The short, and simple, reply to your question would be that these libraries have not been formally (if at all) tested on Rhino-Grasshopper installations on Mac OS-X systems. So, it is hard to tell which features might work and which might not.
For a long and “it’s complicated” reply read on…
The core libraries (i.e. the ones that do most of the numerical and computational work) within both LB[+] and HB[+] have been cross-platform-compatible for nearly two years.
Perhaps the most definitive testament to that is the fact that @mostapha, @MingboPeng and a few other programmers were able to create a prototypical cloud-based server through less than 36 hours of non-stop coding for performing HB[+] simulations on the cloud during the AEC Hackathon in New York a few months ago.More recently, @AntoineDao has made some really exciting contributions by creating docker-based implementations of the HB[+] library whereby, among other things, it is possible to scale HB[+] simulations to run on 100s of cores on the cloud.
There simply hasn’t been enough of a groundswell of demand ,and more critically, support, from Mac-based Rhino users for the development to gain significant traction on that platform. Besides the occasional how-to-make-this-work type questions from people, there haven’t been any serious users who’ve been interested in investing time and effort to test/deploy the code on OS-X platforms. As far as I know, none of the core developers of Ladybug Tools are using Mac systems as their primary computers. So, we need some active engagement from the community to make this happen. One doesn’t have to know coding to support this, however, we’ll require someone to run some scripts/components and report back about the crashes/results. If you are interested, I would suggest opening an issue in the Honeybee or Ladybug repository. It might be at least a couple of weeks to a month before any tangible progress is seen.
Once deployed, HB[+] users will be able to perform annual daylighting simulations at least 4 to 8 times faster than Windows machines with similar hardware configurations.
Thank you for the reply and the clarification! It’s great to know dedicated people are part of the development team, I appreciate the time you took to explain this issue in a bit more detail.
It would be great if I could support the development via testing on Mac. I am not a fully fledged developer myself (I know some python and a bit of Javascript) but I would be happy to give feedback on any GH-Mac related tests/topics.
I will check out the links you sent.
Regarding issue #1 in my original post - on a PC you just need to drag and drop the .gha file and the userobjects onto the canvas, but can you help me a bit to understand which folders go where on a Mac?
I’ve tried putting the userobjects into the user object folder, but it only create partial results in the GH canvas, as well as the fact that the ‘core’ components were missing.
I think I might get more functionality out of LB/HB on Mac but I would love some assistance at least on how to correctly place all the files so I can try to test it properly.
Hi @YafimSimanovsky, as I had mentioned in my previous post, the first step would be to create a github issue for this. I have done that here. If you don’t have a github account, I would suggest creating one and continuing further discussions on that thread.
The issue relating to placement of userobjects and such will likely be best answered by somebody at https://discourse.mcneel.com/ (it might have been answered already). Giulio Piacentino, who is responsible for GhPython is more active on that forum.
This sounds like an issue with Grasshopper in Mac. Does closing and opening Rhino helps to reload the userobjects? As Sarith mentioned Giulio should be able to provide more insight on this topic.
For getting the legacy version to work on Mac we can debug it for you as far as you can report the issues. None of the developers are Mac users but if you can report the issues we can fix them for you as long as it doesn’t need rewriting the whole component which I don’t think will be the case.
The install for the [+] tools seems to work well but I’m assuming that the all Ladybug tools are not yet available in the [+] versions?
It would be great if I could learn the legacy tools on the mac as well since there are difficulties running Rhino and Grasshopper through a virtual machine but I can understand you’re going head on with the [+] versions.
I’ve tried to install legacy versions in the ~Library/Applications/McNeel/Rhinoceros/MacPlugins/Grasshopper/Libraries directory. I do get the menu items when opening Grasshopper but none of the objects appear (except for Ladybug_Imageviewer). Is there something I can do to get the ghuser objects to become available?
I’ve managed to install Kangaroo as a comparison and that seems to bring in the full set of its objects.
I’ll also check out github as you’ve suggested. I’m a newbie to the scheme and tools but I’d like to help troubleshoot for other users if there are suggestions on what to try.
Unfortunately there is no good solution. The legacy plugin are designed to only work on Windows and it takes a lot of work to make them compatible with Mac. The easiest solution is to run it inside Windows on Mac. I understand that it is not ideal of course.
I’m very bad in predicting release dates but we are working on an initial release by the end of the month. It will not be perfect but it supports the basic workflows. @chris is leading the effort.
Hi Mostapha and Chris, i am a Mac user architect, i am familiar with ladybug and honeybee legacy; part of my desertion analysis on daylight with filter surfaces was done with tools and i have to admit that if even some of them work in rhino 6 for mac would be a revolution. Keep us updated!! thanks for all your efforts!
@mostapha & @chris - I wanted to check-in to see how things were developing for Ladybug tools for Mac? Obviously it has not been released, since I am sure that the ground would shake in Mac user excitement. I guess my reason for checking in, is to confirm that things are not on hold for any particular reason.
In the meantime, I have been making myself more acquainted with the ladybug family of tools on my Mac partitioned PC, but I do look forward to the day when myself, professionals and students of architecture (of both OSs) can collaborate seamlessly using these tools.
Please let us (the community of users) know how we can help you debug, test, beta or sell you our first borns to help you propel this tool into the hands of ALL designers……no matter their sex, race, creed or OS.
We greatly appreciate you all and what you are giving the community. Please keep it up and keep it open.
@SuitableConditions ,
We are beta testing the latest [+] components on Mac now and we are very close to having an official release of them on Food4Rhino. So we’re down to a matter of weeks now instead of months.
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