Very new user, bewitched, baffled, and bewildered
I've had DS 4.5 on my system for about a month, I've bought several things, and am using DIM. I heard that Daz Studio is the easiest 3D program to use. In fact, don't find it very easy, and even tutorials made for 4.5 read like they are written for some other program. (I must be sounding dumb, but I was actually a college graduate with honors -- unfortunately not in computer science). I'm not totally hopeless; I have managed to get Auto-Fit to work after tinkering for a day. But I still feel like I'm working on an alien landscape that just refuses to conform to the guide book. What's driven me to the wall and induced me to ask for help is the fact that that I can't get any Metadata files to appear over on the left side. Also, the DS file searches don't work for me. The lack of these conveniences makes everything very hard and slow.
When Genesis in in the center pane at start, even when FILES and ALL are highlighted, there are no Metadata offerings. Even with Genesis selected, all I get is the screen that says, "Where Are My Files?" It also says, "make a selection from the left." Well, duh, there is no list on the left. Nothing I do can make anything appear.
The Tutorials all assume that Smart Content should be appearing at start. I know from the Tutorials that an item I have, Magus, should have Metadata. As an added check, I just installed Night Guard for Genesis (which logically should have Metadata), but nothing appears for it in the Smart Content either. I went to the Content tree and select "NG Pants" and the pants appear duly on Genesis, but that doesn't prime the pump for Smart Content. Even if I select the pants specifically, nothing appears as a Metadata offering.
Another thing that makes me long for the safety of the hills is the "Search functions." Like, under "Actors, Wardrobe & Props", if I type "Magus" into the "Enter Text to filter by..." box, it gives me an X -- presumably the symbol of a failed search. If I put in "Night Guard", it likewise finds nothing.
It's the same story on the right side, for the Content Library tab. I assume the "Enter Text to Search by..." should be able to at least locate "Genesis" but all that comes up in a search for Genesis is an Orange highlighted "Search: Genesis" message. What's that all about? No information is offered. If it can't locate even the Genesis Figure is, what can it do? Another example. I know by a manual search that Michael 4 is in my Figures-Daz People file But if I text search for "Michael 4" the search engine only gives me that orange-backed message "Search: Michael 4" Why can't these searches find content? Even when I specifically highlight the content file on on the tree that I want to search, nothing is found. If I'm doing it wrong, how are these DS Search functions supposed to work?
Help would be much appreciated. I have wanted to make this amazing opportunity for computer-assisted art production my primary new hobby, but the sledding has been excruciating thus far. It is like every basic step is a puzzle to be solved.
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Comments
Okay, let me jump in and give you some "quick" help.
First, if you are doing something for Genesis, be sure Genesis is clicked on. In the Scene tab, make sure Genesis is highlighted in gold.
That's what it means by select an item. Just make sure it IS selected, and not something like just the head. Sometimes you might think the entire figure is selected, but it might just be the part you clicked on.
Don't rely on metadata for the searches- you might find it's easier to go to Content Library, then go to Products - things are listed alphabetically. I can always find things there when nothing works in the Smart Content section. I feel your pain!
One tip- if you ARE using Smart Content, you can right click and chose "view products which work with this" and it will give you all associated products. Or you can go to "product page" if you right click the object in the Smart Content (if you don't know the name of the product that has what you're seeing. You may see a pot and not know where it came from, so that's a handy tool so you can find pots from the same set.
If Smart Content and searches are failing like that, it usually means your Content Management Service (a background program that always runs on your computer) has gone >clunk< — it happens occasionally. Open your Task Manager and you should find the CMS in the Processes tab. I can't remember the exact process name, but it is pretty obviously something to do with DAZ|Studio. Is it listed as running?
Have you watched the quickstart videos? I found them to be very helpful to get an overview on the program.
"CLUNK" eh? I love it when you get so technical! (LOL) I think that summarizes it nicely though- and the best way to put it!
Yes, this sounds like a CMS issue...unfortunately they aren't too uncommon...
Try starting the DAZContentManagementService from Task Manager>Services. Hopefully, your Smart Content will work fine after doing that. In case that doesn't fix things, you can find some more in-depth troubleshooting information here: https://helpdaz.zendesk.com/entries/22523891-Trouble-shooting-the-Smart-Content-Pane
You can also access your content through the Content Library pane..this is useful for items that don't have smart content (including some old products and things acquired from other stores or sources), and some people just ignore Smart Content and prefer to work from the Content Library. Within the Content Library, look in DAZ Studio Formats for Genesis products, and Poser Formats for most other content. These areas of the Content Library do not rely on the CMS.
Deja Vu. I've had similar problems with MetaData. I latched on this advice eagerly to see if it would help me.
4.0 used to be on my system, but I never really got around to using DS 4.0 because 4.5 came out so soon after. But the advice I got was that it wasn't necessary to uninstall 4.0, just install over the top of it. Was that ill advised? Anyway, while I had it, 4.0 always showed the MetaData icons without me having to do anything to get them. There were already a lot of MetaData items there, though I barely installed anything additional before I went to 4.5. But 4.5 never showed me MetaData, even on the first day.
Here's my experiences from following the advice given about a bad Content pane. My comments are in brackets.
***
ADVICE 1
"One tip- if you ARE using Smart Content, you can right click and chose “view products which work with this” and it will give you all associated products. Or you can go to “product page” if you right click the object in the Smart Content (if you don’t know the name of the product that has what you’re seeing. You may see a pot and not know where it came from, so that’s a handy tool so you can find pots from the same set."
[I tried to do this myself. I'm not sure what point is suggested for the right-click. When I right-click on the Genesis figure, there is no menu offer that says "view products which work with this.” If the tip actually means right-click on the Smart Content pane, there is no menu given, except a "refresh" option that doesn't change anything when clicked.]
***
ADVICE 2
"If Smart Content and searches are failing like that, it usually means your Content Management Service (a background program that always runs on your computer) has gone >clunk< — it happens occasionally. Open your Task Manager and you should find the CMS in the Processes tab. I can’t remember the exact process name, but it is pretty obviously something to do with DAZ|Studio. Is it listed as running?"
[On the main tab of the Task Manger there is nothing listed for Daz Studio except the DAZSTUDIO.exe; to find DazContent I had to look at the Services tab. More on that below.}
***
ADVICE 3
"Try starting the DAZContentManagementService from Task Manager>Services. Hopefully, your Smart Content will work fine after doing that. In case that doesn’t fix things, you can find some more in-depth troubleshooting information here: https://helpdaz.zendesk.com/entries/22523891-Trouble-shooting-the-Smart-Content-Pane."
[Among the Services on the Task Manager, there was a listing for DazContent. But when I tried to click it to start, all I got was a message: "Operation could not be completed. Access is denied."
[Next I went to the troubleshooting document (the link given above). It didn't really say what to do after the DazContent item in the Task Manager Service tab failed to start. Regardless, I did what they suggested one do with the Content "Database Maintenance Window" but nothing did any good. It seemed a forlorn hope anyway, with the DazContent service still dead in the Task Manager.]
Is an uninstall and reinstall is the only option left? I'd prefer to stay with 4.5 until I learned it, but that means using the same old installation files that I used before. But uninstalling is a drastic step. I understand that DIM can now install large programs, but can DIM reinstall 4.5 if there is no DazStudio already on the system (due to uninstall)? Or should I get 4.6? I have so many of Dreamlight's tutorials for 4.5 already; there are none yet for 4.6.
I'd benefit from some opinions more informed than mine.
Shouldn't be a problem, I've always just installed over whenever there's an update to D|S itself. What you should always uninstall the old version of first, though, are any extra plugins you might be using. These aren't removed by the D|S installer, and every now and then a new version's changes include files that aren't in the old version, so they won't be overwritten and might cause Weird Stuff™ to happen. Uninstalling the old plugins solves this.
Shouldn't be a problem, I've always just installed over whenever there's an update to D|S itself. What you should always uninstall the old version of first, though, are any extra plugins you might be using. These aren't removed by the D|S installer, and every now and then a new version's changes include files that aren't in the old version, so they won't be overwritten and might cause Weird Stuff™ to happen. Uninstalling the old plugins solves this.
Thanks for the valuable advice. But to get rid of the incompatible plugins, will a simple uninstall of the whole DS program zap them (as I assume you mean), or does a person have to hunt them down individually? (If the latter is the case, where do Daz plugins install?)
No, what I meant is you do need to uninstall the plugins first — only the ones that had separate installers, i.e. not installed as part of D|S itself — then install the new D|S over the old version, then download the new plugin versions and install them. (One common oops used to be to reinstall the old plugins without downloading the new versions; this Doesn't Work™ in a wide variety of interesting and amusing-to-onlookers ways.)
You find the plugin uninstallers on the Start button, then click on "All Programs", then when the folder list pops up select DAZ3D>DAZStudio4>Installed Plugins. The uninstallers you need are in that folder.