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Well, last night I ran an experiment.
I copied my entire CMS data folder to another location.
I wiped out the database entirely.
I loaded up Studio 4.5 to see how it works with no cms data at all.
What was expected and found:
-Nothing in the Smart Content Folder
-Nothing in the Shapes folder but shapes accessible from Parameters as are morphs on selected items
-No special coloring in the Content Folder (top section)
-Didn't check absolutely everything (don't expect to find anything by Product anyway)
What surprised me:
Nothing at all in the Lights folder nor Cameras. Nada. Zip. (obviously doesn't get its data from the Lights and Light Presets nor Cameras folders)
And everything was much FASTER. Especially the Content pane.
I still would like to have metadata for Genesis and DS4.5 stuff but not for much if anything else. so the DIM automatically inserting the metadata directly into the DB on install is a bummer. I'd like the auto insertion of metadata to be an option and perhaps DAZ will add it and I can wait for it.
CJones posted on the previous page that you can get around the metadata insertion by stopping the CMS, running DIM, and the starting the CMS (there are stop and start shortcuts in Start>DAZ 3D|>Content Management Service on Windows, I think they are a bit harder to find on the Mac).
I for one am very excited about this as my runtime fell into disarray a long time ago. I found out about this literally just as I was about to reset 2000 products manually before downloading and installing them, which would have taken me months. I gave up long ago on organising my content, I just can't keep up, let alone catch up. I can find stuff with finder2 and flicking through a database of product pages to see what I have & everything else will be handled for me. So maybe I'll get to do some playing this year. :-P
How will we know if Norton eats a download file for being "too new". I single thread my downloads so I can check each one made it or not. A batch process I would never know what Norton likes or dislikes.
Back to categorization questions: No. 1 Will the new DIM work like the old download/installation system where you open D|S after installation is complete and the new items are highlighted in blue and thus letting you identify what needs to be categorized? Or will the DIM somehow be involved in the categorization process?
No. 2 What happens if we leave the existing content in its current folders (e.g. Content (for Gen4) and My Library (for Gen5) but install any new content to the new Public path - can we continue categorizing the new content according to the existing categorization structure?
Finder II works with DS 4.5?
Dana
Finder II works with DS 4.5?
Dana
I have no idea, as I said, I'm waaay behind things atm
Just got it and I have only one comment: ooh ooh ooh :D
I have a question - if I want to try out the Install Manager, and install some stuff into a new folder as recommender. What will happen if I install (into this new location, using the Manager) some item/s that I have already also installed in my old content folder? Wouldn´t they somewhat clash with each other? Wouldn´t there be a problem with metadata, double entries etc?
I have no idea, as I said, I'm waaay behind things atm
Well, you said you're excited about the DIM...as far as I know it's for DS 4.5, not earlier. I could be wrong. Anyway, that's why I asked.
Dana
It looks to sort content for various Poser versions, DS versions back to at least 2... so nothing I see limits it to 4.5
You don't even have to have DAZ Studio to use it.
Greetings,
Yeah... I'm automatically downloading/installing 1450+ pieces of content, and doing some deep magic with it (multi-machine synchronization).
It installs CRAZY fast, and the thing a lot of folks don't realize is that the installers add about 12MB to the sizes. So, let's say you want to download and install 100 pose products (usually very small, around 150K). With the installers, that would be ~1.2G to download. With the DIM, it only needs to download 15M and it's done. And then the install, which is CRAZY fast...
Sure, there are some exceptions like 'Tank Tops and Undershirts Collection' which are 500+MB...you can't speed that up (although the install is still 'blink and you miss it' fast) but for everything I've run into it's much faster to use DIM than to download it straight.
I'm having fun with it, so far.
-- Morgan
Not much harder. With DS 4.5, they're in /Applications/DAZ 3D/DAZStudio4 64-bit/service/ (a subfolder of the same folder that holds the program).
Yeah, agreed, the speed here is really just incredible.
Also big yes on the smaller sizes for the zips vs. the installers! The installers (especially for Mac, but for Windows too) padded previous downloads significantly. Storing these zips as backup vs. the old installers is going to give me a big chunk of my HD back.
One thing is missing: the option to remember your account password! Please add that :)
OK please forgive me if this question has already been answered, but there are too many pages to read to discover for myself.
I recently purchased a new computer and have downloaded a large amount of my content to my "downloads" folder. As of yet, I have not installed any of it. Does the DIM have the ability to cross-reference those files in the folder with my order history and install them from the folder without re-downloading them?
That would certainly be more intuitive and helpful to me.
Greetings,
Unfortunately I am fairly confident the answer is no; it uses a different download format (essentially 'raw' zip files of the content) than the packaged-installer format which has been the standard on the DAZ site for so long.
That said, it has a queueing system built in, so you could fire and forget overnight. :)
-- Morgan
Unfortunately I am fairly confident the answer is no; it uses a different download format (essentially 'raw' zip files of the content) than the packaged-installer format which has been the standard on the DAZ site for so long.
That said, it has a queueing system built in, so you could fire and forget overnight. :)
-- Morgan
Perhaps I should have made it clear that I am using a Windows PC and not a Mac. Most of my downloadable product is in .exe form and not yet converted to .zip format. But thanks for taking the time to answer. :cheese:
I just downloaded some files as a test. 7 files were downloaded in about 20 minutes. Not sure if I would call this incredible or crazy speed, I have been getting similar or better results in the past with just downloading from the store. It downloads in a queue, but only 2 items at the same time. (Whereas when downloading directly from DAZ website, I could download much more files at the same time.) I estimate that with this speed I would need about 4 (full) days just to download my whole Itemized Order History (if my old PC survived such an ordeal).
But it is nice that I can just select the files, hit the Start Queue button and the program does everything else. I imagine installing the items will be just as easy. Getting rid of those bothersome installers is definitely a plus.
Oh and I only have a 10 gigabyte broadband allowance for downloading, so the option of "overnight" is not in the realm of possibility for me.
The new Install Manager only uses ZIP files (even in PC). It will not handle your EXE installers. To use Install Manager, you would have to download all your files again in ZIP format, through Install Manager.
You must have really slow internet then. I'm on my wireless laptop and just downloaded and install 38 in 4 minutes
My internet speed is about 10500 kbit/s, without any download limits. How much is yours? But I am in Europe, maybe that matters?
Well, remember that part of the point is that you don't have to do the unzipping. How much of a time suck it is will depend on how interventionist you are - if you leave content where it falls, either because you access it through Smart Content and/or Categories and Products then it's pretty much a case of figuring ut what your bandwidth will take and letting it run, but if you prefer to categorise on disc then it is potentially a lot of work and therefore may be less attractive.
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To those who are tempted by the icea of hand-editing the XML etc. files: I tried hand-editing some of the dsx files to reflect my reorganisation of content and had endless trouble with the CMS. Since deleting the Support folders to make sure there were no custom files and resetting the database it has been behaving (but with far fewer entries, of course) so be very, very qu...careful.
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Yes, we can move files in the Content Library but it has had problems with companion files, and won't allow placing files in the wrong type of folder (DS in Poser or vice versa) for loading via companion file (of course we can use the Create Poser Companion Files with .duf content) so it's not ideal - better file management tools in DS would be nice.
My biggest issue is the fact that you have to uninstall all of the things and then really monitor where stuff is putting it. I never had an issue with the installers because, if I didn't like where they placed a file, I could just move it. Now I can't.
How about Daz Studio itself? Will the DIM install that, or should I use the .exe file I've already downloaded? And is DIM for other Daz products such as Bryce?
All right. I watched the "Have something that works?" video... which I found patronizing and condescending, by the way, since I'd think most users who have been at this a while know how to map their directories. (or maybe I'm just spoiled, since I've been playing with computers since Mainframes were the only option. Okay, I was 5 and my dad couldn't get a sitter on short notice and it was a dummy account, but still.) I downloaded and installed the DIM (after spending a few seconds grumbling about not being given a choice where to install it. I have a drive specifically for all of my graphics related stuff, and C isn't it.) Signed in, connected to my account and...
Ho-ly crap.
I knew I had a lot of stuff, but...
4363 downloads. Pulling Poser files only drops it to 3680
Is it any wonder I'm so resistant to the idea of rebuilding my runtimes? Even working with the content manager, that's days of work getting it all organized into categories that work for me, not to mention clean up for things that don't install "right" (by my definition of "right").
I hear you
I just downloaded all 3711 products from my account which breaks down to 12,396 files using Taozens downloader took about 4 days
Not looking forward to the re-install and sort process
Same here (C drive is only for O/S and Office) I don't even like fact Windows uses .../Users/XXXXX/ appData as that gets huge very quickly - I simply hate being told where to put things and I'd like to think that after 15 years I have a reasonably well organized system for categorizing my 3D related purchases.
So not for me but good luck to anyone who finds it useful