Moving library to another disk and updating DS

kleinefotoman

Hello again everyone,

I want to move my content library to another drive and update DAZ Studio. As far as I can understand I have to:
- copy the "My DAZ 3D Library" from the C:\Users\Public\Documents
- Change the UserInstallPath VALUE in the manifest files to the new path
- Change the install path in DIM
- Change the path in the Content Directory Manager in DS aka content mapping

As there are Two other DAZ folders in 'Documents' (one in the public documents and one in user documents), I wonder if I need to do something with those.

Also, when I update DAZ studio, do I have to do something with the plugins? Are those automatically transferred to the updated DAZ Studio?
btw, I plan to update it through DIM. As I also have Carrara, I will not install "PostgreSQL CMS" and "Valentina to PostgreSQL conversion"

Spit

I've put three of my runtimes on an external.

I moved the runtimes to the external.
I told DIM where they are now.
I told Studio's Content Manager where they are now.
I did NOT touch any manifest files or anything else.
Everything's working fine.

When you update Studio with DIM, it uninstalls the old version then installs the new. It doesn't touch the plugins.
When you open your new Studio you can check in menu Help:About Installed plugins. It will show you if any plugin will not properly work with the new version.
Everything is usually good to go after an update, depending on the particulars of the update of course. Sometimes a plugin may just have to be uninstalled and reinstalled, other times it may need an update itself. You can always come here and ask if there's a problem.

HTH

kleinefotoman

I think editing the manifest files was necessary to make it for DIM able to update the moved files.

Spit

kleinefotoman said:

I think editing the manifest files was necessary to make it for DIM able to update the moved files.

DIM knows where to install and update. That'll work. If you have set up filters for installed to, it will list only from the manifest files and not show any new stuff installed to the new place from that specific filter unless you make a new filter.

Your files and content will be okay, but filtering in DIM won't be perfect.

The best way to do this is to uninstall from the old place then install in the new.

However you MUST have the 'ready to install' tab empty before you do this and the zip files must exist (not have been deleted) because once uninstalled the content files lose their location identity and if they're mixed with possible other files in the 'ready to install' tab or mixed with all the other stuff in 'Ready to download' it will take a while to go through and select them. Or you can save a csv of your selections/filtered items first, then later select packages 'from csv file'. Done by right clicking 'Product Name' in either case.

If you've already changed the manifest files, fine. That'll work. But I would personally hate to mess with them. Fussy, I have too many, and it would be easy to make a mistake.

Edited because I forgot to finish a sentence.

kleinefotoman

Well, I actually never really used the filter stuff. I also didn't know about saving and loading a csv. Good tip.
When I installed the content I moved the files in the download location to an external HDD because I did not have too much space. And I do not like the idea of uninstalling and re-installing.

I have not changed the manifest files yet. As like you, I do not like to 'mess' with them. And it is indeed easy to make a mistake. And also, it is not really tempting edit roughly 400 files manually. I am planning to batch edit all files at once in Notepad++ (I will of course make a backup of the files before doing so).

Spit

You know what you're doing. No worries. I have much more moving around to do yet and not looking forward to it.

kleinefotoman

Does someone know how to change the library folder in Carrara, or is there some automatic mechanism?

Spit

Me no know Carrara (have it but no room to install yet). If nobody replies you can check in the Carrara forum...

http://www.daz3d.com/forums/categories/66/

kleinefotoman

I already started a thread there. Strangely enough it is mentioned enough how to add a library, but nobody seems to bother about updating the path. Might as well try it at the carrara-cafe forums.

kleinefotoman

I have already solved the problem myself.
For sake of other forum users with the same problem I will descibe how I changed it.

After some digging in the installation of carrara on my computer I found a file called 'Preferences.txt' in
C:\Users\ (my username) \AppData\Roaming\DAZ 3D\Carrara 8.5

In that file, there are paths to the library's that have been added to carrara. It looks like this:

FigB {
XFol "C:\\Users\\ (your username) \\Documents\\DAZ 3D\\Studio\\My Library\\Runtime\\libraries\\"
Coll 0
Fmly cr2b
ShHd 0
XFol "C:\\Users\\Public\\Documents\\My DAZ 3D Library\\Runtime\\libraries\\"
Coll 0
Fmly cr2b
ShHd 0
XFol "C:\\Users\\ (your username) \\Documents\\DAZ 3D\\Studio\\My Library\\"
Coll 0
Fmly dazb
ShHd 0
XFol "C:\\Users\\Public\\Documents\\My DAZ 3D Library\\"
Coll 0
Fmly dazb
ShHd 0
XFol "\\Content\\Runtime\\Libraries\\"
Coll 0
Fmly cr2b
ShHd 0
}

When those paths are edited to the new folder, carrara sees the correct changed folder (I checked this with some freshly installed content to see if the files were there after change).
Do not do this while carrara is open, it might cause problems.

Remember to check that you use 2 back-slashes !!!
If they are not double, Carrara might do some strange things because some letters after a single back-slash have a meaning to programs (check a random programming book to find out what).