DAZ3D Content, 2 PCs, OneDrive

Hey guys. Tomorrow UPS will deliver my new Christmas/Birthday combo present: a new PC with an RTX 3090. laugh I want to be able to use both my old PC and the new one with Studio, so it seems logical that I move my content to a drive I can access with both PCs = OneDrive. In looking for a forum post that addressed this subject, I found a few by people who had problems with it. Was hoping someone who downloads (uploads?) their content to OneDrive and uses it successfully between two PCs would pop in and offer advice on how to avoid issues. THANKS in advance! M

Comments

  • Is your OneDrive big enough?

  • No, I'll have to pay for additional space.

  • One issue with using a shared location is that the database wil be updated for only one of them - though you can reimport metadata for installed content - unless you also share the database (the Content Cluster folder).

  • I use DIM, does that make a difference? tx 

    Richard Haseltine said:

    One issue with using a shared location is that the database wil be updated for only one of them - though you can reimport metadata for installed content - unless you also share the database (the Content Cluster folder).

  • Unless one of the computers will be remote to the other, there's not much reason to use cloud storage.

    For local systems, you simply need to "Share" the content directory between the two systems.

    This is done by enabling the share option for the current content directory, mapping it in 'drives' for the secondary, and mapping it in CDM for daz studio.

     

    To enable "sharing", right click on the particular folder and select 'properties' then then sharing tab.

    You may also need to adjust settings on the 'security' tab as well to allow the second computer to have 'permission' to read and write to the drive.

     

    To map the drive to the second computer, you'll need to remote in to the main computer. Usually just,  \\[Computer name], no brackets,  in explorer will allow this, if 'network discovery' is enabled on the primary computer. And both computers are connected via a router or switch.

    The 'shared' folder should appear and right clicking will allow you to create a 'network' drive.

     

    To map in daz studio, right click on the "content library" tab and select Content directory manager. In the popup either create a new set, or select the "Current direcotories" and click the add option. Then navigate to the shared folder and select it.

    Click accept in the popup and you should now have access to your existing asset library.

     

    Now, i went through all that, because you'll have to do pretty much the same thing with one drive, or any cloud storage solution.

    here's a guide on adding onedrive as a local, network, drive.

    https://www.comtech-networking.com/blog/item/404-how-to-map-onedrive-as-a-network-drive-to-see-all-your-files/

     

     

     

     

     

  • Thanks Drunky. I saw a post with similiar info. I currently have my content on a separate SSD drive because my old PC ran out of space - same size drive on the new one (1TB)...

    DrunkMonkeyProductions said:

    Unless one of the computers will be remote to the other, there's not much reason to use cloud storage.

     

  • I just stumbled across something called an NAS (Network Attached Storage). Still researching, but wondered if anyone has used this to store content that is available for use from different devices? tx

  • bytescapesbytescapes Posts: 1,799
    edited February 2021

    Melissa Conway said:

    I just stumbled across something called an NAS (Network Attached Storage). Still researching, but wondered if anyone has used this to store content that is available for use from different devices? tx

    One thing to bear in mind is that a NAS device may be slower than an attached hard drive, especially if you use it over WiFi.

    I use a small hard drive attached to an Apple Airport Extreme base station, making it technically a NAS device of a sort, and it is slow as hell. I wouldn't want to load scene files or content off it (I use it mostly for moving files back and forth between my PC and my Mac).

    A dedicated NAS device would probably be faster, but you will want to use a wired connection rather than wireless. If your NAS device and your computers are all connected over gigabit Ethernet, you will see better performance than if you connect to it over wifi (assuming your cabling and network setup can support the higher speeds). One article I read said that they were able to get read speeds about 110MB/s from a Synology NAS attached to a network switch, with laptops attached to the same switch. That's actually close to what you'd expect to see from a basic hard drive attached via USB 3.0 (it surprised me to learn this, and I remain slightly skeptical). But you'll need not only a modern NAS device, but also a switch and cables capable of handling gigabit Ethernet.

    If the NAS doesn't deliver the speed you need, you might be able to do some kind of mirroring: content on a master drive (for example on a NAS device) gets replicated to and from fast local drives attached directly to (or internal to) your machines, so that whenever you sit down to work the local drive holds an up-to-date copy of your complete content library. This could get a little fiddly; syncing the content files back and forth should be easy enough, but the files that make up the database used by the DAZ CMS would be another matter.

    In theory, the DAZ CMS is just a PostgreSQL server (albeit a slightly old one), so it might be possible to put up a PostgreSQL server on something like a Raspberry Pi 4 on your local network, and then share that between machines. I haven't tried that to see if it's feasible, but again I worry that you'd take a performance hit doing operations over the network.

    By the way, OneDrive is probably not a good idea because you'd be dealing with moving data over the Internet, which is many times slower than a local network. I assume that OneDrive performs some kind of local caching, but sooner or later you're likely to hit a major slowdown. For example, using DAZ Install Manager with my wifi-connected drive on the Airport Extreme was painful -- the initial start-up scan, when DIM checks to see what's already on the disk, took forever. Doing that on OneDrive is going to be glacial.

     

    Post edited by bytescapes on
  • Thanks, Bytes.

    Okay.

    Appreciate all the advice you guys! I will ruminate upon it all (with steam no doubt shooting out my ears). ;)

  • SevrinSevrin Posts: 6,300

    What would be a good idea with a NAS is to look for one that offers cloud back-up, because things happen.  You can redownload purchased stuff from Daz or Rendo, but your own work is only going to be as safe as where you put it.

  • Good to know, thanks. I think the NAS might be overkill for what I need - I just hadn't ever heard of it before and it sounded like it might be a good solution. I'm going to give DrunkMonkey's suggestion to network sharing a try. It sounds like the simplest option (although I'm sure I'll find a way to make it extremely difficult LOL).

    Sevrin said:

    What would be a good idea with a NAS is to look for one that offers cloud back-up, because things happen.  You can redownload purchased stuff from Daz or Rendo, but your own work is only going to be as safe as where you put it.

  • PaintboxPaintbox Posts: 1,633

    Couldn't you just have an external HDD and plug into whatever computer you're using? You could probably map the drive letters so content is in the same place for both computers.

  • Melissa ConwayMelissa Conway Posts: 590
    edited February 2021

    Currently I have all my DAZ content on an external SSD drive. From what I learned here and elsewhere, it should be possible to do this in File Explorer advanced sharing settings. Wish me luck! I'm still in the throes of setting the new pc up. 

    Paintbox said:

    Couldn't you just have an external HDD and plug into whatever computer you're using? You could probably map the drive letters so content is in the same place for both computers.

    Post edited by Melissa Conway on
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