Help - setting up Daz on a new computer, metadata isn't transferring
RenderingN00bie
Posts: 14
I'm in the process of moving Daz to a new computer. On my older computer, I have created a number of my own categories and groups, and I've also added and/or fixed metadata on a number of products. I'm trying to migrate this information, but I'm running into all kinds of issues.
Here's what I've done:
- exported meta-data from my old machine by going through content database maintenence
- transferred the user data to the new machine
- and re-imported meta data through content database maintenance
And here's what's worked and what hasn't:
- The user-created categories transferred just fine, and files I had placed in those categories are showing up in the user-created categories like I want them to. However, these files (which had been moved out of lost & found) are also appearing in Lost & Found.
- The metadata I've added has transferred inconsistenly. Information I added (using the Edit Metadata function) under "Type" didn't transfer at all, and metadata I added to "Compatability" has transferred in a few products, but not in most
- Weird orphan references are randomly appearing in smart content and my content library on the new computer, and I'm not sure how to remove most of them.
Really, really hoping someone can help!
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Comments
If you haven't installed any content with Connect, or don't mind reinsatalling, it may be best to rest the database and then reimport all of the metadata.
I'm not 100% clear what you're suggesting here. I assume you meant to say "reset the database" rather than "rest," - should I just delete Daz and do a clean install? I haven't instaleled much content yet, so that won't be a big deal. Should I reinstall Daz, import user data from my old machine, and then install products? Is the order in which I import user data and install products important?
Additionally, I'm honestly not sure if I use Daz Connect or not. I download and install via the DIM, and then in the Smart Content pane I right-click and say "install" if it's got the inverted-traingle-within-circle thing. Yet (some) products seem to work without me doing that, so am I maybe doing both the DIM and Daz Connect?
Yes, reset. Uninstalling DS won't touch the database. If you are going to use Connect to install (install within DS) then using DIM first is a waste of effort - the files are just duplicates that DS won't use. If you still have the old machine and haven't done much on the new then one option would simply be to copy the database acrross entirely - assuming you are using the default paths it's in
%AppData%/Daz 3d/cms/ContentCluster/
Make sure DS is closed when copying from the old machine and pasting to the new - I'd make a copy of thee xisting database on the new machine first, just to be safe.
I'm going to assume that my teachers all were telling the truth when they said there are no stupid questions. What exactly is the "database," and what exactly are you suggesting I do?
Also, have I been downloading duplicate files when I first use the DIM to install stuff, and then right-click and install through smart content to get rid of the inverted-triangle-in-a-circle? If so, that might explain why my hard drive has been filling so rapidly...
The database is the list of products and categories and which goes in what - it drives the Presets tabs for property panes, Smart Content, and the Products and Categories lists in the Content Library pane, and it provides the content type tags (Actor, Materials etc.) and grouping (New) on files and products. I'm suggesting, if there isn't too much unique to your current system, that you copy the files for the database (the path I gave can be pasted into the address bar on Windows Explorer, the file window, to get there) from the old machine to the new.
post deleted
OK, So I did what you suggested, and the good news is that all my user-created categories and metadata has transferred succesfully.
The bad news is that Daz on my new machine seems to think that all the products I had installed on the old machine are currently installed on the new, which isn't the case. I tend to leave a bunch of products I'm not using at any given time uninstalled, and right now Daz isn't automatically recognizing what's installed and what isn't really. Any suggestions on how to address this?
You could copy the installed content from the other machine, or "uninstall" the content (even though there are no files to remove).
Yes, the order matters - if you reimport the metadata and a file pointed-to isn't at the given location in one of your content diectories the metadata will be skipped
Is there an advantage to using Connect over the DIM? And is there a way to filter the DIM so that it onlly shows me products that HAVE to be installed with the DIM?
Connect is built-in in Daz Studio, and you can see the thumbnails.
For everything else, DIM is better, but I still use Connect.
You can hide each product one by one on DIM, but it's a tedious work. There are virtually no products that have to be installed with DIM who don't work with Connect.
When there is an update for a product DIM has to redownload the whole zip, connect just the changed files. Connect can also be used to instal content needed to load as cene, if you own a license but don't have it installed.
True, those are nice features too! :D
I've basically always used Connect, so I don't really recall how DIM works on a day by day routine.
What about if you install all your content manually (e.g. extract and copy the contents of "Content" into my DS directory and merge folders)?
I've found that pretty much all of my manually installed stufff doesn't appear in smart content. the Posing or Shaping tabs or sometimes even in search queries in the Content Library.
When you use those freebies that you've installed manually, you have to drag them from the content library to the entry of the menu of the smart content where you want to see it, with the respective figure selected.
For example, if you want a hair freebie for G3F to show up in smart content, select the Genesis 3 Female, and drag the hair from content library to the "hair" text, on the left menu of smart content.
If you kept the file structure in the zip you can use the Import Metadata command in the Content DB Maintenance dialogue - though I'm not sure why you would manually install in that case.
... and now we have 4.11.
Does any of this still apply?
I don't think that changes anything :)
I hope not! I'd just started doing some major work to correct all the metadata issues that products in my library have, and it would absolutely suck if that all that work was wasted.