Trouble using additional base directories for 3rd-party content

Selek

I read this tutorial on installing content, and it suggested creating additional base directories to organize one's content, so one can keep track of stuff that comes from non-Daz providers, like Renderosity.  That made sense to me.  https://www.deviantart.com/sickleyield/journal/Tutorial-Installing-Content-in-DAZ-Studio-508155677

And indeed when I do that, I can find assets in the Content Library -- but they don't always load properly.  (The program says assets are missing, or I'll see outlines around the asset in the viewport instead of the asset itself.  Or sometimes it works fine.)  When I copy the assets into My Daz 3D Library, then they work fine.  So I'm wondering: do all these "additional base directories" have to reside somewhere within the My Daz 3D Library folder?  Or am I just getting the directory structure wrong?  If the latter, can someone point me to a directory structure I should create in each additional base directory?

Thanks in advance!

kenshaw011267

I use that directory structure and it works fine. The problems sound like issues with missing geometry or textures. Do you ever get a popup saying that files cannot be found?

Selek

Thanks for your reply.  Yep, I do sometimes get a popup saying that files can't be found.  I think I see the files when I look at the directory in Windows Explorer, although I"m not sure; next time I'll track the error messages more carefully.  Not sure what I'm doing wrong.

SpottedKitty

Selek said:

So I'm wondering: do all these "additional base directories" have to reside somewhere within the My Daz 3D Library folder? 

 No — your "My Daz 3D Library" folder is a base directory (it just happens to be the default one), and any additional base directories are just that, additional. They can be set up anywhere except inside another base directory.

Selek said:

Or am I just getting the directory structure wrong?

A lot depends on how the downloaded .zip archive is put together (not all content creators get it right, especially with free stuff), and how you unzip it into your base directory. Some zips are made with an extra folder level directly inside the zip, so if you use the direct unzip method, you end up with files that aren't in the right place relative to the base directory location (and a nice collection of "file not found" errors).

One common way this can happen is if the zip contains a folder named "Content" with all the other folders inside it. In the earliest versions of DAZ|Studio, "Content" was the default base directory name; what you need are the folders directly inside "Content".

Selek

Many thanks for your reply.  Yep, that was the issue; one or two freebies had content organized in non-standard ways.  I've since manually installed several things from Renderosity in my new (second) base directory, and they're working fine.

I appreciate your taking the time to help!