Grasshopper 0.8.0052 available for download

The next release of Grasshopper is now available for download.

You need Rhino4 SR9 or a recent Rhino5 Beta to run Grasshopper.

Note that you need the most recent Microsoft Runtimes to be able to run Grasshopper. You can download the latest runtimes from the Microsoft Website and be sure to get the 32-bit ones (vcredist_x86.EXE).

This release features fairly minor fixes and updates, to wit:

Create Set component now also outputs an Index map.
Integer Division now has initialization code support.
Typing a double quote (") into the Popup will now always create a Text Panel.
Typing a double slash (//) into the Popup will now always create a Text Panel.
Typing a tilde symbol (~) into the Popup will now always create a Scribble.
Typing a number into the Popup will now always create a Number Slider.
Typing a plus symbol (+) into the Popup will now always create an Addition component.
Typing a minus symbol (-) into the Popup will now always create a Subtraction component.
Typing an asterisk symbol (*) into the Popup will now always create a Multiplication component.
Typing a slash symbol (/) into the Popup will now always create a Division component.
Typing a backslash symbol (\) into the Popup will now always create an Integer Division component.
Typing a percent symbol (%) into the Popup will now always create a Modulus component.
Typing an ampersand symbol (&) into the Popup will now always create a Concatenation component.
Added a GeneList object to Galapagos to allow for declaration of a large number of solver variables.
Expressions now automatically evaluate strings that are used as variables.
Added menu shortcut UI to preferences (Interface section).
All components and parameters on the component tabs now have an alias menu item.
The Custom Preview component now draws its geometry differently when selected.
Added Cull Vertices component (Mesh.Util panel).
Added Delete Vertices component (Mesh.Util panel).
Added canvas panning navigation via the arrow keys.
Added canvas zooming navigation via the PageUp/PageDown keys.
Toggle Enabled menu didn't work, this is fixed.
Default Material Preview colours were both set to red, this is fixed.
Recompute item in Legacy menu was only enabled when objects were selected, this is fixed.
Canvas tooltips might stick around after an object has been cut or deleted, this is fixed.
Baking via the Radial Menu would happen twice under certain conditions, this is fixed.
Power operator component failed for integers with non-positive exponents, this is fixed.
XOR gate component was returning the inverted result, this is fixed.
Parameter Simplify Post-Process would fail under certain conditions, this is fixed.

Enjoy,

David

David Rutten

david@mcneel.com

Poprad, Slovakia

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by gotjosh on September 30, 2011 at 12:41am

I get a little paranoid with that crazy cat, so i just had to check... last time the MS runtimes were updated on the ms site is: 6/7/2011

so if we have installed them once to get 0.8.0050 working, we don't have to update them AGAIN, right?

i guess that cat is there for the newbies (like me one month ago) who couldn't manage to get grasshopper installed due to our inability to follow bold red instructions...

Permalink Reply by David Rutten on September 30, 2011 at 3:50am

If Grasshopper works, it works. However there has been a continuous stream of support going to people who didn't read the red bold text. I was just hoping the cat would draw attention to the runtimes problem.

David Rutten

david@mcneel.com

Poprad, Slovakia

Permalink Reply by gotjosh on September 30, 2011 at 12:48am

First of, huge thanks to you David for a seriously kick ass tool! i am having so much productive fun i can't believe it!

I have some questions and suggestions for you and the community:

1) Does anyone else find it counter intuitive that the middle mouse click menu applies to everything selected if you click on nothing, but applies only to the thing you click on (even if there are other things selected) when you middle click on something... I expect the middle click to always act on the entire selection no matter where i initiate the click.

2) I love using groups to organize and label stuff, and it is easy enough to select all and disable, but I thought of a new probably quite simple to implement feature for right click menu of a group: "Disable and Collapse" / "Enable and Expand". It would be a toggle that disables all nodes that are in the group and visually collapses the group so it doesn't clutter the landscape while collapsed. Retaining only the label and color (toned down to indicate disabled)...and maybe an item count to show how many disabled items are hiding inside.

any resonance with these ideas from the peanut gallery?

Permalink Reply by Danny Boyes on September 30, 2011 at 2:22am

The old Clusters functionality, that was ripped out of GH v0.7.x, worked exactly this way. I doubt it would be re-introduced to be implemented for groups.

I think its a case of watch this space as I had a recent discussion with David about the idea of Layers that could be turned on and off independently. You could arrange different modules (groups) on separate layers. I wonder if a layer property could also be added to include the disable function.

Permalink Reply by gotjosh on October 2, 2011 at 2:25am

sounds like a really great solution Danny...

David, where is this in the priority tree?

Permalink Reply by David Rutten on September 30, 2011 at 3:56am

1) I know. Neither approach seems to work well. The current approach at least offers all the options, but it's not ideal. I know you didn't suggest this but I don't want to turn this into an user option either, having a choice between two bad alternatives is not what I'd like my UI to be about.

I'm not sure I can dodge making both the Radial menu and the toolbar customizable eventually, but before that happens, I'd like to find the best possible default behaviour, and I'm clearly not there yet.

David Rutten

david@mcneel.com

Poprad, Slovakia

Permalink Reply by gotjosh on September 30, 2011 at 1:03am

one more question:

I had been using a hack that tried to correct the txtLines tool from http://www.giuliopiacentino.com/grasshopper-tools/

the hack is found here: http://fancywires.com/?p=499

it doesn't function the same as it used to, and i wonder if somethings have changed in the functions underlying the VB script or maybe some other updates to GH that are relevant.

furthurmore, i ask if anyone has made advancements on labeling techniques for cnc/laser cutting?

is there anything more built into GH to do this task?

Permalink Reply by Giulio Piacentino on October 6, 2011 at 3:58am

Yesterday I was asked a modified version of the script. Now it supports planes, so it should be easier to use.

- Giulio

Permalink Reply by gotjosh on October 6, 2011 at 5:04am

cool! I also recently adapted the old version to use an input plane instead of a point... i'll have to look at your script to see if we made the same solution.

thanks for your reply... is there anyway that your script could take care of the hack that fancywires has made afterwards? it would be great to have each letter returned cleaned and joined, so there were exactly the same number of curves in the output as characters in the input...

i am basically clueless with VB and .net scripting so far, but i can code in AS3 and php, so a small push in the right direction might get me far...

Permalink Reply by Giulio Piacentino on October 7, 2011 at 3:04am

How can one return one single curve in a letter like "O"? Do you mean using single-stroke fonts? Or maybe returning a brep (polysurface) as output?

- Giulio

Permalink Reply by gotjosh on October 9, 2011 at 2:06am

Hey Giulio,

Good question...

I copied these last posts to their own thread:

http://www.grasshopper3d.com/forum/topics/txtlines-tools-refinement

i think it makes more sense to have this separate from the release thread.

Permalink Reply by estrellita on September 30, 2011 at 7:56am