Global Settings

The Import DAZ File file selector has some option which are changed often (Mesh Fitting and Viewport Color). However, the result also depends on many other settings, which normally remain the same for all files. These settings are found in the Global Settings dialog. To invoke the dialog, press the Global Settings button which is right below the Import DAZ File button at the top of the Setup menu. It opens up a separate window with the import options grouped into different sections.

 

DAZ Studio Root Directories 

The most important setting is the information about the root directories, which is found in the left-most column.. The root directories must be the same as in DAZ Studio for the plugin to work. How to set up these directories was discussed in the setup documentation .

 

General

  • Unit Scale: Conversion factor between DAZ Studio and Blender units. Defaults to 0.01 which converts from centimeters to meters.
  • Verbosity: A value between 1 and 5 which determines how much information is printed in the terminal window. At higher values problems such as missing assets raise errors.
  • Dump Debug Info: Write debugging info to the file daz_importer_errors.txt after the scene has been imported, even if there are no errors. Useful for debugging.
  • Z Up: Convert from DAZ's Y up convention to Blender's Z up convention. Disable for debugging only.
  • Case-Sensitive Paths: Enable this on a case-sensitive OS (Linux or Mac), disable on a case-insenstive OS (Windows). This option should automatically be set to the correct value.
 

Unit Scale

This parameter converts between DAZ Studio and Blender units. The units used by DAZ Studio are centimeters. The default value of Unit Scale = 0.01 thus corresponds to setting the units to meters in Blender. Here are some common values for this parameter.

    Centimeters: Unit Scale = 1.0, 1 B.U. = 1 cm.
    Decimeters: Unit Scale = 0.1, 1 B.U. = 1 dm.
    Meters: Unit Scale = 0.01, 1 B.U. = 1 m.
    Inches: Unit Scale = 0.3937, 1 B.U. = 2.54 cm.
 

Meshes

  • Build HD Meshes: Build high-resolution meshes if included in .dbz file.
  • Add Multires: Add multires modifier to HD meshes and rebuild lower subdivision levels.
  • Use Instancing: Use instancing for DAZ instances.

For more information about high-resolution meshes and the multires modifier, see the following blog posts:

High resolution meshes
HD meshes and geografts
Baking normal maps
HD meshes and geografts revisited


Properties

  • DAZ Property Limits: Use property limits defined in the duf file, otherwise use the min and max value below.
  • DAZ Property Defaults: Use property defaults defined in the duf file, otherwise use zero.
  • Property Minima: Minimum value for properties if not using DAZ Property Limits.
  • Property Maxima: Maximum value for properties if not using DAZ Property Limits.

 

Rigging

  • Orientation Method: Bone orientation method.
    • Blender Legacy: Bone orientation used in version 1.5.0 and before
    • DAZ Unflipped: DAZ Studio original bone orientation (for debugging only)
    • DAZ Studio: DAZ Studio bone orientation with flipped axes
  • Quaternions: Use quaternions for ball-and-socket joints (shoulders and hips).
  • Location Locks: Add location locks to bones as in DAZ Studio.
  • Location Limits: Add location locks to bones as in DAZ Studio. Only for the DAZ Studio orientation method.
  • Rotation Locks: Add rotation locks to bones as in DAZ Studio.
  • Rotation Limits: Add rotation limits to bones as in DAZ Studio. Only for the DAZ Studio orientation method.
  • Legacy Locks: Use the simplified locks used by Blender Legacy mode.

For more info, see the blog posts on DAZ Studio bones and Rotation locks and limits.

 

Simulation

  • Influence Groups:
  • Simulation:


Materials

  • Material Method: Type of material node tree. More details.
    • BSDF: Full Iray materials (Cycles only)
    • Principled: Node tree with a principled node (Eevee and Cycles).
    • Internal: Blender internal rendered (Blender 2.7x only)
  • Refractive Method: Type of nodes for refraction.
    • BSDF: Node group with BSDF nodes.
    • Second Principled: A second principled node. Only if Material Method = Principled.
    • Reuse Principled: Reuse the principled node used for opaque materials. Only if Material Method = Principled.
  • Hair Material Method: Type of material node tree for hair materials. More details.
    • Hair BSDF: Node tree with the Hair BSDF node (Cycles only).
    • Hair Principled: Node tree with the Hair Principled node (Cycles only, Blender 2.8x and later only).
    • Principled: Node tree with a principled node (Eevee and Cycles).
  • Viewport Color: Method to choose viewport colors. More details.
  • Merge Shell Materials: Merge shell materials with object materials. Empty meshes with shell materials are created if this option is disabled. Disable for debugging only.
  • Thin Wall Factor: Mix factor between refraction and transparency nodes. Increasing this factor can reduce problems with too dark eyes for Genesis 8 characters. This option replaces the obsolete Brighten Eyes option.
  • Prune Node Tree: Remove nodes from generated node trees that have no connection to the output nodes. Disable for debugging only.
  • Environment: Import the environment from DAZ Studio.
  • Reuse Materials: Reuse materials already present in the scene. Avoids creation of duplicate materials but may lead to problems if the existing material differs from the imported one.
  • Limit Bump Strength: Some DAZ materials have unusually high bump strength, e.g. Victoria 8 has bump = 5. This is managed by the material setup, but this option allows you to force a maximal value for the bump strength.
    • Max Bump Strength:  Default = 10.
  • Render Settings: Cf. blog post on Render settings.
    • Update: Update insufficient render settings (default).
    • Warn: Warn about insufficient render settings.
    • Ignore: Ignore insufficient render settings.
  • Light Settings: Cf. blog post on Render settings.
    • Update: Update insufficient light settings.
    • Warn: Warn about insufficient light settings (default).
    • Ignore: Ignore insufficient light settings.
  • Displacement: If disabled, ignore displacement.
  • Emission: If disabled, ignore emission.
  • Reflection: If disabled, ignore reflection.

 

Thin Wall Factor

In earlier versions of this add-on there were problems with too dark eyes for Genesis 8 characters, see the blog post on Brighter Eyes. These problems have largely been resolved, but a quick way to avoid this problem is to increase the Thin Wall Factor, which mixes in transparency with refraction. The image shows Aiko's eyes with full transparency and full refraction for the eye materials.


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