Daz To Blender Bridge

A Daz Studio Plugin based on Daz Bridge Library, allowing transfer of Daz Studio characters and props to Blender.

• Owner: [Daz 3D][OwnerURL] – [@Daz3d][TwitterURL]
• License: [Apache License, Version 2.0][LicenseURL] - see LICENSE and NOTICE for more information.
• Offical Release: [Daz to Blender Bridge][ProductURL]
• Official Project: [github.com/daz3d/DazToBlender][RepositoryURL]

Table of Contents

1. About the Bridge
2. Prerequisites
3. How to Install
4. How to Use
5. How to Build
6. How to QA Test
7. How to Develop
8. Directory Structure

1. About the Bridge

This is a refactored version of the original DazToBlender Bridge using the Daz Bridge Library as a foundation. Using the Bridge Library allows it to share source code and features with other bridges such as the refactored DazToUnity and DazToBlender bridges. This will improve development time and quality of all bridges.

The Daz To Blender Bridge consists of two parts: a Daz Studio plugin which exports assets to Blender and a Blender Add-on which contains scripts and other resources to help recreate the look of the original Daz Studio asset in Blender.

2. Prerequisites

• A compatible version of the [Daz Studio][DazStudioURL] application
  • Minimum: 4.10
• A compatible version of the [Blender][BlenderURL] application
  • Minimum: 2.83 LTS
• Operating System:
  • Windows 7 or newer
  • macOS 10.13 (High Sierra) or newer

Daz Studio 4.22+ and Blender 4.2 LTS should be used to take full advantage of the latest features of this plugin.

3. How to Install

Daz Studio

• You can install the Daz To Blender Bridge automatically through the Daz Install Manager. This will automatically add a new menu option under File -> Send To -> Daz To Blender.
• Alternatively, you can manually install by downloading the latest build from Github Release Page and following the instructions there to install into Daz Studio.

Blender

1. The Daz Studio Plugin now comes embedded with an installer for the Blender Add-on. From the Daz To Blender Bridge Dialog, there is now section in the Advanced Settings section for Installing the Blender Add-on.
2. Select your Blender Version from the drop down menu. If your Blender version is not directly supported by this drop-down or you have a custom addons folder, then select "Custom Addon Path".
3. Then click the "Install Plugin..." button. If you selected a supported version of Blender, you should see a popup dialog box confirming if the Blender Add-on was successfully installed for your version of Blender. Be sure to restart Blender after installing the Blender Add-on.
4. From Blender, open the Blender Preferences window by selecting Edit -> Preferences from the Blender main menu.
5. In the Blender Preferences window, click on the Add-ons button found along the left side of the window.
6. Scroll down the list of add-ons, and look for "DazToBlender". Check the box next to "DazToBlender" to enable the add-on. A DazToBlender tab should now appear on the Blender "Tool-shelf" which are a set of vertical tabs along the right edge of the Blender viewport window.

The following steps are for people who wish to use the "Custom Addon Path" installation option.

1. If you chose "Custom Addon Path", you will see a window popup to choose a custom Scripts or Addons folder. The starting folder path will be the location where Blender stores preferences and files for each version of Blender.
2. If you are using an unsupported version of Blender, you should see a subfolder corresponding to your version from the starting folder path. Open that folder and select the scripts folder. Then click "Select Folder".
3. If you have configured a custom Scripts path from the Blender Preferences window, then you may navigate to that folder and click "Select Folder". You will then see a confirmation dialog stating if the add-on installation was successful.

4. How to Use

1. Open your character in Daz Studio.
2. Make sure any clothing or hair is parented to the main body.
3. From the main menu, select File -> Send To -> Daz To Blender. Alternatively, you may select File -> Export and then choose "Blender File" from the Save as type drop down option.
4. A dialog will pop up: choose what type of conversion you wish to do, "Static Mesh" (no skeleton), "Skeletal Mesh" (Character or with joints), "Animation", or "Environment" (all meshes in scene).
5. To enable Morphs or Subdivision levels, click the CheckBox to Enable that option, then click the "Choose Morphs" or "Bake Subdivisions" button to configure your selections.
6. Click Accept, then wait for a dialog popup to notify you when to switch to Blender.
7. From Blender, click the "DazToBlender" tab from the Blender toolshelf, located along the right-edge of the Blender viewport.
8. For Daz Characters or other assets transferred with the "Skeletal Mesh" option, select Import New Genesis Figure. For props or other assets transferred using the "Static Mesh" or "Environment" option, select Import New Env/Prop.

Morphs

• If you enabled the Export Morphs option, you will see sliders for each Morph in the "Morphs List" section of the DazToBlender toolshelf.

Animation

• To use the "Animation" asset type option, your Figure must use animations on the Daz Studio "Timeline" system.
• If you are using "aniMate" or "aniBlocks" based animations, you need to right-click in the "aniMate" panel and select "Bake To Studio Keyframes".
• Once your animation is on the "Timeline" system, you can start the transfer using File -> Send To -> Daz To Blender.
• The transferred animation should now be usable through the Blender Animation interface.

Subdivision Support

• Daz Studio uses Catmull-Clark Subdivision Surface technology which is a mathematical way to describe an infinitely smooth surface in a very efficient manner. Similar to how an infinitely smooth circle can be described with just the radius, the base resolution mesh of a Daz Figure is actually the mathematical data in an equation to describe an infinitely smooth surface. For Software which supports Catmull-Clark Subdivision and subdivision surface-based morphs (also known as HD Morphs), there is no loss in quality or detail by exporting the base resolution mesh (subdivision level 0).
• For Software which does not fully support Catmull-Clark Subdivision or HD Morphs, we can "Bake" additional subdivision detail levels into the mesh to more closely approximate the detail of the original surface. However, baking each additional subdivision level requires exponentially more CPU time, memory, and storage space. If you do not have a high-end PC, it is likely that your system will run out of memory and crash if you set the exported subdivision level above 2.
• Since version 2.8, Blender has built-in Catmull-Clark Subdivision Surface support like Daz Studio. This is much faster and should be used instead of baking out subdivision levels during the Bridge Export process.
• Blender Subdivision is fully supported by modern Daz Figures which will transfer to Blender as a fully compatible level 0 subdivision surface, ready for subdivision operations through Blender.
• You can find out more about Blender's built-in Subdivision Support here: https://docs.blender.org/manual/en/3.1/modeling/modifiers/generate/subdivision_surface.html

5. How to Build

Setup and configuration of the build system is done via CMake to generate project files for Windows or Mac. The CMake configuration requires:

• Modern CMake (tested with 3.27.2 on Win and 3.27.0-rc4 on Mac)
• Daz Studio 4.5+ SDK (from DIM)
• Fbx SDK 2020.1 (win) / Fbx SDK 2015.1 (mac)
• OpenSubdiv 3.4.4

(Please note that you MUST use the Qt 4.8.1 build libraries that are built-into the Daz Studio SDK. Using an external Qt library will result in build errors and program instability.)

Download or clone the DazToBlender github repository to your local machine. The Daz Bridge Library is linked as a git submodule to the DazBridge repository. Depending on your git client, you may have to use git submodule init and git submodule update to properly clone the Daz Bridge Library.

The build setup process is designed to be run with CMake gui in an interactive session. After setting up the source code folder and an output folder, the user can click Configure. CMake will stop during the configurtaion process to prompt the user for the following paths:

• DAZ_SDK_DIR – the root folder to the Daz Studio 4.5+ SDK. This MUST be the version purchased from the Daz Store and installed via the DIM. Any other versions will NOT work with this source code project and result in build errors and failure. example: C:/Users/Public/Documents/My DAZ 3D Library/DAZStudio4.5+ SDK
• DAZ_STUDIO_EXE_DIR – the folder containing the Daz Studio executable file. example: C:/Program Files/DAZ 3D/DAZStudio4
• FBX_SDK_DIR – the root folder containing the “include” and “lib” subfolders. example: C:/Program Files/Autodesk/FBX/FBX SDK/2020.0.1
• OPENSUBDIV_DIR – root folder containing the “opensubdiv”, “examples”, “cmake” folders. It assumes the output folder was set to a subfolder named “build” and that the osdCPU.lib or libosdCPU.a static library files were built at: <root>/build/lib/Release/osdCPU.lib or <root>/build/lib/Release/libosdCPU.a. A pre-built library for Mac and Windows can be found at https://github.com/danielbui78/OpenSubdiv/releases that contains the correct location for include and prebuilt Release static library binaries. If you are not using this precompiled version, then you must ensure the correct location for the OPENSUBDIV_INCLUDE folder path and OPENSUBDIV_LIB filepath.

Once these paths are correctly entered into the CMake gui, the Configure button can be clicked and the configuration process should resume to completion. The project files can then be generated and the project may be opened. Please note that a custom version of