Grasshopper vs 3ds Max Design - Slate Material Editor

I'm currently teaching myself 3ds Max Design 2013 by going through the online tutorials and I was struck by how similar the Slate Material Editor is to the Rhino Grasshopper graphical interface.

The tutorials can be found here: http://docs.autodesk.com/MAXDES/15/ENU/3ds-Max-Design-Tutorials/ind...

The Slate Material Editor has some functionality that I wish Grasshopper had, namely the ability to drag a component onto the canvas and then drag a wire from the component to access a shortcut menu to other components. I tried doing this in my GH (build 0.8.0066) and it didn't work that way.

I suggest that this shortcut method would be a welcome improvement to the GH interface. What do you think? Thanks.

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Mark Loomis on July 13, 2012 at 1:26pm

Hi Danny,

I respectfully disagree.

It's pretty obvious that this functionality isn't compatible with all of the GH components and taking an all or nothing approach effectively eliminates these methods from consideration.

I still think these shortcuts have a lot of promise with regard to streamlining the GH workflow.

Just my opinion though, I certainly understand your point of view as well. Thanks.

Permalink Reply by David Rutten on July 13, 2012 at 1:57pm

Adding a feature which sometimes works, sometimes not is something that requires a lot of deliberation on the part of the developer. It is generally a really bad idea to make a GUI unpredictable and if any alternative at all is possible it should be considered first.

The problem (as always) is balancing the needs of beginners, intermediates and experts. Adding a feature for expert use needs to be (A) easily accessible otherwise experts won't like it and (B) hidden from normal use otherwise beginners will be confused by it*. A feature which has a partial success-rate however serves nobody. Beginners will feel they are doing something wrong and get angry and confused, experts will feel I did something wrong and will get angry and annoyed.

* I wrote a blog post a while back about something vaguely similar to the problem at hand.

David Rutten

david@mcneel.com

Poprad, Slovakia

Permalink Reply by Mark Loomis on July 14, 2012 at 12:44pm

Hi David,

I understand your concerns about the functionality not being across the entire interface and how that could cause frustration for both beginners and experts. I read your well written blog post and it shed even more light on where you’re coming from as a software developer. Maybe the following suggestion by way of an AutoCAD example will help.

AutoCAD uses blocks and dynamic blocks. Conventional blocks are static and usually serve one purpose. Dynamic blocks can actually be numerous blocks in one and often include additional functionality such as being able to stretch portions of the block geometry, for example. When blocks and dynamic blocks are placed on a tool palette, the dynamic blocks are differentiated by a lightning bolt icon as shown in the following screen capture.

Similarly, GH components that are compatible with shortcut menu functionality could have a similar icon added to them. This would make them instantly recognizable as components that you can use the shortcuts with. The guesswork would be eliminated. You could even add a tool tip to the icon that reads, “This component supports shortcut menus”. This would allow users to float their mouse over the icon and discover additional functionality. Thanks.

Permalink Reply by Mark Loomis on July 13, 2012 at 10:50am

Hi David,

Thank you for considering my suggestions.

These shortcut methods will obviously be much trickier to employ in GH than it is in 3ds Max. I hope you can figure out a way to add them to the interface.

No worries about the timetable to consider these improvements, I know it'll take some time before you can get to them. Thanks again for your feedback.

Permalink Reply by Mark Loomis on July 13, 2012 at 11:30am

Hi David,

Limiting the shortcut menu to just the components visible in the canvas could work, but that would mean you could only use the shortcuts when a definition is already fairly fleshed out. When starting from scratch this filter would force you to use the existing interface until you have some components in the canvas that it can use.

Not ideal, but it's a step in the right direction. Thanks.