Content Folder Locations

speedpacer

Please have one place, preferabley during initial installation, where users can set all of their content/application folders.  A lot of us try to keep our system and data drives separate.  Most computers come that way these days.  You currently have two separate applications, the installer and studio, each with their own folder configurations and everything defaults to the, often smaller, system drive.  That's not cool when you're talking about gigs and gigs worth of data ending up on the wrong drive, especially if they have to task your server to download it all again.

 

Richard Haseltine

The location for the My Library folder, at least, does not default to C: - it defaults to the location of your Documents folder. If you don't want applications defaulting to C: make sure you move the Documents folder (find it in your user profile, right-click, select Properties, go to the Location tab, click Move). I haven't tried moving the Public documents folder though it looks as if it too is movable that way. This has to be done before installing the applications.

There are a couple of scripts to help with synching DS and DIM:

http://docs.daz3d.com/doku.php/public/software/dazstudio/4/referenceguide/scripting/api_reference/samples/file_io/install_manager_config/start
http://docs.daz3d.com/doku.php/public/software/dazstudio/4/referenceguide/scripting/api_reference/samples/file_io/install_manager_config_import/start

speedpacer

I appreciate your help, but this was a product suggestion.  I don't want to install 3d content in my documents folder.  I want to install it wherever I choose.  They should ask during installation, a setting that should carry over into both applications, where you want to install the appliation and and the content. They ask during installation where you want to install the installer, and then you have to go into the installer config for for more folder settings, and then again in the studio application for more folder settings. As a developer myself, I suggest that they streamline this and make it easier to make this determination up-front and not have to go back and figure out where everything ended up.

 

Richard Haseltine

If you want to make a feature request to Daz then you need to open a Technical Support ticket. I suspect that they don't do this as people would potentially make bad choices, creating a support nightmare - and it's easy enough to chnage the locations after installation of the applications but before installing content.

Edit: I hadn't realised, but DIM will - on installation - try to read any existing paths for DS and for the last used content directory from a manual install . Also, you should bear in mind that DIM is for pretty well all content types sold in the daz store, not just for DS, so an inital set-up screen would have to be pretty complex.

jestmart

You can install to where ever you choose.  Open the Preference in DIM and make the changes to the defaults.  Open the Preference in Studio and the Content Directory Manager and make the changes to match those in DIM.

speedpacer

Thought this was the "Product Suggestions" section of the forums. Typically, the Techical Support part is where customers are experiencing some sort of an issue and are in need of assistance and you can say it's their fault and/or they should've known better, while the Product Suggstions area is where customers post recommendations to help the seller make improvements to their products, and you say, "thank you, we'll take your suggestion into consideration", and then those suggestions are gathered up and read outloud in a meeting, everyone has a good laugh and they're tossed in the trash.  You're running a very unusual operation here.

Richard Haseltine

Product Suggestions was originally for suggesting new products - content, that is - which the vendors might create. It's morphed to be that and also an in search of forum, but it isn't an official feeback location for DS or other things.

speedpacer

Product Suggestions

"All suggestions, ideas, or other feedback concerning products, both existing and desired."

 

Perhaps they should change the description...

 

 

Daywalker Designs

Not everyone that downloads the software is a PC expert that understands how to relocate things safely, nor do moat people have a system with multiple hard drives when they start. In fact, my experience is that unless you start out by buying a gaming system, there quite likely is not a second separate physical hard drive in the computer, especially if that unit is a laptop. Also, the default settings used follow the Microsoft guidelines for placement of User Content (which actually can be traced back to the early days of UNIX).

speedpacer

I'm still trying to get this directory situation worked out.  I've tried everything including moving my documents folder to my D drive and using the defaults. I ended up with a bunch of picture frames with the yellow caution signs in them and a bunch of content that says it needs updating, try to update and two days later (TWO DAYS!!!) they finished downloading and now they all say they still need updating.  I try updating them again, same deal. 

After giving up on that, I finally managed to get content to show up in the Content Library and the Smart Content tabs but the first one I tried to use gave me an error saying the file didn't exist.  I noticed that it only exists in the DIM folder so I copied the files over to the DS folder and then it worked, so now I have two folders of duplicate data totalling 56GB.  I've read that you shouldn't point them both to the same folder or it causes problems.  Is that true?  Is this a downside of using DIM?

Edit: And it quit working again.  File does not exist.  I have both folders configured and they both have the same content in it.  The only way I can make it work is by manually dragging the file into the scene.

 

 

Silver Dolphin

Getting Daz to fix how it sets up content is going to make you crazy. Just step back and use this>>>> https://www.renderosity.com/mod/bcs/?ViewProduct=122705 I have this and I install wherever I want and it lets me create links in the main content directory where I want things to be no Smart content no worry about where I install stuff. Check it out. Runtime Links for DS by 3DOutlaw it is at Renderosity.

SpottedKitty

don.earnest said:

I noticed that it only exists in the DIM folder so I copied the files over to the DS folder and then it worked, so now I have two folders of duplicate data totalling 56GB.  I've read that you shouldn't point them both to the same folder or it causes problems.

What exactly do you mean by "the DIM folder" and "the D|S folder"? What are the FULL folder paths? From your description, it sounds like you've mixed up the folder location where DIM stores the downloaded .zip installer archives, and the folder location where DIM stores the content files it's extracted from those .zip archives, and where D|S looks for its content files. Can you take screenshots of the DIM settings screen, and the D|S Content Directory Manager dialog (with the DAZ Studio Formats and Poser Formats sections opened so we can see the folder paths)? I suspect that might give us clues to help you.

speedpacer

I've stopped using this software.