I don't organize content either. It doesn't occur to me until I read threads like this one that anyone does. I install it with Daz Central and use Smart Content. I have a spreadsheet I maintain for all of my products and when I test new items - I test every new item - if there's anything unusual or unexpected about finding it, I note that.

I don't expect Daz itself to be granular enough to do what I really intend to do with organizing content. I do data work IRL and already created various external data solutions which allow the sort of finding of products that really works for me, and if I would just quit buying new stuff, I would get stuff properly organized that way.   In the meantime, I find that simply using Smart Content works well enough 99% of the time.

Daz Central would not touch DIM path settings if they were present when it was installed (nor vice versa), and did not have a different way to access the database. In general they could coexist without issue, though I think there were some problems with the very first releases of Central (at least with unclear prompts).

I was wondering if anyone recognises the character used in the central promos on the Mixable Malna outfit?
https://www.daz3d.com/dforce-mixable-malna-for-genesis-9

I'm hoping it's a purchasable character as my brother was very taken with her and would like me to make some art with this character.

Thanks for the help. :)

I've had a quick look using some base primatives as test objects. Applying any of the three "Cloth Base" items does turn everything black but using any of the colour ones sets them to one colour (not always black). I was able to flip between the two colours at either end by using the scale modifier. I believe that you also need to use the blend multipliers to set the right values so that you get the actual gradient to show. However, it seems I have not yet had enough coffee to figure out the right application of these yet.

EDIT: Here are some examples:

These were made using a 3m plane primative in the middle and the "ghosts" are 2m plane primatives. All had a cloth base applied and then a colour preset which made them all one solid colour at the default scale of 8%. For these I had to drop the scale down till it was between values where it would flip from one colour to the other - the central one down to -5.6% and the others are set to -16%, -8% and -6%.

Still not quite got my head round the blend multipliers, the first one does move the point between Colour1 and Colour2 but the second one does not seem to have an effect. Although perhaps that is because I used a negative scale.

Richard Haseltine said:

The base Victoria 4, the morph expansions, and any characters descibing themselves as using the ExP system all have to be installed to the same content directory (which means DIM, Daz central, or manual). I would recommend installing the powerLoader add-ons for the morph sets as that allows you to use them without having to fiddle around with the updata, and to load the morphs at the outset rather than having to inject them.

The power loaded add on is installed and loads the morph sets fine.  It's the hi res and standard res materials that won't work. They are installed and are actually showing in the content manager and they are all installed to the same loctation, they just won't load and I get a message saying the file can't be found. 
 

Richard Haseltine said:

The base Victoria 4, the morph expansions, and any characters descibing themselves as using the ExP system all have to be installed to the same content directory (which means DIM, Daz central, or manual). I would recommend installing the powerLoader add-ons for the morph sets as that allows you to use them without having to fiddle around with the updata, and to load the morphs at the outset rather than having to inject them.

The power loaded add on is installed and loads the morph sets fine.  It's the hi res and standard res materials that won't work. They are installed and are actually showing in the content manager, they just won't load and I get a message saying the file can't be found. 
 

The base Victoria 4, the morph expansions, and any characters descibing themselves as using the ExP system all have to be installed to the same content directory (which means DIM, Daz central, or manual). I would recommend installing the powerLoader add-ons for the morph sets as that allows you to use them without having to fiddle around with the updata, and to load the morphs at the outset rather than having to inject them.

How did you install? Male and female are separate packages when using DIM/Daz Central. And where ar you looking - Smart Content, or Content Library under Daz Studio Formats?

fred9803 said:

Sites like CGSociety and ZBrush Central have a similar contempt for DS users, saying what we do is not real art because we just buy content that some else has made and don't make it ourselves. Art prejudice and snobbery is ancient and certainly nothing new to the scene and I try to keep out of that way of thinking.

Yep, just like if you don't make your own paints, paintbrushes and canvas, you're not really an artist.  

I get that if you buy a thing at the Daz store, load it and render it with default settings, that's not really art. But as soon as you combine things, retexture things, pick your lights, atmospheres, cameras, etc., you make it yours - and you've arguably made art. The ability to do these things is why I'm not interested at this time in backtracking to static 2D images, even if some of them are pretty. I want the power of picking exactly where the camera is, where the lights and shadows fall, microexpressions and those tiny variations on a pose that make all the difference in the what the figure is saying. I want to choose the colors, the garments, the objects. That's not to say that everything I render or post in the gallery is perfection, because obviously it's not - after 2+ years, I'm still learning about all of these things. But if I want to get what is in my imagination into a physical form where I can see it or share it, that's how I can do it today, by using a tool like Daz which - potentially at least - gives me the power over all of these things. 

Not with today's AI.

Sites like CGSociety and ZBrush Central have a similar contempt for DS users, saying what we do is not real art because we just buy content that some else has made and don't make it ourselves. Art prejudice and snobbery is ancient and certainly nothing new to the scene and I try to keep out of that way of thinking.

After downloading file with install manager or Daz central, the Daz application can not open file.

PerttiA said:

If one uses external installation methods (DIM, Daz Central, Manual installation), one should never log in to Daz Studio.

Logging in to Daz Studio is necessary only when one has made a concious decision of using Daz Connect inside DS as their primary method of installing content, and if that is the case, there is no point in using the external installation methods as they just double the used storage space and anything installed with Daz Connect will take priority, even when the Daz Connect installed content is not working.

Do you have any folders in that location? I think they were named "0_XXXXX", where XXXXX is the SKU of the product.

No there's no folders at all.

If one uses external installation methods (DIM, Daz Central, Manual installation), one should never log in to Daz Studio.

Logging in to Daz Studio is necessary only when one has made a concious decision of using Daz Connect inside DS as their primary method of installing content, and if that is the case, there is no point in using the external installation methods as they just double the used storage space and anything installed with Daz Connect will take priority, even when the Daz Connect installed content is not working.

Do you have any folders in that location? I think they were named "0_XXXXX", where XXXXX is the SKU of the product.

It should be in Daz Studio Formats > My DAZ 3D Library > Environments > Architecture > Polish > WesternTown

You should also be able to find it in Products > W > Western Town

That's when installed with DIM, I've never trusted Daz Central.

VicS said:

 i cant find it in the content library so i cant click on anything to open it,

 

central says it is installed 

Does DAZ Central create manifest files to show what was installed and where? (It's a simplified version of DIM so I presume it does).

If so, then open the manifest file in a file browser (I find Notepad++ best myself) and near the bottom you should see a list of files ("Assets") with the file path you can use to dig down in Content Library and find them 

VicS said:

 i cant find it in the content library so i cant click on anything to open it,

 

central says it is installed 

I don't use central I use DIM so can't help there.

 i cant find it in the content library so i cant click on anything to open it,

central says it is installed 

SofaCitizen said:

It looks like that's the Daz Central icon in your dock and you are also signed-in to your account inside Daz Studio. Therefore, you probably have conflicting or incorrectly installed products due to mixing and matching between Daz Central and Daz Connect. You really should pick only one of those installation methods as trying to use both is liekly to be causing problems.

My recommendation would be to immediately click the "Work Offline" button in Daz Studio and ensure that Daz never attempts to connect to your account. Then, find the cloud folder inside your Daz Connect base path, note down all the products that are installed there and specifically uninstall them from within Daz Studio. Then, go into Daz Central and re-install them there.

That's absolutely what it was! Thank you so much!!!
For some reason i thought i had to download it at DC and install it at DS product session 
But everything is working as intended now.
Also the comment above about the log, good to know. If i have an issue in the future i'll check to understand better what's happening!
Thank you all and have a nice weekend.

It looks like that's the Daz Central icon in your dock and you are also signed-in to your account inside Daz Studio. Therefore, you probably have conflicting or incorrectly installed products due to mixing and matching between Daz Central and Daz Connect. You really should pick only one of those installation methods as trying to use both is liekly to be causing problems.

My recommendation would be to immediately click the "Work Offline" button in Daz Studio and ensure that Daz never attempts to connect to your account. Then, find the cloud folder inside your Daz Connect base path, note down all the products that are installed there and specifically uninstall them from within Daz Studio. Then, go into Daz Central and re-install them there.

So, this thread has been very eye opening.  Thanks all for the info.  When I set up my DAZ last year on my new computer I used Daz Central also and it put everything on the C:\ drive.  No problem initially, but my C:\ drive only has 1 TB of space, whereas my D:\ drive has 5 TB of space.  I've used up a lot of the C:\ drive downloading content for V7, M7, V8 and M8, and can foresee running out of space. Especially when i move to V9 and M9.

From these comments it seems I could use DIM to add another install space for DAZ and my content, essentially having DAZ and the content installed both on my C:\ drive and on my D:\ drive.  The D:\ drive would hold all the content I have downloaded now, plus the content I've bought over the years for prior Victoria and Michael versions.  Then I could uninstall DAZ and the content from my C:\ drive.  

I'd want to do that because I don't want downtime from being able to use Daz.  I have whole sets of pictures I want to make and I have 10 years of purchased content to download so it takes awhile to get it all.

Can I do that then?  Use DIM to install DAZ on my D:\ drive while it's also installed on my C:\ drive?  Or will that cause issues?