I have been working with the Icon editor included in Grasshopper2. I have a good deal of success and I really like the result of vector-based icons in Grasshopper. The results are very clean and crisp when compared to standard pixel icons. After getting the hang of things, I was able to work though a number of icons very quickly.
Here are my findings on the experience in creating and editing Grasshopper icon files:
General process notes…
- ‘Icon setup’ is useful for getting started with proper dimensions and frames
- ‘Icon symbols’ (using text dots) haven’t been very useful to me. I exclusively use curves to draw my icons. I think they are a bit too abstract as a process for creating meaningful icons.
- The ability to manage multiple icons in a single Rhino file would be amazing.
Editing experience…
- My biggest challenge I encounter is that there needs to be a way to control the layer order of shapes that are created. I find it very difficult to understand what causes a shape (curve of polygon) to fall above or below other shapes when they are overlayed. Nudging the shapes around seems to change the order. Perhaps shape order could be tied to layer order? Or some UI for telling a shape to ‘move lower’ or ‘move to top’ etc.
- It took me awhile to understand what the two different ‘background’ fields and the Icon color selection nomenclature around thinks like ‘weak, firm, stark’ and the impacts on things like transparency.
- I’d like to see the ability to preview how the icon looks in different display settings. The default is ‘light theme’ - toggling ‘Dark mode’ or the different styling (Cool, warm..) directly from the Icon creator menu would allow for better feedback on how the icon looks without having to use G2 in parallel.
- Add a scroll bar to the Icon control panel - the ‘raycast’ preview is often not visible or clipped off and I can’t scroll to see it. Collapsible menu expanders could also help here.