Stepped/paused definition execution

Grasshopper
1

Hello!

I work with scenography for events and trade show booth building and usually the computers I work on are very low specs computers and even simple definitions may take a long time to execute. To avoid lags and unnecessary lockups, I don´t use sliders as they usually take a long time to change some parts of the definitions.

I wonder if there is any way to make grasshopper execute the definitions with some planned steps. To make my question simpler, let´s imagine the following…

A simple furniture, made with metal tubes, but the space between the tubes we will install a mesh. That mesh and metal structure may vary from case to case. So, this definition, I would need to make a definition that would have the following steps:

  1. Define the overall size of the structure. (width, depth and height)
  2. Define the metal type and size (round or square tube width and wall thickness)
  3. Define the mesh type for the finished types
  4. Bake the results

The problem I face usually is that when I am defining the size of the structure the mesh is always being calculated and this sometimes take a long time to finish.

Is there any way to pause a part of the definition to run until the first part is totally finished?

2

Data Dam. You can zoom in and click “+” to add more inputs, same as List Item.

You can also use Stream Gate to disable downstream components until a toggle or Value List is switched.

1 Like
3

Hi,

if you are in a hurry Disabling some components to stop parts of the definition may also do the trick.

Pause definiton_01
Pause definiton_012002×1335 238 KB

1 Like
4

Disabling is good for definition development, but not exactly what I need…

If the definition needs to be distributed to other users and the person using the definition is not familiar with it, they may break it or drop the definition for good for not knowing how to use it.

5

I think that Data Dam component would solve the problem! Thank you!!

Too bad that it doesn´t have a remote trigger ability… Apparently, this can be solved with metahopper. :slight_smile: