Hi. If anyone has the time to help me in plain english please do.
I have just installed Daz3 (free version) and have had a quick look. Confusing pathways to find things.
Anyway, I have been collecting lots of free goodies to get me started but can't figure out where to put them. I have unzipped the files and now have loads of yellow folders with all sorts of folders within them sitting around with nowhere to go!

I read through some posts on the forums here but didn't understand the answers!!! They talk about runtime paths and such... no clue there.

Basically I would like to know WHERE I put the people, objects, poses, clothing etc that I have collected. I would love to have simple folders like people, clothes, vehicles, scenes and each one then opens up further with all the stuff in it.
Is this possible? So far I am totally lost but then have only been fiddling for 3 days!

Not Daz minded yet so any help much appreciated! (plain speak please!)  ;o)
Thanks!

If you have a look at these folders you should find many of them will contain 'Runtime' directories. I usually place these 'Runtime' directories into a folder called 'C:/DAZ3/contents/' and then point my add them to my preferences from within DAZ Studio. Run DAZ and click on the edit, preferences, and select Directories. Click ADD and then find the directory with my files. When you have done all this you should then have the files available to you within the Contents Tab.

Once you have loaded the DAZ program you can change the folders names from there to something that you can relate to easier. Some folder name will be like...RM_V4_BDSol, rename it to Soldier_V4_Pose. as an example.

I try to keep third-party files separate from my main program folder as it will be easier to remove them later if you decide you no longer wish to have them.

Hope this is of help to you.

If you you have Poser, then study the RUNTIME directory structure. DAZ Studio uses the same one as well as it's own CONTENT directory.

Thank you. Opened my Daz folder and took a good look around. Now even more confused.
My 'content' folder has a content folder inside it! My 'runtime' folder has another runtime inside it!
I have 2 'people' folders in different places... I'm even more confused now.

I understand the renaming so that I know what the folder contains, that makes better sense than the way it is at the moment.

But.. can I copy all the files that seem to be scattered all over the place into new logical ones that make sense to me? And if so where would these be? In 'runtime' or 'content'...err... which one??!!

Would this still work provided I pointed Daz to it as you suggested or would the program not find half the stuff if I move it all around?

LOL sorry... as I said COMPLETLEY new to Daz
many thanks for your patience!

Experience has shown me NOT to move the directories from where they are as the files look for addons and additional information and if it can't find them, you will have to load them individually. But you can move some stuff around to better suit your needs, and these are the Poses, Props and Character folders.

I have moved all my character morphs into one folder... looks like this:
...Runtime/Libraries/Characters/DAZ People/Victoria4/
...Runtime/Libraries/Characters/DAZ People/Michael4/
...Runtime/Libraries/Characters/DAZ People/Aiko4/

...Runtime/Libraries/Pose/Morphs/Caleb4/
...Runtime/Libraries/Pose/Morphs/Hayden/
...Runtime/Libraries/Pose/Morphs/Mira4/

...Runtime/Libraries/Props/Themes/Stonemason/Dark_Room/
...Runtime/Libraries/Props/Themes/Stonemason/Urban_Ruins/
...Runtime/Libraries/Props/Clothing/Victoria/Armour/
...Runtime/Libraries/Props/Clothing/Michael/Armour/

Do NOT move any of the other directories under 'Libraries/...' or you will find problems loading MATs and MORPHs to your items.

If in doubt....leave alone! Best solution.

This is a problem with different suppliers of files having various formats and directories. I wish they followed a standard that suits us all, but that is another story. My best solution for you is to set up another Directory elsewhere for additional files and copy third party files there. If you have purchased them from the DAZ website, they are mainly executables and will copy directly into the '...Contents/' directory.

Confusing.... YES!

There is a search feature built into DAZ Studio that you can always refer to from time to time if you cannot find things, but then suppliers don't always name their stuff accordingly. Best of luck... :)

if you are a total newbie, forget making a multi runtime Poser set-up. if you study this tutorial and use the Content Manager. life will be far simpler.forum.daz3d.com/viewtopic.php
for future reference, when you 'unzip' the files, don't unzip to any old where. when it asks you where to unzip the file, point it to ROOT( which disc and where you have installed DS) DazDAZ3 content if you are using Vista as your OS, DS3 will install the Content folder in Documents by default and it would probably be best to install all new content to that folder.

if you use the Content Manager, you will only need 1 runtime.
the Content Manager allows you to organise your content any way you like without moving it about on your drive

Thank you all so much. I have read and taken all that in and also just downloaded that link to the content manager tutorial.
I will study it and then try organising my files. Hopefully once done I will be able to start learning how to create!
I will let you know what happens!
Many thanks for all your help.... it's appreciated.
Hugz!

Hello again.
I tried using the content manager first but it didn't work for some reason. I was following the instructions to add the python figure, as suggested dragged and dropped it to the 'animals>land' folder but it wasn't there!

Then I found the 'search for new content' setting and used that... it got to reading no.19 (file I think the popup box disappeared too fast to read) then the program simply closed itself down!!! On re-opening it hadn't found anything!

Then I followed Avros instructions. That took some doing but was really hopeful of stuff showing up.... nope! I have clothing in two different places, animals are.. god knows! And so on.

Maybe I should uninstal the program completley and start again?? I am getting so frustrated now. I was so looking forward to using this program.

I have a lot of stuff I have collected that I want to add and organise but am getting to the point where I don't know what is where anymore.

Further tips are most welcome.. whilst I still have some hair left! GRRRRRRRR.......
Thanks

It's good to see that you aren't giving up with this issue. It sounds like you need a video tutorial that will show you step by step.  Have you tried looking on Youtube for a tutorial that can help you out? Sometimes you can find some good video tutorials.

Frederick
Poser By Design

Thank you FightingWolf, I never go on YouTube so hadn't even thought of looking there!
I will check it out and post back.
Many thanks.  :o)
p.s Is Poser different to Daz? I assume if it is that I can't use poser characters in my program?

RubyDancingmoon

you can use the Poser figures in Studio, but the newest ones that came with Poser 8 have slightly different rigging so may behave a bit off when posing. nothing that a little tweaking won't cure.
the textures may need a little tweak in the surface tab as well.

Daz can open almost any poser format files... and also any obj. files (though you have to import them manually if they aren't poser/daz formated)...

To install new content...

1. open the file with winzip... if you look in the winzip screen you'll be able to see any included folders.... look for the one marked runtime and unzip that folder to my documents or where ever.... after that...

2. open the daz program folders  (for example C drive > Daz > Studio > Content) then cut and paste the runtime folder you unzipped to the content folder in daz... if everything has been set up properly by the file creator then it'll all go to the right place then on it's own....

3. start daz studio and have it search for installed content... if everything went ok your new content will be in the list for you to load and play with...

I hope this helps... :)

I will say , this thread has been helpful to me. I hope I have the skills to follow the through with the directions given.  I usually stuff every thing into the old Poser 4 program I have. I have had the same trouble understanding Daz folder system , this my help me.

I think this is my first post here at renderosity, been a member for years . Have looked at a few threads in the past.  Thanks.

Hello. Thank you theschell I will give that a try. Hadn't posted back because I am still getting lost trying to place then locate any new content I add.

I did try getting daz to look for new content but everytime I do it gets so far and then the program just closes itself down completely without any warning. When I open it back up it hasn't found anything at all.

I have even uninstalled daz completely then reloaded twice now... still no luck.
Most frustrating!

Thanks!

there is a tip that stops the crash when doing a search.
find your   'application data'   folder.  usually in the    **documents and SettingsAdministrator ** folder,
in that folder you should find a   DAZ3D   folder, open it and find the **'Studio3'  ** folder.
in that folder you should find 'resources' in that folder is one called   'ContentMapFiles', rename it and make a new empty folder with the original name.

if the resources folder is not there,
look in   ** DAZ3D  **  in  Program Files.

no more crashes when searching for content!

hope you can follow that  happy smiley

Hope you don't mind me borrowing your thread.
Similar and related problem.  I've been at this most of 2 years now and as such have a good grasp of the librarys and structure but have run into something that's both frustrating and puzzling.  I have DAZ/Studio 3 accessing the Poser 7/runtime without any problems but it doesn't seem to want to access the Poser 7/downloads library.  I have it now just accessing Poser 7/runtime and the DAZ content but can't get the downloads library to show up.
And you thought that it was only newbies that got confused over this! ;)

So are you seelcting the Downloads folder as a Poser content directory (which means you have to click the DAZ Studio content directories button at the top of Edit>Preferences>Directories to get to the Poser list)? Although it is a bad idea to have one content directory nested inside another as it makes relative paths ambiguous - if you save a scene or preset calling for textures in the Downloads runtime both

/Runtime/Textures/Somefolder/Somefile.jpg

and

/Downloads/Runtime/Textures/Somefolder/Somefile.jpg

will be valid specifications of the location, and both will work on your machine as it is now, but the one starting with Downloads will not work if you move the files or if they are something you set up and give out as a freebie or a commercial product.

As the people at E-frontier found out they shouldn't be using relative paths anyways since there are no ambiguitys in a full path name.  It can really botch things up if a file gets exported with path name.  You should have seen the mess it casused when Poser went to full path names from relative ones. 
I tried telling it that that library was a Poser library but it didn't seem to take.  I ended up with a mess of entrys none of which are useful instead of what I told it.  I think I'll load the new update and try once again.  Could be that it's something as simple as a missed mouse click.

Hello again.
Well I did get rid of daz from my machine, cleaned out all the odd files etc and then re-loaded fresh. I then followed the tip 3anson gave me above and that seems to have stopped the machine from crashing when looking for new files. THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR THAT ONE!

All I have to do now is sort all my goodies so they are where I can find them and use them.
That was the original problem all along....Will come back and let you know!

Oh and bigbearaaa - no I don't mind you borrowing my thread.. we are all learning here - me especially!
Many thanks