hey, guys and dolls, i've purchased content from you and it rests in my download folder because nothing puts it into daz studio so I can use it! seems like you should supporrt your products all the way and tell me how to install them. PLEASE HELP.

don

here;s a scewwnahor od my dkiad fikder showing dome of my purchases from you, and victoria 4 stuff too.

don

Which content folder is DS using?

As for content downloaded from Renderosity for DS, those are the folders that have the 'ds' letters in the title.  Without knowing how the folder hierarchy is set up within the ZIP files, it is hard to advise how to proceed.  Screencap an open ZIP file.  Also, answer the question I proposed at the beginning of this comment.

MAC's have been notorious for overwriting folders, not merging them.  I don't know if your OS version supports merges, so it will get tricky installing the Hivewire Big Dog.

Which content folder is DS using?

I dunno, how do i find that out?

zipped ds file: is that good enuf or do i need to open more?

don

To determine where your DS Content Library is located, open DS and navigate to your Content Library tab as illustrated below.  If you haven't rearranged the UI from its default settings, at the top of the left-hand column you will find the DAZ Studio Formats.  There may or may not be a list of Library folder selections, hover your mouse cursor the Library name and you should get a popup banner with the location of that Library Folder.  I am working off of Windows 11, but the software should be identical.

Once you locate your DS content library, navigate to it and open the folder.  The hierarchy folder structure should resemble the illustration below.  Don't be concerned if your folder looks nothing like the screencap; depending on what content you have, the folders will vary.

Below, I have 2 explorer windows open, the left is the DS Content Library and on the right is a ZIP file that contains Hivewire House Cat.  Sorry, I don't have the Big Dog.  Compare the 2 folders.  

There will be some folders with similar names, that is how the DS content folder hierarchy is arranged.

In my particular situation, I can manually move or copy the Animals folder into the DS Library without any conflict or challenge.  As I mentioned before, MACs have a tendency to overwrite folders rather than merging them, a very annoying feature.  The next folder down in the ZIP file is 'data' but the 'data' folder contains subfolders for other produces, so you'll need to open both those folders to see what it contains.  In the illustration below, there is no HiveWire 3D folder in the DS library, so I can manually move/copy that ZIP file over.

At this point, you should be able to see the pattern of manually installing 3rd party DAZ content into DAZStudio.  If you take your time and think it through, you should be able get your purchases installed correctly.

well, not quite. i unzipped the big dog file and attempted to copy it into animals, but close is not apparently good enuff...

any suggestions? I tried apple help and they couldn't figger it out. maybe you can?

thanks

don

I see many confusing things in your screencap but no explanation of what you actually attempted, how you attempted it, and what actually happened.  Apple help will not have the knowledge about installing DS content, so that's a waste of time.  If you are trying to install directly into an open program, that will not work either.  Your installation process must be from folder to folder, there is no other way.  What part of my little tutorial did you not understand?

First, clean up this folder; you have too many cluttering duplicates.  

Show me a screencap of your DS content library.

I also recommend that you go to YouTube and look through the different videos on DS content installation.

installing 3rd party content in daz studio in Mac - YouTube

hey, guess what, folder to folder like you said, and I successfully dragged big dog unzipped into the ANImal folder as shown in screencap...but bigdog doesn't show up in figures....how can this be? I was CERTAIN I had done it and then downfallen when it didn't work...

i see you posted some new stuff. i'l fo back and see if that helps...

don

Smart Content tab is for content that has metadata information for DS.  Hivewire Big Dog is not a DAZ product, it is a 3rd party product created for DS, it will not have the necessary metadata.  In your right panel, you do not have the Hivewire Big Dog folder selected.  Select that and see if the figure appears.

yep, now what?

don

Did you find it in DS?  You're only showing a browser window in your screencap.

IIRC, MAC's solution to the overwrite issue in their OS is to generate a copy with a numeral designation separate from the intended merging file/folder.  That is why MAC users manually deep-dive their zipped content and move/copy those files that don't exist in the target Library folders.  It's an inefficient process that frustrates the end-users when searching for content within the software.