OpenLCA 2.0.2 cannot access to preferences to allocate RAM (Big Sur, Mac)

Question

I have installed OpenLCA for my MacBook (Big Sur); however, I cannot access to Preferences to change the RAM configuration. When I click on Preferences, nothing happen. Could you help me to revolve it. Many thanks.

Answer 1

Hi, I edited your question to make clear it refers to Apple and to Big Sur specifically. In my perception, Apple always tries to think what users need, and guide them to this, which sometimes blocks things users want to do. Also, this differs from OS version to OS version. We use here Apple in the team with several consultants and developers and this works, but I am not one of them so do not know the OS. 

The other approach that you can try is to manually change the ini file. So, launch the "Finder" and navigate to the "Applications" folder. Locate openLCA in the Applications folder. Next, right-click on openLCA and choose "Show package contents". Then, navigate further by opening the "Contents" file. Within the "Contents" file, locate and open the "MacOS" file. You can do this by double-clicking on the file named "openLCA.ini". If the text editor does not open automatically, you can manually select the "Text Edit" program to open it.
Within the text editor, you can manually modify the memory allocation by changing the value.

Search for a line "-Xmx..", this is the memory in megabyte ("M", at the end). For instance, you can set it to 9096M. After making the desired changes, save the file, close all windows, and proceed to restart openLCA.

Comments

When I was using OpenLCA on a Mac, I encountered a situation where I couldn't see the "File," "Database Tools," or "Help" options in the menu bar. How can I resolve this issue?

Answer 2

Have you clicked on File --> Preferences or on openLCA --> Settings?

The good news is that with openLCA2, everything on MacOS is working as easy and smoothly as on Windows. You can click on File and then on Preferences and change the RAM allocation directly there, same as for Windows.

The only difference on MacOS is that Apple is creating by default a kind of standard button at openLCA --> Settings which has currently no meaning and nothing will happen when you click on it. Unfortunately, MacOS users will intuitively click on that button first (which does not exist in Windows). In some future version, this button might be removed or it might be linked to File/Settings.

The openLCA settings can be only used by clicking on "File" and then on "Preferences" and of course it can be also changed in the openLCA.ini like described above.