrating!

I have never noticed that problem with the Man Friday converter, but I suppose it could possibly depend on the character shape you are converting and the skin materials you are applying. If you are only concerned about facial features, why not just save separate converted head and body morphs, and dial in only the converted head morph? You could dial in any other character's body morph(s) that you like.
I'm going to go dial in some of my converted shapes and apply a few different G9 skins and see if I ever see a mismatch like you described.

The G8.1 is a full body morph I created from an earlier Genesis model. The original facial morphs were made in the 1st Genesis Model, (#1). I converted it through several models.  I am looking at maybe taking the head off the G9 model I was able to convert and make a model out of that to import as a morph. Not entirely sure how that will work yet.

thanks. 

DAZ Install Manger SHOULD add the metadata which populates the Smart Content tab. I usually install stuff while Daz Studio is not running so perhaps there is some issue if that is not the case for you. You could try right-clicking and hitting refresh to see if that makes them show up.

Then there a separate issue where products contain uncategorised items (which get put in lost+found) or do not show up at all (tends to be the ones that were migrated from other stores in bulk). Items that are in lost+found will likely need to be manually categorised by yourself since that was not done by Daz when the product was submitted (pretty sure PAs have stated that Daz handles the Metadata not the PAs themselves).

If you login to your account with Daz Studio (either because you use the Premier features and/or Daz Connect) that can replace the paths where product icons are stored from within the /Runtime/Support folder(s) to the cloud folder. This can break some images sometimes and I don't think you can fix it easily without explictly removing the Daz Connect stuff and then re-installing with DIM.

A while back I did do some testing/QA for a potential product which would have helped users to fill in the gaps and fix issues with metadata but unfortunately it never made it to release :(

I have been using DAZ for a while now and some things are still very confusing.

1. Installation and the SmartContent Tab

1a. When I install items using the DAZ Install Manager, those items do not show up in my SmartContent tab. The only workaround that I have found is that I have to right click on the SmartContent tab and select "Content Database Management." From there I have to check Process Metadata Queue & Re-Import Metadata. Once I do that, the items will show in SmartContent (usually). This doesn't seem to be a normal problem. I have asked this question before but I hoped maybe someone might have some new thoughts/advice for me.

1b. Related to 1a, above, my SmartContent tab is a mess now. Several items are duplicated, several have missing images, and some just seem broken. I have previously done a full system wipe and re-loaded everything and this did not clear up this issue.

2. Does anyone know if it's possible to get items to move items from "Lost and Found" into the established categories? I have so many items that are entirely only found in my Lost and Found at this point, that it's become unmanageable.

The Content Library tab is so un-intuitive that I don't use it unless I have to (for 3rd party products I've installed). I know that some users create their own libraries/folder structures, but every tutorial I've watched on that process seems to say that it's not only complex but also very easy to break and make things even worse than they are now. 

Please, if you do have some advice for me, explain it like I'm a 5 year old. 

Thank you in advance for any help you can offer.

Hey thanks a lot for the update! I just got around to testing it. Yes now it I can see the eyebrows in blender. They are a mesh object only? They seem to import as mesh object in blender and checking convert to hair curves doesnt convert it.

outthinkers_77543974b9 said:

I'm using the weight map tool fill a fill of 0.0% on the pelvis and 100% on the shoulder and forearm but, you can see that the pelvis is still at max influence. I'm not sure how to correct this and videos do not address it.

I don't think you should remove weight on Pelvis as that'll bring you problems when bending figure's Pelvis bone. Instead, you should remove weight on the bottom of sleeves when selecting Pelvis bone with Node Weight Brush tool.

Besides, which kimono product are you using ? If it's for G8F, it can well fit on G8.1F without Auto Fit. But some product has wrong Preferred Base set in its metadata, so it brings you Auto Fit dialogue... You can easily fix it via: Edit > Figure > Scene Identification...

I have just tested it in a test library, and she works.

But the file structure does not follow the general concept overall.

To find her you must look in your content library, as the product doesn't have metadata. It is also a little weird, that there is only a scene subset with her including her hair.

Tell more about what you are doing and where you are looking for her.

I am aware of the third-party tool that catalogs the morphs used in a scene and allows you to rename the morph extension of all other morphs to prevent DAZ from loading them when it loads a Genesis figure (Turbo Loader). What I am looking for is some native support In Daz for reducing the amount of morphs that are loaded when I select, for instance, G9. I have made a lot of purchases And I have thousands of morphs (from many different stores) I don't understand why there isn't a native way to just load the morphs I need without loading everything in the content directories without some wonky work around like changing file extensions to hide morphs. It makes animation pretty much impossible since even default morphs that are 0 seem to be calculated by DAZ whenever you make a pose adjustment. This is probably what is causing a lot of slow down for folks and it just doesn't seem to be talked about much on this forum. If I were just to completely clean out my contract directory and load the base Genesis 9 Animation is extremely smooth and the whole thing runs like a charm. Why is this seemly basic functionality not supported outside of third-party vendors? Perhaps I'm missing something And you folks can enlighten me. I also don't want to create a morph From the morph loader pro export/import process as that doesn't solve the core problem (of default/zero morphs being calculated anyway during animation) and that would not keep the associated jcms for the combined final product. Heck, even being able to save my character in a way that disassociates it with the genesis framework to by-pass this automatic load of everything in the catalog would be an improvement. Am I missing something here?

DTB doesn't use OBJ format but FBX which has no scale options for both export / import in DS / Blender. So DTB always exports as 100% in DS, imports as 1 in Blender (by using FBX importer).

So, if you use DTB for the sculpting workflow, you just need to export to OBJ in Blender with Scale 100.  Screen shot 1 is for export OBJ in Blender. Screen shot 2 is for import with MLP as default.

Don't use Blender or whatever other Preset in MLP, just use Default.

The Poser preset is probably the problem, I would sugest using Modo or one of the other 1 unit = 1 m presets on import. But the point is to match the import and export presets (which will cancel their chnages out) while leaving the import into/export from Blender unchanged.

That sounds as if you are using the Poser preset in Morph Loader. OBJ has no inherent scale, so import and export make assumptions - use the same preset for export and import in DS, and 100% in Blender, and all should match up.

I'm having a morph scaling issue where my pipeline is as follows:

• Export G9 from DS 4.24.0.3 at base resolution using the latest Daz To Blender bridge available in the DIM
• Import G9 to Blender 4.3.2 using Daz To Blender bridge
• Sculpt G9
• Export G9 from Blender using the .obj exporter
• Import G9 to DS using Morph Loader Pro

No matter what I do, the scale is off when imported back into DS.  I'm having to use a scale of 0.410 when exporting from Blender in order to get it to work.  There's still a very slight change in scale even at that setting, but there should be no change at all, and it's obvious that having to use a scale like that means that something is not right somewhere in the pipeline.

Since I have no idea what scale is used by Daz To Blender when exporting from DS or importing to Blender, I'm finding it impossible to locate the problem.  YouTube videos and forum searches haven't helped since I'm using Daz To Blender to export and Morph Loader Pro to import.

If there's anyone using the same pipeline, it would be appreciated if I could have the following information:

• Scale used by Daz To Blender when exporting from DS
• Scale used by Daz To Blender when importing to Blender
• Scale to use when exporting via .obj from Blender
• Scale to use when importing via Morph Loader Pro to DS

This problem occurs in the Cycles render engine - in Eevee it doesn't exist. There's a couple of hair caps/scalps that I have purchased that are "poking through" and creating dark artifacts in areas where they're supposed to be transparent. This is my current workflow:
- Import the hair cap via Diffeomorphic on its own rig.
- Convert to MHX under Rigging
- Combine the hair cap rig with the base model rig using Merge Rigs under Corrections (uncheck all options).
- Transfer Shapekeys from base model to hair cap under Morphs (PJCMs, Expressions, etc.)
- In Modifiers, add Smooth Corrective and Subdivision Surface under the Armature.
- Leave Materials as-is (Alpha Hashed on both options)
When the model is static, all looks well. But if I import an Expression, random parts of the hair cap will show up in the render as dark splotches in areas where it's supposed to be transparent. So far I've noticed it on the Faux Hawk Hair cap and the Chuck Hair - Short Hair caps. Is this a Cycles setting issue, a material issue, or something else like unnecessary/duplicate shapekeys? 

Oh, I didn't know that the DAZ rig isn't needed to import poses. Great - thanks!

Yeah, I don't know how Diffeo 4.5 snuck in there again. However, I'm still getting that toe twist with Diffeo 5
That's fine though. I'll just leave it off.

Picture on the right is G8 with Tweak Bones checked and "Snap FK All".
No FK toe twist is happening with G8.

Export as OBJ, at base resolution and making you you don't get any extras like Rigid Follow Nodes, then import as a morph.