Settings Panel

The Settings panel contains various global settings that affect the importer, in addition to the import settings described in Import into Blender.

The settings are stored in the files "~/import-daz-settings-27x.txt" and "~/import-daz-settings-28x.txt", where "~" is your home directory. You should have both read and write access to this file under all operating systems. Since Blender 2.7x and Blender 2.8x are quite different, the Daz Importer maintains different default settings for the two Blender versions.
The Settings panel consists of five groups.

Load/Save Settings

  • Load Factory Settings. Restore all settings to factory defaults.
  • Save Default Settings. Save the settings in this section, so they are reloaded automatically the next time the importer is started.
  • Load Default Settings. Reload the settings the the settings file.
  • Save Settings File. Save settings to a named file. This allows you to have different settings for different tasks.
  • Load Settings File. Load settings from a named file.
    •  

Paths to DAZ library 

 
  • Number Of DAZ Paths: The number of root paths. The maximum number is nine.
  • Paths to DAZ library: Search paths that the DAZ Importer uses to find DAZ assets.
  • Path to output errors: If there are any import errors, the DAZ Importer creates a log file at this location, provided that Verbosity is high enough.
A .duf file saved in DAZ Studio does not contain the actual data in the way that Wavefront object or Collada files do. Instead it contains links to various asset files in the DAZ libraries, and these assets can link to other asset files as well. In order to find the assets, the DAZ importer needs to know where the DAZ libraries are located. Up to nine different library locations are supported, but a default installation of DAZ Studio only uses two. The third path in the picture above points to the directory where the standard environment map is located. If you set Draw Dome to On in Daz Studio, the Daz Importer will import the environment map as well.

The DAZ importer makes a guess which works on my computers, but they all run on Windows 7 and the paths may need to be changed on other operating systems. However, the changes only need to be made once. When you have changed the DAZ paths, press the Save Default Settings button to make the importer remember your settings. The next time Blender starts, the new library paths are used.

For a discussion on some problems that may occur with the DAZ paths, see this blog post.

General 

  • Hidden Features. The DAZ importer has a number of experimental and undocumented features. They are mainly for my own private use and may change without notice. They are hidden in the stable release, but can be unlocked by enabling this option.
  • Verbosity. A number between 1 - 5 which controls the amount of trace information printed in the terminal window. If Verbosity is lower than 3 missing assets are ignored, otherwise an error is raised.
  • Property Minima. Shapekey values and the associate rig properties are restricted to lie between a lower and an upper limit. This is the lower limit, default -1. 
  • Property Maxima. And this is the upper limit, default +1.
  • DAZ Property Limits. If enabled, override property limits with the values defined in the duf file, if such exist.
  • DAZ Property Defaults. If enabled, set the default value of properties to those defined in the duf file, if such exist.
  • Z Up. Convert from the DAZ convention (Y axis points up) to Blender's convention (Z axis points up). This is enabled by default. Turn off for debugging only.
  • DAZ Orientation. If true, bones are oriented as the joints in DAZ Studio, not necessarily with the local Y axis pointing from parent to child. For debugging only.
  • DAZ Best Orientation. As the option above, except that coordinate axes may be swapped to make the local Y axis as close to the vector from parent to child as possible.
  • Case Sensitive Paths. By default this is disabled on Windows and enabled on other operating systems.
  • Rename. Rename objects based on the file name. This is a legacy setting, it is better to name characters in DAZ Studio instead.
  • Create Groups. Create a group (in Blender 2.7x) or a category (in Blender 2.8x) named after the file name, and add all imported objects to it. This is useful for file linking and for scene organization.

Rigging

 
  • Add Face Drivers. Add drivers for facial shapekeys in Genesis and Genesis 2 characters. In Genesis 3 and 8 expressions are poses for the face rig and face drivers are always added.
  • Clothes Layer. When merging rigs, this option determines the layer of extra bones not in the target rig.
  • Connect Bones. Make a bone connected if its head coincides with the parent's tail.
  • Rotation Locks. Turn on locks for bone rotations.
  • Location Locks. Turn on locks for bone locations. Most bones are locked, except for the hip and the face rig in Genesis 3.
  • Delete Metarig. Delete the intermediate metarig when converting a Daz rig to Rigify.
  • Make Drivers. Add drivers for poses encountered in the .duf file.
    • None. Never add any drivers.
    • Props. Add drivers to props, not to characters.
    • People. Add drivers to characters, not to props.
    • All. Always add drivers.

Materials

  • Auto Material Method. Automatically choose the best render method for this material. Does not affect Blender Internal.
  • Opaque Materials. Render method used for opaque materials. Does not affect Blender Internal.
    • Eevee. Use the principled node and no volume output.
    • Principled. Use the principled node and volume output.
    • BSDF. Don't use the principled node.
  • Refractive Materials. Render method used for refractive materials. Does not affect Blender Internal.
    • Eevee. Use a simplified setup which yields acceptable results for eyes in Eevee.
    • Guess. Use a simplified setup which yields good results for eyes in Cycles.
    • Principled. Use the principled node.
    • BSDF. Don't use the principled node.
The best render method depends on the material and the active render engine.
  • If the render engine is set to Eevee at load time, use the Eevee method.
  • If the material is metallic, use the principled node.
  • If the material uses dual lobe specularity or translucency, use BSDF nodes. 
  • If the material uses backscattering, glossy anisotropy or top coat, use the principled node.
  • Otherwise, use the render method specified in the Opaque Material and Refractive Materials settings.
If the render engine is set to Blender Internal or Blender Game in Blender 2.7x, these settings are ignored.
  • Environment. Load environment map if Draw Dome is turned ON in Daz Studio.
  • Color Choice. Affects the visual appearance in the viewport by changing the diffuse color. They do not affect renders, because colors are only changed if the diffuse channel has a texture.
    • White.
    • Random.
    • Guess.
Here are four versions of Maria, imported with different Viewport Color settings.The Skin Color and Clothes Color settings in the import options also affect the appearance.
  • Merge Shells. Geometry shells are empty meshes (with zero vertices) which hold
The following options control some of the imported material properties. it is a good idea to choose the best options already at load time, because DAZ character typically has many materials which are cumbersome to tweak after the character has been imported.
  • Textures. Enable bump and normal textures.
  • Displacement. Enable displacement maps. Sometimes gives undesired results. 
  • Translucency. Enable translucency.
  • SSS. Enable sub-surface scattering.
  • Emission. Enable emission.
  • Reflection. Enable reflection maps.
The following options only affect Blender Internal materials in Blender 2.79 or before.
  • Diffuse Shader. The diffuse shader for Blender internal materials. See the Blender documentation for details.
    • Lambert.
    • Oren-Nayar. Good for skin materials. The default.
    • Toon.
    • Minnaert.
    • Fresnel.
  • Specular Shader. The specular shader for Blender internal materials. See the Blender documentation for details.
    • Cook-Torr.
    • Phong.
    • Blinn. Good for skin materials. The default.
    • Toon.
    • WardIso.
  • Diffuse Roughness. The amount of diffuse roughness used if not defined by the material. (Cycles)
  • Specular Roughness. The amount of specular roughness used if not defined by the material. (Cycles)

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