could there be a forum for feature requests?

does this already exist - a search brought up nothing...

I have a few minor gui suggestions

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by David Rutten on May 25, 2009 at 3:15pm

Here is fine. Fire away.

Permalink Reply by Gabriel on May 25, 2009 at 6:16pm

the ones I was thinking of are extremely minor in the bigger scheme of things and there are probably good reasons why they work the way they do. I love grasshopper, and it just seems to keep getting better with each release

but if I had my way, here are a few things that I might add, I'm sure there has been conversations about this already in the past, please excuse the redundancies:

- being able to print the "stage" (by stage I mean the space where you layout the components and wires...)
- problem w/vb component pt 1 - sometimes when adding new inputs, items checked as lists go unchecked
- problem w/vb component pt 2 - sometimes I find that when I put a name in an input when I hit ok I still get the default x, y, ....
- it might be nice to be able to "fit to content" a notepad component, sort of indesign style where it sets its shape to the limits of its content
- when copying and pasting, it would be great if the new item were somehow already aligned, so that a simple shit+drag would avoid having to go that extra step and use the align buttons - which are great btw. and yes I'm that lazy
- sliders - I'm not sure why when you right click and have access to its values the length stays fixed so that if you adjust the min or max you automatically affect the other. I'm not sure I get why that is...
-sliders pt 2 - I think it would be great to be able to set the incremental value - so instead of just integers of floats it could be multiples of a number - I know you could do this with a function, but in my mind, the less parts the better
- a more major one - it might be really great if we could completely disable components like the preview option but going one step further and actually eliminating that component from the computation.meant mostly for the ends that might be taxing on a system, to be able to return to early parts and quickly adjust without waiting for update of later stages, but could also see a use if you wanted to send data through to a later stage having bypassed some middle components - these middle components would then become completely empty and neutral conduits until being reactivated again - think of the 3DStudio Max stack

these are mostly incredibly minor and would just kind of heighten the expereince even more

Permalink Reply by David Rutten on May 26, 2009 at 1:23am

Hi Gabe,

some of these are not so minor and they have been requested many times. They are also high on the list:

1) I'm planning a feature where you can at least export the canvas image at any resolution with custom background colours (or even transparent). I'm not sure about printing, I've never done that before so I don't know how difficult that is.

2) These are bugs that need quick fixing.

3) Would it be good enough to add an option to the TextPanel object that it resizes automatically?

4) I don't get it, aligned to what?

5) If you change one of the limits and that causes the other limit or the value to become invalid, it will adjust the other values rather than lock the one you're changing. If you change the values by click+dragging the arrow button, you can also scroll back and the adjustments to the other fields will be undone (until you let go, that's when the new values values are committed).
Maybe I don't understand the request?

6) Custom incremental values have been wished for and will be added someday in the future.

7) Yes, this is a big one (and a fairly easy one). I'll try and implement it for the next release.

Goodwill,
David

Permalink Reply by Philipp Dittus on May 26, 2009 at 2:00am

ooh, and some little things from me:

david, do you think it's possible, to show in a more extreme way, that componenets preview-mode is turned off? the pattern which turns over each component is good, but only if you're zoomed in enough, i would propose to make them like 50% transparent... i mean, by the time you turn the preview-mode off, you're already done with the component (like: it works)

another thing which would be nice -although i'm not sure if it's possible- is a turn on/off function/trigger per component. sometimes there's a whole bunch of stuff and i want to disable it, but then i'd have to unplug 40 wires or so, which makes me not to try some things...cos i'm with gabe, i'm that lazy...

i think the align-thing he meant, was: if you copy and paste a component, then the pasted component has an offset to the right and down, i'm with gabe who thinks, it would be better to just offset the pasted items with an offset in one direction (down) cos then you can just drag the new component away holding shift and it is aligned already...

Permalink Reply by Philipp Dittus on May 26, 2009 at 2:13am

sometimes this thing just doesn't work, so i've to type it all again......i hate rainy tuesday mornings...

ok:

1. is it possible to have a more distinct graphical change for non-preview-components, the pattern which is overlaid, just works a a certain zoom-level, a change in colour (maybe white) or transparency (50%) would work better...

2. then it would also be really cool, to be able to turn off certain parts of a definition, like an on/off button per component or so. sometimes that would really help, like when you would have to unplug 40 wires to change sth...

3. maybe tricky, but also cool: when you select multiple items, then right-click and change values for all of them (like preview, list-mode, flatten, name, ...)

4. the thing gabe meant with the align tool is basically: if you copy-paste an item, then that item comes pasted with an offset to the right and down, better would be if it just would be offsetted down, cos then you just can drag it away holding shift and it's aligned right away...

still angry sky, i'll go play with my definition,
p

Permalink Reply by David Rutten on May 26, 2009 at 3:58am

1. I cannot draw icons with transparency very easily, though I can make the background transparent.

2. yes, I'm planning to add an Enable/Disable switch similar to Preview On/Off

3. I think this will be very confusing. I've added mass-preview-toggle buttons on the toolbar and I can do the same for other properties but bear in mind that not all selectable objects have all these properties. Every object takes care of its own settings and menus so there's no way for Grasshopper to know which options are exposed by a specific type of object.

4. I just made this an option now. When the next version comes out you'll be able to control the offset (in x and y) by changing a registry value. I still don't have a global Settings UI though.

Permalink Reply by Gabriel on May 26, 2009 at 6:15am

Thanks for chiming in Phil, and both times ;) Yeah, you got where I was going on everything.

Permalink Reply by Gabriel on May 26, 2009 at 6:21am

1 - great. no vector output? pdf?
3 -yes! sounds good to me. again, it's not a big deal, but will help keep the screen a bit tidier
4 - see philip's elaboration below
5 - now I don't quite get your explanation. I have to admit, I'm not a very disciplined user. I do things all sorts of ways. I just find it funny that when I go to change a limit, the other one becomes invalid as you say. But perhaps if I was more diligent I would want that kind of action
6 - great
7 - looking forward to it...

Permalink Reply by Phil Davis on May 26, 2009 at 8:53am

If I might add my two cents:

I would like it if the tooltip mouseover thing gave you more info about the data structure of a component. Currently, it says something like '3 locally defined values' without regard to the number of paths. I often find myself adding the 'param viewer' component to my definitions just to see if the paths are behaving like I think they are, which I imagine is a pretty common problem. This certainly works, but it would be faster and more convenient if this functionality could be accesses by simply hovering over the component in question.

Permalink Reply by Gabriel on May 26, 2009 at 12:44pm

I'm constantly adding the parameter viewer too...I second that

Is there a way to readjust the order of inputs and outputs in a vb component? I can't figure out how to do it and if it's not possible currently, I think it would be useful

Permalink Reply by David Rutten on May 26, 2009 at 2:25pm

1 - great. no vector output? pdf?
No, the display is drawn in pixels, not vectors. Writing PDF requires cumbersome libraries, and if the only point is to embed an image into a pdf, I fail to see the benefit over straight images.

5 - The values inside a slider are all dependent on each other, and whether or not they are valid depends on the setting of the other two. These are the rules:

Lower limit can be any number that is less than the upper limit
Upper limit can be any number that is larger than the lower limit
The value itself must be in the range between the two limits

When you change the value, it is automatically 'clipped' at the limits. When you change a limit, Grasshopper will adjust the value and the other limit to make sure all relationships are still valid.

Permalink Reply by Marc Syp on May 28, 2009 at 3:24am

I third the mouseover data tree info request.

As for PDF output... perhaps someone is planning a WillYouMarryMe.ghx that they would like to print on an airplane-sized banner? :)