Wishlist - Grasshopper as viewport

Grasshopper
1

I believe grasshopper has become fundamental component of rhino. So integrating it tighter within rhino core in my opinion cannot be a bad thing.

As the title says I was wandering what peoples thoughts were on if the grasshopper window was available as rhino viewport.

I am particular thinking of RhinoforMacWIP where grasshopper is pre loaded into rhino so it’s not a case of adding bloatware to users who would not use it. That said I would also like an option for this in the windows version too.

The driver behind the request are:

  • Switching between windows is time just time wasted. On both windows and mac there is a point where you have built your GH script and are testing it in rhino, and you are constantly flicking between the two especially when there are lots of rhino geometry as inputs. I find myself constantly resizing and moving the GH window around to better see rhino underneath and almost always end up just minimising and maximising the GH window, which I find cumbersome. Having GH as a viewport option would allow seamless side by side editing in both GH and rhino.

  • I would posture most rhino for mac users are on an iMac or Mac book where there are principally using a single screen. Multiple monitors solves the windowing workflow but that is not an option for all users and is kind of, for better or worse, against the Apple’s ethos of less is more.

I am not suggesting that we remove the window option, I absolutely think that has its place, but would like to see an additional option to be added under(not in) SetView on the VP tab, along the lines of "Set Viewport to GH Canvas.

Decisions would have to be made on how to implement the GH Toolbars UI:

  • Would you put the UI in the viewport
  • Or change the rhino toolbars to GH toolbars when the Viewport is focused
  • Or just have the VP as the GH canvas for adjusting components, retaining double click written commands, but not show any GH UI

Now I am sure this would require a fair amount of code changes so it is in the “Would be nice but not life changing so not worth the dev resource” bracket, but I thought I would share it as an idea?

Any Input or comments would be welcome!
Thanks
Tom

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2

Grasshopper 1.0 is shipped with Rhino 6.0 as an integral part of the software.

It’s something which seems possible and I’m certainly interested in trying it out. There are some problems associated with this. For one it takes the ability to focus on the GH window away. That means no more short-cut keys for Grasshopper. There would also be problems because you can have any number of viewports, so you could have various views into the same Grasshopper file. Sounds good I know, but it does make everything more complex.

But yeah, if it doesn’t yield too many problems, it’s definitely something I’d like to try for GH2.

3

You still can have shortkeys AFAIK, just ensure that the user understands that the viewport with Grasshopper be active.

4

How will you tell whether Ctrl+A was meant for Grasshopper instead of Rhino?

5

You might need a more obvious flag of the active viewport, rather than just the tab color change, Some other softwares highlight the whole VP.

Would have to make key listeners VP Specific as opposed to global?!

But in principle if you are in the GH VP “Ctrl+A” would select all GH and vice versa?

6

Yeah I guess Rhino would have to be changed to give active viewports right of first refusal for keyboard events. Which we can of course do because we write Rhino, sometimes I forget that…

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7

While my brain is whirring on this topic…

Alternatively/Additionally is it possible to have GH Variables/ Sliders /Input condensed into a manipulatable list in the right hand pane similar to properties/ layers/ ect…

This would offer a neat way of adjusting values without switching?

Edit for Clarity: Variables/ Sliders /Inputs in the current active GH file?

8

The Remote Control Panel was made for this. It’s not particularly useful in its current state, but I think it’s the way to go. It offers a certain amount of customisation and selection, plus eventually it should support far more objects, not just sliders, panels, and toggles.

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9

As this remote control panel evolves, it would be great to be able to see it as a viewport or side-panel tab. Along with some basic global GH controls like those preview goggles on the upper right. Same for saving/restoring solution states.

10

Are there plans to have the RCP dock-able on Mac? I have never used it on windows so I don’t know if its dock-able there?

11

Shameless plug: I’ve been using the RCP a lot over the years and really love it, despite the missing functionality, little quirks, and all. When used in combination with the Geometry Pipeline and the layer menu at the bottom of the Rhino GUI, one can really get a sweet modelling feedback loop going!

If I recall, I had some minor RCP issues/wishes over on the old forum, will see about digging them back up.

12

i’d like a totally standalone grasshopper app. sometimes I’m just using it to deal with complex data sets / spreadsheets or windows explorer and have no need for rhino at all.

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13

Grasshopper relies on Rhino methods for a lot of things. There’s really no way to separate them, or rather, if you want to separate them, you have to provide a different platform that can do all the things that Rhino currently gives Grasshopper for free.

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