Mac version: "Nothing to choose from"

[Ofidian]

I'm running Hero Lab on a MacBook with Mac OS X version 10.6.8. My processor is 2.4GHz Intel Core 2 Duo.

I own a D&D Insider account. I used the ddidownloader_mac program to "2. Download data (with D&D insider account)."

Then, I went to create a character using the 4th edition D&D system, presumably employing the character options I downloaded with the ddidownloader_mac program. Unfortunately, I couldn't choose many important options; Hero Lab says "Nothing to choose from!" It says this in the Class, Race, Deity and other fields. In addition, in fields like Feats I can only add custom options—I effectively have nothing from which to choose except user-created material.

I see that other people encountered that problem on Windows platforms, but I haven't found satisfactory answers for this issue on Macintosh. What step should I take next?

[Colen]

Try quitting and restarting Hero Lab - does the game content appear then?

If not, when you ran the Mac downloader, did it spend a while downloading stuff from the Compendium? Approximately how long did it take? Did the downloader give you any error messages?

[Ofidian]

I quit and restarted Hero Lab. The game content did not appear. All locations where there was "Nothing to choose from!" remained so.

The Mac downloader spent a very long time downloading things from the Compendium—around five hours or so. It downloaded between 3,000 and 4,000 items. I did not see any error messages.

[Colen]

Within Hero Lab, while the 4e game system is loaded, go to Tools -> Explore Folders -> Game System Data Folder. A Finder window should open with the list of files in that folder - that's where the 4e content should be downloaded to. Are there files in there named things like "ddi_skills.dat", "ddi_rituals.dat", "ddi_races.dat" etc?

[Ofidian]

The folder is named /Users/[username]/Library/Application Support/Hero Lab/Data/4e.

There are .dat files in this folder, but none of them begin with "ddi_." They begin with titles like "sheet_," "tab_," "summ_" and "thing_."

There is a folder inside the aforementioned folder, called "ddidownloader." (/Users/[username]/Library/Application Support/Hero Lab/Data/4e/ddidownoader.) Inside that folder are .dat files starting with "ddi_." They are things like "ddi_feats.dat," "ddi_powers.dat" and "ddi_backgrounds.dat."

[Ofidian]

Does anyone know a solution for this problem?

I have a new D&D game coming up Monday and I would like to use this software for which I paid.

[cryptoknight]

If you copy the ddi_*.dat files to the /Users/[username]/Library/Application Support/Hero Lab/Data/4e.
folder, then quit and restart hero lab, does it work then?

I'm not a Mac user, but it seems the downloader may have put them one folder deeper than they should be.

[Ofidian]

I put the ddi_*.dat files to the folder you suggested and then started Hero Lab. When I tried to access the 4e section of Hero Lab from the "Select a Game" menu, Hero Lab displayed a dialogue box that said "The data files could not be loaded due to the following errors:" and then a very long list of errors, with typical entries including:

File: ddi_deities.dat (line 5) - Thing 'dtyAmaunat' - Empty string is not allowed for attribute 'name'
File: ddi_deities.dat (line 5) - Thing 'dtyAmaunat' - Invalid unique id
File: ddi_destinies.dat (line 75) - Thing 'fEpcLicRes' - Empty string is not allowed for attribute 'name'
File: ddi_destinies.dat (line 75) - Thing 'fEpcLicRes' - Invalid unique id

When I switch different ddi_*.dat files in and out of the aforementioned folder to test things out, I receive the same message about all the .dat files as far as I can tell.

What is the next step I should take?

[Fippy]

I'm getting the exact same problem. I tried restarting HL, then tried copying the .dat files up a level, as instructed, and restarting HL. I get the same error messages.

Does anyone have a workaround for this please?
Thanks,

[Fippy]

I tried the method from this thread: http://forums.wolflair.com/showthrea...=ddidownloader and it worked, or at least it gave access to the data files. I'm not sure if everything is there yet.

Basically it just suggests downloading the DDI files on a PC and moving them to the Mac. I'm sure LoneWolf will get this figured out in time. Mac HL is still new.

It doesn't seem to want to load my PC portfolio file on the mac (it tells me it was created with a different version of the program), but I guess I can rekey it all using the PC version as a reference. Odd - since it's just an XML file.