make DIM update location files?
alan bard newcomer
Posts: 2,174
all my data files are on G drive
but once long ago there was an H drive
went to apply a shader last night (irender archtectural shaders)
and daz said OMG this isn't here... do you want to connect and redownload.
Well, no let me check and Lo the missing files are right there in the runtime under textures.
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so how do I convince DIM where they are.
Now I know from experience that uninstalling them will fail with a folder not found -- because there are no folders on the H drive that doesn't exist
So DIM will want to download the files again.
Despite the fact there are 12,000 installers in the folder where it puts them.
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If I uninstall and then just unzip the installer and drag them into the run time will the next time dim restarts it decide it's on G and when we refresh a folder doesn't DIM know what I just stuck in the content library or do Dim and Content Library have a very dim relationship?
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I'm sure there a few others scattered around so some kind of a global command to DIM to update it's install notes.
Oh wait are the install notes encrypted or compressed so I can't access them or can I just open that file and change it from H to G (they are on the G drive)
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Comments
The install files for DIM are not encrypted - they are just a bunch of XML files inside a "ManifestFiles" folder. However they do indeed store the installed path in there and so presumably will have linked to the H drive. When I moved my purchased items from my Mac HD to my network drive I opened that folder in a text editor that supports multiple files and did a Find-and-replace across all of them. I don't think there is an easier way to do it in DIM itself - or if there is then I missed it.
I don't know the default location for that since I have changed it on both my Mac and Windows PC but if you open DIM and look in the advanced options it should tell you where it's manifest files live.
However, first you said that Daz is saying that items are not installed when the files are there - this isn't really related to DIM manifest files having the wrong install path I don't believe. That's probably more likely that your DB needs some maintenance or you have accidentally installed files using Daz Connect which doesn't play well with DIM.
DIM's install records do not affect Daz Studio, and Daz Studio does not care where the content directory is or what it is called, or if it has been moved, only about the relative paths within the directory.
connect has never been installed... period... with 100g a month for net and 4/5 tb of files don't see downloading stuff on demand from daz, ever.
Dim says they're installed on H, I know they're on G but studio can't find them at all and want's them installed.
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For years I've used dim to install specific types of data to specific folders and then added the folders to the content library as directories
my G drive is backed and if it dies (which it has) the fix is changing the drive letter on the backup drive to G and it's back
I have no I guess what is smart content where you build an artifical catalog or such.. my drive file structure is my sorted catalog
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well, conclusion apparently despite thinking it had installed them on H the G iray folders contains all of the files listed as installed to H except the folder that should be in the texture folder in the runtime in the iray directory.
the iray folder contains 245 G 52,760 files and 1,529 folders which now include the freshly installed /runtime/textures/the3dwizard folder which apparently was either not installed with the original install or during my copying of the data from H to a new drive G it was the single folder out of the 1,529 that the computer chose not to copy as the rest of the data is in the proper folders in the iray directory.
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either reason makes little sense, why would dim not install items it says it did or how would the copy just skip a folder ... not skip a file within it but the complete folder the3dwizard and the 180 files and 2 folders within it.
I bought them in 2015 and while the H drive is wrong.. the install path is for H/01 iray/runtime/textures instead of G/01/runtime/textures. but the fact that it says 01 Iray means it was after I built the custom install paths and all should have been installed to that folder and all should have been copied with that folder being copied to another drive.
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And when I told it to uninstall from the H drive .. it gave me the standard there are no folders message but then "uninstalled" and put "either what it uninstalled from the non-existant folder" or looked on the K drive and said "oh, I have installers (which it tended not to do in the past) which was nice... because shaders like this at 1g of download are 1/100 of my monthly quota and since I push that most months I hate to redownload something.
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and when I read the fine print (big monitor small daz print) it was looking on the C drive in the my daz library which it has never been installed in.
I remember there a ways to search in the dim bar is it possible to search for something like all files on the H drive which would let me fix them in one swoop .. assuming there are more?
I'm perhaps not the best person to answer the more finer points of your issues then. But certainly there are a few reasons why a copy like that could skip a whole folder. There may have been a dodgy character that somehow got into the folder name (perhaps an invisible null or line break from a copy & paste), there may have been two folder names with the same name but different case - depending on the operating system of the client, server and filehsare protocol this could have caused them to overwrite one with the other or the source folder may have accidentally been tagged with an attribute that blocked it from being accessed at the time.
Also, if you are limited in bandwidth but not HD space then you can retain the downloaded packages in DIM so that you can uninstall/reinstall as often as you like without eating into your allowance.
Is DIM pointed to the location currently being used?
This one can change the library path in the manifest files, if that is what's needed here:
https://taosoft.dk/software/freeware/clpdsx-daz/updates/cpldsx-1.000.zip
Just select the Manifest Files folder, enter the path to he current library you're using, like the sample shows, and click Replace.
Note that it will change the path in all the DSX files, so if you're installing to multiple libraries with different paths do not use it!
I'll suggest making a backup of the Manifest Folder first, just in case.
yes, daz data split 3 ways... things like no user facing files etc and the very base characters from daz and scripts are in My Daz Liberary on the C drive. a mere 32g with 120k files in 20k folders
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the other daz data is on the G drive (or shall we say a drive labeled G because if it dies (and it has) the backup drive is assigned that letter and daz doesn't even know it's been replaced) it's at 1.8T of 2T
so my own files ... my constructions are parts and custom characters are on E for about 240G
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but all files are installed via dim using the choose your own folder option.
I have all the daz packages stored and backed on a couple different drives.
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Lord knows.. copying can be wonky... which is why I don't let daz put everything in one library.
the installs are in 50 labeled folders like characters, hair, props, cars, scenery etc. so that when I do copy the computer is not copied a massive folder but I copy then one folder at a time when I do have to . and then the folders are added to the content library as directorys just like the my daz folder is.
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I had to recover a 3T drive at the base level when it was done there were millions of pieces in one folder took about 30 minutes to open it until I got it trimmed down... but it takes a bit of cpu time to create a window list that long. and every update after you trash a 1000 or move them takes just as long.
well only 1000 out of 13928,,, to check ... and partials like the last one... argh.
well checking one a day I'll be done with that in 3 years
almost all to one drive but since there are 50 folders that are basically loaded into content manager as base directories .. I may just not use that. but thanks for the suggestion.