Custom labels not working for List Item & Merge components

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Leo Pedersen on January 3, 2016 at 4:55pm

Update:

Now the labels for my addition components are editable, but they are not saved to the document!

Saving, closing and reopening the document loses the labels for all of my addition components.

Does anyone have any suggestions for this?  Would re-installing Grasshopper help?

Can anyone else save custom labels on the Addition component to their documents?

Permalink Reply by Andrew Heumann on January 5, 2016 at 12:13pm

It is my understanding that generally this is not a bug, but by design. You'll notice that the components in question all implement the "Variable Parameter" behavior - when you zoom in you can add/remove parameters. Such components must define a method by which parameters are named, so that when you add new parameters they take on the appropriate name. 

As for the addition component, it does seem to be a bug that the inputs are editable but are immediately overwritten by the parameter maintenance function that makes sure all parameters have the correct names when a document is saved/reopened or a component is copy/pasted. 

I would recommend simply adding an additional data parameter after your inputs/outputs - this will allow you to give it a custom name and improve legibility - this practice has other benefits as well. If you wish to a refer to the same variable data from multiple components, having it stored in a named "free" parameter is much more useful than having the inputs of the component itself named. Furthermore, if others go to work with or edit your definition, it can be confusing to see all the inputs renamed (so that it's not clear which component you're dealing with). Keeping your data stored in separate named parameters permits the legibility you seek without destroying the easy recognition of the components in question.

Permalink Reply by Leo Pedersen on January 5, 2016 at 4:02pm

Thanks very much for your reply Andrew.  That explains why the behavior differs on these components.

I appreciate your suggestion and I think it would require me to switch my Display settings to turn off the Display Icons function in order to see the names on the additional data parameters you recommend.  I may give that a try but I'm hoping to stay with the Display Icons on as I find the icons very clear for the functions of each component.

Here's an example of my usage of custom labels.  I hope it shows how it would be really nice to be able to label all of the input and output parameters in every component.

I understand that this comes down to an issue of programming style and many users will have much different preferences from me.

I still argue that the inability to put custom labels on all inputs and outputs reduces the usefulness of custom labels in the first place.  I appreciate that implementing them on components with variable numbers of parameters may be significantly more difficult than those with static parameters, but I hope that feature may be added some day.

Edit:This thread suggests that it was intended that the custom labels should be working on the Addition component and were fixed: Addition Labels

Leo

Permalink Reply by Andrew Heumann on January 10, 2016 at 9:55am

If you like display icons, you can switch the display for just your labeled params - just right click a parameter object (or any component for that matter) and click the little "paint can" next to its name to override its settings - it will cycle between "use application settings" "always draw name" and "always draw icon."

Permalink Reply by Leo Pedersen on January 10, 2016 at 3:22pm

Hey that's neat!

Thanks very much for that tip Andrew.

Leo