Poser runtime structure help requested
Fabe
Posts: 222
I downloaded a prop from shareCGI but I'm having trouble getting it working with DAZ 4 due to having no idea where to put the runtime folder. The included Text files say it follows the Poser runtime structure but I have no idea how that works. I've already contacted the creator and they suggested asking here.
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If you look under "My Library" you'll see a runtime directory there. Just put the contents of the zip's runtime inside there (e.g., ~\My Library\runtime\).
That should do the trick. Keep in mind it won't appear in smart content though, you'll have to look for it under Poser Formats.
-- Adam
Well I've tried putting it into every runtime folder I could fine in my documents/DAZ folder but it's still not working. All I've found is a empty folder in poser formats-->studio--->poses with no content.
What are the folders in the zip? Where is your content directory?
That usually means you're looking at a Poser Library folder mis-defined as a D|S content folder. Open the Content Directory Manager (right-click on the label — not in the tab — of the Content Library tab, and open the categories for "DAZ Studio formats" and "Poser formats". If you can post a screengrab, that might also clear up the "every runtime folder you could find" part, which doesn't sound right. There are easy ways to go horribly wrong in setting up content locations, but most of them are just as easily fixed.
Nope I got more then one runtime folder
documents/DAZ3D/studio/runtime
documents/DAZ3D/studio/my library/runtime
documents/DAZ3D/studio/my library/my library/runtime
That usually means you're looking at a Poser Library folder mis-defined as a D|S content folder. Open the Content Directory Manager (right-click on the label — not in the tab — of the Content Library tab, and open the categories for "DAZ Studio formats" and "Poser formats". If you can post a screengrab, that might also clear up the "every runtime folder you could find" part, which doesn't sound right. There are easy ways to go horribly wrong in setting up content locations, but most of them are just as easily fixed.
Like this?
Like this?
That's it, and I see at least two things you could (probably) easily fix that would cut down on your problems. The path pointing to Program Files will give you major problems, eventually if not already, if you have Vista or Win7. The easiest fix, if you don't want to try merging the content folders (which can be tricky) is to move the one in Program Files to alongside (not inside) your My Library folder in your Documents folder. Is this an old D|S3 content location? If it is, one good place for it would be /Documents/DAZ3D/Studio3/Content/ — this change of folder name from Studio to Studio3 would make it plain in your Content Library tab exactly which pile of stuff you're looking at. Add this location to your Content Directory Manager for both D|S and Poser, and remove the paths to Program Files.
In your reply upthread you listed three runtime locations — incidentally, only the middle one is correct — but you only have one of them listed, fortunately the right one. In this case merging is easy and almost 100% safe; drag the contents of each extra Runtime into the proper Runtime. (Note that if you accidentally drag one Runtime inside another Runtime, this will give you a whole new set of things going wrong. You want the contents of the wrong Runtimes inside the right one, along with whatever was already there.)
I think that makes sense. If it doesn't, tell me and I'll have a couple more coffees before I try again. :roll:
That's it, and I see at least two things you could (probably) easily fix that would cut down on your problems. The path pointing to Program Files will give you major problems, eventually if not already, if you have Vista or Win7. The easiest fix, if you don't want to try merging the content folders (which can be tricky) is to move the one in Program Files to alongside (not inside) your My Library folder in your Documents folder. Is this an old D|S3 content location? If it is, one good place for it would be /Documents/DAZ3D/Studio3/Content/ — this change of folder name from Studio to Studio3 would make it plain in your Content Library tab exactly which pile of stuff you're looking at. Add this location to your Content Directory Manager for both D|S and Poser, and remove the paths to Program Files.
In your reply upthread you listed three runtime locations — incidentally, only the middle one is correct — but you only have one of them listed, fortunately the right one. In this case merging is easy and almost 100% safe; drag the contents of each extra Runtime into the proper Runtime. (Note that if you accidentally drag one Runtime inside another Runtime, this will give you a whole new set of things going wrong. You want the contents of the wrong Runtimes inside the right one, along with whatever was already there.)
I think that makes sense. If it doesn't, tell me and I'll have a couple more coffees before I try again. :roll:
Well I think I got the second part but I'm not to sure about the first. I Actually have two DAZ folders in my program flies(84) folder, DAZ and DAZ 3D ,the DAZ 3D one has the DAZstudio4 sub folder and I think other might be DAZ 3. The thing is I suffered a hard drive crash awhile back but I can't remember if it was before or after I got DAZ 4 Pro so I don't know if I still have DAZ 3 basic content installed or not so I'm not sure what file folders I should be moving around.
You don't need to worry about the files themselves, just look at each of these DAZ folders in Program Files to see which contains a Content folder — this should be whatever D|S3 stuff you have after your crash recovery. This Content folder is what you need to move into the Documents folder alongside the D|S4 My Library folder as I described above.
As an example, a year or so ago I upgraded to a new computer and copied across my old D|S3 content. My content folders are:
D|S3: /My Documents/DAZ 3D/Studio3/content/
D|S4: /My Documents/DAZ 3D/Studio/My Library/
I too am having a similar problem opening up Poser content I downloaded. When I open up the downloaded content file, I see a "Runtime" folder and inside of that "Runtime" folder, I see the subfolders "Geometries", "libraries", "Support", "textures", and "Weblinks".
When I open up the Runtime folder that is in User/MyDocuments?DAZ3D/Studio/MyLibrary, I also see a "Runtime" folder under which are then the subfolders"Geometries", "libraries", "Support", "textures", and "Weblinks".
Does this mean that I need to place each subfolder from the downloaded file into the corresponding subfolder in DAZ3D (e.g. "ZIP/Runtime/Geometries goes into "MyLibrary/Runtime/Geometries" and so on)? How else do I get the contents of the download into DAZ?
Thanks in advance for your help.
I figured it out. In case there are any other newbs with a similar problem, here's how:
1.) I didn't realize that to add a downloaded object into DAZ, you can't just go to File/Open and then find your download. Usually, you're opening not just, say, an object file, but the textures (colors), and the files that tell DAZ where to put what colors and so on. These files are not bundled into one. They're several, separate sub-files all under one file that should be called "Runtime". If your download didn't put all these subfiles (e.g. geometries, libraries, textures, etc.) under one file called "Runtime", you'll need to make a new folder, call it "Runtime" and then drag and drop them all into it.
2.) You can't just open up an entire folder in DAZ. Why? I don't know. To open up the entire folder and get your model to appear with all of the colors in the right places, you have to go to Edit/Preferences. A new window will open. Click on the "Content Library" tab along the top of the window. Click on the button toward the bottom that says "Content Directory Manager..." A second window opens, listing the "Content Sets". This is where you have to open your downloaded folder from. Of course, it's not there yet. You'll have to put it there.
3.) Click on whichever format the download is. Once you have, you'll see that the button "Add" under the category "Directory" (listed vertically down the left-hand side of the window) is no longer grayed out. Click on it. A third window opens--it looks like the standard Windows Explorer window. Find whatever folder you downloaded your model to. Select it; then, click "Select Folder". The third window disappears and the location of your model should now be listed in the Content Directory Manager window under whichever format you selected when you "add"ed the directory. Click "Accept". The second window disappears, and you are left with the first. Click "Apply" and then "Accept", and the first window disappears.
4.) On the right hand side of the screen, expand out the vertical, grey toolbar. Click on the tab called "Content Library". You should see up at the top a grey subwindow, which in its first column lists "DAZ Studio Formats", "Poser Formats", "Other Import Formats", etc. Click on whichever format type you added your directory and to which you saved your downloaded model. You should see the name of your downloaded model in the second column of the same window. Click through the columns to the right until a thumbnail image of your model appears below in the main window of the Content Library tab.
5.) To add the model to your scene, just click and drag the thumbnail image into the scene. DAZ will take a moment to load it.
Good luck.
Not sure if this will help or not but I have reposted my tutorial on Poser content here:
Dealing With Zipped Poser Content
http://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/5436/
Rather than keep adding the folder you unzipped to to the list of content directories it's better to merge the Runtime from the zip with the one in My Libraries.
The basic idea behind both Poser and DAZ content is that all content resides in one single content or runtime folder. When you add new content, you don't install it anywhere, you install it into the existing folders. DAZ already knows where that content folder is, so it is automatically aware of any new content without you needing to do anything. By default your DAZ format content will go into Documents/Daz 3D/Studio/My Library and Poser format content will go into Runtime, which will be a sub-folder of My Library.
Keeping everything in one library is by far the best approach when you are starting out as some products will only work if they are in the first content directory listed. It is possible to have multiple libraries, but that's an approach used by people with large amounts of content and best left until you have a thorough understanding of how things link together.
OK I got it working thanks for all the help every one .