Backwards Compatibility

I recently upgraded to the new version of Grasshopper 0.7.052 (and I am using Rhino 5 WIP 64-bit on Windows 7). I have noticed that the .ghx files it saves are not compatible with the most recent stable built (0.6.0059). Only a few basic components seems to reliably load and everything else is lost.

This is a particular problem for me because of my circumstances: I am a graduate architecture student and I teach a simple introductory GH class. All the school's lab computers have the last stable build (and it takes weeks to get IT to upgrade software). My students frequently email me .ghx files, which I tweak, annotate, and send back to them. Because almost all of them rely on the lab computers for GH, they are not able to load anything meaningful.

Is my only recourse to downgrade my version of GH to the stable build? I would really like to avoid this so that I can leverage the new features in my own work.

Thanks.

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by David Rutten on September 15, 2010 at 5:13am

Hi Jason,

there was a missing Pipe component in recent 0.7 builds that meant some old files would not open correctly, but this is fixed in the latest release (0.7.0053)

I would like to see these files that do not load. Is it possible students are using components from 3rd party libraries (FireFly, ModeTools, Kangaroo etc.)? What is the error message (if any) that you seen when opening these files?

--
David Rutten
david@mcneel.com
Poprad, Slovakia

Permalink Reply by Jon Mirtschin on September 15, 2010 at 6:43am

I run both versions (obviously at different times) so you can use the new version for your work but revert to the old when working on students files or teaching. http://www.grasshopper3d.com/forum/topics/possible-to-have-both-gh-... discusses this. To change back and forth, you do have to exit Rhino, and I generally rename the Grasshopper.rhp (0.7) or Grasshopper.dll (0.6) file, restart Rhino and then load the other from plug-ins manager under Rhino options.

This should work for you too, without using installers.

Cheers,

Jon

Permalink Reply by Jason Fleming on September 16, 2010 at 12:04pm

David:

I have uploaded a few files to demonstrate the issue:

1) A GHX file that I created in 0.7.0052
2) The error log generated when that file is opened in 0.6.0059
3) A screenshot of what remains of the file when opened in 0.6.0059

Please let me know if there is anything else I can do to be helpful.

Thanks

Jason

Attachments:

Contour Breps.ghx, 366 KB
Contour Breps.html, 10 KB
Contour Breps - Grasshopper 0_06_0059.jpg, 206 KB

Permalink Reply by David Rutten on September 17, 2010 at 9:24am

Hi Jason,

the file does open fine in 0.7.0055 (which I'll release later today), which leads me to believe not all the components get properly loaded on your machine. If a component hasn't been loaded it cannot subsequently deserialize itself from a file.

When you try 0.7 again, can you make sure you uninstall all old versions (search your disc for grasshopper.dll, grasshopper.rhp and any *.gha files, you can just delete them by hand if the uninstaller doesn't take care of them).

Let's hope this is nothing more than a botched install, because I wouldn't know where to go next...

I've saved the file using 0.7.0055 as gh (binary format, instead of the default ghx which is xml-text). You can try opening that file, see how it goes. This is just in case something is wrong with the xml (de)serializer.

--
David Rutten
david@mcneel.com
Poprad, Slovakia

Attachments:

ContourBreps_070055.gh, 64 KB

Permalink Reply by Luis Fraguada on September 15, 2010 at 7:21am

Also, you can install GH without admin rights, just that it will install into a users documents and settings folder...for each computer they log onto they will have to reinstall...unless there are roaming user profiles, which IT Admins usually do not implement cause they are a PITA.

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