I use to be heavily into 3D rendering programs back in the day learning the skills of the trade on Bryce 5 and Poser Pro 6. One of the first things that gave me trouble right away with Daz Studio was the apparently redundant folder tree and me being use to unzipping Figures(Victoria) for Poser and her clothing and material files directly into the runtime folder and that was that. Can someone please tell tell me the correct path to unzip files like this into?

For Windows the data and Runtime and any folders at the same level of the zip go into the content directory you wish to use (e.g. /Documents/Daz 3D/Studio/My Library/) where they will merge with the matching existing folders. Macs need to do the same, but they can't just drag the folders in as that will replace the existing folders rather than merging with them.

And if you elect to use DIM then the default content library folder is My DAZ 3D Library. That is another option to installing DAZ 3D specific content rather than manual manipulation.

If the zip is set up for Install Manager - freebies and content from other stores rarely are.

Although the My Daz 3d Library is used by default by Install manager the other folder is still there, and is the default for saving and for user files and is recommended for non-Install manager installs (though some content, such as ExP Morph expansions for Victoria 4 etc., does need to go to the same content directory as the base)

Thank you I'll try again. I should have known that that the pathways from other stores and contributors would be all jumbled up. I'll just have to put the files in each folder manually. (oh joy)

Hi there,  here is a small tutorial that may help you understand the Daz Studio folder structure more clearly:

Manually installing Daz Studio content

Hope this helps!

Appreciate the tutorial, really help me a lot to understand Daz Studio.

The advice in that link is kind of crap.

Thanks for all of your advice! I'll try each one of them and see how it goes. 

The Content folder will only be found in ZIP files downloaded directly from DAZ3d; their intention was for the user to use DAZ Install Manager (DIM) to directly install content into DS or any other application that supports those files.  Some 3rd party vendors have been totally guilty of placing the standard DAZ library folders within either 'My Library' or 'My DAZ 3D Library' parent folders which lead to complete confusion for anyone manually unzipping their content directly into DS.  My suggestion, any content directly obtained from DAZ3D, use DIM to install.  There is a small learning curve to set it up but it will do an efficient job placing the folders where they belong.  DIM will generate a secondary library parent folder called 'My DAZ 3D Library' that can be linked to DS.  All other 3rd party content should be inspected thoroughly; those cannot be processed through DIM and need to be manually and properly installed into the DS library.

I have setup my DAZ Content directory, so that none of it is stored on the C: drive in my private profile.  I do this because:

1. If I update or reload Windows, I do not have to worry (as much) about wiping out my content.

2. Is easier to manage directory permissions, do backups, and relocate the Content to another computer.

3. The DAZ content directory can get quite large, which is why I do not recommend storing it on C:.  If you run out of room on C:, you might not be able to boot your system.  It is a good rule of thumb to keep your data (DAZ, Financial, Personal, Porn, etc.) on a separate drive from the operating system and programs.  

Setup your DAZ content directory where YOU think it best belongs, then adjust DS, DIM, and DAZ Central accordingly.

If you are using Windows, the data and Runtime, as well as any folders at the same level of the zip, are extracted and placed in the content directory you want to use where they will blend with the existing files. Macs must do the same, but they cannot just drag the folders in, as this will replace rather than merge the current directories.

Oliver | 

Great tutorial, your work is very much appreciated. Thanks.

It all depends if your using Windows/Linux/Mac, I have opened zip files mainly on Windows. What do you use?

vbnm098 posted at 5:02 PM Mon, 18 October 2021 - #4429075

Hi there,  here is a small tutorial that may help you understand the Daz Studio folder structure more clearly:

Manually installing Daz Studio content

Hope this helps!

Thanks, man, I was looking for this kind of tutorial on the net, and finally, you give it for free. 

Step 1. I basically unzip the product in an empty folder.

Step 2. Open up the content folder and select all and "Cut".

Step 3. Open up My DAZ 3D Library.

Step 4. "Paste" into My DAZ 3D folder and I'm good to go. It's that simple, at least that's how I do it.

During the install process of DAZ Studio, you can see two install targets:
One is DAZ Studio 4 x.xx, which is the folder, that contains the app exe.
the other one is 
Studio (at least in my case) which is the folder, that contains your assets. You can set the path, where ever you want on your computer, EXCEPT your DAZ Studio 4.x. folder.
Do NOT install your assets there ! Keep App folder and assets folder separate from each other!
Your assets can go again either into "My Library", "Content" or "My DAZ 3D Library"
I highly recommend 7zip as a unzipping app.
Open your zip file and select and unzipp everything under "content" or "My Library" or that contains "data" "product/Vendor name" and "Runtime" into your asset path.
Done!

I have installed DAZ on my C drive and My DAZ 3d Library on my external drive, E. All of the DAZ content from the DAZ site installs with DIM without any issues. The problem I'm having is that I install content from  Renderosity manually into the appropriate folders in My DAZ 3d Library and I can see them there.  However none of the Renderosity content appears when I open DAZ. I've clearly overlooked something major, but can't tell what I've missed. This is the third computer I've installed DAZ on, and the only one that I've messed up. Any suggestions to get the items to appear in DAZ?

Where exactly are the Renderosity files? There is probably a Runtime folder in there, and maybe a Data folder - where have they ended up?

Richard, I manually install  the Renderosity files to E:\My DAZ 3D Library.  They're not visible to DAZ.

When I check Content Directory Manager, the file paths for both User/my name, and User/Public are still both on C drive.

So you have E:\My DAZ 3D Library\Runtime\somefolders for the textures and E:\My DAZ 3D Library\data\author\product\ for the asset files?

Richard, I see now that E:\My DAZ 3D Library is missing the Runtime folder! This is strange, because I did download the texture files from the Renderositiy vendor.

Can I just add a new Runtime folder and install the texture files?

What I found is that I needed to add a path to the external drive in Content Directory Manager under DAZ Studio Formats. Now DAZ sees the external drive and the manually installed assets from Renderosity. The problem now is that I have two separate My DAZ 3D Library file trees in DAZ: one sees only DIM installed assets and the other sees only manually installed assets.

I would like to have one My DAZ 3d Library that sees both the DIM installations and the manual installations.

If they are in separate places then they have to have separate entries, the only way to consolidate them into one would eb to merge the folders on disc. You could rename the manual folder to something else ("My Daz 3D Library" is just the default name, the name isn't functionally siginificant) and update the setting in Daz Studio, which would at least make it easier to keep track of which folder was which when loading content. You can also use categories and products to hav a single list, but of course that means categorising or setting up products for things that lacked metadata.

As it turns out, having the two different libraries isn't as much of an inconvenience as I thought it would be.

All in all, I'm satisfied that I can now easily open all of my assets in DAZ on this laptop. It works a bit differently from my desktop, but it's not a big deal.

Thanks for the help!