Does anyone know the pros & cons and especially the limitations of
For instance:
… is very limited in the range of supported plugins
… crashed a lot when …
… supports export to Excel/3DM/JPG etc to an emailadress
… supports importing Excel/3DM/JPG etc from external parties (f.i. architects offices)
I will try to report my findings here too.
Speckle is more about data transfer. The Speckle viewer does not have the ability to change parameters of your grasshopper script. Shapediver, Victor and Packhunt have the possibility to interact with the parameters of your gh script. These use rhino compute in the background. Speckle does not. With speckle you can use all plugins. For the other applications this is not the case.
In terms of performance, this one seems to be ahead of the other options you listed:
I’ve never used any of them, so who knows. But these examples are very fast/responsive when fiddling with sliders:
Thank you for your replies. Modelup seems specialised in making models and writing scripts for a customer. Since I (and most users of this forum) like to write there own scripts, I will not include that option.
I have sent an email to Viktor and have spoken to Packhunt, so that information is/wiil be included below.
Overview (to be expanded with additional information):
Shapediver
about 40 plugins
Speckle viewer
all plugins
pro’s
data transfer between different programs as Revit, Rhino, etc
con’s
interaction, f.i. no interaction with the parameters of the script
Packhunt
Bowerbird, Clipper, ggRhinoIFC, Kangaroo, Karamba3D, Pufferfish, Weaverbird, others in consultation
pro’s
download to external parties in some file formats possible (f.i. dwg, csv, but no generated jpg)
good communication
con’s
no Rhino 8 yet
upload from files from external parties is not supported
Viktor
From the presentations I’ve seen (e.g. @emilpoulsen at the latest Rhino Developer Meeting in Copenhagen), Modelup runs Grasshopper scripts through Rhino.Compute, but with some nifty and performant tech for the browser rendering/interaction. Edit: There are a few examples on their Instagram account that make the Rhino/Grasshopper stack more apparent and demonstrate the performance.
Hi! Emil here, founder of Modelup. Thanks for the mention @AndersDeleuran! I thought I’d jump in and shed some light on the questions about Modelup 
It is correct that our primary focus has been to offer the “full package” combining both hosting and development of the Grasshopper logic.
However, there is indeed an underlying platform powered by GH, and we do have outside clients who use it independently. I realize that this option is quite unclear from the website currently. We will improve this!
@Ernst_van_der_Vecht, if you (or anyone else reading this) is interested in using just the MUP platform, please reach out to me at emil@modelup3d.com. While we’ve been refining the platform for years, working with outside GH devs is still relatively new for us, so I’d love to hear your feedback. See below for a quick demo.
Part of our system is a simple GH plugin (currently named FormXP… will probably be renamed at some point) that lets you define inputs, outputs, GUI and some more stuff.
When the GH definition is authored it can be uploaded through our backoffice. It also lets you tweak a few settings, like camera, lightning, info modals, laungage etc.
Here is the link to the example above if you would like to test it out yourself. The configurator can be embedded on other sites through iframe, and connected to third-party systems, like ERP, PIM etc. Bonus: there is also an API, so you can run computes headlessly from a python/C# script as well.
Hi Ernst and everyone! Thanks for bringing up this discussion about platforms for integrating parametric models. I thought I would take a moment to clarify and expand on ShapeDiver’s capabilities, particularly in response to the points Ernst raised in his original post.
ShapeDiver is a platform dedicated to hosting and sharing Grasshopper definitions online, enabling interactive and scalable web-based applications for parametric design. Our focus is on providing an efficient and customizable solution for embedding parametric models into websites, e-commerce platforms, and digital workflows.
ShapeDiver currently supports over 50 Grasshopper plugins, with continuous efforts to expand our library based on user needs. While the range of plugins is curated to ensure stability and performance, we are always open to feedback for integrating additional tools that align with our platform’s technical requirements.
Note that we offer dedicated servers to our Enterprise customers, where any plugins can be installed without restrictions (except for compatibility), including self-developed plugins which are not meant to be released publicly.
ShapeDiver interprets any traditional parameters included in a definition (sliders, value lists, toggles, etc…), but also advanced interaction parameters which allow users to select and drag elements in the online viewer, as well as draw points and polylines in the scene. This enables truly interactive web applications beyond standard HTML layouts. See for example:
Talking about layouts, the recently released App Builder allows to fully control your applications’ online interface, controlling where and under what logic the application displays parameters, data outputs, charts, images and more… The two links above show examples of Such Apps, and here is another one that includes charts.
Remember that this is all done entirely using Grasshopper (no web development required).
The Import components from the plugin allows importing files in many file formats into your online applications:
Import Geometry accepts all file formats compatible with Rhino.
Import Bitmap lets you import images which can then be manipulated in Grasshopper using the Bitmap primitive.
Import Text accepts various formats including .ifc and json files which come in handy when using our APIs to connect online models in wider workflows.
ShapeDiver supports multiple export formats, both for downloading directly in the web application or sent to a specified email… You can find a full list of supported formats for export along with the export options exposed for each of them here.
Bonus: talking about importing and exporting, and because Speckle was mentioned in this discussion, note that we support the Speckle plugin now, which allows to import and export data from any Speckle model, therefore allowing data exchange with a lot of other software by means of the Speckle connectors.
ShapeDiver models and Apps built with the App Builder can be shared securely as private links, through in-app sharing permissions or within organizations on the platform. They can be embedded using iframes in any website, or through a deeper integration using our APIs (see below).
As I mentioned above, the App Builder allows to build flexible, standalone web applications from Grasshopper only. However, there are use cases for custom integrations and workflow that require even more flexibility.
Our viewer API allows to build fully custom applications around ShapeDiver model and our online viewer. Our geometry backend API, on the other side, allows to build client-side workflows with ShapeDiver models, for applications that are not built around a user-facing configuration environment.
Feel free to get in touch with me if you have more questions!
I have had contact with Modelup and Shapediver. Here is an update of the list with an added description of the main feature (in my opinion).
Overview (to be expanded with additional information):
Shapediver - lots of possibilities
about 50 plugins
pros
lot of possibilities, including combination with Speckle
upload and download from/to external parties possible f.i. cad-files, jpg
starting at free subsription
cons
can be overwhelming, but tutorials are available
email support only on higher priced plans
Speckle viewer - converting between different formats
all plugins
pros
data transfer between different programs as Revit, Rhino, etc
cons
interaction, f.i. no interaction with the parameters of the script
Packhunt - GH in a managed account
Bowerbird, Clipper, ggRhinoIFC, Kangaroo, Karamba3D, Pufferfish, Weaverbird, others in consultation
pros
download to external parties in some file formats possible (f.i. dwg, csv, but no generated jpg)
good communication
cons
no Rhino 8 yet
upload from files from external parties is not supported
Modelup - GH in a managed account
Most plugins,
pros
upload and download from/to external parties possible f…i. cad-files, jpg
good communication
cons
Rhino 8 not yet supported, but solution on demand possible
Viktor
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