How to Mimic Excel Tables in a Rhino Document

I’d like to have some simple Excel-like math functionality in a table inside a Rhino document. This could be extended to auto-update any text object anywhere in the document, not just a table format.

My understanding of excel tables is that each cell has at least three properties:
Address: A1, B1, C1, etc.
Formula: none, none, =A1+B1, etc.
Displayed Text: 2, 2, 4, etc.

To replicate this in Rhino, a text object would have the following user attributes:


The Displayed Text attribute is grabbed with a text field to auto-update the actual text inside the text object.

Then a grasshopper script or C# script (preferably C# command eventually) is needed to evaluate the formulas:

  1. Either: select all text objects in document, or: use selected text objects
  2. Evaluate Formula attribute of all selected text objects, using Addresses in Formulas as variables.
  3. Update Displayed Text attribute for all selected texts based on formula output. Do nothing if no formula.

I’m stuck on the formula evaluation script (I have minimal code knowledge). I can’t quite get it to work in grasshopper or in a GH C# component using ChatGPT.

ExcelinRhino.3dm (50.0 KB)
ExcelinRhino.gh (22.5 KB)

Anyone have some insight on this? Or perhaps I’m reinventing the wheel and you’ve already solved this problem?