Content directories and mass confusion. Really need help

daveso

(NOTE: this post might be a bit confusing, as I am totally confused. Please try to read it all)

I have been struggling just to learn DS ... but now, I have tons of content and I need to manually install a lot of it. I've found all kinds of different content directories, none of which seem to allow me to see the content within DS. 
In my mind, it seems necessary to combine all of these directories into one working directory which I can actually find my content within DS .... but first allow me to try and explain what I see. 

This whole content directory process is convoluted in my mind. I have watched several videos on manual content install, and all of them seem extremely simple...unzip, find the directory ..drag thie content there, and viola ... Mine does not work that way at all .... I'm not even sure I can explain what I have. 

So, within DS, 4.10, I have, within EDIT | F2 PREFERENCES | CONTENT DIRECTORY MANAGEMENT | are 3 directories... DAZ CONNECT DATA, DAZ STUDIO FORMATS, and POSER FORMATS. 
I will assume DAZ CONNECT DATA is the location for that which is installed by DIM. Is that a correct assumption? And I would think DIM install needs to point to the directory listed here ... C:\Users\David Soumis\Documents\DAZ 3D\Studio\My Daz Connect Library
but DIM shows C:/Users/Public/Documents/My DAZ 3D Library  SO what is the deal here? should they be the same or am I not understanding this part of the directory structure? I have a lot of content in the Smart Content tab. 
I picked one product in smart content and it shows the directory location as : C:\Users\David Soumis\Documents\DAZ 3D\Studio\My Daz Connect Library\data\cloud\1_4411

Then, the DAZ STUDIO FORMAT shows two directories ... C:/Users/public documents/my daz 3d library  and C:/users/David soumis/documents/DAZ 3D/Studio/My Library. why 2 and which should be correct? or is the content showing from both? 

Is it possible for DIM to install to the same directory as for manual installation? Have only 1 directory for ALL content? Or is it better to break them down by generation or something? 

NOW .. that is all complicated enough, but when I look into the actual directories on my C Drive, it shows other directories as well ... maybe from past installations, who knows. But I think I should combine them into one directory? 

Or would it be simpler to just delete everything and try to start over? 

So , where to start? 

OH .. i attached an image of the content manager from DS. If I right click the directories listed, I can edit the base directory ... but when I do that, what is listed is not the same owrd foor word as what it shows on this image text ... 

Richard Haseltine

Donnect is the system for installing within DS, the fils for each product - as you've found - end up in the /data/cloud/1_SKU folder, so each is entirely separate (which is why ExP products can't be installed with Connect yet).

DIM (by default) uses the public My Daz 3D Library.

The non-public \Daz 3d\Studio\My Library folder is the original DS 4 default location, and is still the default for user-created files.

Content does not, in general, need to be in a single content location - the exception being ExP figures (Victoria 4 etc.) where each base figure and its morph expansions must be in the same directory.

daveso

Richard Haseltine said:

Donnect is the system for installing within DS, the fils for each product - as you've found - end up in the /data/cloud/1_SKU folder, so each is entirely separate (which is why ExP products can't be installed with Connect yet).

DIM (by default) uses the public My Daz 3D Library.

The non-public \Daz 3d\Studio\My Library folder is the original DS 4 default location, and is still the default for user-created files.

Content does not, in general, need to be in a single content location - the exception being ExP figures (Victoria 4 etc.) where each base figure and its morph expansions must be in the same directory.

so theoritcally , at least, i should be able to combine most of the directories into the My Library folder. 
If I use other directories, would I need to add them to the preferences content manager ?

 

Richard Haseltine

Yes, if you add new content directories you need to tell Daz Studio where they are via the Content Directory Manager.

daveso

thanks   every confusion allows greater learning if pursued.