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Rhino for Mac - Preferences

Here are a few procedures for manipulating your collection of preferences for Rhino for Mac.

Rhino for Mac 5.3.2 and later, and all builds of Mac Rhino 6, provide three convenient commands for managing your preferences:

  1. ExportPreferences: Allows you to export your preferences .plist file for backup or sharing.
  2. ImportPreferences: Allows you to selectively import preferences from a .plist file.
  3. ResetPreferences: Deletes the changed preferences values at the time you run it. When you close Rhino, the application saves your preferences at that point, including window positions, sidebar preferences, and anything else you have used/changed since you ran ResetPreferences.

The above commands are highly recommended for management of preferences. However, if you are having trouble with your preferences, the following manual steps can be employed…

Save a copy of your current Rhino for Mac Preferences

  1. Quit Rhino completely.
  2. In the Finder, hold down the Option key, and select Library in the Go menu.
  3. Open the Preferences folder.
  4. Find the com.mcneel.rhinoceros.plist file. Select Duplicate in the right-click context menu to make a copy. The copy will be named com.mcneel.rhinoceros copy.plist. (NOTE: In Rhino 7 or later, the preferences file includes a version number, such as: com.mcneel.rhinoceros.7.plist)

Reset Rhino Preferences

Follow this procedure to remove all of your changed Rhino preferences and reset all of them to the original values.

  1. Quit Rhino.
  2. Start the Terminal application found in your Applications > Utilities folder.
    A window with a command prompt appears.
  3. Type defaults delete com.mcneel.rhinoceros and press Return.

NOTE: In Rhino 7 or later, the preferences file includes a version number, such as:

defaults delete com.mcneel.rhinoceros.7.plist

defaults delete com.mcneel.rhinoceros.8.plist

  1. Wait until the Terminal prompt comes back. This can take 15-20 seconds.
  2. Quit the Terminal application.

Restore saved Rhino Preferences

Follow this procedure to replace all of your current Rhino preferences with a previously saved copy.

  1. Quit Rhino.
  2. In the Finder, hold down the Option key, and select Library in the Go menu.
  3. Open the Preferences folder.
  4. Find the com.mcneel.rhinoceros.plist file. Drag it to the Trash. (NOTE: In Rhino 7 or later, the preferences file includes a version number, such as: com.mcneel.rhinoceros.7.plist)
  5. Rename your previously saved preferences file to com.mcneel.rhinoceros.plist.
    1. Note: If you moved your saved plist file to a different folder, you need to drag it back into the preferences folder.
  6. Start the Terminal application found in your Applications > Utilities folder.
    A window with a command prompt appears.
  7. Type defaults read com.mcneel.rhinoceros and press Return. A lot of output will appear in the Terminal window.
  8. Quit the Terminal application.
rhino/mac/resetprefs.txt · Last modified: 2022/03/18 by maryfugier