I prefer using DIM, but...
ericolsen
Posts: 350
I like using Daz Install Manager as opposed to other options, but I can't figure out why about 25% of the time when I install products that way they do NOT show up under my Products tab in Daz Studio, even after refreshing metadata etc. 75% of the time it works just fine. Granted, I'm not installing to C:, I have my Daz directory set to my D: drive, but like I said...usually it works. But a quarter or so of the products I install, both old and brand new ones, never make it to the Products tab, so I end up installing it manually from the Studio, and then uninstall it from DIM, so I'm not taking up twice as much disk space as necessary.
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Comments
Can you gove an example of a pack or two? Some packs get install to weird folders and not easy to find. When you install the products does it move to "Installed" tab? If so right click on one you can't find and select "Show Installed Files" and see where it is being installed too and then check from there within DS
There seems to be a limit to the collections that can be shown, not sure whether this is due to memory limitations or some coded constraints to prevent exactly that.
It's especially visible in Smart Content, where a lot of assets just won't show up, or disappear to make room for something new. If you have a lot of poses, most of them probably won't even show up. It's slightly less convenient to work with (especially at first), but you can usually find everything manually in the Content Library tab.
There are some older packs that won't show in smart content, but Daz has updated a great portion of them and they will show. All newer packs will show in Smart Content. It may just be listed in a different place but you can always find the products in the content library if installed properly. I don't use smart content and never have. I find it easier using the content library.
If this isn't older packs or an issue with the missing ones being pushed off the end of the list (in whichc ase selecting a category to limit the number showing should help) then it may be that you are closing Daz Studio and opening Install manager - if you do that there is a risk that the PostgreSQL database will not be running during install, and so the products won't be added. Ideally either leave DS open while installing and refresh the metadata when done, or make sure it and PostgreSQL have finished closing before starting DIM.
In the meantime, you could try opening the Content DB Maintenance dialogue from the Content Library pane's option menu 9the lined button in the top corner or right-click the tab) and choosing the Reimport Metadata option to get DS to add any missing items to the database (assuming they have metadata, of course).
Another option, of which I wasn't aware, rather than reimproting the metadata in DS is to select the missing products in DIM's Installed tab, right-click>Reinstall Metadata
Not sure if this is relevant here, but it seems to be overlooked by many. In Content Library DS has a default limit to how many presets that are shown. If there are more, they will be divided into pages. You can however increase the number of presets per page using the "+" button, so you get them all on the first page.
I used to have a lot of problems with items not appearing in categories. I found that re-importing the metadata for those items sometimes fixed the problem but just letting Studio re-import all metadata didn't,
I sometimes have the same problem but not very often now. I don't get the problem with non-Daz products, they appear in the library and in cateogries OK. You don't need metadata for categories to work but It looks as if having metadata can make categories go wrong. Since I don't use smart content I'd like a way to tell Studio to just ignore all metadata.
THAT would be fantastic ;)
I'd like an option like this too. Even without using SM Daz sometimes forgets that something is installed on the drive and the product not showing in the Content Library although it still can be loaded manually from the Windows explorer. It's something happening only with Daz-bought products, never with third party assets from elsewhere.
The only permanent fix for this is to re-download the product and install it manually as if it was a third-party one.
So it's not a matter of opening and closing Daz and DIM, they are both open. To clarify, I'm looking in the "Products" portion of the Content Library tab (not Smart Content), which I like becuase I can quickly find items alphabeticallly. But what I see now is that although an item shows up as not installed in that section, if, for example, I look under Daz Studio Formats and navigate to Genensis 8 Hair (I just tried installing dForce African Hair for Gen 8) the item IS listed there. So, it shows installed there, but not installed under Products. I don't think it's a matter of too many items being installed, this is a fairly new install of DS -- DIM shows 509 products intalled and 7138 products to download. Hitting refresh on the item in the Products section doesn't have an effect, nor does just updating all metadata, closing and reopening DS, etc.
The "Products" as well as the "Categories" use the same database metadata as "Smart Content" does - Things you find under "DAZ Studio Formats" are real files in real folders, nothing to do with metadata and/or the database.
Right, so the files are getting installed, but not making it into the database, even after doing a refresh on the item or the database as a whole. If I search up top for African, for example, no items are found. Unless I do a manual install from the Products section. Again, only for a portion of products -- 75% of the time they do get into the database.
This is an issue because I can't just install everything through the Products section -- when I reverse the sequence by installing an item manually under Products, DIM does NOT show the item as being installed, even after a refresh in DIM etc. My goal has been to use DIM to easily manage the size of my installed content, uninstalling larger products as necessary, but for 25% of my content this doesn't work properly.
When you are installing anything within DS, you are using DAZ Connect to install them into a different location than what DIM is using.
That was my suspicion, that content is getting installed to two different locations, which defeats that whole goal of minimizing content disk space.
There is no point in using DIM/Daz Central if you use Connect (install in Daz Studio) or vice versa - indeed, if you use DIM/Daz Central (or install manually) there is no reason to have Daz Studio work online at all.
Your last screen shot shows the package Files - the files in the zip, grouped by the type of destination they isntall to. The Installed Files list shows what was isntalled, and the file name is a link that will open a file browser to that location.
In the last screen shot the database icon, the stacked discs at the top to the right, is dark indicating that the database is not available to DIM (though ti clearly is available to Daz Studio) - this suggests that there is a system issue, with something blocking communication.
Which folder in the Content Library under Daz Studio Formats are you using? If it's Daz Connect then that is the content installed through Daz Studio, not the content installed through DIM.
I have not installed Daz Connect, the amount of griping in the forums led me to wait until more bugs are worked out. Is that perhaps the problem?
Sorry -- I meant Daz Central in regards to the griping, etc. My preference would be to manage all installation via DIM, but as described above, that doesn't work 25% of the time. I only install manually when installing through DIM doesn't update the content database.
Also, right after trying my luck with African Hair, I installed the new D2C2 product, which worked just fine through DIM. So I don't think it's a matter of sessions timing out/communications errors. DIM installed it and updated the content database correctly. It's consistent in terms of which ones update the database and which ones don't.
Unless a product has been packaged wrong all content Installed from DIM will be available in the Content Library pane under either DAZ Studio Formats or Poser Formats.