I am leaning toward DIM, I like the part about storring the zip files  when setting up DIM. Do I make the choice to use the HDD when setting up right?

\When I setup DIM there is no Connect or Central rigtht?

Daz central lets you set one location and places everythign in a sub-folder, so it is simpler to do but less flexible. Daz Install Manager uses separately settable locations for different types of content (and my default keeps the zips, which can be handy if you frequently uninstall/reinstall content). You will get the default paths for whichever application you install first - if that's Install Manager the the Daz Central configuration screen will say that paths are managed by Install Manager.

I think the reason people suggest not installing content to an SSD is simply size - a cotnent library can grow very large, depending on how much content you buy/download and how scrupulous you are about uninstalling things you don't need. There isn't a lot of benefit to having the content on SSD, but it would probably give at least some speed boost to loadign large objects or sending data to be rendered (when the full size versions of images need to be loaded).

DarkElf said:

Everytime I click on the "Get DAZ Studio" download button it wants to download DAZ Central. I don't want that. I just want to download DAZ Studio 4.20

Could someone please tell me how?

I have been studying DAZ Connect, DIM, and Daz Centrel. I have been using Connect, J tried DIM, but it would not work on my system.

My new computer has HDD and SSD and I read on another post in the Daz forums that you dont want to put your content in SSD. Where will Daqz Central place the content? What is the difference between Daz Central and DIM?

dzinstall.ini is not crated by Install Manager, it was created by the manual/stand-alone installers Install Manager can read it to see what their paths were. It isn't needed for a purely DIM/Daz Central path to application installation.

Richard Haseltine said:

Only the current version of the General Release will be opened from Daz Central or by double-clicking a native file - the betas are not set to be a default action, and any version you move to a new location will lose its file associations.

Good for any of us Beta users and older GenRelease to know this in b/w.  It seemed like a reasonable explanantion, based on my descrip above.  Now its clear.  Thx for b/w confirm.

This still leaves me wondering why my latest 4.21.0.5 recognizes Limbstick dse right from DS, and not so for others.

Only the current version of the General Release will be opened from Daz Central or by double-clicking a native file - the betas are not set to be a default action, and any version you move to a new location will lose its file associations.

I tried what you said and it didn't work. That way all the morphs are reset, the problem I have is that only a few of them are reset. It's happened again with a new scene and exactly the same. The duf file still shows the original image, but quite a few morphs have been reset. I've seen it also happen when I simulate clothes, but that's reversible by pulling back. I think all this is happening to me since version 4.21, but it's a I think.... I tried restarting daz studio from daz central and it didn't work.

kwannie said:

Since I have a brand new build, I have to move everything over I was simply going to log on and download a new DIM to the new hard drive and could not find where to download the latest version of DIM all they have is DAZ Central. Has DIM gone by the wayside? I have it installed on my other system and it is stll working fine. Dhould I just use the current installation executable for DIM that I already have, or are we going to have to start using DAZ central?

https://www.daz3d.com/install-manager-info

Since I have a brand new build, I have to move everything over I was simply going to log on and download a new DIM to the new hard drive and could not find where to download the latest version of DIM all they have is DAZ Central. Has DIM gone by the wayside? I have it installed on my other system and it is stll working fine. Dhould I just use the current installation executable for DIM that I already have, or are we going to have to start using DAZ central?

Richard Haseltine said:

NorthOf45 said:

IceCrMn said:

Wouldn't they need to have different metadata? They have different folder structures?

Not sure about Central, but Connect certainly uses different names for the folders.

Asset location is one thing, the files cannot be ignored, but the associated data (Content Type, Default Category, Compatibilities, etc.) should be the same. I do not know how DAZ manages it, but if it doesn't come from a common source, there will be no end to the chaos.

And, what @Barbult said... 

The files are in the same place relative to their content directory, the system doesn't need special metadata beyond isntallation method to tell it where to look in each case.

The difference I saw in the case I referenced,was a difference in data such as compatibility, category, etc., i.e. the guts of what makes Smart Content smart.

Unfortunately, still no success. Tried it at least five times and installed it through Central and Install Manager, and even had an attempt in installing manually – nothing works. 

NorthOf45 said:

IceCrMn said:

Wouldn't they need to have different metadata? They have different folder structures?

Not sure about Central, but Connect certainly uses different names for the folders.

Asset location is one thing, the files cannot be ignored, but the associated data (Content Type, Default Category, Compatibilities, etc.) should be the same. I do not know how DAZ manages it, but if it doesn't come from a common source, there will be no end to the chaos.

And, what @Barbult said... 

The files are in the same place relative to their content directory, the system doesn't need special metadata beyond isntallation method to tell it where to look in each case.

IceCrMn said:

Wouldn't they need to have different metadata? They have different folder structures?

Not sure about Central, but Connect certainly uses different names for the folders.

Asset location is one thing, the files cannot be ignored, but the associated data (Content Type, Default Category, Compatibilities, etc.) should be the same. I do not know how DAZ manages it, but if it doesn't come from a common source, there will be no end to the chaos.

And, what @Barbult said... 

Wouldn't they need to have different metadata? They have different folder structures?

Not sure about Central, but Connect certainly uses different names for the folders.

NorthOf45 said:

Smart Content is not DAZ Connect. Smart Content is a metadata-driven database function, and you get the same metadata from Connect as you do from DIM/Central. You do not need Connect to use Smart Content. Connect is a method of content delivery, nothing more. It has certain functions that might appeal to certain users, as Richard mentioned.

... I don't think anyone is saying that Smart Content is DAZ Connect?

Having said that, DAZ Connect (and even DAZ Central) definitely does retrieve different metadata, especially purchase metadata, from DAZ's servers -- or at least the server throws back a different UTC code than what is actually stored in the server itself because DIM definitely shows the correct information. This can be proven by installing something in DIM, then logging into DAZ Connect and checking the metadata that was overridden with something different. Poking into the database with PostgreSQL verifies this problem.

This has been an ongoing issue, with a recent thread back in November-ish that detailed the still-existing problem.

https://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/604761/daz-central-arbitrarily-changes-order-on-items/p1

Smart Content is not DAZ Connect. Smart Content is a metadata-driven database function, and you get the same metadata from Connect as you do from DIM/Central. You do not need Connect to use Smart Content. Connect is a method of content delivery, nothing more. It has certain functions that might appeal to certain users, as Richard mentioned.

If you are sure that the Connect version is uninstalled try reinstalling through Daz Central/Install Manager and see if the error finally goes away.

rlewisfr said:

 

Ok, thanks to the advice, I have put Rory in a corner to think about what she has done for a while, and now all of the ladies are showing their true, fine colours.  I had to go in to the /data/.../morphs/ folder and remove references to the Rory morphs (as I do manual installs rather than auto from IM or Central), but after that it is great.

Again, can't tell you how much I appreciate it.

Ooh, now that I look at Rory's product page, I can definitely see where the extra features came from. I'm glad it was just that easy to take care of. I had at one point downloaded something from a Patreon and it overwrote the G8 core character, so even uninstalling everything from the character I bought didn't help - I also had to purge G8 Essentials. I learned to be a lot more discerning after that.