DIM Feature Proposal: exportable Installation Profiles & Automatic Installation Synchronization of m

linvanchene

First of lets get the legal stuff out of the way for those users who may get confused about this:

As far as I know DAZ users are allowed to install DAZ content on as many workstations as they want as long as they are the only one using them.

In addition I also read on the forum but could not find it in the license:
It may be an unwritten but accepted rule that family members are allowed to use and create images with the DAZ content one member of the family purchased and installed on a workstation shared by the family.

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Especially for users who have workstations at home and at work or use mobile devices it would be incredibly useful to have more DIM features that automatically install the same products as on the main workstation on all other devices. :exclaim:

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Several ideas are connected to this:

1) Simple installation profile for DIM

This simple option would be useful for every user who has to reinstall DAZ Studio and all content on a new workstation.

In the past it was custom to just make a backup of the runtime and all the DIM files and then copy everything from the backup onto the new workstation.

For many different reasons it is more usefull to download and install all files again.

The most obvious one being that it may take much longer to copy files from one harddrive to another than to simply download them again. Another good reason to reinstall again from scratch is to get a clean new installation without carrying over the old mess of the former runtime.

Nevertheless when you have over 2000 products it would take A LOT of time to deceide for each product which were installed, which were downloaded but not installed and which were hidden.

So what I would like to do is create and export an installation profile with the DIM on the old workstation that captures all the following data:
- Installed files
- Downloaded files
- Hidden files

On the new workstation I can then simply import that installation profile and the DIM will automatically recreate the original installation like it was on the old workstation.

2) Advanced Installation Profile for DIM & DAZ Studio

If we take that idea one step further it would be even more useful if additional data from DAZ studio is also gathered and automatically exported to an installation profile.

- DAZ Studio Interface and Layout
- Metadata the user created

Unfortunately the metadata drastically increases the file size. So it probably would make sense to make the inclusion optional for only those who want it. As things are working now users must make separate backups of the metadata anyway because DIM installations overwrite user changes made to files in /runtime/export.I allready filed a feature request to upgrade the metadata system in a way to have different save locations for user created metadata "products" and the metdata downloaded with the DIM.

Basically this advanced installation profile would gather all information that is needed to recreate the runtime and all layout and interface options exactly as they were on the old workstation.

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3) Automatic Synchronisation of installations on multiple devices

If the user has a workstation at home and at work it would be very helpful if any installations made on one device would automatically be updated on the other device.

Basically the DIM is upgraded to manage not only one device but several devices. This would also mean that DAZ at least has some kind of control to see on how many devices the user has installed DAZ content with the help of the DIM.

Of course the automatic synchronisation may be optional. Some users may prefer to install only a small selection of products on their mobile devices.

Example:
Some users may want to work on a mobile device on the train with only some of the new content they purchased.
The user purchases new DAZ content at work.
In the DIM the user can select that on the workstation at work and at home all content will be installed.
Nevertheless the users selects only a few items that should be installed on his laptop.

The user leaves the office and logs on to his laptop in the train. In the background the DIM allready installed all the new files.
The user can work on a first draft of the scene on the train.

4) Cloud storage provided by DAZ

In order to be able to work efficiently on the same scene on different devices the user now saves his scene either on his own or a 3rd party webspace like OneDrive (Microsoft) or dropbox.

But it might be even more conveniant if any scene files and also the changes to the UI the user makes would automatically be synchronized with any other DAZ Studio versions on other devices.

So basically the user has the option to choose that all his layout and interface changes and also his scene files are stored on a webspace provided by DAZ.

DAZ may of course receive some small fee to provide the webspace

OR

Having DAZ webspace may actually be a nice benefit for platinum club members! :coolsmirk:

Example:
In the continuation of the previous example this would mean:

The user leaves the train and turns on the workstation at home.
The user can immediately continue to work on the same scene he worked on the train.
Any files and layout changes he made on his mobile device were allready updated in the background on his workstation at home.

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To put this into perspective:

I currently only work on one workstation with DAZ content. I had installed some content on a second workstation at home but exactly because it would be incredibly time consuming to keep that workstation up to date I did not bother further with it and stopped updating it.

I guess it is one of those cases for which first the change in technology needs to happen before I as a user can start to adjust the way I work.

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Are there allready any plans by DAZ to provide exportable installation profiles and automatic synchronization of DAZ Studio and the DIM on multiple devices on the way? :question:

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