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MAC and 3rd party files - Where do you put what?

brycestar_05bd79147fbrycestar_05bd79147f Posts: 4
in Technical Help (nuts n bolts)

Hi, I'm running DAZ3D 4.12 on a Mac OS Mojave 10.14.5. Easy enough to install products from the DAZ site with the installer but when I download clothing and props from a 3rd party site like Renderosity I have no idea what to put where and even if the folders manage to show up in the content library of DAZ, I can click on them and keep going deeper and deeper to folders within them but ultimately nothing shows up in the library pane. I don't expect them to show up in the Smart Content, but need help getting them to show up in the Content Library. Once I download a folder of material from a website, what exactly goes where? There are Documentation folders and Runtime folders that have folders in them (Geometries, libraries, textures) and within them more folders. Geometries eventually leads to a folder that has .obj, libraries leads to folders called Character that eventually leads to .cr2 and .png files, and Pose leads to a folder that has .png and .pz2 files. Textures leads to folder that has .jpg files. 

Any insight or help would be appreciated as I have been unable to find any online tutorials, videos, or text instructions on how to do this for MAC users.

Thanks!

Comments

  • mavantemavante Posts: 734
    edited April 2020

    First and foremost: Have your Daz Studio content directory (whatever you've named it, commonly named "My Daz 3D Library") fully backed up, and back it up frequently. And the following is only a friendly account of how I have had success doing it, NOT "expert advice." IANAE (I Am Not An Expert). Okay, with that out of the way, now:

    When you download models for Daz Studio from other sites (or even from Daz) and unzip them, most often you will find in the resulting hierarchy of folders one named "Content." Where that folder is in the hierarchy can vary, depending on the source. (You might find a few that have the "Content" folder named something else, but that's relatively rare. With many products from Rendo, e.g., the top-level folder in the zip file is, itself, the "content" folder, but named as the product, not named "Content." Yes, it's confusing. )

    Open the "Content" folder in a Finder window, or twirl it down to reveal its contents (see first attached image). Inside that "Content" folder will be a variety of other folders. In many cases it will include folders named "data," "People," and "Runtime," or some combination of those, and often "Readme's" and/or "Documentation."

    Important: Do not drill down any further.

    In a separate Finder window, open your own content folder for Daz Studio content, no matter what you've called it, typically "My Daz 3D Library." It should already have folders in it that have the same names as the folders you will see inside the "Content" folder of whatever you have downloaded.

    To install the downloaded product to your own Daz Studio content folder, select every folder inside of the downloaded-product's "Content" folder (Shift-click or Command-click to select them all). You should be looking at something similar to the first attached image.

    Let go of Shift or Command, and then (VERY IMPORTANT) HOLD DOWN THE "OPTION" KEY, and drag and drop those selected folders to your own Daz Studio content directory ("My Daz 3D Library," or whatever you've named it).

    Finder will tell you it's preparing to COPY the items over. After a while (depending on how many files are involved, in the source and target directories) a requestor will pop up, asking you to select one of several options. MOST LIKELY it will be what is shown in the second attached image (click on that image to open it where you can see it fully). Tick the "Apply to all" box and click on (VERY IMPORTANT) "Merge." That will properly put all items where they belong, inicluding all subdirectories.

    There's a possibility that the requstor that pops up will initially have "Skip" as the fist button, and NO OPTIOIN FOR MERGE. If so, I think that means that you're trying to install something that's already installed. If that happens, select "Skip." You may have hit "Skip" several times, but then you usually will get the options shown in the second image attached, with "Merge" as an option.

    Please note: If you do not hold down the "Option" key when dragging the folders over, or fail to select "Merge," you very likely will ERASE by overwriting the same-named folders in your main content directory.

    Hope that helps. Good luck with it.

     

    ReadyToCopy.png
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    Stop-Replace-Merge.png
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    Post edited by mavante on
  • brycestar_05bd79147fbrycestar_05bd79147f Posts: 4

    Hi Mavante, thank you for helping me with this. So most of the folders of things I've downloaded from Renderosity only have documentation and runtime folders. The documentation is the license and says where to put stuff (but not very helpful). In my "Content Library" which is labeled as "My DAZ 3D Library" there is a folder named Runtime and a bunch of other folders. I'm not sure if I've already made a mess of my library. Should I try to merge my new runtime folders into the runtime folder that's already there? Here's a picture of my library. Thanks again for your help!

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  • Richard HaseltineRichard Haseltine Posts: 100,739

    If the files are in Poser format (Runtiem folder only) then they will be in DS in the Content Library pane under Poser Formats>My Daz 3D Library - if they are in the right place. Ypu've blurred the rest of the folder names, but squinting I think you hae a Data folder in the left-hand column - if the My Daz 3D Library folder is in the content directory then you need to take everything that is in it and place it directly in the content directory.

  • brycestar_05bd79147fbrycestar_05bd79147f Posts: 4

    No Data folder in the left hand column - I think the folder you were referring to says DAZ 3D and that has the Install Manager folder in it. Here's a bigger picture of the folders without a blur (I was just trying to make the path clearer to see). I was able to move some stuff into the Poser area where content is and can see the thumbnails in the content library but when I click on them nothing attaches to the figure. Most of these say they need Victoria 4.2 which is one of the figures I have and am trying to modify and add clothes and hair and then start building a scene.

    Screen Shot 2020-04-14 at 9.00.04 AM.png
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  • mavantemavante Posts: 734
    edited April 2020
    brycestar_05bd79147f said:

    Hi Mavante, thank you for helping me with this. So most of the folders of things I've downloaded from Renderosity only have documentation and runtime folders

     

    Go to the Renderosity pages for the products you're referring to. They likely will say in the info at the top (below the promo photos) that it is for Poser, and will not list Daz Studio. See the attached screen grab (just a random product for Poser). If the product is for Poser, and doesn't list Daz Studio as compatible software, then the only folder you need to merge over will be named "Runtime."

    Some products will be for both DS and Poser. One folder inside the zip (the folder for Daz Studio) will contain some combination of the usual DS directories (data, People, Props, etc.) and will ALSO have a folder named "Runtime."

    The other folder (for Poser) will have ONLY a "Runtime" folder in it. (There may or may not be a "Documentation" or "ReadMe's" folder inside either one of them, because there is no standard that is followed other than the Wild West.)

    How many of those Poser-specific products also work in Daz Studio is anybody's guess. Good luck!

    PoserProductInfo.png
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    Post edited by mavante on
  • 4jazzy14jazzy1 Posts: 17

    Just wanted to say thank you for this explantion on how to download these files.... 

  • IazaizleIIazaizleI Posts: 0
    mavante said:

    First and foremost: Have your Daz Studio content directory (whatever you've named it, commonly named "My Daz 3D Library") fully backed up, and back it up frequently. And the following is only a friendly account of how I have had success doing it, NOT "expert advice." IANAE (I Am Not An Expert). Okay, with that out of the way, now:

    When you download models for Daz Studio from other sites (or even from Daz) and unzip them, most often you will find in the resulting hierarchy of folders one named "Content." Where that folder is in the hierarchy can vary, depending on the source. (You might find a few that have the "Content" folder named something else, but that's relatively rare. With many products from Rendo, e.g., the top-level folder in the zip file is, itself, the "content" folder, but named as the product, not named "Content." Yes, it's confusing. )

    Open the "Content" folder in a Finder window, or twirl it down to reveal its contents (see first attached image). Inside that "Content" folder will be a variety of other folders. In many cases it will include folders named "data," "People," and "Runtime," or some combination of those, and often "Readme's" and/or "Documentation."

    Important: Do not drill down any further.

    In a separate Finder window, open your own content folder for Daz Studio content, no matter what you've called it, typically "My Daz 3D Library." It should already have folders in it that have the same names as the folders you will see inside the "Content" folder of whatever you have downloaded.

    To install the downloaded product to your own Daz Studio content folder, select every folder inside of the downloaded-product's "Content" folder (Shift-click or Command-click to select them all). You should be looking at something similar to the first attached image.

    Let go of Shift or Command, and then (VERY IMPORTANT) HOLD DOWN THE "OPTION" KEY, and drag and drop those selected folders to your own Daz Studio content directory ("My Daz 3D Library," or whatever you've named it).

    Finder will tell you it's preparing to COPY the items over. After a while (depending on how many files are involved, in the source and target directories) a requestor will pop up, asking you to select one of several options. MOST LIKELY it will be what is shown in the second attached image (click on that image to open it where you can see it fully). Tick the "Apply to all" box and click on (VERY IMPORTANT) "Merge." That will properly put all items where they belong, inicluding all subdirectories.

    There's a possibility that the requstor that pops up will initially have "Skip" as the fist button, and NO OPTIOIN FOR MERGE. If so, I think that means that you're trying to install something that's already installed. If that happens, select "Skip." You may have hit "Skip" several times, but then you usually will get the options shown in the second image attached, with "Merge" as an option.

    Please note: If you do not hold down the "Option" key when dragging the folders over, or fail to select "Merge," you very likely will ERASE by overwriting the same-named folders in your main content directory.

    Hope that helps. Good luck with it.

     

    Thank you, been looking for this comment for a week. You win the internetz!
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