What can McNeel do to improve your development?

Rhino Developer
14

[quote=“dale, post:13, topic:10491”]
Do you have an example of this?[/quote]

Out of my mind, I remember of GetCameraExtents method.
There are more of these.

I have just noticed the Sitemap. That’s the navigation I was talking about. Sorry.
Just a small addition, looks like “Grasshopper” has been missing from the menu on the left.

[quote=“dale, post:13, topic:10491”]
Not much we can do about .NET 4.5 not working on 13-year old Windows XP - sorry.[/quote]

Looks like it is possible to make one for .NET 4 (Win XP supports .NET 4), but Steve simply can’t make it, with all the work he has at Mcneel.

15

I’ll second “completing the RhinoCommon SDK documentation”, although I don’t have any specific examples of missing documentation that’s annoyed me off the top of my head. (I know it’s happened, though.) More sophistication in the toolbar installation process would be great, and I’d still love for RhinoDoc.EndSaveDocument to work the way it seems like it should.

16

Another thing that would be very nice is if custom grips would actually work in RhinoCommon.

17

I like to develop script via rscript or rpython but for me would be great if Mcneel could organize courses on how to use rhinocommon maybe with C#…

18

Please add proper IntelliSense to the Python editor. :rocket:

c.

1 Like
19

Hello Dale,
First I want to say that for the most part it is a pleasure to develop for Rhino! I’ve learned a lot with the examples you provide in the wiki and the Rhinocommon SDK is quite useful.
I would also like to see the SDK documentation completed as there are missing descriptions all over the place. Also, adding code examples as you have in the Rhinoscript help would be great. I know there are some in there, but would be great for this to exist in all documented elements.

(to pick out a few random ones…obviously they are almost self explanatory, but would be nice to just have the short description and usage sample).
http://4.rhino3d.com/5/rhinocommon/?topic=html/M_Rhino_Display_RhinoViewport_ClientToScreen_1.htm
http://4.rhino3d.com/5/rhinocommon/?topic=html/T_Rhino_DocObjects_HatchPattern.htm

I also noticed that the Event Model is pretty loose. For example, EndOpenDocument fires several times as the document is opening. Should this not fire once when the document is actually opened and finished loading any resources? I eventually got around the issue waiting for Rhino to become Idle, but I wonder if the EndOpenDocument event should be fired so many times for a reason?

Finally, I would like to request some information on licensing and the best practices, or options out there for plugin licensing. I know that this has implications beyond Rhino, but as tied to Rhino, it would be good to know what our options are (for those of us who have never touched upon the subject). What are the devices that facilitate licensing (Zoo vs license key vs license server?).

All the best,
Luis

20

The Rhino.Python editor has “IntelliSense.” What is “proper” IntelliSense?

21

We completely agree with everyone’s request for new/better/improved/complete documentation. We hope to address this in the future.

I going to create a new thread for this…

1 Like
22

This is pretty hard to get correct since python is not a strongly typed language. That being said, I think we can improve on what we currently support. @alain, can you look into improving this for V6?

23

If we had better “getting started” documentation, would this help? Would you still need a course?

24

Hi @dale, @stevebaer and @Alain,

what i´ve meant is that we get code completion for RhinoCommon methods like below eg.:

import Rhino

def SomeFunction():
    pt = Rhino.Geometry.Point3d(0,0,0)
    pt. # does not bring up anything

I know this is a lot to ask for but it would be extremely valuable for the Python editor.

c.

3 Likes
25

+1

26

RhinoCommon has come a long way since the old SDK, and its fantastic. But I agree with @fraguada about completing the SDK documentation,

I also agree with @menno about creating two types of documentation, one for entry level, and one for advanced topics, in multiple languages (C#, .Net, Python, etc). Having it consolidated in one location will make it easy to search for solutions. I travel frequently and it would be nice for users to have the ability to download offline documentation as well.

All in all, great work!!

27

Yes, that’s definitely something I’m looking into.

28

Hi @Dale,
a starting kit it’s a good thing but, because the language, I would prefer a proper course taken in person with real teacher. Maybe because I am a teacher…
I think with a teacher you could get more information, more “shade”.
I started the rpython 101 and never taken the end. I’m still missing lot of concept also if I read it more than 5 time. (maybe I need just an English course!?!?)

Ps: just asked to Steve how to organize a course in Italy :wink:

29

This is something that @piac can help you with. Giulio provides courses or can put you in contact with someone else if he is not available.

1 Like
30

Here are my wishes:

1- Have a proper integrated UI system with sliders, radio buttons, tags, values etc.
… Like this: http://mkmra2.blogspot.no/2012/12/creating-graphical-user-interfaces-with.html

2- Get keyboard and mouse input and control within Rhino.
… So we can control and manipulate stuff with arrowkeys or other keys

3- Complete Python so it has all the tools RhinoScript has with out the need to turn to Rhino Common.

4- Have a simple introduction to RhinoCommon within the editor + integrated help.
… When Python is not poweful enough or lacks tools then it would be great if it was simpler to turn to Rhino Common.

Thanks for asking.

2 Likes
31

Dear McNeel-Team i would love to see:

  • Starting with Rhino-Development, Pick the right environment:
    I think many user out there would be happy to have an easy to understand comparison of rhinoscript, rhinophyton, .net, rhinocommon, developing grasshopper-plug-ins, c++ plug-ins, commandline-scripts…
    maybe a simple table with: programming-pre-Knowledge-Level, Performance, complexity of user-interaction / possibility of GUI, lerning-curve, where to start, limitations (Windows, Mac, Rhino 4,5,32bit,64bit,visual studio express or 2010…)
  • examples examples examples, but nicely accessible:
    the rhinoscript101 is great, the examples in the rhinoscript-documentation too. I think for rhinoCommon a nice collection of examples would be great. To start learning: maybe for 3 or 5 scenarios (create geometry, modify geometry, organise the document, handle attributes, user-interaction, export); for each scenarios 2 or 3 examples.
    BUT:
  • i really would love to have a better example-search, maybe by keywords (similar to scenarios, searchable by used classes/functions
  • a vice-versa connection between samples and documentation
  • And please improve the online-documentation search function, or provide a documentation on how to advance search. AND,NOR,*Placeholder. At the moment “userstring” will not find "GetUserStrings
  • to make this forum a solution-database, a more stackoverflow - mentality / function would be great, best answer, mark as solved, keywords
  • clean up all the different places where developer-information is distributed…

but i love Rhino…

32

FWIW -

Developer (general) start here http://wiki.mcneel.com/developer/home
RhinoCommon developer start here http://wiki.mcneel.com/developer/rhinocommon

RhinoCommon examples are to be found here



and docs are here http://4.rhino3d.com/5/rhinocommon/ - this documentation is littered with examples too.

33

Some documentation on the coercing functions would be fantastic, there are still RS methods that behave differently in PY and GHPY. Guide for best practices would also be nice. And it would be great to have a future development direction insight. Like what is the future of the *.ghpy container? Only R6?