Ten years on, and DS is still a monumental time-waster...
UserZero
Posts: 13
Long-time DS user here, I've abandoned it twice in the past due to the not-yet-ready-for-primetime idiosyncrasies that made it too time-consuming, frustrating and aggravating to use for anything serious.
Hoping that perhaps things have changed in the past two years, I've given it another try on a brand new Win7 Pro system which has never had any DAZ anything installed on it.
Nothing's changed. You still get what you pay for (i.e., $0 == zero value). As before, if I decide to try to use this software again, I'll be spending more time in the forums, acting as a member of the DAZ beta test team, than actually using the product to do anything substantive...
The fun starts with the appropriately-named DIM (DAZ Install Manager), which seemed to install fine but then installed a bunch of basic content without FIRST asking me where I wanted to put it. No, guys, I do NOT want gigabytes of content filling up my OS drive under my Users directory. Location for DAZ Content should be the very first thing this DIM-witted application asks. Why doesn't it?
Uninstalled everything and started over.
Re-installed DIM. Interestingly, the uninstaller must leave garbage in the registry, as I didn't get the "do you want to install basic content" option on this second go-around. Set up the download and content installation directories (first), and then re-installed the initial content. AFAIK, it's all good. Well, except for the fact that DIM refuses to be pinned to the task bar (see attached). W.T.F.? DS will pin; why won't DIM??
Next, I ran DS 4.7, as installed by DIM, and the very first few SIMPLE things I tried completely failed.
First, I double-clicked on Figures/People/Male/Real World/Genesis 2 Base Male and immediately got the "Missing Files" dialog for "/data/DAZ 3D/Genesis 2/Male/Genesis2Male.dsf" (see attached). I navigate to that location and, to no one's surprise, the DSON file is there (1.836 MB). DS just can't see it. Again: W.T.F.?? Excuse me, but the effing INSTALLER just finished installing all the ncessary content - how can there be any "missing files"??????
I click OK to clear that dialog and am greeted by a Perspective View containing the Minecraft 1.0 version of Genesis Male (see attached). Swell.
So... maybe I'm just doin' it wrong. I figure I'll run the Interactive Lesson on "Finding, Loading and Manipulating Content".
And... I'm screwed by DS again with another "Files Not Found" dialog, complaining that 6 files are missing (see attached), which should have been provided by the Genesis 2 Starter Essentials (which DIM has already installed). Again... W.T.F. ???
Okay, let's try installing something I purchased two years ago - Digital Curlz Hairstyle. I shut down DS 4.7 and then go select the product from my Product Library (on line), and click the "download & install" link under "Install Manager Ready". Seems to work. DIM shows the product under "Installed" and the product detail info looks correct (see attached).
Back to DAZ 4.7.
Click on the Hair category from the "Smart *cough* Content" tab and again, to no one's surprise, this newly installed product is absolutely nowhere to be found. I check every category on the Smart Content tab. No dice. The newly DIM-installed product is not there, anywhere.
So, before running the last System Restore Point to remove all this unusable trash from my system, I thought I'd drop a note here to let you folks know of the above experience. Not good. 0 stars. Would not recommend. Etc.
Daz 3D is part of 
Connect
DAZ Productions, Inc.
7533 S Center View Ct #4664
West Jordan, UT 84084
Licensing Agreement | Terms of Service | Privacy Policy | EULA
© 2025 Daz Productions Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Comments
Sorry are you wanting help or just having a rant about user error. I have been using Daz Studio since version 2 and never had any issues apart from my old PC not coping with the improvements made in version 4. Now I have a new PC those issues have gone.
If you install to a non-default location you do have tell DS that you have done so - right-click on the DAZ Studio Formats heading in the Content Library pane, select Add Base Directory, and select the folder you told DIM to install to. Do the same for Poser Formats (this time it will be Add Runtime Directory). That should fix the missing file errors.
Thanks Richard. I may give that a shot if I decide to waste more time on this, even though it makes no rational sense from a user standpoint. I mean, DS found 'most' of the content just fine - all the "Smart Content" products were listed, categorized and organized as one would expect. So why any missing files?? What use is all this Install Manager and Content Management System stuff if it isn't keeping track of the actual content location(s) and communicating that information to the applications that depend on the CMS? I could understand if it was something I installed 'manually', but that wasn't the case here.
Thanks again.
U0
The CMS uses absolute paths, so that shows the suer files even if they aren't in a content directory. However, the paths in the content itself are relative - as they are in Poser content - so if the host folder isn't set as a content directory DS will not be able to find them when it goes through adding the relative path (as in the error) to each content directory path it has been told to check.
These are precisely the sort of details an installer and a CMS should hide from the user; else, why even have them? Present functionality only complicates the operation and adds needless distractions, annoyance and frustration, instead of making things more straightforward and user-friendly.
I want to work with the content, not spend time wondering why things don't work as installed by the DAZ Installer, and then spend more time searching forums, trying to figure out how to knit together the linkages and path references that the installer / CMS are too brain-dead to handle.
Anyway, I followed your suggestion above and it actually made things worse.
In DIM, I have the one and only Installation path set as:
Label: "DS Content"
Path: "F:/DSContent"
I performed the steps you suggested above, adding F:/DSContent as new Base and Runtime directories.
Now, when I browse the Smart Content, the thumbnails are all missing (at least they were present, before). And when I double-click to add Genesis 2 Base Male this time, instead of a "Missing Files" error dialog, I get a "Resource Error" dialog telling me that H:\D3DContent\People\Genesis 2 Male\Genesis 2 Base Male.duf doesn't exist when, in fact, it absolutely DOES exist (817kB), but on a completely different drive / directory.
Also, the Digital Curlz Hairstyle product I installed using DIM is still nowhere to be found under Smart Content.
Thanks for trying.
U0
Looks like the main issues you are experiencing are bouncing back from when you initially decided that you didn't like where Daz installed all of its necessary base components. Like anything going in to the back room of complicated referencing system and changing things to suit personal preferences will often result in things malfunctioning and not working correctly when the reference is drawn upon. And ultimately require experienced user input to correct the external lookup calls.
It is really hard to draw up any resolve to offer any help as you're obviously approaching this from an angle where you kind of are hoping for things to fall over so you can point the finger and say "Look, see its hopeless!".
Try reimporting your metadata to repair the smart content system as you appear to have broken referencing everywhere from your screenshots. Good luck!
I was in special ed in school, didn't make it pas 9th grade, and my only issues with Daz Studio are that I only have a low grade laptop that renders slow. I would recommend doing a clean reinstall and let the install manager manage.
No. That's not what I'm doing at all. I'm obviously trying to get a functional DS application installed and working with a configuration that won't cause DAZ content to eventually swallow my OS/Programs drive. In the process I'm trying to provide feedback.
The problem appears to be that the Install Manager's function during installation of DS doesn't match the behavior of the DS installer itself, when that's run standalone. That is, the DS installer (which is what I've always used in the past) provides the option to define the content directory before doing anything else. The Install Manager is brain-dead in this regard - that is, you can define a custom content location all you like, but that information isn't provided to DS when it gets installed. And trying to set it with Add Base Directory, etc., just plain didn't work, as demonstrated above.
The bottom line is that the Install Manager and DS don't actually communicate, at least with respect to the installation directory selected, whereas their function makes it appear that they do. And the uninstaller for the Install Manager leaves so much junk in various locations in the file system that even an uninstall and a system restore doesn't completely clean up the mess it leaves behind (it's not possible to do a "clean reinstall" for this reason).
Performing a system restore, painstakingly destroying all the cruft created by the Install Manager, taking it completely out of the equation, using the DS installer directly, and going back to the tried-and-true unzip-and-copy/merge approach of old pretty much solved everything. The interactive tutorials now work (very cool, BTW), the content library is fully functional with the starter content, I have more than just File, Window and Help menus, thumbnails are all visible, etc.
U0
DIM is dimwitted in that it just does what you let it do, it does not communicate with Studio in any direct way. Smart Content is not smart, it is just a database system that uses tagged metadata, if you move your content the database has to reset and repopulated. The Content Library tab will always show properly mapped (setting the paths in Studio's Content Directory Manager) content.
Edit: The old installers never talked to DS either. You can set up as many content install locations as you want in DIM. Make sure to check the Show Details box on the Ready to Install tab to be able to switch libraries locations before installing. User preference files are generated when DS and DIM are used and these files will not be uninstalled since the way DAZ updates DS and DIM is to uninstall the old before installing the new.
There are good reasons for DIM not to set the paths you install to as content directories in DS, for example a content developer might be working with a stripped down install with only the base figure or a general user might have split content by some method (era or genre, say) with different content directory sets. That said, it would seem a worthwhile suggestion to have a button in DS, DIM or both to sync the content directories between the two for those who do want them to match, and don't want to use the defaults - you could open a support ticket to make a feature request like that for DIM and/or DS.
Yes, Richard, that's pretty clear.
But in case the developers are interested, the issue wasn't caused by a failure to set path info when installing content; it is caused during the installation of DS itself, and by the difference between the DS installer behavior and the behavior of the install manager..
When you install DS WITHOUT the install manager, the 'native' installer asks right up front where you want to put your content. I have never once left that set to the default location, because the default is always somewhere on the OS/Programs drive (this is a Windows idiosyncracy, not a DAZ issue - Micro$oft seems to think everyone wants to put all their user data on the OS drive, which is inadvisable for numerous reasons). In the past, subsequent content installation in a non-default location has always worked flawlessly and the only issues I've ever had in that regard were during installation of third-party content that didn't follow the conventions.
When you install DS WITH the install manager, the first thing you can do there (before anything else) is define the content Installation directory (several, obviously), via the settings icon. But when the install manager installs DS, it does NOT actually run the DS install program--at least, the dialog that presents the option to set the DS content directory never pops up. When that didn't happen, my natural expectation was, "oh, yes, I've already set the content installation directory via the Install Manager, so it'd be redundant to pop up a dialog for that option here". Wrong-o.
As far as I can tell, the Install Manager then installed DS and put its core content in the default location; then it put everything else in the queue into the alternate location I'd specified before telling the install manager to do anything.
This would probably all be fine if not for the fact that, compounding the problem, none of the product uninstallers clean up after themselves. So when I uninstalled and then tried to re-install from scratch, there were remnants of the previous iteration still sitting in the file system (and the registry), which apparently confuses the process and made it impossible for the install manager to properly function despite system restore and an attempt to remove leftover files. After that, every time I tried to uninstall/reinstall DS via the install manager, I was left with a DAZ Studio that was missing menus, couldn't find any content, didn't display thumbnails, etc.
I'm guessing that, now that DS has been set up with its 'native' installer, and is looking for content in the same location DIM will put it, that I can re-install DIM and things should work.
FWIW...
U0
I don't recall any content going to the default location when I installed DS via DIM back in July (OS drive started to die). Some files, plug-ins, some script files and shaders, do go in the application folder but if you install content after setting your paths in DIM it should all go where you told it to (though you still have to tell DS where that is).
That's not so. Since Windows Vista MS recommends that data should be stored in the 'My documents' folder which you can by default access through the 'Documents' library. Writing data in the OS folders (Program files, Program files (x86), ...) is forbidden for security reasons. Of course on a freshly installed system that 'My documents' folder is on the OS drive. You can (must) move your Data to another drive. This is best done by right clicking on the 'Documents' library. Same should be done with all Libraries. Failing to do this will inevitably clutter your OS drive.
This being said. I ran in the exact same problems as you when I recently installed Studio on a new PC. My OS drive is a SSD and I don't want data to be written there. Luckily Studio will let you change the drives where Data and the CMS databases are located. Once this is done things run smoothly. But I agree with you that on first use DIM should ask where you want to put your files. This didn't make me gripe though.
Exactly.
As you've noted, best practice is to put the OS and Programs on a dedicated drive and put data on a different drive, as you've done (and as I do). But that is absolutely not how Windows is configured OOTB.
By default, the "My Documents" folder and all the other user-specific Windows folders are under C:\Users, which is on the same drive as the OS and all of your programs - and that is where practically all Windows programs default to putting their data. It's why the default content installation drives for DAZ programs are under C:\Users\Public: e.g., C:\Users\Public\Documents\DAZ 3D\InstallManager, C:\Users\Public\Documents\My DAZ 3D Library. These locations are based on Micro$oft's OOTB configuration.
So it is completely accurate to state that "MS seems to think everyone wants to put all their user data on the OS drive".
It does provide a way to set this, but it wouldn't matter if it asked the user or not, since it doesn't pass any content location information along to DAZ Studio when installing it. That's actually part of the problem I ran into.
Anyone who's used the older 'native' installer for DAZ Studio (e.g., for the past 5-10 years) expects to be able to define their content location during DS installation - again, for the reason you cited above (i.e., OS vs. Data drives). IIRC, that's how it's always worked. The Install Manager (DIM) subsumes installation of DAZ Studio itself - it appears to completely bypass the product's 'native' installer. That option (to define the content location) is not offered when installing DS via Install Manager.
The problem is that you CAN define the content installation directory in DIM. If you do this prior to installing DS with DIM, and you're accustomed to the way the 'native' DS installer works, and you never see the "where do you want your content" dialog during DS installation, you're left with the impression that the content location defined in DIM will be passed to DS when it's installed. It's not. So if you install a bunch of content immediately following DS installation, DS isn't going to find it until you realize that the impression DIM left you with is wrong, and that you have to perform the steps Richard described near the beginning of this thread.
Of course, if you're a new user, or you've been away from the app for a couple of years, or you've never messed with custom content locations, you aren't likely to reach this realization immediately. The most natural response is to uninstall/reinstall. But after doing that once or twice, trying unsuccessfully to correct the problem, things just get worse because the uninstallers for these products (DS, DIM, CMS, etc.) don't actually uninstall everything. At this point, you can add all the new base and runtime references you like, but it won't fix the problem (see screenshots, above). Subsequent installs appear to be left with a hodgepodge of new and previous installs' configuration data (e.g., see above, where DAZ is looking for content in a directory that no longer exists, on a drive that isn't referenced anywhere in the new install, but WAS used in a previous install attempt).
The only option that worked was to go through the OS drive and registry with a fine tooth comb, delete anything that looked DAZ-related, ignore DIM, and use DAZ Studio's native installer, which sets the content location during installation. This cleaning operation was only an option because I didn't have other DAZ products installed at the time (like Hexagon or Carrara). You're free to disagree, but IMHO the aggravation caused by that sort of unnecessary, time-wasting (and potentially hazardous) activity in what - at 10+ years - should be a more mature application, is certainly grounds for a "gripe" (i.e., venting).