Advantages and Differences - Rhino.Python vs RhinoScript

[Mike24 (Mike)]

Rhino.Python (Python Script) vs RhinoScript (VB Script)

Are there any differences between these two? Is there any advantage in using one over the other?

[diff-arch]

@Mike24

Are there any differences between these two?

There are syntactical differences.
Other than that Python is multiplatform, whereas VBScript is more tightly interwoven with the Windows OS.
Python also seems to be way more popular nowadays and supported in many CAD and CG applications for scripting. The two only programms that support VBScript are Rhino and MS Excel.

[Mike24 (Mike)]

Do you know if McNeel is phasing one out over the other at all in the foreseeable future?

[diff-arch]

No idea, but Python is here to stay, that’s for sure.

[Dancergraham (Graham Knapp)]

Hello,

The first paragraph of this guide suggests that RhinoScript is not going away but the future of Rhino (like coding and scripting more generally) is definitely more pythonic.

Rhino.Python 101

[Willem (Willem Derks)]

Hi Mike,

My advice would be to go for Python for sure!
One of the biggest advantages with the RhinoPython is that you can acces and use the RhinoCommon API

Note that all of rhinoscriptsyntax is build this way.

I’m not sure about your proficiency with coding, but what helped me a lot was to scrutinize the rhinoscriptsyntax code by means of breakpoints in the python editor.

See this post that might help follow my route:

From Python into Rhino Common

Continuing the discussion from Is this the best way to automatically update linked blocks?: Hi Jorgen, Below a description on how I find my way in RhinoCommon through Python: starting with the code: import rhinoscriptsyntax as rs blockList=rs.BlockNames() I put a debug breakpoint at the last line: [image] Run the code with the green arrow (F5). The script stops at line 2 and you get options to continue, StepInto SetOver over …etc Choose StepInto [image] The script will step into the …

Another extra: here on Discourse support for rhinopython is easier to get as my impression is that more (active) users use it.

-Willem

[Mike24 (Mike)]

Great info from all. I moved forward with Python since it seems like it’s going to have more focus in Rhino in the future. Almost done with my first full script. Thanks all!

[stevebaer]

Go with python. We aren’t dropping support for RhinoScript, but we also aren’t putting a whole lot of effort into improvements either. Python will continue to see improvements from one version of Rhino to the next.

[Mike24 (Mike)]

This is great feedback; good to know!