Faster Daz quit and re-launch
My apologies if either a) this is a little trick that everyone knows already, and/or b) it's covered in another post (I couldn't find any mention of it).
I've been using Daz on PC now for a little over a year, pretty much daily since I first installed it. And normally I find that if I want to stop what I'm doing in the currently loaded scene, and switch to a new scene or another save file, it's faster to quit and re-run Daz than to use the "Open..." dialog with a scene already loaded. Daz always seemed to take forever to flush the current content before loading the new content. So, I'd save, quit, and reload Daz.
However, there was always a delay - I could never reload Daz immediately. Clicking the shortcut straight after quitting would do nothing. I'd have to wait for a period of maybe a minute before I could lauch Daz again.
Eventually a potential way to fix this occurred to me, so after quitting I launched the Task Manager. And lo, there in the Processes list was Daz, still running. I guess it does the same scene flushing in the background after quitting that it does if you switch scene files using the "Open..." dialog. So I killed Daz (select it in the Process list and click "End Task") and bingo! I'm able to relaunch Daz again immediately.
As well as posting this for other users who might not be aware of how handy this is for saving a bit of time, I'm also interested to hear whether it's something others have experienced and griped about (Daz is the only app I own that I can't quit and re-run instantly) or whether there's some other clever trick for closing one file and opening another on the fly that I've missed.
Comments
Killing the process is not a good idea. It takes time to close because it actually does things, like releasing the resources it used. When you're killing the task it can corrupt the settings or database if you're unlucky, and the resources may not have been freed properly.
Opening a new instance with a unique name while the old one is closing would be a better solution.
See Daz Studio Pro 4.12 - instances on starting an instance
Thanks for the advice, much appreciated.
There's a lot of notes in that post Richard, it's the highlights of 4.12 rather than a link to the Instances info. But no problem, I'll Google it! It is good to discover there's another, non-risky way to go.
The fact remains that EVERY other app I use allows me to quit and restart instantly. (And many of those apps - including heavyweights like Photoshop, Blender and 3DS Max - also allow me unlimited undos). It would be great to see Daz follow suit one day. But hey, it's a pretty phenomenal package all the same, particularly considering it remains free to use.
Try http://docs.daz3d.com/doku.php/public/software/dazstudio/4/referenceguide/tech_articles/command_line_options/application_instancing/start - which I am now replacing my previous bookmark on instancing with.
Thank you Richard!.
I've also Googled the subject, checked out the WPGuru video and read around some other posts, so I'll be giving this a try.
Again, your assistance in making me aware of this alternative option is very much appreciated.
Oh now that's the kind of smart workaround I love @Phatmartino - nice one! Simple and clearly effective. Thanks for that - definitely one I'll be using.
Although I guarantee it won't be too long before, when it asks me "do you want to save the changes?" as I quit the scene with everything in it deleted, I click the "Yes" option... :D
Oh and that's nice - Daz is too smart to ask "Do you want to save your changes" if you delete everything just before quitting.
And it does seem to speed up the process ending in Task Manager. It's not exactly "no time at all", but it's completely liveable-with.
Thanks again!