DIM, Runtimes, Carrara
Dartanbeck
Posts: 21,623
Being brand new to the SSD game, and excited to have a brand new computer built to Carrara on, I (without thinking it through) went ahead and installed my entire Daz3d product library onto my C drive - my new SSD. Just having this new motherboard with the SSD installed directly to the motherboard as it is, I get boosted speed on my legacy SATA drives. I did not realize how fast 6GB/second was until now. Anyway, it turns out that my content library takes up an awful lot of valuable SSD space.
It was actually weeks ago that I realized my mistake, but it took quite a bit of time to install everything even though DIM is so fast at it. But I wanted to go ahead and make the change before I get too far - cause even bigger headaches down the road. For example, what if ALL of my Car saves required me to locate where my files are for everything I made prior to the move? Right now might not be so bad to make all new saves of everything... but Argh... it would still take a lot of time... I didn't want it to get worse.
So to begin with, I noticed that Windows 10 lets me access my previous C drive (now G) as if it was just another folder. If I remember correctly, I think it asked for the Admin password the first time I tried it, which I still remembered. I still have my content libraries as I had them installed before. So I just made sure that I had the names of each runtime matching what I have now (they weren't all the same, so I changed them accordingly) an copied (not moved) my current C drive libraries over the top of the previous ones, ignoring duplicate files. I just wanted to make sure I have Everything I have now onto my G drive.
With my C drive content still intact, a test as to whether I could open my Car files wouldn't prove useful, so I opened DIM, selected everything and then deselected all software and plugins and started the uninstall queue. What a scary endeavor!
As my files diminished in DIM I opened Carrara and removed all of my content folders from the Content tab, and added the G drive My Daz and my many Runtime folders.
Making sure that Demonecornuto was no longer present on my C drive (being a creature I just saved to my Browser), I loaded the Car file and, it loaded like a champ! I even double checked the shaders to see if the maps were indeed pointing to the G drive, and they are!!! So Cool!
So now all of my Car files should open just fine, just that DIM will show that I have very few things installed. I love DIM for how efficient it is for helping me manage and maintain (tweak) my content collections and how much time it saves me installing/uninstalling stuff. With Carrara pointing me to everything I currently have installed, I'm good to go and I can then take my time and reinstall all of my content again at my leisure in order to get everything back into Postgre and my DIM Manifest files. I suppose I could have just hacked my manifest files and replaced C with G, but DIM will be much less of a headache for me, I think.
I'm So grateful that this all worked out so smoothly. It easily could have been otherwise. Just wanted to report so that others who might be thinking along these same lines can feel confident in performing such a nerve-wracking operation.
Be mindful, however, that for Carrara to auto-recognize where files are located, the new location's library folders must match any words trying to say that - I hope you understand! LOL
Also, we must add the new content/runtime folders to our browser.
Example:
- A Carrara file uses a V4 figure and the texture maps came from a runtime called "X"
- We decide to move the content libraries to a different drive
- In the process we rename "X" to "V4"
- When we try to load the Carrara file, it will ask you to locate the location of at least one of the texture maps every time it's loaded unless it gets saved again after locating
If, on the other hand, we moved the content to a different drive but kept "X" named "X" and load the new "X" into the Content tab, Carrara will load the file without interruption.
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Comments
Thanks for this. I had my E drive crash (the one that is only 3.5 years old) which had all my Carrara and other 3D stuff on it. This will be my 3rd time since having content that I have had to do this. I will get my machine back with a Boot Drive C: 1TB M.2 NVME SSD Loaded with windows 10 and Data Drive E: 2TB SSD. I hoping to get Windows 7 cloned to C: so I can continue to use my Adobe CS3 stuff and PS.
The last time I did this, I did not segragate DS content for DAZ from other source items... so when I do it again, I am going to follow advice of others here and make separate directories for stuff I get elsewhere. AND again, my Carrara browser content will be on the external drive. But I do worry about that drive overheating and packing up. SO...I might buy a backup for it.
Problem is... if I follow what you say, the texture or character files the Carrara files point to will be in a 'different' physical space/place... but maybe not. E: is E: right? As long as I use the same sub-directory system destination as last time? Or is it once the 'chain' is broken, it does not matter if it is exactly the same file-path-name, it will ask where TF are your items??
Last November i bit the bullet so to speak and started rebuiding content/runtime folders from scratch.
i still have my original cp downloads, kept cuz they charged for storage. All my rdna, ros'ty
and manually re d/lded most of my daz content.
only reinstalling stuff i plan to render soon. (production soon)
the biggest push to save everything in the soon category as .car ready.
i wanted to put all the native carrara content in a folder named native for the browser tray.
did my best to modify the wizard.txt file with the new paths, didn't work tho , doh
unfortunately, it made the 'wizards' on start up and shader wizard, not find the terrains or shaders
That's usefule to know your experience. I also plan only to load up what I will use for DS/Poser and other generic obj type content, no matter where it came from. I have a huge file on my external called INSTALLED and it takes up so much space on there, even as zips! So I will move those zips over to an old 500GB drive I don't use now as I have a bigger one. That will give more room on the main external drive for my Carrara stuff.
I don't use much of the native Carrara content, except for basic stuff. I just keep them in a NOT INSTALLED CARRARA folder. So they are there if I want something. I don't use much contemprary content, so they just Cotake up room.
Someone posted a really useful Content directory structure quite a while back. Stezza? Diomede? Dart? I recall that aside from the standard DS and Poser Runtimes, they made Runtimes for other stuff, eg ShareCG, Monstrosity, etc. I cannot recall if they were also adding these runtimes to their DS software directories as well. Is that useful?
One thing on my list of must learns is to rig clothing created as objects. A huge project for me to learn and wonder if you have done this for your G3 and G8 figures used in Carrara?
Eyes still bad... have to type in large font and then copy and paste here. Ugh.
felt it was worth it to buy a dedicated usb3 hd for all the zips.
need em even more with all the avi files i generating.
was just thinking i should make temp content folders.
everything needs carrara shaders anyhoos.
and i'm afraid to use any outfits or characters as is, no idea if the thing was plagiarized from a game
i can recognize some of the warcarft stuff. i soo scared of putting as is stuff on a book cover.
Single hard drives will fail what you need is a NAS. You can buy prebuilt ones or you can build your own.
This is why I now have it on a computer set up as Network Attached Storage (NAS)
I have used an old computer added more hard drives for storage.
https://www.freenas.org/get-help/
It actually is not that hard to do.
Just take an old computer like your old machine boost the number of hard drives installed .I have 5, I also installed 2 128 Gb SSD's for the OS which only uses 8 GB (they say you can use USB Stick instead).
I coppied the image to USB Stick and booted the machine from the usb stick and followed the direction ensuring I selected the 2 drives I have for Boot drives to install the OS to. By having 2 OS drives if 1 dies I just replace it and designate the replacement as a boot drive and it will mirror one to the other.
After installation I just followed the documentation and watched thier videos about how to set it up. They also have videos on how to install everything.
I created CIFS share which is what Windows uses and called it Windows_Share.
On my computer I mapped a network drive and mapped it to \\IP of server\Windows_Share.
Copied all my daz content folder to newly mapped drive
Pointed DIM to the new location.
Started Carrara and pointed all of its folders to the new location, basically just changing the drive letter from D (secondary HDD) to Z: (my Network Drive).
Exited Carrara and started DIM uninstalled 1 product and re installed it.
Started Carrara and created a new scene with an item from my library. I also tried a previously saved file no problem.
And due to the way it is built if any HDD has a problem you can replace it and not have any issues, it will be rebuilt to match with out losing any data.
USB HD... yep, that's a better idea, thanks!
Do you mean using DS content on book covers? I do. It was why I got into DS then Carrara!
Silene
https://blog.daz3d.com/how-to-make-money-with-daz-studio-get-paid-to-make-art/
There are tons of new outlets for 3D artwork that offer pay, but it will ultimately be up to youto figure out how to make money off of your artwork. Some popular avenues include:
Professionals have been using Daz Studio to create book and e-book covers for quite some time. With Genesis 8 and continued developments in the 3D art-sphere, your renders look more realistic and stunning than ever, and will look more attractive to anybody shopping for a book cover.
Did my early book covers with Bryce 4 and Poser LOL
2nd editions will be all carrara renders.
just need to get rid of the haze.
think i have to use all lightbulbs to get rid of all trace of haze
The important part is that the folders (and runtime folders) added to the Carrara Content tab have the exact same name as they were when the Car file was saved. Even if the drive letter is different, as long as Carrara has the correct runtime name, it will find that stuff without asking.
Possible exception - if you have two runtimes in Carrara Content tab with the same name, it might ask you to locate the map files.
I changed mine from C: to G:, but since I removed the runtimes from the Content tab that linked to C, and then added them of the exact same name from G, I have had no issues
I have a separate runtime for my main Rendo purchases called Rendo. I just drag the install files into it.
In your case of having a giant folder full of stuff (I had this at one point too), sometimes it actually pays to divide stuff up into separate categories - separate "Runtimes" to make it easier to find things when you need it. I've adopted this strategy early on and it just works. I know where all my stuff is. Well, texture map folders can often be under an unexpected/unknown name to me, so I love DIM for that - or just keeping my Rendo/ShareCG zips categorized in a backup folder so I can open the zip to view the structure, so I know where the textures are.
But in the case of now making new runtimes, saved Car files will ask you to locate the textures/obs, etc., Sometimes it's worth going through that just to move forward with an easier, more organized system.
Here are a couple of articles I've written long ago:
Your Carrara Browser
Making great stuff isn't as cool if you can't remember where you put it. Let's get some good habits going right from the start
Daz Install Manager - Installing Custom Poser Runtimes
Basic walkthrough of designing your own custom runtime structure
Caveat - In doing all of this, I've discovered that DIM doesn't allows us to change the location of "Recommended Install" - other words: "My Daz3d Library"
So I'm keeping that one on the C drive so that all of my DUF content stays with the recommended location. It's still a savings of well over 150GB off of my SSD.
Dart...I had the DAZ 3D Library on my E: Drive and will probably do that again.... I still think 2TB is better than 1TB
Chickenman.... I don't have a spare machine.... I used to, but that was a couple of years ago. I have only the beast I had built by PC Specialist which has broken down a couple of times, but it's still a good machine. I had issues with my graphics card Quadro Ki2200 and now the E: drive got a disc error. So they are being sorted. I am using an old laptop right now. Your solution requires brain cells I do not have in working order! I think I will stick with the USB solution.
Hope I get my machine back next week... I have work to try to do before next month.
You mean the Genesis and native Daz Studio stuff? Were you able to change the default in DIM, or did you just make a new one and install to that instead? Hmmm... that's actually easy enough to do I suppose!
yes you can
just delete the recomended setting and add your new location
yes you can easily change the paths in DIM
I even reused my downloaded Zips on my external to my Win7 to populate the drive on my new Win10 computer just copied the manifest files over from the old one, showed as downloaded but not installed and it installed them all, then changed the download path and set to delete on installation as I did not need two sets of archives, put that drive back on my old PC and archive them there on downloading new.
Yes, I had my own folder names, too in DIM. I don't have it available to me now as the machine is in the shop and I didn't make a copy of that main folder, but if I open DIM I will see the paths hopefully when I get my machine back. DIM was on C: .... whew!
Paths were as below I think. I forget the exact name for the DS programme, but took a guess. I have 4.8 and then 4.10 running side by side. (Long story, had to do with GoZ in 4.8 which went missing, so had to get 4.10 just to have that.) Keeping 4.8 was needed to sort out my post-gre problems that caused directories to go missing.
E: 3D/DAZ/DAZ3D/DS 4.8 E: 3D/DAZ/DAZ3D/DS 4.10 E: 3D/DAZ/DAZ Library E: 3D/DAZ/DAZ3D/DS 4.8/Carrara 8.5
So I will keep my paths and once I see them in DIM, I will set up E: drive to be the same. E: 3D is the main folder for all 3D programmes and has Pixologic Zbrush, Poser, and some others. Some I got free and never used, but have the install files saved if I want to use them again. I am going to set up directories for other sources that I use in Carrara to keep them separate fromj the DIM installed stuff instead of blending runtime files. That was a mistake. It means I cannot just blatantly copy all the folders over, which will be time consuming, but better in the end.
I also will be sure to keep my custom created texture and character files on my external drive with their projects. Even if I use a character/maps more that once, the files will be duplicated. It's rare to have them exactly the same anyways. I am always tweaking. Where I have done that I do not have the problem of missing maps. An unfortunate thing I did was to save improved or custom textures of DS/Poser content right in their native folders in the Library. I don't think I will do that again... they will ALL go into the project files on the external drive. I am looking foward to having better Carrara browser files by pointing to the projects. When I am finished working with a project, I can disconnect it from the browser, but it will stay in its project home on the external drive.
Fingers crossed.... will have machine back next week, but still cannot see that well which is annoying, so I might havfe to delay reinstalling. Don't want to bugger things up!
Cool. I'll try that. I know that when I tried to change the default location, it was grayed out in DIM. Perhaps I just need to make my own? Or are you saying that I can actually delete it and still get a new location to read when selecting the "Recommended" Option. I'll dig around again... see what I can figure out. Would be nice to have it all on the same drive (for me)
You can't changed the recommended location, but you never have to use it. It stays set to the one you last used, so it doesn't revert to the recommended location. I have multiple locations, so i keep the "Show Details" box on the "Ready to Install" tab ticked so I can easily see if it's set to the location I want.