1.1 Installation

These are the prerequisites for installing Karamba3D:

• Rhino 6.0, Rhino 7.0 or Rhino 8.0.

• Grasshopper (version 2.2.0 of Karamba3D was tested on GH 1.0.0007)

In case you do not possess Rhino, download a fully featured, free trial version.

Installation via Installer Program

Download one of the installers and double-click on the msi-file.

The installation procedure lets you set the physical units used for calculation. By default Karamba3D assumes input to be in SI units (e.g. meters for point coordinates). You can switch to Imperial units either on installation or later via the Grasshopper/Karamba3D menu under "Physical Units". When using Imperial Units coordinates will be interpreted to be in “feet”, force in “kips”, material strength in “ksi” and so on.

Make sure to install the FULL version of Karamba3D if you wish to activate a PRO or EDU license at a later stage.

For Rhino8 there exist two installer files: one for .NETFramework and on for .NETCore. By default Rhino 8 runs on .NETCore. In orer to run old plug-ins, Rhino 8 can be switched to .NETFramework mode with the command 'SetDotNetRuntime'. In these situations the .NETFramework version of Karamba3D can be used.

Upon successful installation you should see a Karamba3D tab when you open Grasshopper in Rhino. Additionally, as a default setting a shortcut to the installation folder will be placed on your desktop. Double-click on the Karamba3D desktop-icon will get you to the standard installation directory which is in the Plug-ins-folder of your Rhino installation directory.

If Karamba3D does not show up, please refer to our troubleshooting guide.

Karamba3D license can be activated as cloud or network licenses. Standalone licenses are only valid for workshops or universities.

page1.2.1 Cloud Licensespage1.2.4 Standalone Licensespage1.2.2 Network Licenses

Installation via the YAK Package Manager

Karamba3D can only be installed via msi-file or yak. If both are installed at the same time, the 'Karamba3DGetLicense'-command will not work. If you happen to have installed both: uninstall them and remove the Karamba3DLicense-plugin in Rhino via Options/Plug-ins, unhooking 'Enabled' and restarting Rhino.

YAK is the Package Manager for Rhino. It can automatically download and install plug-ins required for a specific Grasshopper definition. Thus one possibility of installing Karamba3D is to open a GH definition with some Karamba3D components in it. Alternatively the package manager can be started in Rhino by typing 'PackageManager' in the command window. Make sure to activate 'Include pre-releases' in the window that pops-up. Under YAK Karamba3D comes as 'karambaGH' which installs the FULL version of Karamba3D.

The Rhino8 Package Manager installs the .NETCore version of Karamba3D under Windows to the folder %appdata%\AppData\Roaming\McNeel\Rhinoceros\packages\8.0 - which is different from where it is placed by the msi-installer.

When starting Grasshopper for the first time after a YAK-installation of Karamba3D, a window with copyright notice and terms and conditions will appear.

Copyright notice and license agreement can be found on Windows under C:\ProgramData\Karamba3D\.

The path to Karamba3D depends on whether installation was done via the msi-installer or YAK. This means that scripts which make use of the Karamba3D API may be broken. In case of GH C# scripting components one needs to adapt the path via "Manage Assemblies..." in the components context menu.

Rhino6, Rhino7 and Rhino8 in parallel

You can install the Rhino 6, 7 and 8 versions of Karamba3D simultaneously. Simply run the installers one after the other.

Silent Installation

In order to install Karamba3D on remote machines “msiexec.exe” provides options to circumvent the graphical user-interface of the installer. Start the Windows CommandPrompt, navigate to where the Karamba3D-installer lies and type e.g.

msiexec.exe /i karamba3d_2_0_0_RH6.msi /passive ADDLOCAL=DLLs,LicensePlugin,FullFeatures,SIUnits,LicensePublicKey,Tables,Examples

in one line to install the full version of Karamba3D (“FullFeatures”) with SI-Units (“SIUnits”), cross section and material tables (“Tables”) and the example definitions (“Examples”). In order to get the free version and Imperial units substitute “FullFeatures” with “FreeFeatures” and “SIUnits” with “IMPUnits”.

The static license can be supplied without graphical user interface (GUI) by renaming the license-file to “licensePRO.lic” and copying it to the “License”-folder under ...\Rhino\Plug-ins\Karamba.

Automate installation

The following files and folder will be copied to your machine during installation:

• “karamba.dll” and “libiomp5md.dll” to C:\Windows.

• “karambaCommon.dll”, “karamba.gha” and the Karamba-folder to the “Plug-ins”-folder of Rhino. The Karamba3D-folder contains material- and cross section libraries, examples, the karamba.ini- file and the license-folder. This is typically C:\Program Files\Rhinoceros 6\Plug-ins or C:\Program Files\Rhino 6\Plug-ins.

• If not already present the C++ runtime libraries of Visual Studio 2019 will be copied to your machine.

Karamba3D is installed for all users by default. In order to get Karamba3D running without the installer simply copy the above files and the Karamba3D-folder from one machine to the next. Unless deselected, the installer places a Karamba3D-icon on the desktop. Double-click on it to open the Karamba3D-folder.

Installation on a Mac

Unfortunately Karamba3D is currently only available to Windows users. If you have a Mac you can run Karamba3D if you have a Parallels or Bootcamp Windows installation.