Having the same problems after reinstalling Windows 10 Pro. Installed FreeCAD 0.18 rev. 4 (10/22/2019). The macro is not available in the list. Tried installing manually as described in the Wiki, restarted FreeCAD, checked if the workbench wasn't disabled. The workbench doesn't show up.

I could install it using the recipe given in the following feedback thread for FCGears:
https://forum.freecadweb.org/viewtopic.php?f=8&t=27626&start=30#p332138

i.e. on my Linux box:

cd .Freecad/Mod/
wget https://github.com/looooo/FCGear/archive/master.zip
unzip master.zip
# wget will unpack into .Freecad/Mod/freecad.gears-master/ 
git clone https://github.com/looooo/freecad.gears.git
# while git clone resulted in .Freecad/Mod/FCGears/
# but both worked equally well

After (re)starting freecad 0.18.4-2019-11-10, I could use File > New, View > Workbench > Gear W, 6 to activate the FCGear Workbench and create Gears. Thanks for providing the precious parts.

Thank you stefan123t; I used the same approach on Windows 10 and it now working; thank you.

There will be a freecad 0.18.5 release which should target the addon manager issue. But not sure what the status of the 0.18.5 release is @sgrogan.

Dear Lorenz @looooo, thanks for the clarification. I have tried to apply the patch on the AddonManager.py as suggested in the forum thread with no success. But since then I also installed the AppImage for 18.5 which allows installing the FCGears workbench from the Addons Dialog as described.
Kind regards, Stefan

Thanks for this! I had the same problem on a Mac (OS 11.1 Big Sur - which can't run FreeCad 0.19, unfortunately...)

Some minor variations were necessary to get it running on my machine (in case it helps).

• downloaded the file at https://github.com/looooo/FCGear/archive/master.zip via a browser
• expanded the .zip in my Documents directory
• Go to the FreeCad.app in the Applications folder, right-click or Ctrl-click and select "Open Package Contents" This will open a directory called "Contents"
• Move the directory called "freecad.gears-master" from Downloads to
  Contents/Resources/Mod
• Close the window.
• Boot FreeCad, create a new file, and go to View > Workbench > Gear W, 6, as described by stefan123t, above.

Thanks again!

It has a version check in the code (features.py line 119). It checks for >= 19...

It has a version check in the code (features.py line 119). It checks for >= 19...

Yes, because the API changed there (ref). This is unrelated to not being able to install. An error in this check would result in a runtime error when trying to create a gear object, like #84.