Trying really hard to use the MeshMachine

...but it's a bag of hurt.

I can see no documentation, only some outdated example files which throw a bunch of error messages.

I'm also puzzled by the absence of a PlanktonMesh component in my "Params" tab, and I see that others also have plankton components in the "Mesh" tab, but I don't.

I do have a "Plankton.dll" and "PlanktonGH.dll", and went through all the unlocking mumbo-jumbo, but I just can't get that machine started.

It's even more frustrating to see all the crazy stuff that's being done with it by those who managed to jump all the hurdles...

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Daniel González Abalde on January 13, 2016 at 7:49am

Keep calm, this is what you have to do to enjoy the most amazing component :)

In the comp. folder, you need kangaroo0099.gha, kangarooLib099.dll and

these are the plankton files that I have in the libraries folder, seems that you need plankton.gha.

Unlock, place in folder, restart rhino+gh...

That's all.

To use it... in a basic way:

Input 0. Plug geometry.

Input 1. Set target resolution, actually it refers to the mesh edge length.

Optional input 2 and 3. Sets anchors (as points or curves) for the remeshing not escape of these parts.

Input penultimate. Number of iterations. Here are two ways, the living form, you set a low value (as 5 or 10) of iterations and plug in a timer component (that allows you to see the remesh process); or just add the total number of iterations (I generally use 80, but its relative).

The last input, set false to turn it on, true to turn it off.

For advanced configuration, trial and error, or see the code on Pikers's github.

Attachments:

Permalink Reply by Olivier Suire on January 13, 2016 at 8:12am

Hi Daniel,

I was calm for the first 10 hours of searching the forum for a solution, and then I blew it.

Plankton.gha was indeed missing, thanks !

In fact it is included in neither of the two Kangaroo downloads (0.099 and 2.02)

I really admire Daniel Piker for his core work, but I am frustrated by this kind of stuff, and I think that silly hurdles like that deprive a lot of people of the power of these tools.

In this forum, I noticed that posts about kangaroo are either :

-From people like me struggling to get the thing working or to find up-to date examples

-From über-geeks doing fantastic-crazy-magical stuff that get me drooling on my desk

This says something.

Permalink Reply by Daniel González Abalde on January 13, 2016 at 8:47am

You are right. I think the explanation is that this web page format works well for consultations (guess that's its purpose) but very bad for the registration of independent developers or advanced search. It is not designed for this, the web pages based on threads/post show again and again their ineffectiveness in the collective organization.

Permalink Reply by Daniel Piker on January 13, 2016 at 9:03am

Hi Olivier, and thanks Daniel for the helpful explanation.

I hear your frustration and it's a fair criticism. In 2016 I'll try and do more to make the existing tools easier to understand and use!

Permalink Reply by Olivier Suire on January 13, 2016 at 9:10am

Ha ! Hi Daniel,

New years resolution then... fine ! :)

Could you have a look at my other post about MeshMachine then ?

Now it works, but, I would say "not in a predictable fashion".

Cheers,

Permalink Reply by Olivier Suire on January 15, 2016 at 3:23am

...and how about adding the Plankton.gha file to the Kangaroo files download bundle ?

Think of it that way : It will take 2 minutes of your time, but will save countless hours on our side, and will even spare you the time replying to the frustrated masses.

Permalink Reply by Christian Schmidts on January 13, 2016 at 9:35am

Its true the some tools here on the forum and some plug ins need some time to experiment with to unleash their power or even get them running in the first place.

But you have to keep in mind that

a) the authors invest a lot in writing them and generously share with us

b) that experimentation time is not wasted time as you learn a lot

c) and finaly the only alternativ would be to write them by your self which would be far more time consuming up to impossible (at least in my case) :)

Permalink Reply by Olivier Suire on January 13, 2016 at 9:46am

a) I would rather fewer tools, but be able to use them

b) Experimenting is good ; struggling uselessly because of a missing file is very different

c) No, the other alternative would be to keep an online repository of sample files with a simple classification to know which version of the plug-in it is related to

Trust me : for having scoured the forum, I find there are many people having trouble even just installing Kangaroo, any posts are related to the "wrong version" of example files syndrome.

Permalink Reply by Nik Willmore on January 13, 2016 at 5:32pm

Having things default to fail is a rule of developers that makes everything into a computer game. Welcome to Level Two, Grasshopper. Have fun offering your work to new clients long after you become acclimated to already owning Plankton.gha and you blow your first impression since on their end it fails.

Permalink Reply by Nik Willmore on January 14, 2016 at 12:18am

Related are these attempts to auto-bundle plugins with grasshopper programs:

http://www.grasshopper3d.com/video/freighter-bundle-grasshopper-def...

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