FABTOOLS on Mac - Components Menu not showing

Hello - I’m trying to use Fabtools on MAC OS. I have installed them, and am able to run the example files, but the components are not showing up in the menu tab. Has anyone else had this issue and/or suggestions for any handy solutions?

thanks

Hi @zenshinkisu,

My guess would be that the plugin is simply not compatible with Rhino for macOS. The developer website also doesn’t mention mac support. If you installed the plugin correctly, restarted Rhino, and it doesn’t show up or the components don’t work, this usually means that the plugin is Wind’ohs only. :wink:

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This is an interesting case. The .gha seems to be responsible for installing a few Rhino plug-ins when it’s first loaded, along with several Grasshopper user-objects (the components that aren’t showing up). This process silently fails on the Mac. The example files still work because user-objects are essentially embedded in the Grasshopper file when they’re dropped on the canvas. Worth getting in touch with the developer to see if they can help you out!

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Thanks @will - I’ll reach out to them directly.

@zenshinkisu Did you manage to get in touch with the developer? I am in the same position and would love to help find a solution that works on MacOS.

I did manage to get the components menu working, sort of, by dragging the .ghuser components into the .ghuser folder on my Mac. I found this folder under File/Special Folders/User Object Folder

It seems to work, but is a bit buggy.

I found a way to make it work on MacOS Sonoma 14.4, Rhino 8.
Basically when you place FabTools.gh onto the canvas, it sends some instructions to the OS to create/copy the list of .ghuser files to the /Users directory instead of /Users/{YOURNAME}/Library/Application Support/McNeel/Rhinoceros/8.0/Plug-ins/Grasshopper/UserObjects folder.

What I did, and seems to be working, is:

  • move FabTools.gh into canvas
  • Close Rhino
  • Go to /Users and move all .ghuser & .rhp files to /Users/{YOURNAME}/Library/Application Support/McNeel/Rhinoceros/8.0/Plug-ins/Grasshopper/UserObjects
  • Make hidden files visible (with command+shift+. [period])
  • Move all .config\bf7_install\... folders to /Users/{YOURNAME}/Library/Application Support/McNeel/Rhinoceros/8.0/Plug-ins/Grasshopper/UserObjects
  • Delete FabTools.gh from /Users/{YOURNAME}/Library/Application Support/McNeel/Rhinoceros/8.0/Plug-ins/Grasshopper/Libraries (at its place, a new file named “FabTools.gha hh.mm.ss” gets automatically created at next Rhino + Grasshopper startup)

Hopefully this keeps working; I’ll keep everyone posted.

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