Daz content needs to be a zip file

[2Dvs3D]

I just got three items that I could not understand them not working in DIM. The problem is that the zip file contained a FOLDER with the contents inside. I had to create a new zip file with the contents in the root directory for DIM to work. This is just a word of caution from a newbie who wants to help people avoid stressful situations. I love to use DIM after years of not even knowing how I could use it offline. It's nice to be able to uninstall and move to another location or delete altogether. I have noticed other problems with DIM due to names being wrong, but looking and the supplement you can find the proper name but you need to delete the spaces and () if there are.

These three files are ones I had to restructure the zip file so far:
ND-Extra-Morphs-Lips-for-Genesis-9-KwdH8Cin
Pose-Fusion-Plus-Genesis-9-Edition-gK5tN18Q
Venus-Smile-for-Genesis-9-D3nOrGw0

Just trying to help, not meaning to offend anyone who has made this mistake

[wallyburger]

Actually, that's a good point.
I sometimes create folders within ZIP's so that I can include images or templates and other extras.
I'm not sure what you mean re deleting spaces. Most items should have spaces in their names.

[2Dvs3D]

@wallyburger You can put all the install files you want along with pictures into another zip or rar file as long as when you extract them the main zip file used by DIM is clean, meaning it has the correct name and it only holds a content folder with manifest and supplement files in the root directory. About the spaces in the name, I don't know if there is really a rule or not but DIM knows if it is supposed to have spaces or not and I have found multiple times that I deleted the spaces in the IM zip file in order to get it to work. If you look at other files you will also notice that it has a certain convention it follows. IM followed by 3 zero's I and the product number then -01 for single file zips and number follows if there are others such as -02 ect for large items. then an underscore and the filename which needs to be what DIM expects. This I found by experimentation and I am by no means an expert but I have fixed many names that were missing or wrong with success.

[gts6]

There are lots of quirks with zip files for DIM for sure. Any other periods in the filename will also fail, for instance. The only period should be the final one before the file extension (.zip)
Sometimes, the file name and folders will be perfect, and the file will still not work, so it requires to unzip the entire thing and extract to a new folder, and then RE-ZIP it again. Because sometimes the initial .zip file is packed in a way DIM cant read for some strange reason. So this step is necessary, a lot more frequently than you'd think.

[2Dvs3D]

@Gts6 Yeah, I've seen that too. It's certainly a struggle that unfortunately makes things stressful because you don't want to resort to manually installing it. It's a little bit like an escape room game when it happens, you try every option until you find the right one. There is also another option especially for non-daz products. Content package assistant can also be a workaround. I found it here and you can make your own install files, of course it will not have the original naming but at least you can install and uninstall it.

[gts6]

@2dvs3d yes, im aware of content package assistant, It's one of my essential tools I use when dealing with DIM

[queensknight]

DIM is very particular about which files it will read--it will ignore any file that doesn't fit a very specific pattern.

You'll notice that in the official naming specs that DAZ provides for developers, they even insist on "zip" being all lower-case.

When you get a DIM package from anywhere other than the DAZ Store, you need to be aware that it may have been mangled by someone handling it before you. They may have altered the name slightly, or inadvertently inserted a space somewhere (sometimes at the very end of the filename, where it is invisible) during a sloppy copying operation. Their copying utility might have changed ".zip" to ".ZIP", or they may even have repackaged it as a RAR or 7Z archive that DIM will ignore. I've seen every one of these examples in downloads from this and other sites.

You may also run into DIM packages that mysteriously don't install properly, and DIM just tells you the file was "corrupt". If you dig deeper into the log you'll usually find it's a "CRC error"--the ZIP archive's checksum doesn't match the contents, typically because someone unzipped the original package and then zipped it again with a different tool. You can fix these packages easily enough just by unzipping them and zipping them again to generate a new checksum that matches the contents. Retry the install after that, and it usually works just fine.

[2Dvs3D]

Thanks for the detailed addition information @queensknight . I learned a valuable lesson today regarding bad zip files. I unintentionally uploaded a rar file containing a DIM install file, which seemed to open but I never extracted it. I found out after uploading it that the file was corrupt. I thought all was lost but realized that winrar has an option to repair that zip file it was holding. I took the repaired file and it installed in DIM with no issues and reuploaded it so that those who put points toward it could get what they paid for. I felt really bad that I did not check it first but am happy that everything is good now.

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