Absolute paths in DAZ Studio

[Faery_Light]

How do you keep the full path name out of the duf files?
I have my runtime/textures in the main DAZ Studio folder, not the library folder yet it still lists the full path with drive and all.

 

[VortigensBane]

Notepad comes to mind... but only as a last resort. What is the "it" that is listing the full path?

 

[Faery_Light]

The top part where the I D is.
I have to do a search and replace to get rid of it if it is in the "Runtime" line too otherwise I just edit the top line.
But I don't know why it does that.
After I switched the texture folder to the main runtime instead if the "My Library" where somehow it was installed, the runtime lines are fine.

Here is how it should read...
"asset_info" : {
"id" :
"/People/Dawn/Faery_light/FL_Aurore/FL_Aurore_Fc/Aurore_Fc.duf","

But it usually does this...
"asset_info" : {
"id" :
"My Library/People/Dawn/Faery_light/FL_Aurore/FL_Aurore_Fc/Aurore_Fc.duf",".

 

[Faery_Light]

If I just moved all the files straight into the main directory and got rid of the "My Library" directory would that help or hurt?

 

[Miss B]

Well My Library is the same as the old Content folder of DS 3 and before. With DS 4 they renamed it My Library. What I didn't like was the installation of the My Library folder within the My Documents folder. I prefer to have all my content within the DAZ Studio folder, as it was with legacy versions of DS. Not sure who's bright idea that was.

 

[VortigensBane]

I guess I'm out of my depth. I just tried opening a .duf file in Notepad and ended up with goobleygook. Guess that's not the best way to edit the files. Just another guess, though, I think that there might be an option somewhere in the saving content process (a dialogue box comes to mind) which allows you to specify whether to use full paths or just local ones. It's been forever since I tried saving a figure/preset in Studio though, so it's just a hazy memory...

 

[VortigensBane]

Well My Library is the same as the old Content folder of DS 3 and before. With DS 4 they renamed it My Library. What I didn't like was the installation of the My Library folder within the My Documents folder. I prefer to have all my content within the DAZ Studio folder, as it was with legacy versions of DS. Not sure who's bright idea that was.

I didn't like the new folder either, so I changed it...

 

[Faery_Light]

Okay, decided to try it by doing away with the "My Library".
When I install a new update of DS I always name the folder for the program DAZ Studio Pro (what ever version) and use DAZ 3D folder for my content but it had the "My Library" directory to hold the content.
I just transfered the content directly into the DAZ 3D directory and created a duf, no absolute paths to edit...yay!
So now I have it where it should be, yes, yes, yes.

 

[VortigensBane]

Curiouser and curiouser...

 

[Pendraia]

Well My Library is the same as the old Content folder of DS 3 and before. With DS 4 they renamed it My Library. What I didn't like was the installation of the My Library folder within the My Documents folder. I prefer to have all my content within the DAZ Studio folder, as it was with legacy versions of DS. Not sure who's bright idea that was.

I didn't like the new folder either, so I changed it...

Same...my folder for all my stuff is on an external drive.

@FaeryLight, without seeing your file structure I'm confused as to where you might have been saving things. In DS
things aren't normally saved in the runtime folder.

The file paths are normally
My Library/People/Dawn/Clothing. or My Library/People/Dawn/Characters or something similar. The only thing most people use the runtime folder for is textures.

In the file for one of my pieces of clothing this is what is next to the ID
"/People/Dawn/Clothing/Pendraia/SunDressForDawnandDiva/plSunDressDawnDiva.duf"

Hope this helps for the future...

 

[Faery_Light]

Only my textures are in the runtime folder.
Everything else followed the folder structure as it should be except all was in the DAZ 3D folder and "My Library" directory.
The file path is not supposed to have "My Libray" in the ID line, just like you show it here...<<"/People/Dawn/Clothing/Pendraia/SunDressForDawnandDiva/plSunDressDawnDiva.duf">>.
So I just moved everything from the "My Library" directory directly into DAZ 3D folder.
This folder is not my Program folder, it is just my content folder.

 

[Pendraia]

So I just moved everything from the "My Library" directory directly into DAZ 3D folder.
This folder is not my Program folder, it is just my content folder.

By this do you mean that you moved the folders in the My Library into the actual program installation?

I have my content library on an external hard drive and the installation (DAZ 3D folder ) is on my c:drive. The folder in My documents is empty. I always told DIM to install to the external hard drive...I'm wondering why it needed to go into the DAZ 3D folder. Are we talking 4.9? I'm wondering if they have changed something...if so I won't be installing it as I like the way I have it set up.

 

[Faery_Light]

No, my actual program folder is always installed in a separate place of it's own and my folder named "DAZ 3D" is for content only like the My Library folder.
I had the DAZ DLM to install my latest DS into a folder named "DAZ Studio Pro with the version number after the name.
I do this so I can keep one install of the older version in case I mess up....lol.
And all content is sent to the DAZ 3D folder separately where I point DAZ to when I open and add content libraries.

But when everything was in the Library folder it kept listing it in the path, now that I moved it the path is created correctly.

 

[Pendraia]

Okay...I'm glad you got it all sorted. I have all my content in the one folder and categorise it in DS. When I install a different version of DS I pretty sure it just keeps the settings from the last version and the same with Public builds.

 

[Faery_Light]

I'm glad to get it right too, tired of hand editing those errors.

 

[Seliah (Childe of Fyre)]

I guess I'm out of my depth. I just tried opening a .duf file in Notepad and ended up with goobleygook. Guess that's not the best way to edit the files.

That means the file was saved with compression turned on. If compression is turned on when the file is saved, then you get junk in the DUF file when viewing it in a text editor. This is why I'm always commenting to NEVER save a file with compression ON, in case one needs to go back in later and edit the text.

If you save a file with compression turned OFF, then it can be opened up in Notepad or Wordpad and edited just like any Poser .cr2, .pz2, .mc6, etc.

 

[3WC]

That means the file was saved with compression turned on. If compression is turned on when the file is saved, then you get junk in the DUF file when viewing it in a text editor. This is why I'm always commenting to NEVER save a file with compression ON, in case one needs to go back in later and edit the text.

If you save a file with compression turned OFF, then it can be opened up in Notepad or Wordpad and edited just like any Poser .cr2, .pz2, .mc6, etc.

All you need to do is change the file extension to "zip", unzip the file, then change the file extension back to "duf", then you will be able to edit in a text editor.

 

[VortigensBane]

Very useful information!!!!!!

 

[Faery_Light]

Yes, that is useful information, thanks.

 

[Seliah (Childe of Fyre)]

All you need to do is change the file extension to "zip", unzip the file, then change the file extension back to "duf", then you will be able to edit in a text editor.

Oh, I never would have thought of trying that before! That IS very useful information! Thank you.