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visose edited this page Jun 28, 2026 · 1 revision

This page gets you to a first checked Grasshopper program. After that, use Workflow guide for a more complete definition structure.

Requirements

  • Rhino 8 on Windows or macOS.
  • Grasshopper, included with Rhino.
  • The .NET runtime required by Rhino 8.
  • At least one robot library installed through Robots or placed in the local library folder.

Install Robots

  1. Open Rhino 8.
  2. Run _PackageManager.
  3. Search for Robots.
  4. Install the package.
  5. Restart Rhino and open Grasshopper.

After installation, Grasshopper should contain a Robots tab.

Install a robot library

  1. Place a Load Robot System component on the Grasshopper canvas.
  2. Click the Libraries button.
  3. Select a library from the list.
  4. Click Install.

The robots in the installed library should appear in the value list connected to the Load Robot System component.

Installed online libraries are cached inside the plugin data folder. Local libraries in your documents folder take priority over the downloaded copy. If the library window shows Local override, delete or rename the matching local XML and 3DM files if you want to use the downloaded version.

First Grasshopper program

  1. Place Load Robot System and select an installed robot.
  2. Create or load a Tool.
  3. Create a small target list. Start with a simple joint or Cartesian home target, then add one or two reachable Cartesian targets.
  4. Connect the robot system and targets to Create Program.
  5. Check the Warnings and Errors outputs before doing anything else.
  6. Connect Program Simulation and scrub Time from 0 to 1 with Normalized enabled.
  7. Use Save Program only after the program has no errors and the warnings make sense.

For UR, ABB, and Franka Emika robots, the Remote Connection component can also upload or run programs over the network. See Uploading programs.

The first program should be deliberately small. Once the basic chain solves, add process geometry, frames, zones, commands, external axes, and collision checks one at a time.

Samples

Example Grasshopper files are included in the repository under samples/Robots.Samples.Grasshopper.

If Rhino shows an assembly-not-found dialog while opening a sample, see Troubleshooting.

Upgrading from older versions

  • If upgrading from a very old manual installation, delete old Robots.gha and Robots.dll copies from the Grasshopper Components folder.
  • Local libraries in your documents folder override downloaded libraries with the same file name.
  • If an old definition opens obsolete components, replace them with the current components shown in the runtime error message.

Key Assumptions

Robots uses fixed units regardless of the Rhino document unit system and stores joint values in radians internally. Review Core concepts for the unit table, coordinate systems, targets, speeds, zones, and simulation limits.

Getting help

Use the Help entry on a Robots Grasshopper component or parameter to open the matching section in Components or Parameters.

Use Troubleshooting when a library does not load, a target does not solve, Create Program reports errors, or remote upload fails.

Use GitHub Discussions for community questions. For organization-specific support, commissioning help, or custom robot libraries, see commercial support.

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