Import into Blender version 1.1

After the import-daz add-on has been enabled, we can import the duf file into Blender. There are two ways to invoke the DAZ importer; either press the Import File button at the top of the Setup menu in the DAZ Runtime tab, or go to File > Import > DAZ Native (.duf, .dsf). Since we almost always need to do further work on the character in the Setup panel after it has been imported, I prefer to use the button.

A file selector window appears. Navigate to the file ana.duf which we saved in DAZ Studio, select it and press Import File.

 But before importing, consider the settings to the left.

• Scale: Factor to scale locations in the DAZ file, default 0.1. DAZ uses centimeters, so the scale 0.1 corresponds to decimeters, which make a typical character fit nicely in the Blender viewport.
• Z Up: Convert from the DAZ convention (Y axis points up) to Blender's convention (Z axis points up). This is enabled by default.
• Rename: Rename objects based on the file name.
• Create Groups: Create a group named after the file name, and add all imported objects to it. This is primarily useful for file linking,.
• Bone Targets To Preview: Bone parented objects (earrings, swords, ...) sometimes end up on in the wrong place. Changing this option may help.
• Rotation Locks: Turn on locks for bone rotations. Currently only very simple locking is available.
• Location Locks: Turn on locks for bone locations. Most bones are locked, except for the hip and the face rig in Genesis 3.
• Mesh Fitting: Method used for fitting meshes to morphs.
• Shared: No mesh fitting and meshes are shared between objects. All shaping is ignored.This is useful to save space e.g. for environments with bushes and trees sharing the same foliage, which can be realized as many instances of a single mesh.
• Unique: No mesh fitting and each objects has a unique instance of the mesh. All shaping is ignored. This is useful e.g. for a room with many posters and paintings which have the same underlying mesh but different textures.
• Bones: Fit meshes using the bone structure only. May work but often gives strange results. (Experimental)
• Auto: Fit meshes using morphs. Usually works quite well for characters but often yields problems with clothes fitting, if the corresponding morphs for the clothes are not found. /Experimental)
• Obj File: Fit characters and clothes using the Wavefront .obj file that was exported from DAZ Studio. Usually works well except for anatomy (genitals, tails, ...) which have been merged with its character already in the .obj file.
• Dae File: Fit characters and clothes using the Collada .dae file that was exported from DAZ Studio. Usually works well, also for anatomy, but there are exceptions.
• Color Choice: The color assigned to different materials. This only affects materials where the diffuse color is controlled by a texture, so only the viewport appearance is changed, not rendered images.
• White: Use the colors defined in the DAZ file, almost always white.
• Random: Assign random colors to materials, to easily see which faces are assigned to which material.
• Guess: Guess a color depending on the material name. If the material describes skin (the material name contain words like arm, leg, face, torso or head) it is given the Skin Color defined below, otherwise it receives the Clothes Color.
• Guess, Random: Skin materials receive the Skin Color, whereas other materials are assigned a random color.
• Skin Color: The color assigned to skin materials.
• Clothes Color: The color assigned to other materials.
• Materials And Textures: 
• Studio Materials: Enable the use of DAZ Studio material. The following options give more control over which types of channels to include.
• Specular: Enable specular maps
• Bump: Enable bump maps
• Normal: Enable normal maps.
• Translucency: Enable translucency maps
• SSS: Enable subsurface scattering.
• 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.

Here are three versions of Ana, imported with different settings of Clothes Fitting and Color Choice. We notice that when there is not clothes fitting, Ana is shorter and less buxom, because the shaping we did in DAZ Studio has been ignored. Fitting the character to the exported .obj and .dae files work equally well in  this case.

There is one further important setting, apart from those in the import panel to the left: the render engine.The DAZ importer can create materials both for the Blender Internal renderer and for Cycles, and it chooses the same engine as Blender currently uses. The reason is that users presumably don't change render engine very often, so using the current one is probably the right choice.

Here we see Ana rendered with Blender Internal and Cycles, respectively. The high-lighted setting at the top determines which kind of materials are created by the importer. It is possible to convert materials to the other type of engine later, but some quality may be lost in that process, so it is best to make sure that the correct render engine in chosen from the outset.

Mesh fitting.

Let us elaborate on the mesh fitting options.

Here are two characters in DAZ Studio. The gorilla and the mafioso are both based on the original Genesis character, so the underlying mesh is the same. The result in Blender is very different depending on how meshes are fitted.

With Shared and Unique, the Genesis character is loaded without any modification. In the first case the characters also have the same gorilla texture because they share the same mesh, and in the second case the unique meshes have different textures.

With the Bones option, both characters and clothes are fitted using bone scaling only. With the Morphs option, the characters look fine, but the clothes do not fit because they don't have the gorilla and fat morphs.

The Obj File and Dae File options both yield a result which looks very similar to DAZ Studio.