Can't Open .DAZ Files After Moving My Content Library
luci45
Posts: 2,753
I have some .DAZ scenes and characters that I am unable to retrieve after I re-installed my library content files with the DIM. The new content library is in the location recommended by the DIM(C:\Users\Public\Documents\My DAZ 3D Library). The old content file library was here: C:\Users\Lucinda\Documents\DAZ 3D\Studio\My Library. I tried accessing one of the files by recreating the exact path (creating folders, moving the file, and changing "My DAZ 3D Library" to "My library") That didn't help. DS acts as if it is loading it then says the files are missing. They are listed in the Scene window but aren't there.
On another thread someone said to copy or move secret data files from the original location. I found an enormous data folder with my files, labeled "data" (not the "data" file inside the content library) and moved it over. This didn't work either.
Does anyone know a way to open them? I know now that I should have opened them and resaved them as DUF files, as I can open all of them. Duh. :grrr:
Daz 3D is part of 
Connect
DAZ Productions, Inc.
7533 S Center View Ct #4664
West Jordan, UT 84084
Licensing Agreement | Terms of Service | Privacy Policy | EULA
© 2024 Daz Productions Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Comments
When you saved these .DAZ files, you were using the My Library folder to save them in, is that correct?
If so, the geometry information that .DAZ files need, will have been written to the 'data' folder inside My Library, assuming that it was the first named path in DAZ Studio Formats. DAZ Studio creates the data folder inside the first named library in
Edit > Preferences > Content Library > Content Directory Manager.
If you still have the original My Library folder, you just need to add the path to it in the DAZ Studio Formats area in the Content Directory Manager. There is no need to move or rename anything.
Looks like it's been saved directly into the Public Documents folder. Not a good idea, as this means all the pointers in the scene file will all be "exact location on the C: drive" instead of "relative location inside the Content folder". This means any reinstalling that moves the Content folder will break every one of those "exact location" links.
It's been a while since I read that part of the manual, and it really needs rewriting. It only says "Take note of where you are saving your scene so you can find it later." This is highly misleading, as it never mentions that you can save directly into the Content Library tab (which is the easiest way to make sure your scene is saved properly). It also never mentions that you should know where to find your Content folder so you can manually save directly into it. Saving like this means you never need to "take note of" where you put your scene, it's always right there in the Content Library.
I've also just had a look at the Quickstart Guide, and it's worse. It only mentions saving renders into the Render Library, saving your scene is ignored.
I think maybe it's time for another general discussion on improving the manual. It's a lot better than it used to be, but as seen above there are still places where a little bit more detail will save a lot of confusion later.
Looks like it's been saved directly into the Public Documents folder. Not a good idea, as this means all the pointers in the scene file will all be "exact location on the C: drive" instead of "relative location inside the Content folder". This means any reinstalling that moves the Content folder will break every one of those "exact location" links.
It's been a while since I read that part of the manual, and it really needs rewriting. It only says "Take note of where you are saving your scene so you can find it later." This is highly misleading, as it never mentions that you can save directly into the Content Library tab (which is the easiest way to make sure your scene is saved properly). It also never mentions that you should know where to find your Content folder so you can manually save directly into it. Saving like this means you never need to "take note of" where you put your scene, it's always right there in the Content Library.
I've also just had a look at the Quickstart Guide, and it's worse. It only mentions saving renders into the Render Library, saving your scene is ignored.
I think maybe it's time for another general discussion on improving the manual. It's a lot better than it used to be, but as seen above there are still places where a little bit more detail will save a lot of confusion later.
Thank you both for the responses.
The location of the original "My Library" is C:\Users\Lucinda\Documents\DAZ 3D\Studio." This still exists. That big data folder is located there. There is a path to it in the DAZ Studio Formats area in the Content Directory Manager, so it sounds like I shouldn't be having this problem. I can open the DUF files that are located there. The newer “My DAZ 3D Library” where the DIM installs things is located in public documents.
When you open the "D|S Formats" section in the CDM, which one is on top? That's the one D|S choses by default to save /data/ files to. It's a big folder most likely because that's where all your /data/ files were stored before you started using DIM and the new content folder was created.
This is starting to get a bit confusing. How sure are we that D|S still sees all mapped content folders as "one big content folder"? I know that was true in earlier D|S versions, but I've had occasional "can't find file" errors crop up at random in old scenes since I first started using D|S4. I'm fairly sure the problem turned out to be that the scene file and the linked files weren't in the same content folder, although all relative file paths were correct.
What do you do when the .DAZ files contain references to the desktop of the developer's machine? This is an old model that was created in 2009. All of the textures are in the folder but it's impossible to access them due to the reference. How do I go about correcting this?
Rcent versions of DS have not saved any auto adapted or auto covnerted files to the Data folder, anything not saved as an asset is embedded into the file. However, that wasn't true of the older versions that saved .daz files - and those would have gone to the first Data folder (which would have been the one in My Documents/Daz 3D/Studio/Content by default for DS 3 as I recall)
Yes, given a relative path in the saved file (that is, the assets and textures were in a mapped content directory) DS will try adding that relative apth to each curent mapped directory in turn until it gets a match or runs out of directories to check.
By default DS will map both C:/Users/Public/Docuemnts/My Daz 3D Library and C:/Users/YOU/Documents/Daz 3D/Studio/My Library as content directories, so content in those folders will - as long as no extra foldrs have crept in - be found.