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I'm trying to use Asymptote with TeXShop on Mac OS X 10.8.5. I'm attempting to follow the instructions given at http://asymptote.sourceforge.net/TeXShopAndAsymptote.pdf

I got through step 2, but when it came to step 3, creating the asymptote engine, I discovered that I didn't have a folder called ~/Library/TeXShop/Engines. I didn't even have a folder called ~/Library/TeXShop.

So I created both folders, then created a text file with the code specified in step 3 of the above document and saved it as asyEngine.Engine. Then I finished steps 4 and 5, but no asyEngine appears in my drop-down list of engines in TeXShop. I'm not sure what to do.

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    The ~ stands for your home; open a Finder window and type Command+Shift+G; in the box that appears, type ~/Library/TeXshop, you'll be taken in the right folder. – egreg Jan 28 '14 at 8:41
  • Welcome to TeX.SX! You can have a look at our starter guide to familiarize yourself further with our format. – Andrew Swann Jan 28 '14 at 9:29
  • @Chad: You have a typo in your question's file. asyEngine.Engine should be called asyEngine.engine instead, as your instructions say. – strpeter Jan 28 '14 at 10:43
  • The Go to Folder command produced a "folder could not be found error." For some reason, the folder was not created during TeXShop installation. Thinking that the .engine files might have been installed somewhere else, I did a spotlight search for the extension .engine. No results. It seems that no .engine files were created during the TeXShop (v 3.26) installation at all. – Chad Jan 28 '14 at 16:22
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You should not have to create the ~/Library/Engines folder, since it is created automatically by TeXShop, which means, as suggested in the comments that you have misunderstood something about the folder.

Go open a Finder window, an type Command-Shif-G. This will open a box into which you can type any path.

Into the box type:

~/Library/TeXshop

enter image description here

The TeXShop library folder will then appear in the finder window:

enter image description here

Inside this folder there is an Engines folder which contains all the active Engines. There is also a folder named Inactive. Go into that folder, and you will find an Asymptote folder. Move the Asymptote.engine file you find there to the main Engines folder, and restart TeXShop. Your new engine will then be available in the dropdown menu.

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  • I understand that TeXShop should have created the directory ~/Library/TeXShop and the subdirectory ~/Library/TeXShop/Engines. However, when I installed TeXShop (v 3.26), these directories were apparently not created for some reason. The "go to folder" command in finder produces a "folder can't be found" error. Any ideas why the folder wouldn't be created during TeXShop installation? – Chad Jan 28 '14 at 16:14
  • @chad That's very odd, since TeXShop uses those folders itself. And TeXShop is working otherwise, I assume. If you want I can set up a chatroom to help you directly. – Alan Munn Jan 28 '14 at 16:15
  • @chad Hopefully you can join this: chat.stackexchange.com/rooms/12710/… – Alan Munn Jan 28 '14 at 16:29
  • Not the appropriate place to post, I realize, but I need at least 20 reputation to participate in chat. As a new user I only have six. – Chad Jan 28 '14 at 16:42
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    Problem solved: the issue was simply that, as a novice mac user, I didn't enter the tilde in the Go To Folder command. – Chad Jan 28 '14 at 16:56

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