Issues with DIM and Studio on Macs and network drive.
sinclair™
Posts: 4
Been forever since I used Studio (Version 2.3 was the last one.) due to life happening. Things are calming down, and I got some figures on sale, so I wanted to play around again. Being I have replaced the computer I used to use I get to start from scratch again. I liked seeing that I could use DIM to get Studio and all my content, so I read up on it. I have a 2010 Mac Pro running OS X 10.8 and a 2008 MacBook running OS X 10.6. Both have a 240 GB SSD in them, so space is limited. The Mac Pro does have an additional 2 TB hard drive in it. I also have an older AirPort Extreme (The Mac Mini shaped one.) that I have a 2TB USB hard drive plugged into and shared. My thought was to install Studio with DIM on both Macs, but use DIM on the Mac Pro to install all library content on the network drive. This was because of how large the library would be and then I could use it on both Macs.
I installed Studio on both computers, configuring them and DIM to use a folder on the network drive for Library items. I did notice that when I clicked on the download button in DIM that it seemed to lock up (Got spinning beach ball and the OS marked it as unresponsive.) but if I let it sit it would show installed. During that whole time it showed 0% downloaded. This happened on both Macs, click download, it would seem to lock up, but 20 min later it showed installed. Okay, both Studio installs launched and took the serial numbers. So far so good I guess. So I use DIM on the Mac Pro to install some content. Selected the items then clicked start query, and again it seems to lock up, doing nothing. I come back 30 min later and it shows all installed. In Studio on the Mac Pro I see the content and using the smart content tab try to add a figure with outfit. I get errors saying it couldn't find the base Genesis figure. On the MacBook there is nothing in the Smart content tab, but they are listed in the other library tab. So I go back to the Mac Pro and hunt for Genesis in DIM and try adding it. It again locks up, I come back in 30 min and still locked up. I Force quit as I had to go somewhere and don't like leaving the computer on while away.
When I get back I fire DIM back up and it locks up. I come back 10 min later and it's there waiting. I find a resume button for Genesis and click it, but it immediately fails. I open the downloads folder and delete the downloaded part file and restart DIM. Now it lets me start the download over and I leave it for a hour when I noticed that a utility program I use was saying the download rate was about 650 B/sec and transmit rate was 17 kB/sec. When I come back, it had downloaded it but the install failed. If I click the install button it immediately fails again. I hunt down the log file and open it and see that it couldn't set permissions on the jsod, nor create folders for the content. I double check and the network drive is still mounted, so I check the settings in DIM for where to install to. The drive is listed, but I open the dialog box again and reselect the network drive. This time it added a -1 to the end of the name of the network drive, but the install worked this time. I open Studio and now all the smart content I installed first can't be found while the new content is listed, but when I click to load the new items, it still says can't find the base Genesis figure. But in the other library tab it is there, and I can find it on the network drive.
So, what is going on here?
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Comments
Hello,
there are a bunch of issues you need to be aware of when having the content on a network volume.
(1) Every time a network device unmount and then is reconnected, a new entry /Volumes is created. If the volume is /Disk, it will appear as /Disk_1 etc. That will break DAZ Studio and DIM.
(2) I would also put the Downloads directory from DIM on the remote disk, to save disk space. You configure that in DIM "under the cog".
(3) What mount protocol are you using for the network volume? SMB (Samba) or AFP or something else. SMB is notorious for loosing connections, at least what I have experienced.
When you install DIM you will get the CMS installed, and if the volume changes names (see (1)) the CMS link to the content will break.
I hope this helps. I have three machines with a Content library on each but a common place for DIM to download to.
1) Sigh, this reminds me of issues with Windows I thought were overcome with OS X. This alone just about kills it for me in using this, unless symbolic links fixes this. I can't really believe it's still an issue in 2015. But it is what it is.
2) Did that as soon as I noticed that there was an option to keep/delete downloads.
3) Whichever method is native to OS X. I mount it by clicking on the icon on the Finder side bar. DIM is the only program I have ever encountered that has issues with the network drive where I have to re add it to the locations setting even though I can still get to it just fine from the Finder, even having a Finder window open to the library folder I'm trying to get DIM to install too.
One of the reasons I fell out of use was because content management was such a pain. Still don't understand why everything has to be in so many folders. I had put a lot of time into simplifying my library and editing pointers. Smart content looked as a promising solution. Guess I'll have to play with it some more and see if I get fed up again, or figure out how to get it to do as I want to make using it easy and enjoyable.
Thanks for the info.
It depends on the network drive and how it shares. many NAS:es shares via Windows smb (Samba) and that is a pain on OSX. AFP (Apple Fileshare Protocol) is better but still some NAS:es do tend to "drop connections".
Well, it isn't a NAS per say, it's a AirPort shared drive using the AirPort Extreme base station's USB port. But the NAS info is good to know as I was thinking of getting one to move my massive iTunes library to as that is what is filling up most of my 2 TB drive in my Mac Pro, which was another reason on wanting to use the network drive for the Studio library.
Are you accessing via wireless or wire?
The drive in question is connected to my Apple AirPort router via USB. My Mac Pro and MacBook are connected to the router via Wi-Fi.
There you have it. No sharing protocol in the world will survive at any length in wireless.
What if I installed DIM and Studio on the drive. Would that solve the remounting issues as they are now on the same drive, thus using relative directory callouts instead of absolute?
There you have it. No sharing protocol in the world will survive at any length in wireless.
Something I do is to manually assign things like printers and network drives a static IP address, as opposed to letting the router do it dynamically. I set up the router to limit the number of dynamic addresses it can use and put the manual assignments outside that range. It doesn't matter if those devices are connected to the router wirelessly or wired. Most every router I've seen when it is dynamically assigning addresses doesn't separate the wired or wireless ones, that way, unless you specifically set it up to...and even then, it's usually broken into two pools of dynamic addresses.
That way, those devices are always going to be in the same location.
I run a Linux system, the other computers in the house are Windows and there are several mobile devices, along with the occasional Mac or iPad thrown in.
Think of the dynamically assigned address pool as a momma cat and the devices as kittens...you now have an idea of how the machines act and why even a fraction of a second 'drop' can result in a lost connection. Whereas, if the address is static, the 'receiving' machine may just think the connection is slow, because the address is still the same...timeouts don't matter when the address changes.
That keeps the shared devices from bouncing around and, at least to me, improves the overall network stability.
The other thing I do is to manually assign 'critical' machines, like my computer, a static address, too. Since manually assigning my machine, my connection to the network is very stable, even though it is wireless.
Both those suggestions are OS 'irrelevant'. Of course, being a 1/4 mile away from any potential neighbor's wireless bleed over interference does help a lot, too.
No, remounting is an issue of a remote connection over an unstable connection.