Rhino / GH on MBP M3 moving forward - thoughts?

Rhino Rhino for Mac
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Long time Windows user here, but I had to use MacOS for my previous workplace - got used to it, but I realised that certain gh plugins don’t work on MacOS… as well as Ray Tracing ofc!

With the new M3 on MBP and enabled Ray Tracing, and Rhino 8 designed for MacOS in mind (still no Revit though) - I’m wondering if it’s time to get a MBP for ease of being mobile, lightweight, long battery life, powerful and great companion with iPads/iPhones?

Any thoughts are welcomed - not a particular technical post :slight_smile:

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Raytraced should work just fine. I have only an M2 Max macbookpro, but works fine.

I still prefer my Windows box, though.

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Thanks @nathanletwory . I am not convinced by the fact that some GH plugins aren’t available for MacOS, plus the fact that Revit isn’t available… Not that I’d use it that much but it takes away the advantage for RiR

But I really liked the lightweight + portability + unplugged use hours with MBP - I used M2 as well

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Indeed best support for the whole Rhino eco system is still on Windows. If you do use Rhino Inside Revit, then you definitely should use a Windows machine instead.

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Yes - I use Windows at home but needs to be on the go from time to time, hence why I was considering the MBP. Just so much more travel-friendly

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just remote into your home PC? then you can get use low power long battery life laptop on the go (doesn’t nessecary have to be MB)

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That’s a good alternative. What remote desktop software/platform do you use? Does it allow you to wake up the PC?

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if your PC is on LAN, use wake on lan
if you’re on wifi, or if you mean “wake” as in cold startup, it’ll require some dedicated hardware

for software, it depends on if you have admin access to your router or not
if you do, configure port forwarding, then simply use RDP
if not, then something like parsec or anydesk will work, depending on what functions you need

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Note though that RDP isn’t really supported.

I use VNC myself. Parsec I found horrible to use, pretty much same as RDP. I know I have perhaps a ‘funky’ setup with non-standard key layout, but RDP and Parsec don’t work well with that. VNC does work great with my key mapping, since it doesn’t force input to US key layout. RDP doesn’t always play well with drivers, the basic microsoft OpenGL support is often not sufficient for Rhino. Again VNC works perfectly here, since it doesn’t insert a driver in between. It only captures the host desktop and forwards that.

No experience with Anydesk.

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which VNC program do you use?
test RealVNC before, but ran into the following issues:

  1. the remote monitor display is on, so anyone walking by the computer can see and use the computer
  2. lack of copy and paste support to and from the remote PC (parsec also has this issue)
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I have used this for over 10 years. So far it has been the only one that does not mess with my key inputs.

You can configure the monitor to shutdown when connecting to the machine.

Copy and paste of text works just fine. Files you can transfer as well, just not with copy and paste.

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I just came across with a YouTube video where the guy is talking about how to run Revit on a iPad Pro with keyboard/mouse via remote desktop. It’s called jump desktop. Not sure if anyone has experience with it

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What dedicated hardware is required for turn on the PC if it’s not on by default?

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And yes forgot to mention the PC is on WiFi - I could have it plugged in with the ethernet cable but I’ll need to route it quite a bit between rooms so not planning to do that

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the most reliable method would be something like piKVM.
there are ways to do WOL over wifi, but they’re super unreliable IMO.

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Slightly gone off time to the op now, but I’m interested in learning more about remote control my desktop when one the road which will provide me with the option to turn on/off, or at least wake up the PC being away from home.

I managed to figure out WLAN via my phone but then I realised that I’ll need it be be on the same network, hence LAN in WLAN.

What can I do to achieve the desired outcomes described above?

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if you have a static ip, just portfoward WOL.
if you have dynamic ip, use ddns on your router (if supported), then portforward

simply point the magic packet to the ip/ddns url to wake the machine
but just a fyi, my experience is the WOL is not reliable, certain types of deep sleep states are not compatible with WOL

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Thank you! Can’t believe I figured this out - it’s working with a DDNS and an android magic packet control via WAN!

One more question - I am trying it with chrome remote desktop and tested that it works after I put it to sleep, and reconnects when I wake it via my phone. But it won’t turn on if the PC is shut - presumably this is always the case and hence why to put it to sleep to save power?

Actually typing from remote in now!