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DAZ Install Manager (DIM) 1.1.0.7, Now Available!

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  • WakakanadaWakakanada Posts: 208
    edited December 1969

    Diving back into DAZ after a break and downloaded this update. My apologies for the newbie question but, can someone direct me to a post, or explain whether I must uninstall everything I have installed pre-DIM and then reinstall with DIM to allow the update function to work? I have 1400 products still to install after giving up after the first 400 a year or two ago, and would love to get them all DIMed, but manually is a killer!

  • jakibluejakiblue Posts: 7,281
    edited December 1969

    Ebajoy said:
    Diving back into DAZ after a break and downloaded this update. My apologies for the newbie question but, can someone direct me to a post, or explain whether I must uninstall everything I have installed pre-DIM and then reinstall with DIM to allow the update function to work? I have 1400 products still to install after giving up after the first 400 a year or two ago, and would love to get them all DIMed, but manually is a killer!

    to see an update of a product in the DIM, you must have originally downloaded that product via DIM. :D You don't necessarily have to uninstall every one of your products tho....just redownload and reinstall it via DIM.

    When I'm bored, I often open up the DIM and go through and install older stuff I've bought and never got around to reinstalling. And because I rearrange stuff and rename folders etc to MY liking, I have my "My Library" folder open at the same time and after installing, just go in and rename folders etc (as in, renaming "FredSmith_stupiddressname" to "V4 Bright Dress" etc). It fills the time. LOL.

  • jakibluejakiblue Posts: 7,281
    edited December 1969

    Vaskania said:
    jakiblue said:
    just curious - is anyone noticing any difficulties TODAY in particular?

    in DIM, the "install" bit is veeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeery slow. In fact, a product is currently stuck on 91% installed.

    And DS itself has stuck on the opening screen, the "connecting to CMS" bit.

    I'm just wondering if something is going on today.

    Turn CMS off and see if that helps. I keep the CMS perma-off and set to manual mode via windows services (I don't use smart content at all), and I've never had an issue like that.

    For windows its start menu > all programs > daz 3d > daz content management service > stop.
    For a mac, I have no clue. lol

    Is the CMS required for anything other than the smart content? I was under the impression it was needed for autofit to work correctly, along with a couple of other functions. I'm SURE that the last time my database was corrupted, the autofit wasn't working and I had to delete the database and reinstall the CMS.

    I NEVER use smart content at all, but yeah, I thought CMS was needed for autofit at least.

    It ended up fixing itself btw - don't know what it was, but an hour later the DIM was working correctly and the DS was loading properly, which is why I thought it was a problem with the site.

  • JaderailJaderail Posts: 0
    edited December 1969

    jakiblue said:
    Is the CMS required for anything other than the smart content? I was under the impression it was needed for autofit to work correctly, along with a couple of other functions. I'm SURE that the last time my database was corrupted, the autofit wasn't working and I had to delete the database and reinstall the CMS.

    I NEVER use smart content at all, but yeah, I thought CMS was needed for autofit at least.

    It ended up fixing itself btw - don't know what it was, but an hour later the DIM was working correctly and the DS was loading properly, which is why I thought it was a problem with the site.

    The CMS is needed for Autofit to work automatic, it can be run with Fit to I believe or maybe its the transfer tool I forget as I leave it on. It is also needed fro the Content Library Products View, one of my preferred ways to find content to be added to a custom Category. Not sure of other functions, but I use it for those two. I think Categories may need it, I've not tried them without it running.
  • WakakanadaWakakanada Posts: 208
    edited December 1969

    jakiblue said:
    Ebajoy said:
    Diving back into DAZ after a break and downloaded this update. My apologies for the newbie question but, can someone direct me to a post, or explain whether I must uninstall everything I have installed pre-DIM and then reinstall with DIM to allow the update function to work? I have 1400 products still to install after giving up after the first 400 a year or two ago, and would love to get them all DIMed, but manually is a killer!

    to see an update of a product in the DIM, you must have originally downloaded that product via DIM. :D You don't necessarily have to uninstall every one of your products tho....just redownload and reinstall it via DIM.

    Thanks jakiblue. I recall hearing when DIM first came out, that if you reinstall with DIM without uninstalling the originally loaded files there could be conflict. But if that isn't the case, it makes it all a lot easier.

  • rbtwhizrbtwhiz Posts: 2,295
    edited December 1969

    Ebajoy said:
    I recall hearing when DIM first came out, that if you reinstall with DIM without uninstalling the originally loaded files there could be conflict. But if that isn't the case, it makes it all a lot easier.

    Nothing has changed in that regard. The possibility for conflict still exists... and it can be complicated to resolve, which is why we've recommended "clean" installations. If you insist on doing it anyway, despite our recommendation, you'll need to understand a few things...

    Refer to these two posts, describing what the "Fix Installed File Registry..." action actually does:
    - #52
    - #53 (near the bottom)

    The action is available in the context menu (right click), individually, for each of the the paths defined in the list on the Installation page of the Settings dialog. Provided you haven't moved or renamed files from their originally installed locations/names, and provided the product hasn't been updated and moved or renamed any files from where/what you installed in that update, you can install over the top of them using Install Manager, but you'll need to run the "Fix Installed File Registry..." action on each of the base paths in the list that you install to after you are done or you will end up in a state where uninstalling a product using Install Manager may not actually remove the files - as the file register will be offset due to the files existing prior to being installed by Install Manager.

    -Rob

  • SzarkSzark Posts: 10,634
    edited December 1969

    Can someone help please with what I have to do to have non DIM installed content with DIM installed content in the same folder. I read somewhere, sometime that it can be done but it needs some settings in DIM changed.

  • fixmypcmikefixmypcmike Posts: 19,612
    edited December 1969

    Szark said:
    Can someone help please with what I have to do to have non DIM installed content with DIM installed content in the same folder. I read somewhere, sometime that it can be done but it needs some settings in DIM changed.

    If you install a product with DIM that may have been non-DIM-installed previously, go to Settings > Installation, right-click on the content location and choose "Fix Installed File Registry" -- that will correct the count so that if you uninstall or update the product with DIM files will be correctly removed.

  • SzarkSzark Posts: 10,634
    edited December 1969

    Thanks Frank but I am thinking along the lines of Freebies and other products from other stores.

  • fixmypcmikefixmypcmike Posts: 19,612
    edited December 1969

    Szark said:
    Thanks Frank but I am thinking along the lines of Freebies and other products from other stores.

    I don't think there's-anything you need to change.

  • SzarkSzark Posts: 10,634
    edited December 1969

    well I read that you cannot have freebies, other store products in the same folder. Is this not the case?

  • WilmapWilmap Posts: 2,917
    edited December 1969

    I have loads of 3rd Party content which has been manually installed into the same runtime and not come across any problems.

  • SzarkSzark Posts: 10,634
    edited December 1969

    so looks like that info I read on numerous occasions is incorrect, thanks wilmap

  • nDelphinDelphi Posts: 1,870
    edited December 1969

    Szark said:
    well I read that you cannot have freebies, other store products in the same folder. Is this not the case?

    I keep a separate Poser and a DAZ Studio Runtime for non-DIM items. So far I have been able to get away with it, especially for the Genesis stuff where it is claimed it needs to be installed in the same Runtime as Genesis. An example I give for this are a Genesis belly button morph I found on ShareCG and stuff like the WERTS' M4/V4 celebrity face/heads converted to Genesis.

    Your mileage may vary.

  • SzarkSzark Posts: 10,634
    edited December 1969

    That used to be the case but I believe Genesis Morphs can be installed elsewhere now. Thanks nDelphi

  • nDelphinDelphi Posts: 1,870
    edited December 1969

    Szark said:
    That used to be the case but I believe Genesis Morphs can be installed elsewhere now. Thanks nDelphi

    Hmm, Really? Looks like I am behind the information curve... again.

  • DAZ_SpookyDAZ_Spooky Posts: 3,100
    edited December 1969

    Szark said:
    That used to be the case but I believe Genesis Morphs can be installed elsewhere now. Thanks nDelphi
    Correct, though two versions of the same morph is still a bad thing. Also note that if you are using DSON Importer for Poser that each and every content library with those morphs would need to be in the Poser Library to get proper results.
  • nDelphinDelphi Posts: 1,870
    edited December 1969

    DAZ_Spooky said:
    Szark said:
    That used to be the case but I believe Genesis Morphs can be installed elsewhere now. Thanks nDelphi
    Correct, though two versions of the same morph is still a bad thing. Also note that if you are using DSON Importer for Poser that each and every content library with those morphs would need to be in the Poser Library to get proper results.

    That's good to know.

    The items I keep in the Poser Runtime are stuff that are not compatible with DAZ Studio or old and not provided in DIM format; e.g., old items with no DS materials, and Poser dynamic clothing, etc. DAZ Studio is my main app when it comes to rendering.

  • SzarkSzark Posts: 10,634
    edited December 1969

    Thanks Spooky for confirming that.

    nDelphi I try to keep up with things but these days it seems harder to keep up...must be getting old.

  • MBuschMBusch Posts: 547
    edited December 1969

    rbtwhiz said:
    @Vaskania

    What changed is the placement of the Settings and InvalidProducts folders, as well as the installList and log files. Things that can be considered user or account specific. The things that are not necessarily user/account specific, like manifest files (installation records), thumbnails and installed filters [as opposed to user created filters] are left in the shared location. This is done because we either want to conserve system resources (i.e. thumbnails) in the event of multiple machine users or because the information represents the current state of the machine (i.e. manifests, filters); changing accounts on the machine doesn't change the fact that a product has been installed, or where it has been installed to.

    The folders/files that were moved can be safely deleted, assuming there were no issues with the migration. We left a copy in their previous location in case there were issues and they needed to be copied manually.

    Thank you to the developers for changing the Settings location. Now, they are where they should be. I bolded your statement above to re-stand that those remaining folders in the shared location should be moved to the Computer Domain (/Library/Application Support/DAZ 3D on OS X). While it had a semantic discussion about if those files are user files or application data, the files are not to be directly manipulated by the end users, I mean, they should not be moved, copied, or deleted directly in the OS file browser, they are result of user interaction in the applications's UI. While they can be user data, they are useful to the application, not to the user directly. On the current location, at least on OS X, any user have write privilegies to those files, including non system administrators, it does not matter who is the folder or file owner.

    So, if the bolded statement below is correct, those remaining folders and files should be moved to the mentioned Computer Domain, as there just System administrators have privilegies to modify something.


    The placement of manifest files and [now] thumbnails can be modified, and actually has been possible for several versions, but we've withheld the information because you can create some confusing problems for yourself if you're not careful or you do not fully understand the implications for what you are doing.

    ^^ It is for this reason that what I'm about to explain (below) is NOT officially supported.

    Each account created within Install Manager stores its settings in a configuration file, located at %AppData%/DAZ 3D/InstallManager/UserAccounts/.ini (or the Mac equivalent ~/Library/Application Support/DAZ 3D/InstallManager/UserAccounts/.ini) - the name of the file is percent encoded. This file contains a key named OverrideManifestDir (and now OverrideThumbnailDir), within the General section. Typically, the value of this key is left empty. When empty, the application stores [extended] manifests for installed packages in the default [all users] location. When a path is specified as the value of this key, the application stores these [extended] manifests, for any newly installed packages, at the defined path. Certain criterion are assumed with regard to the specified path - the path must be absolute, the path must already exist, the path must use forward slashes as a separator.

    -Rob

    While, I stated that I can live with those folders and files on the current location, I much prefer move them to the Computer domain, so thank you for point us how this can be done. Unfortunately, there are one remaining folder to be moved: Filters folder (the default filters). Are there some way to change the actual location?

    Anyway, I would like to send my congratulations to the developers for this release. I like the UI refinements, the new tags, and the new ability to Re-Import Metadata from the Installed context menu, but the thumbnail support is outstanding, lovely, and very elegant. DIM is an amazing tool which keeps going better release after release.

    :-)

  • DavidGBDavidGB Posts: 565
    edited December 1969

    rbtwhiz said:
    Nothing has changed in that regard. The possibility for conflict still exists... and it can be complicated to resolve, which is why we've recommended "clean" installations. If you insist on doing it anyway, despite our recommendation, you'll need to understand a few things...

    Refer to these two posts, describing what the "Fix Installed File Registry..." action actually does:
    - #52
    - #53 (near the bottom)

    The action is available in the context menu (right click), individually, for each of the the paths defined in the list on the Installation page of the Settings dialog. Provided you haven't moved or renamed files from their originally installed locations/names, and provided the product hasn't been updated and moved or renamed any files from where/what you installed in that update, you can install over the top of them using Install Manager, but you'll need to run the "Fix Installed File Registry..." action on each of the base paths in the list that you install to after you are done or you will end up in a state where uninstalling a product using Install Manager may not actually remove the files - as the file register will be offset due to the files existing prior to being installed by Install Manager.

    -Rob

    Just to clarify (as I didn't quite follow what the "Fix Installed File Registry..." action actually does), can the action be used repeatedly, or is it a once only thing?

    That is to say, I've used DIM now to reinstall all the stuff that was released since the move to ZIPs, all the programs and plugins, and everything I originally installed by .exe and had an 'uninstall' for (basically everything since Genesis first came out. Roundabout 500 items. And I've applied the "Fix Installed File Registry..." action to the three locations (my DS4 My Library, the DS3 content and my main Poser runtime) I've used DIM to install those things again to. However, I've got 1500 other products - pre-Genesis release, and which I didn't have uninstallers created for. If I use DIM to reinstall some/all of those eventually, can I use "Fix Installed File Registry..." again, or will that reset and muck up the counts (or whatever it is) of the 500 items I've already DIM installed before the one "Fix Installed File Registry..." I've already done?

    Oh, and thanks for making DIM finally not need to use Public Documents, which has prevented me from using it up to now as nothing on my machine is allowed to use the Public folders.

  • fixmypcmikefixmypcmike Posts: 19,612
    edited December 1969

    DavidGB said:
    rbtwhiz said:
    Nothing has changed in that regard. The possibility for conflict still exists... and it can be complicated to resolve, which is why we've recommended "clean" installations. If you insist on doing it anyway, despite our recommendation, you'll need to understand a few things...

    Refer to these two posts, describing what the "Fix Installed File Registry..." action actually does:
    - #52
    - #53 (near the bottom)

    The action is available in the context menu (right click), individually, for each of the the paths defined in the list on the Installation page of the Settings dialog. Provided you haven't moved or renamed files from their originally installed locations/names, and provided the product hasn't been updated and moved or renamed any files from where/what you installed in that update, you can install over the top of them using Install Manager, but you'll need to run the "Fix Installed File Registry..." action on each of the base paths in the list that you install to after you are done or you will end up in a state where uninstalling a product using Install Manager may not actually remove the files - as the file register will be offset due to the files existing prior to being installed by Install Manager.

    -Rob

    Just to clarify (as I didn't quite follow what the "Fix Installed File Registry..." action actually does), can the action be used repeatedly, or is it a once only thing?

    That is to say, I've used DIM now to reinstall all the stuff that was released since the move to ZIPs, all the programs and plugins, and everything I originally installed by .exe and had an 'uninstall' for (basically everything since Genesis first came out. Roundabout 500 items. And I've applied the "Fix Installed File Registry..." action to the three locations (my DS4 My Library, the DS3 content and my main Poser runtime) I've used DIM to install those things again to. However, I've got 1500 other products - pre-Genesis release, and which I didn't have uninstallers created for. If I use DIM to reinstall some/all of those eventually, can I use "Fix Installed File Registry..." again, or will that reset and muck up the counts (or whatever it is) of the 500 items I've already DIM installed before the one "Fix Installed File Registry..." I've already done?

    Oh, and thanks for making DIM finally not need to use Public Documents, which has prevented me from using it up to now as nothing on my machine is allowed to use the Public folders.

    You can use Fix Installed file Registry repeatedly -- I run it whenever I have something installed both manually and with DIM. If you install a product manually and then via DIM, DIM sees that the file already exists and notes that the file was installed more than once, so if you uninstall all the DIM-installed products that use the file it still keeps the file. Fix Installed File Registry goes through all the files DIM has installed and sets the number of times a file was installed more than once to only the number of times DIM installed it, so if you then uninstall products with DIM it knows to uninstall those files.

  • rbtwhizrbtwhiz Posts: 2,295
    edited December 1969

    DavidGB said:
    ...can the action be used repeatedly, or is it a once only thing?

    As needed. The action reconstructs the file register, for that path, based on the manifests of all packages currently installed by Install Manager.

  • Lissa_xyzLissa_xyz Posts: 6,116
    edited December 1969

    Are there any plans to add filters/tags to easily see items only compatible with certain figures? I can manually search by "genesis, victoria 5/v5, genesis 2 female/g2f" etc, but not everything comes with the figure in the title, and with an ever growing list, it's getting more and more difficult. lol

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