This happened to me as well, I reinstalled the update and it cleared up the problem. I find Daz Central far inferior to DIM, it has no depth to look under the hood. Please keep DIM!

Hello, i'm a new DAZ studio user and i just had the same problem after installing DAZ studio from DAZ Central.

I 100% need the tab called 'Content Manager' i never used DAZ studio but i gathered 3D content from the store since 2014 (yeah this is weird i know....) i spent my time with manually installing DAZ content in a custom library.... i really dislike the way to find content with the 'smart content' (this is maybe because i'm a very beginer, so don't blame me for that.) Back in the past 2010 i was a Poser Pro user and i really enjoyed the Poser Library (yes the one in flash...)  so.... i was a bit expecting to find something similar in DAZ problem is .... the content tab was completly missing from the very fresh install (DAZ studio 4.21 Pro).

I came here to find the fix and after 2 hours.... i found the fix (i guess) so hope it will helps other beginers....

Watching video tutorials on YouTube, seems like this tab was already enabled for everyone by default... So it is not really explained how to find it if the tab is missing.

First logic step for me was to go to the 'window/panes (tabs)' and check from here if something was not checked ?

=> but nothing from here either.... the tab DOES NOT exists from the list.

So here is the solution.

For some reason it seems the 'Content Tab manager tab' became or is a PLUGIN. If you check on the main 'help' and click on the sub menu : about install plugins you should see a plugin from the list called 'content library pane'

Please check if this one is ticked !! (mine was OFF) then the plugin icon should turn in orange color which mean DAZ studio has to restart ! Do it. Last but not least, just go back to window/panes (tabs) and voila... content library tab should be back again into the list. Click it to popup it inside DAZ Studio.

Hope it helps !

McGyver said:

carrie58 said:

Mmmmm oxtail ,love oxtail ,make a big batch with a nice gravey ,served over rice ....... gonna have to find some oxtail ,2 puzzles though ,how do they know oxtail isn't cow tail ? and why has oxtail become so expensive?

Yeah... what the hell?... At the grocery store oxtail is stupid expensive, as expensive as steak... even in the little Central and South American grocery stores it's not that much cheaper... Are cows not growing tails anymore? Are they a secret component in lithium batteries? What the foozpong?

I don't make chicken wings often, but I recently went to buy some and they were more than tenderloins... are they freakin' kidding?

That and chicken feet... chicken feet... chicken feet are more expensive than freakin drumsticks... why?... it's the part of the chicken with the most chicken poop on it.

I don't make them because I can't divest the poo from the culinary possibilities...  like I'd probably be okay if I found out they wore shoes or something, but growing up my friend's day who was Chinese, used to make an awesome dish with chicken feet... basically him and me were the only ones who would eat it, as his family refused to eat most of his more traditional dishes, especially ones made from ingredients not found in standard grocery stores.

He used to make this thick soup or stew made from dried fish that smelled to high hell, but was soooooo delicious... and this thick rice congee... one of his daughters managed to learn a few of his recipes before he passed away, but the fish and pretty much all the seafood, the fried kidneys, and snail curry... all gone.

Bummer...  and now I'm hungry.

 hmmm tried chicken feet once , there's not enough meat on them in my opinion ,but they do help make a good base broth .........

carrie58 said:

Mmmmm oxtail ,love oxtail ,make a big batch with a nice gravey ,served over rice ....... gonna have to find some oxtail ,2 puzzles though ,how do they know oxtail isn't cow tail ? and why has oxtail become so expensive?

Yeah... what the hell?... At the grocery store oxtail is stupid expensive, as expensive as steak... even in the little Central and South American grocery stores it's not that much cheaper... Are cows not growing tails anymore? Are they a secret component in lithium batteries? What the foozpong?

I don't make chicken wings often, but I recently went to buy some and they were more than tenderloins... are they freakin' kidding?

That and chicken feet... chicken feet... chicken feet are more expensive than freakin drumsticks... why?... it's the part of the chicken with the most chicken poop on it.

I don't make them because I can't divest the poo from the culinary possibilities...  like I'd probably be okay if I found out they wore shoes or something, but growing up my friend's day who was Chinese, used to make an awesome dish with chicken feet... basically him and me were the only ones who would eat it, as his family refused to eat most of his more traditional dishes, especially ones made from ingredients not found in standard grocery stores.

He used to make this thick soup or stew made from dried fish that smelled to high hell, but was soooooo delicious... and this thick rice congee... one of his daughters managed to learn a few of his recipes before he passed away, but the fish and pretty much all the seafood, the fried kidneys, and snail curry... all gone.

Bummer...  and now I'm hungry.

Hi AllenArt. I remember that they did show up in DIM when I used to use it but I have never had an update show up in Daz Central except for an update to Daz Studio itself.

In my opinion,, Daz has too many options for installing the same content.

1. Manual
2. Daz Connect ( inside Studio requires to login)
3. Daz Central (Newest and "simplest")
4. Daz Install Manger a.k.a DIM (oldest, most reliable, and most capable)

#2 Installs to a completely different directory tree and structure. Thus breaking most scripts and many products.
Can't be used to install Studio itself or plugins.

#3 Lacks some of the advanced options an experienced user will want. Including the choice to NOT update something.

#4 Needs to be told where you want to put your content library , and inside Studio the Content Library location needs to be set. Currently DIM and Studio don't talk to each other to sync this settings.w

If a user employees #2 and a combination of any of the other methods to install content they end up with what I call "Install Salad". Leading to unusable content and cryptic errors most new users can't decipher.

You are right, a point in time is coming when 1 method will need to be the focus at the expense of the others.

I choose #4 Daz Install Manager (DIM) as it does everything with the most options. Though I would like to see some dependency tracking and configuration syncing with the apps it installs content for.

Many new users end up logging in inside Daz which downloads database metadata for use with Connect (#2) then also install the same products with DIM, which uses a different set of metadata to accommodate the different file locations, and they end up with afore mentioned "Install Salad". Products installed twice with conflicting metadata.

Eliminating Connect and Central would go along way towards solving alot of the product install issues.

PerttiA said:

I guess you haven't been using DS that long yet...

Richard got it, you need to have an object in the scene and one of that objects surfaces selected in the surfaces tab to apply a shader.

I did already say to Richard that I will follow his indications for the shader.

For the remaining topics I was just analizing the situation. I usually deal with issues understanding how actually things works. Let's say I like to "hack / reverse engineering" (if possible and legal of course). Instead if it's intended to hold back and behave like a non-tech customer, one that just uses the software as a tool to create products without any clue of the mechanics beneath (that is indeed the normal customer behaviour): I buy a car to bring me from A to B; if to make the car bring me from A to B takes a degree in engineering it is not worth the money even if free.

That said, if DAZ Studio Pro has all those inconsistencies between the Daz Central installer and the internal installer (I guess), of which I already read in this forum and other sources, probably something has to be done, soon or later. Recently, for example, I wasn't able to launch Blender Bridge anymore. I had to uninstally DAZ Studio entirely included Daz Central and reinstall it all. And now Blender Bridge is back alive. This is something that rarely happend to me with other applications.

Hello,

I have been using Daz Central to download and install Daz products for quite a while now, and many of these products and been updated for one reason or another. I have been fortunate to hear about some of these updates in the forums but I am sure that ther are probably some that I don't know about. In all cases I haave had to install the update manually since there is no way that I know of for Daz Central to inform me of an update and then install it. Am I missing some feature in Daz Central that would actually help me to know about and install product updates?

Thanks in advance for any replies.

nabob21

I guess you haven't been using DS that long yet...

Richard got it, you need to have an object in the scene and one of that objects surfaces selected in the surfaces tab to apply a shader.

As far as methods of installation are concerned, here is some background information.

The structure of (traditional) DAZ Content Library is actually quite logical, but when trying to find a simple "push button" solutions for new users, DAZ has created a situation where different default functions do not play well together.

-At first the (new) user is offered DAZ Central for downloading and installing DAZ Studio and all the content that comes with it, no other alternatives are offered or even mentioned.
-When the user has downloaded and installed everything with the default settings/options and starts DS the first time, one is presented with a dialog that asks the user to log in, with the default option to keep logging in automatically in the future, giving the user the impression that logging in is necessary.
-Once the user is in DS and starts browsing the available content in 'Smart' Content, one is told that the content is not installed (with DAZ Connect), giving the user the impression that the content needs to be installed again, when in fact it is not necessary.
-If the user does as is suggested, the content gets downloaded and installed the second time to another location, taking twice the storage space. The installation location is non-traditional, which does not work with scripts and older content, and whatever gets installed by DAZ Connect, overrides the installations made by the other installation methods (DIM/DAZ Central/Manual installation), even when the DAZ Connect installations fail to work due to for example decryption failures.

The general concensus is that the DIM is the best tool for installing DAZ content.
DAZ Central is just a simplified version of DIM

DAZ Connect inside DAZ Studio was created at a time DAZ experimented with encrypted content, which did require logging in to DS/DAZ servers to verify the users licence for that content. The experimentation with encrypted content was ended some 5-6 years ago, but the user is still asked to log in without being told why or being warned about the possible consequences and side effects - The decryption errors are due to the content still being encrypted at DAZ servers that are used by DAZ connect to download them.

Personally I use manual installation as it gives me total control over the installations without having to track down settings in an installation program to get it to do what I want. The only thing the installation programs have is the ability to uninstall content with a push of a button, otherwise everything works just as if the content was installed by any other method.

Ps. Do not use your C-drive for installing content.

Hi Strangefate and Roguey

I bought your product called ROG Red Crow Inn, and it does not download on daz connect or daz central or daz DIM. All my other products download correctly, even your other product called European Style Apartment works (but has a lightening problem. I figured out if you delete the window wall that lightening issue stops. Could you please help me with the ROG Red Crow Inn to download correctly?

Unfortunately I've recently had to use Daz Central to install as DIM would crash on me, so no install files and a forced upgrade. 4.21 is almost unusable for me. It won't load scenes and often leaves traces of itself in task manager when it quits. Honestly, I can live without G9 until this version works. It did work fine for about a week, now it's almost useless, ironically while I'm in the middle of a project.

hansolocambo said:

Let DIM or Daz central download the Big Girl Morphs package. Then open manually the zip and extract it anywhere in your hard drive. (if you don't know where are your files, use Voidtools Everything as it's the ultimate magic tool to index every file and folder in your machine and find any new file created instantly. Everything indexes 24.5TB hard drives in a few minutes.)

Open two Windows Explorer (or use a tremendously better manager such as Directory Opus) to open side by side the content of your zip, and the content of your Daz library.

Delete from the library every file and every folder that corresponds to what's in the zip.

Then try to reinstall again.

If installation through DIM or Daz Connect doesn't work (for some obscure reason ?) then copy, from the zip, what's inside the Content folder > into your Daz library's root folder.

There's absolutely no reason why big-girl-morphs bundle wouldn't work.

Shaping morphs are only 1 mandatory folder : data. All the rest I personnaly get rid of.

Thank you I will try this out really appreciate your help

richardandtracy said:

FSMCDesigns: I'm sorry, I simply don't know. I have never used DIM or DAZ Central. I prefer to do it myself, that way I know what is going on. I suspect that it would work, but never having tried it, I can't say from experience. Regards, Richard.

Thanks Richard. that is what I figured as well. I used to install everything manually, but tried DIM a few years back and have been using it since. I had file install path errors from the saved scenes I had before using DIM and I am trying to avoid that again if I install 4.21 manually.

Let DIM or Daz central download the Big Girl Morphs package. Then open manually the zip and extract it anywhere in your hard drive. (if you don't know where are your files, use Voidtools Everything as it's the ultimate magic tool to index every file and folder in your machine and find any new file created instantly. Everything indexes 24.5TB hard drives in a few minutes.)

Open two Windows Explorer (or use a tremendously better manager such as Directory Opus) to open side by side the content of your zip, and the content of your Daz library.

Delete from the library every file and every folder that corresponds to what's in the zip.

Then try to reinstall again.

If installation through DIM or Daz Connect doesn't work (for some obscure reason ?) then copy, from the zip, what's inside the Content folder > into your Daz library's root folder.

There's absolutely no reason why big-girl-morphs bundle wouldn't work.

Shaping morphs are only 1 mandatory folder : data. All the rest I personnaly get rid of.

tom_bf4025f165 said:

 I'm a noob so I'm very confused by this.  [...] Daz Central seem to have locations picked almost randomly

Daz is well thought. OFFICIAL Daz morphs bundles, and characters are well made. If all content creators were following the organization logic of Genesis 8 Female Body Morphs or Genesis 8 Female Head Morphs, working with Daz would be a breeze. But it's not.

Because 99% of what you can buy for Daz is made by literally anyone. Any random user can save a Daz bundle and sell it on the web without any quality control (except a bit more here on Daz Store).

seem to have locations picked almost randomly

If your library ends up being a huge mess, if you can't find anything, if folders are spelled differently or wrongly, etc. it's not because of Daz Central, Daz Install Manager, or Daz. The culprit is always the content creator(s). What you see is what "the content creator" chose. And multiple Daz Bundles = multiple content creators brains = a mess of folders with sliders named with wrong spelling, words that don't even exist, morphs for the shoulder located in the butts folder... a nightmare to find anything.

Daz is an app that lets anyone sell their content anywhere. On one hand it's really great ! On the other hand, it's a freakin' hell.

The way I do it : Let Daz Install Manager (DIM) or eventually Daz Central download the package. Do NOT let it install the package (a zip file).

Now open the downloaded zip somewhere and organize it the way your want. Put data and runtime folders in the root. Everything else : you can organize exactly the way your want. No rule but the one you chose. Organize by content creator's name ? Organize by clothes style ? It's all up to you. When the content is clean, mispelled folders are renamed, etc. Re-zip it, save that somewhere in an hard drive or a cloud. And install manually that cleaned content.

I organize the face/body shaping and posing sliders. I organize everything according to my understanding of tidiness not the one of countless random creators. Daz is a nice 3D platform to let people express their creativity and share/sell their work. Because of that, the only one you can trust to do the cleaning is you.

How do products and created files get placed in the content folders?   Products installed from Daz Central seem to have locations picked almost randomly.   And the folders they're installed in seem to have nothing to do with where they show up in Smart Content  ("People" versus "Figures" for example.)   I'm a noob so I'm very confused by this.   Sorry if this is a silly question, but I don't know enough about the CMS to even know that.

can't launch Daz Central

I'd advise you to go for DIM. It's been tested for many more years. I reinstalled everything 2 days ago. Windows 11 x64 Pro. Everything works perfectly fine.

I tried to delete [...] and it won't because it's "in use"

Except for problems of permission per user (if you're not admin), the MUST have app with Windows to unlock anything, folders and subfolders, files, etc. is :
EMCO UnLock IT. It's one of those few apps that I couldn't live a day without (also Voidtools Everything, SageThumbs, Ditto).

A file or folder you can't access, delete, etc ? Right click on it > Unlock it : done. I've been using UnLock IT for many years, it's pure magic. Never failed me once.

I tried to delete the Daz 3D folder from Program Files [...]

Seriously ?  ε=ε=ε=(۶•̀Д•́)۶

Do not ever do that FFS !

Use Revo Uninstaller. It's the Rolls Royce of uninstallers. But do not delete installed programs manually ! There are WAY more traces of installed applications in Windows than what you can imagine. If you want an unstable OS, a nice BSOD ? that's the way to go !

/(;-_-)

Got a new machine, came with Windows 11, can't launch Daz Central. I just get "not responding"

I don't know if this is relevant, but after uninstalling I tried to delete the Daz 3D folder from Program Files and it won't because it's "in use". Done many restarts/shutdowns.

Pugwash_3769741927 said:

RiverSoftArt said:

I am sorry you are having difficulty.  I will have to check the code (I am away from my dev computer) to see why that error is occuring.  I will say, however, that installing through Daz Connect can be a bad idea with my scripts, especially the older ones.  Daz Connect tends to have my scripts pull in support files from multiple products, which can cause issues.  The first thing I would try is to uninstall the product, delete the cloud folder where the product was, and install with DIM.  Often, that can fix most issues by itself.

 

Thanks for the quick response. And I'm pleased to say that after an uninstall and a manual reinstallation, both V4 and M4 convertors are working. It appears the Daz Central/Daz Connect service, while trying to make the install easier, decided to put both scripts in the Daz executable folder tree and not my "My Library" tree as expected. Now I've copied the files across to the right directories, everything seems to be working.
Image is the M4 UK Police Uniform (hat, jacket and trousers) from Poserworld converted to G8M. There are some artefacts on the floor between the shoes and these seem to be created from the shin areas of the trousers. But I've seen this mentioned in the manual so I'll go back and look at how it can be improved.
Again, thanks Riversoft. You have another happy customer :)

Awesome!  I am so happy I have another happy customer!