Fresh install questions - DIM vs Daz Connect best practices
FrankTheTank
Posts: 1,131
I've been away from Daz for awhile and just did a fresh install of Daz Studio 4.21.05. I used DIM to install the basics (I think like 14 DIM files that were selected by default). I'm only going to use Genesis 8 stuff btw.
Then I logged into Daz Studio, and I started browsing the smart content pane and installing just the stuff I want to use from there. In the past I've always used only DIM. This is the first time I've used Daz Connect to install. But I've been away from Daz too long, and the visual browser and install via the Smart Conten/Daz Connect pane in Daz Studio made it relatively painless to find what I wanted to install.
I'm just worried this will set me up for problems in the future. Is Daz Connect stable now? I remember in the past people complaining that there were problems using this method, and it seemed the general consensus was to stick to DIM install only. But I have no way to figure out what I want to install from the 1000s of things I own that way. If DIM had thumbnails at least that would be ideal.
I guess my biggest conern, is that during the intsall process of a few hundred items via Daz Connect, I lost internet connection at some point. And When I logged back in, it didn't remember what I had selected to install. I had to go back and reselect everything that I wanted to install. This seemed stange as I was logged in before, so it should have a record of what I had selected to download and install. Is this a feature that will be included in the future at least?
Also, is there anyway to save a list of everything I install via Daz Connect, in case I want to install the same set of items from a second computer? So that I can have identical installations on both a desktop and laptop for example?
In any case, what are the best practices that people are currently using to install their Daz content?
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Comments
You should indeed stick with DIM, and only that. Because otherwise you're wasting massive amounts of storage space.
Daz Connect is using its own library location to store its assets in, after which the assets can also end up in your smart contents pane. Yah, you may see this already when you have 2 copies of the same character or asset.
This is actually already showing within Daz Studio: the moment you check the "Products" tab in the smart contents pane you're probably seeing most of your products within the "Installed" tab (see the bottom section?). So while you can install these again using Daz Connect it won't be of much use because these products are already installed on your system. Ergo: all you're doing is adding a 2nd copy in another library location.
Right click on the "Content library" pane, then select the "Content directory manager". If you don't have the content library pane displayed (IMO you should!) then you can also use this: Press F2, open the 'Content' tab and then click "Content directory manager" at the bottom.
The following screen shows you all your content library locations, and you'll see mention of Daz Connect and your regular ones (both DS & Poser format locations). You can also verify that these locations are not the same, ergo... it's useless to re-install your items.
If you install content in both ways (DIM and DS/Connect) it can/will cause duplicate files and also will waste space. If both are installed then the DS/Connect files will always be used rather than the DIM files, so if one is missing or corrupt the content will not load. If you decide to only use DIM you should uninstall everything you installed through DS and reinstall it with DIM. Once you remove the stuff that was installed with DS/Connect then never log in to it again. Go to your preferences to disable the options for it.
I don't think the OP did install products using both methods, so that is not an issue here.
Scripts are often not written in a way that will allow them to be run from a Connect install 9and for things like UltraScenery that need to scan for multiple potential products to show as targets for scattering the scripting cal that is meant to return all the content directories with a particular file path does seem to be broken, by my understandign of how it should work). However, using Connect does mean that all of a products files will be in a subfolder separate from other products, which can be handy (though you can use the installed files list from DIM to navigate to the folder with a product's files if you install that way). It's also nice that an update installed through connect need download only the changed files, not the whole zip. Regardless of how you install in general, if you load a scene or preset that requires a product you do not have installed (and which the CMS knows you own, from DS having connected to your account post-purchase) then DS will offer to fetch it for you, which can be a boon.
Using Smart Content or not has no connection whatsoever to the install method used, as long as the emtadata has been imported (which is automatic with DIM and Connect).
I use DIM and Connect together. There are some things that will only load with DIM like the Beta for example.
I make sure any 'Connect items' are unticked in the DIM filter list so they don't show up in DIM.
ok, thanks for all the advice from everyone. I wasn't aware that thumbnails were possible in DIM now, thanks @barbult for pointing that out. (I see now I have to select and retreive thumbnails manually, not a big deal). I think I will do as suggested, start over and just install all content via DIM. That is always the way I've always been most comfortable with, especially since I also have used DIM for my other stuff from 3rd party sites.
You can select your whole product list and download all thumbnails at once. It might take a little while, but it is sure easier than selecting each product one by one. You can also specify a thumbnail size (within limits) in the DIM settings, so be sure to configure that to your preferred size first.
How do I disable Daz Connect? I've reinstalled everything from scratch, and just for the heck of it, I double clicked on an item in the smart content pane, even though I was not logged in, and it automatically logged me and and installed via Daz Connect. There doesn't seem to be any way to disable it from auto logging me in.
You can disable auto login in Daz Studio preferences (F2 is the shortcut to preferences).
Thanks! I looked in prefs but missed that somehow. I'm up and running again now.
btw, one last question. I have 2 daz accounts, under 2 different email accounts. Is it ok to use DIM with 2 accounts at once? Will it cause problems? Just wondering if it causes corruption or anything in the database to alternately login to DIM with one or the other depending on what I need to install. Ideally I would have Daz merge my accounts if possible, but I'm not sure if they do that sort of thing. I'm fine with using both, I have 90% of my assets in one, and 10% in the other.