What to backup and reinstate for a PC rebuild ref Rhino 4 and 5

Hi,
I am about to go win7 pro 64bit tomorrow from XP pro 32bit and just wondering what do I need to backup user prefs files etc wise so as to see the install of Rhino V4 and also V5 when launched display them just as they currently are in XP ? My preferred layout, colours etc.

Also how then to reinstate what I have backed up ?

Steve

Hi Steve- OptionsExport and OptionsImport should do what you need. (V4: ExportOptions,ImportOptions, I think)

-Pascal

http://wiki.mcneel.com/rhino/settingstransfer

Hi,

Thanks all.
The link doesnt mention how to backup scripts, says to make copies but not where they are.

I have copied out the plugins folder. Where would scripts be ?

address for V5 toolbar .rui file starts C:\Users etc but XP has no address that starts as such.

Steve

Anywhere you put them. There is no one fixed place.

From the aforementioned Wiki page:

In XP, it should be here:
C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\McNeel\Rhinoceros\4.0 or 5.0

–Mitch

Hi.
Scripts, maybe I am thinking of the wrong thing, I am thinking of the code file one is told to drop onto an open rhino page. I wish to backup those, where do they get stored when one does that ?

XP address…cheers…missed that…however

I did a search and found default.rui but its not at that address, just looked in that address and no .rui files

Steve

They stay right where you dropped them from. If you move them from that location afterwards, depending on how they were set up, they will likely stop working. I do not recommend drag and drop installation for this and various other reasons, it’s easy, but also risky with the current setup unless you are careful where you put the scripts first. In this case it’s necessary to create a scripts folder somewhere and make sure all of them go in there BEFORE you drag and drop to install them.

Otherwise, you are going to have to play hide-and-seek on your computer to find them all. You can look in Options>Aliases - which are a “pointer” to the script location - that should give you the full path to the script.

V4 toolbar files are .tb, not .rui.

–Mitch

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Hi,
win7 64 operational and just installed Rhino v4 (v5 is next)

I have had it mentioned that for pre win 7 progs one might consider right click setup.exe and choose run as compatability mode, will I be ok having not done this or if I should have done so, should I have chosen XP, seeing that I was previously XP ?

I had saved the entire folder called plug-ins from V4.

Extract from http://wiki.mcneel.com/rhino/settingstransfer…
<< Drag n’ drop your extra plug-ins into the Rhino window to install (some need an external installer, use that if necessary) >>
I was thinking of copy paste to the plugins folder from backup, but this sounds as if I drop them straight into an open instance of rhino, is that correct ?
How do I identify those that need an external installer and what does that involve, steps wise ?

Steve

Yes, I don’t think you need to run Rhino 4 in XP compatibility mode under Win 7, it should be OK without that.

Dragging and dropping only installs the plugins - leaving the actual plug-in files where they have been dropped from. Depending on where you are dropping from, this is not a particularly good idea…

First copy them to your plug-ins folder, then drag and drop them into Rhino from there. Plug-ins that install directly via d’n’d generally have an .rhp extension. Other extensions such as .exe or .msi indicate a plug-in with an external installer, double clicking will run the installer on those in most cases.

–Mitch

Hi Mitch,
Done that, copy pasting to the C drive Plug-ins folder saw me saying skip countless times, so they were obviously default ones. How would I recognise the difference, at end of process two were highlighted in blue, actually three and some folders but those two i recognised, both were .rhp, so a drag drop to V4 and job done.
Just wondering with the many others that were already there upon install, being .rhp how do they get used, no drag and drop for them.

Steve

Yes, those are installed by default by Rhino, there are many plug-ins that are part of a standard install, for example all the import/export modules. This allows McNeel to add/change things quickly without having to re-engineer the core.

–Mitch

Exporting/Importing options is a good idea.

As for Plugins, I’d generally recommend to keep the install files somewhere safe and just reinstall everything from scratch. Some plugins may work just by copying a .rhp file, but many plugins require additional files or Registry configuration.

Then again, updating a the system is also a good time to check for updates on all the plugins and clean out stuff that you do not use. I am aware that going through each plugin may take some time, I just think this way is less prone to error.

Definitely. It is also up to the user to keep track of what he or she installed as well… If you don’t know what you’re installing and where, you shouldn’t be doing it.

–Mitch

Hi,
I have imported the ini file into V5, next task toolbars rui files. First I close down V5.

The link above in this thread says the toolbar file for V5 is at:-

C:\Users(username)\AppData\Roaming\McNeel\Rhinoceros\5.0\UI

I browse to that location on my just installed V5 and see these:-

default.rui type is Rhino Toolbars size 8,882KB

default.rui.rui_bak type is RUI_BAK File size 8,882KB

now in my XP install I located the rui files and have :-

default.rui which was at C:\Documents and Settings\username\Application Data\McNeel\Rhinoceros\5.0\UI

and in the system folder within the UI folder was $$MRU_Tool_Bar$$.rui type Rhino Toolbars and size 136KB

I see V5 on win7 64, also has system folder in UI and behold also that $$MRU_Tool_Bar$$.rui file
again type is Rhino Toolbars size 3Kb

Do I copy paste and replace both these in their two different addresses with those from WinXP ?

Steve

Nope. Don’t do that. Just leave it alone. --Mitch

Hi Mitch,
um…do you mean dont give V5 any of my toolbar settings or just give it the default.rui and ignore the $$ one ?

I dont see otherwise the reason for the instruction at http://wiki.mcneel.com/rhino/settingstransfer on saving the xp v5 toolbar setting to transfer to the win7 pc.

<<Make a copy of your workspace (.tb/.rui) file if you customized it>>
after install…
<<Copy your workspace, template, emaps, scripts, plug-ins files to appropriate locations>>

Steve

Repeating:
Toolbar files for V4 have a .tb extension.
Toolbar files for V5 have a .rui extension.

They are not compatible. V4 cannot use a .rui file; V5 cannot use a .tb file directly
V5 can open a V4 .tb file; it then converts it automatically to a .rui, you will normally see this as blablabla_tb.rui

Are you transferring settings from V4 to V5? Or V5 to V5?
Have you actually modified the default.tb or default.rui and given it another name? If you haven’t, don’t do anything, just leave the defaults as is. If you have a personalized toolbar file saved under a different name, you can simply copy it over to the other install and open it from inside Rhino there.

Again, the thing with all this is that if you don’t really know what you’re doing with all this file copying and toolbar settings, you probably shouldn’t be doing it at all, just start with defaults and go from there. Otherwise you are taking the risk of breaking things.

The $$…MRU…$$ stuff should be left alone, it is the most recently used toolbar (unique to V5), not necessary to transfer for new installs.

–Mitch

Hi Mitch,
I think somewhere here you have misunderstood what I have done or am about to do.

I dont intend to mix V4 backed up files with V5.

I have done the V4 install and have imported the V4 ini file, then copy pasted the V4 toolbar file .tb to where they are on the V4 installation on win7. Finally I imported the display mode files as per the McNeel instructions.

I am now asking about just V5, do I copy just the V5 default.rui file from the backup of the V5 rui file to the new V5 installation C:\Users(username)\AppData\Roaming\McNeel\Rhinoceros\5.0\UI or do I also copy the $$ file to the system folder within UI folder. You have answered the last option, leave the $$ alone. So I just need to copy across from old V5 to new V5 the default.rui file then.

I wouldnt dream of mixing V4 and V5 and didnt think I had indicated I was doing so. Sorry for any confusion.

Steve

Do not copy the $$ file.

Again, did you modify default.rui? If not, there is no reason to copy it over. If you modified it and didn’t save it under a new name, that’s bad practice. I would make a copy under another name from the old install, copy that over to the new install, and leave the default.rui file in the new installation alone. Then you can close the default.rui file in the new install and open your copied over one.

–Mitch

Hi Mitch,
If I had made any changes to the toolbar in V5 , and I cannot recall if I did or didnt, probably didnt, would such changes get saved into the default .rui file or would user get prompted to save changes as a differentName.rui

I shall I think leave alone on the toolbars files and if I see a change to toolbars I need then make that change all over again. same question applies, if I do so, do I get prompted to save changes as a differentName.rui ?

I certainly though altered the colour scheme as the white lines in the tools icons were not showing up over the pale background, so I tweaked that to match V4.
Would that be altering rui or saved instead in .ini ?

I am just left now with bringing in the display files.

Steve