Cluster file

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Permalink Reply by Armin Seltz on January 25, 2016 at 3:31am

It can! There is actually 2 ways of doing this.

1. You can save a cluster as a user object. So once you have created your cluster that you want to reuse, it makes sense to first set the Properties by right-clicking and Edit Properties. Now set a name, nickname and description. You can also pick an icon and set Copyright info. 

Then just go to File > Create user object and set where you want to save it. Make sure you save it somewhere sensible like Params and not in one of the tabs generated by an addon component.

Now you can place the cluster in any other document, just like you would a normal component. 

Of course no actual link remains to the cluster and you cant make changes to it. Still very useful!

2. The second way is to use "Export & Reference", by right-clicking on a cluster and then saving the cluster as a .ghcluster file wherever you feel right (might even be inside a Dropbox folder ;). 

Once that is done, the cluster in your document is linked with that .ghcluster file, which you can open and edit like any grasshopper document. You can place it in other documents by dragging it into the patch - I have not found another way of placing it which seems strange, but ok, it works.

Now you have to take care, because the link remains and any changes to the cluster will be used by all other references. You can of course Dereference the cluster and have it unlinked and placed in your document again, by clicking "internalise":

I have not tried it a lot, but both solutions should solve any needs for reusing clusters in different documents.

I have just noticed that placing a .ghcluster file in a new document resets the Icon, Name and Description - I will file it as a bug report.

ps (to David): Once again this does NOT work with a file server properly - using Export & Reference and saving on a file server causes Grasshopper to freeze for several minutes after which it works. I have used a lot of software and we work entirely on the file server, but I have not come across a single piece of software that shows this behaviour and doesn't work with a file server. Let's hope this gets sorted for GH2!

Permalink Reply by David Rutten on January 25, 2016 at 4:35am

Let's hope this gets sorted for GH2!

Yeah I think the problem is that GH keeps constant track of the files it references using a .NET FileWatcher. This class does not seem to like having to operate across a network. I'm not quite sure yet what the solution needs to be, but I'll find one.