Primary reason for using Python or VB Scripting in Grasshopper

Hi,

I have very little experience with Grasshopper but have been writing scripts in Python for a while to automate Rhino.

Here’s the question since I see a lot of activity in the scripting forum from Grasshopper users:

What is the primary purpose of scripting relative to Grasshopper since it is already parametric.

Thanks in advance for the info.

Eric

Hi @eric.bunn,

Grasshopper comes with lots of components. But it does not (and cannot) supply everything. When you can’t find what you need, you just type up a script…

– Dale

Dale,

I’ll have to play around with it to see what it can do and what it cannot do. Thanks. That’s the answer I expected. I’ll have to search around to see how people are mixing Grasshopper with scripting.

Eric

Hey Eric :slight_smile:

the philosophy I follow during the work with Grasshopper looks like this:

  1. If it can be easily done with Grasshopper - do it with Grasshopper
  2. If it can’t be done with Grasshopper / it’s easier with the script - do the scripting with GhPython instead
  3. If there is too much scripting - create a new plugin with C#

If you try to stick with Grasshopper components only, then your definition can become really big really fast. It’s sometimes easier to create one custom script component than using 15 of built-in GH components that will give the same result. But it’s just the matter of opinion.

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Best resources for learning the basics of Grasshopper?

Thanks

Eric

There are many videos on youtube for beginners, personally I started with this series: Hello World - Basic Introduction to Grasshopper - YouTube

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Thanks. I’ll start there.

Eric