2 · One-time setup#

Daz installation — pick it once#

You already told the DAZ Install Manager where Daz Studio, your content library and its product database live. The studio reads that rather than asking again: every Daz Studio DIM has installed appears as a card at the top of Settings → General.

_{Both Daz Studios found; DAZ Studio 6 activated, and the paths it derives shown read-only. The older card carries the Export only switch described below.}

Click one to activate it. Three paths are filled and saved on the spot — there is no Save to press:

They stay read-only while an installation is active, and they follow DIM: move your library later and opening Settings picks it up, with nothing to re-activate. The newest Studio is marked recommended, but nothing activates itself, and switching cards changes only the install folder — the other two belong to DIM, not to one Studio version.

No DIM, or a machine it doesn't describe? The section says so and the three paths stay ordinary editable fields. Set the paths manually does the same after activating, keeping the values.

Export only — run the batch in an older Daz Studio#

Skip this unless you have two Daz Studios installed.

The DTH Export batch is the one thing that needs the Runner plugin, and a Daz plugin is built against a single Studio major version. So moving to a brand-new Daz Studio used to mean waiting for a Runner build before you could export at all — or putting the whole app back a version.

With the newest installation active, each older card that can still run a batch carries an Export only switch. Turn it on and DTH Export starts its batch in that installation; everything else — opening scenes, running scripts, installing content — keeps using the active one. It saves on the spot like Activate, and only one installation can carry it: turning it on for one card turns it off everywhere else.

Two things follow the switch, and have to — the Runner plugin is installed into whichever installation runs the batch, and the export panel checks for it there. A Runner sitting in the other Daz would let the panel report "ready", then start a Daz with nothing to claim the job, and wait for a batch that never begins.

The switch is offered only on installations older than the active one, only while the active one is the newest detected, and never on one whose folder has gone missing. With a single Daz Studio it never appears — it exists for the machine that has two and whose newer one has no Runner yet.

Daz Studio 4 can carry it. It needs the Exporter plugin's scripted export, which mrpdean shipped in the Daz Studio 4 build with Exporter 2.0.2.0 — with an older one a DS4 batch opens every scene and exports nothing. Keeping every installation on the newest build (below) is what settles that.

If the flagged installation later disappears from the machine, Settings says so and offers to send exports back to the active one, rather than leaving every export pointed at a folder that isn't there.

Houdini installation — same idea#

Every Houdini SideFX registered gets a card directly below. Activating one fills both paths together: the installation folder and its matching houdini<major>.<minor> documents folder.

_{Houdini 22.0.368 activated — its installation folder and the matching houdini22.0 documents folder, filled together.}

Pairing them is the point: the studio runs Houdini's hython with that documents folder as its preferences directory, and pointed at another version's it loads the wrong DazToHue assets — or none — leaving every DazToHue node an unknown type.

Documents folder not there yet? The card says so and stays on offer. Houdini creates it on first launch, so start that Houdini once and press Rescan.

The extra Houdini folders list further down is yours and is never touched by activating — it exists so an older Houdini can keep an older DTH release. A houdini… folder with no Houdini behind it is reported there rather than dropped; usually an uninstall left it.

Unreal Engine — detected, nothing to pick#

Every Unreal Engine version the Epic Games launcher has installed is listed below the Houdini section. Unlike Daz and Houdini there is nothing to activate: each linked .uproject names its own engine version, and the studio matches DTH content and plugins to it per project, at install time. The list is your confirmation that detection sees what the launcher sees. An engine whose folder is gone (uninstalled outside the launcher) is flagged rather than hidden.

Detection reads two sources: the launcher's registry entries and its LauncherInstalled.dat manifest. Both, because either can be incomplete — a machine with 5.6, 5.7 and 5.8 installed had no registry key for 5.8 at all, so an engine that was plainly there could not be picked.

Setup DTH Release#

_{The DTH release section in Settings → General — one release, and the destinations it installs into.}

Pick the release first; everything below it is a destination. Once one is selected the panel says Ready to install DTH x.y and lists each install target on its own row — the Daz library, then the Houdini documents folder — so the section reads as one release going to two places.

1. DTH release(s) folder — point it at the extracted DTH release, or at a folder holding several versions; then pick the active one in the dropdown. A release added later must be selected (and installed) yourself — the selection never changes on its own.

2. Where it installs — your Daz content library. With an installation activated above there is no field here at all: the line above the buttons names the destination it derives. Press Install to copy the release's Daz content into the library; Dry run previews what would be copied.

   Without an activated installation this is a My DAZ 3D Library field you fill in yourself (e.g. …\Documents\DAZ 3D\Studio\My Library).

3. Houdini documents folder (optional) — your Houdini user folder (e.g. …\Documents\houdini20.5). Press its Install to merge the release's Houdini assets (otls, presets, toolbar) into it. Skip this if Houdini isn't on this machine.

4. Add another Houdini folder (optional) repeats step 3 for a second Houdini version: each extra folder installs its release independently, so an older Houdini can keep an older DTH release. It is offered only while the Houdini paths are yours to edit — with a Houdini installation activated above, the destination follows that card and no new folders can be added (folders added earlier stay, with their own Install buttons). Use Set the paths manually in the Houdini installation section if you want to drive several folders by hand again.

Daz Studio plugins#

Two plugins live inside Daz Studio, and the studio installs both — into every Daz Studio it finds on this machine:

• the DTH Exporter (mrpdean's), which exports the ROM out of Daz — you point the studio at its release folder;
• the DTH Character Studio Runner (ships inside the app, nothing to download), which lets the studio drive Daz: the DTH Export batch, Tools → Scan & index → Scan project, Import from Daz scene, and opening scenes in an already-running Daz all go through it.

1. DTH Exporter Plugin release folder(s) — Add folder and pick the extracted download. Both Daz Studio 4 and Daz Studio 6 builds are handled: if your download holds a folder per version (ExporterPluginDaz Studio 4 beside ExporterPluginDaz Studio 6), point at the folder ABOVE them and the studio finds both. Keep the versions somewhere else? Add one folder each.

   Which Daz Studio a build is for is read from the DLL itself — Daz Studio 6 only loads plugins named dsp_*.dll, so the name is the answer. The list under the field shows what was found, and flags a folder whose name disagrees with the DLL inside it.

   
   _{One release folder, both builds found — and every Daz Studio on the machine listed with what it has and what it would get.}

2. Installed in — one row per Daz Studio on the machine, with what each has now and what it would get. A Daz Studio with no matching build says so rather than being handed the wrong one (a Daz Studio 6 cannot load a Daz Studio 4 plugin at all).

3. Press Install / update all. Only what is pending is copied; when everything is current the button becomes Reinstall all. Each copy is its own line in the report, named after the installation it went into, so one Daz needing admin rights while another doesn't reads as exactly that.

   Daz Studio usually sits in an admin-protected folder on C: — the app tells you when that's the case: close Daz, then reopen DTH Character Studio as administrator and install again. Daz must be closed either way — a running Daz Studio locks its loaded plugin DLLs.

   
   _{The app warns when installing into Program Files needs admin rights.}

   
   _{Open DTH Character Studio as administrator to install into a protected folder.}

   Once the elevated install succeeds, the app offers Restart normally — take it: while the studio runs as administrator, Windows silently blocks drag-and-drop from Explorer into its window (nothing happens, no error). The restart reopens your project without elevation and drops work again.

Unreal Engine Plugins#

The folders the studio looks in for Unreal Engine plugins to offer when installing into a linked Unreal project. A folder can be:

• a plugin itself (its .uplugin at the top), with the UE version it was built for usually in the path — …\DazToUnreal_5.7;
• a folder of plugins, one subfolder per plugin;
• a multi-build root with one subfolder per engine version — e.g. …\DazToUnrealBridge\UE_5.7\Plugins next to …\UE_5.6\Plugins. The studio picks the build matching each project's engine version at install time, so a new build dropped in later is found on the next install.

A plugin shipped as a .zip counts too. Some vendors hand you …\Unreal Engine 5.7 Plugin\DazToHue.zip and nothing else. The studio reads inside the archive, lists the plugin like any other (with a zip marker), and extracts it at install time into Plugins\<Plugin>\ — a wrapping folder inside the zip is stripped, so the .uplugin lands where Unreal expects it either way. Leave it zipped; there is nothing to unpack by hand.

Under each folder the panel previews exactly what was recognized, with the engine version each build was matched to (from a version in its path — deepest wins — falling back to the .uplugin's own EngineVersion; no version anywhere means the build is offered for every engine). A number that could not be an engine version is skipped rather than believed: KawaiiPhysics_5.7_1.21.0 names the engine and the plugin's own version, and only 5.7 is one — so is a year like 2024.1. When nothing in a name is a possible engine version the build is offered everywhere, which is the safe answer: a version no engine has would quietly hide it from every project instead. Nothing installs from here: the install dialog on a project's Unreal card does that, per project — see Linking Unreal projects.

A name is a label; the binaries are the truth. A built plugin carries a BuildId in Binaries\Win64\UnrealEditor.modules, and Unreal refuses to load one whose id differs from the engine's — that is the "missing or built with a different engine version" dialog. The install dialog checks it, marks a mismatch built for another engine build and leaves it unchecked (you can still tick it; it is a warning, not a refusal). This is the only check that catches a folder whose name says nothing — KawaiiPhysics_5_7_1_… writes its version with underscores, so it reads as any engine and would otherwise be offered for a project it cannot load in.

It also decides which build you are offered when two of them look alike: with KawaiiPhysics_5_7_1_… and KawaiiPhysics_5_8_… both reading as any engine, the one whose BuildId matches your project's engine is the one that gets listed.

Save#

Press Save at the top. The studio scans the release's pose presets — you're ready to create a project.

The App Data tab#

Settings also has an App Data tab — the app's own on-disk state:

• App data folder — machine settings, the recent-projects list, network-drive mappings and scan outputs (project data lives in each project's own folder). The path chip copies it; Alt+click reveals it.
• Storage & housekeeping — the studio ages out its own generated data so it can't fill your disk: Clean up now deletes Scan_Frames keyframe CSVs and any leftover product-scan drop files older than 30 days, plus note media no note references anymore after 7 days (all three also swept automatically on every launch). Product-scan files are normally deleted the moment the studio reads them, so that folder is usually empty — the age-out is a safety net for one that was locked.
• DTH Exporter job file — the same section can clear a stuck batch handoff. DTH Export and the scans hand Daz Studio their work through one file in your Daz library's Scripts/DTH-Character-Studio folder, and if a batch never starts (Daz was closed mid-handoff, or the Runner plugin never picked it up) that file stays behind — after which every export and scan refuses with "a batch is waiting for Daz Studio". The readout names the file that's there, how old it is, and whether Daz might still be working through it; Delete job file removes it. Nothing in Daz is undone — the file is a to-do list, not a result.

(Mapped network drives the app remembers show as their own pane at the bottom of the General tab, with a "Re-map missing now" action.)