Question about DAZ Content Management System

Mosk the Scribe

Hi, Had a computer go south for Christmas, so thought this would be a good time to check on the DAZ Content Management system.

Anything I should know before trying a fresh install of everything via the CMS?

Is it working well for Carrara?
Any special steps I need to take to get it working - I'll be using Genesis (but not genesis 2 right now)

I'll be using a Windows 7 Pro 64 bit system which has a small solid state drive (120GB) and I'm about to put in some 1TB drives from other systems.

Since my C: drive is that small solid state one, do I just pick one of my 1TB drives and make a DAZ folder there for everything to get installed into?

Does it help to separate the Content from the Programs as I think it's supposed to in some of the Adobe Products like Premiere and maybe After Effects?

Thanks for any suggestions.

fixmypcmike

You're actually talking about DAZ Install Manager, not CMS. It seems to be working fine for Carrara and Bryce content now.

After you install DIM, before downloading anything, go to the Settings (gear icon in the upper right). You'll want to set 3 things to install on a 1TB drive:
-- On the Downloads tab set the downloads folder.
-- On the Installation tab set the locations for 32-bit and 64-bit programs to be installed (I recommend not using Program Files/Program Files (x86)).
-- On the Installation tab add one or more content install locations, and make sure to set "Current" to the new location.

I use different locations for software and content, but as long as you aren't using locations that Windows protects that isn't mandatory.

Mosk the Scribe

Thank FixMyPCMike.

Will probably try the installation tomorrow with your notes on hand.

(any yeah - meant download / installation manager; had CMS on the mind since I've been doing web work with Drupal CMS recently)

Mosk the Scribe

If I want to use DIM on a computer that already has DAZ content, but I just want to start fresh, can I just delete the entire directories containing the content, or do you really have to go through every Uninstaller, one by one, for DIM to work properly afterward?

Can you just delete all the old and make sure to install in a directory with a different name?

And is the process to Download the latest DAZ Studio first, and then use the Install Manager after that?

Thanks

Richard Haseltine

If there's nothing in the existing folder you want or need (remember that DS saved scenes using Poser content or imported OBJ files will have saved stuff there - DS4.5 can recover if that's missing, but not older versions, and even 4.5 won't be able to recover things like morphs created with Morph Loader or the GoZ/Hexagon bridges) then yes, you can simply clear it in one fell swoop.

Mosk the Scribe

Mike and Richard -

Thank you for the help.

I've been going through the installation process for a few painless hours - very nice to have automated installation instead of manually installing a couple of thousand files.

I switched My Documents to D: instead of C: by a method described on Tom's Hardware - and all that is working fine.

Inside My Documents I created a My DAZ 3D Library and a DAZ 3D folder.

Looking at it now, I have 2 DAZ 3D folders -

once DAZ 3D folder has InstallManager (has Downloads>which includes lots of compressed content files and DSX files) , DazTmp (which is empty), and Carrara 8.5 (with My Artwork, My Clips, My Constraints, My Effects, My Modifiers, My Objects, and My Shaders sub directories, in it; all of which have infos and infoFR files in them)

the other DAZ 3D just has InstallManager, which has ManifestFiles>with only DSX files) ; InvalidProducts; Settings ; plus an InstallList, log, and Hlog

Is this a problem? (having two directories named DAZ 3D in the same My Documents folder?
Is this supposed to happen?

The install manager has lost its connection a few times, but restarting it seemed to work fine; has downloaded and installed close to a thousand files.

Should I just let it continue till everything's done then open DAZ - or does the double DAZ 3D mean something has gone wrong?

Thanks

fixmypcmike

Is one of the DAZ 3D folders on C: and one on D:. or is one Public and one under your username? The downloads folder location is configurable but the ManifestFiles is not.

Mosk the Scribe

It (or they) are on the D drive.

If I just navigate to D:/Users/Robert/MyDocuments, however - there is only one DAZ 3D listed (the one that includes Carrara 8.5, DazTmp, and Install Manager)

It's only if I use the quicklink under Libraries>My Documents that the two DAZ 3D's show up -

so I'm hoping this is just some kind of artifact based on how Windows 7 keeps track of directories and shortcuts

fixmypcmike

Yes, if you click on the link that says "2 locations" you'll see that one is under your username and the other is under Public, that's fine.

Mosk the Scribe

That's reassuring. By morning should have everything reinstalled - then get to open DAZ Studio and see if it really worked.

I'd checked Carrara after installing native content but didn't see any of the content showing up. Not sure if I need to map the DAZ content first or if I have some pathway wrong. Will check that in the morning too.

Thanks for the help.

Milo

Mosk the Scribe said:

That's reassuring. By morning should have everything reinstalled - then get to open DAZ Studio and see if it really worked.

I'd checked Carrara after installing native content but didn't see any of the content showing up. Not sure if I need to map the DAZ content first or if I have some pathway wrong. Will check that in the morning too.

Thanks for the help.

The default browser setup for the native content is pointed to specific folders. You would either have to add those specifically to the browser or do something like this http://carraracafe.com/organizing-your-browser/ Organizing your browser. It allows you to not have to micro manage your browser and also explains what is going on with the folders in your carrara directly.

Mosk the Scribe

Thanks Milo. I'll check out that link.