How to "put" any pattern on the waved surface

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Danny Boyes on August 1, 2012 at 1:19pm

Hi Brian,

That is true (I use this also) but you don't get the benefit of the Disconnect Menu Listing the options in a clean user friendly way.

Permalink Reply by Ángel Linares on August 1, 2012 at 12:59pm

Hi Danny,

Yeah, you are right: teaching or working with partners is the best way to go the one you suggest most of the time; but in my personal workflow (working alone), I usually use components renamed in the same way I use variables in VB (a data could be a sphere or a vector object but I want to name it with a custom word). sphMovRange is an sphere that define a movement range, extrudBeamCon could be a element extruded that connect beams in my model. I think that my coding experience in Rhinoscript before GH release changes my mind xD

For example if I'm taking out of a data tree the elements 0,1,2 and 3, I think that is quite better for understanding rename the ListItem component to "0pt", "1pt", and so on, because the icon don't tell me what is happening inside (normally I replace text panels using this rename layout and writing text inputs directly in components). Is faster and cleaner than use text panel for index input and put text size bigger (to be able to see them at "all" zoom levels).

I think that the problem of 3rd party understanding with text components is use not good names and never or barely never comment the definition. Sometimes using groups (with text description) and some text panels do the work.

And of course, sometimes I put some elements like icons in the canvas because the icon is very descriptive in some cases and I don't need to customize names (move component for example).

Permalink Reply by Ángel Linares on August 1, 2012 at 1:19pm

This is what I was talking about.

Permalink Reply by Al Krever on July 31, 2012 at 12:22pm

Yes they are very nice.  

Couple of comments though:  1) I don't think its a good idea for labels to repeat.

2) Some of us have better text memory than image memory and unless you use them all the time they are not easy to remember (at least for me...)

Permalink Reply by Danny Boyes on July 31, 2012 at 1:48pm

I would say that there are definitely two schools of thought here. Why else would there be a choice?

Posting images for both questions and answers is sometimes more beneficial than posting a whole definition. It might be that there different versions between the questioner and the answerer or that the rest of the definition should not be placed in the public domain or the person offering up a solution hasn't got access to grasshopper because they are on a portable device. The list goes on...

But there are things each of us can do to interpret the other camps image but mostly it involves time and patience... on both sides.

Your icons vs. text question could just have easily been asked by the iconites in reverse to speed up understanding of questions when asked with Text Displayed.

Which ever camp you're in you're there for your own reasons. Similar to Mac vs. PC or Crunchy vs. Smooth.

Permalink Reply by Al Krever on July 31, 2012 at 4:02pm

Yep...I was not intending to criticize one camp or the other.  Just needed a little helping hand to understand the current example. You must admit that the text labels are, at least, searchable whereas the icons are not.   

Permalink Reply by Danny Boyes on July 31, 2012 at 4:28pm

I was working on a means of identifying icons through features but as I was nearing the end of the categorisation of each David released version 0.8.0012 where he re vamped all the icons. :( the projects on hold until version 1.0

Permalink Reply by Al Krever on July 31, 2012 at 5:45pm

Neat...I'll look forward to it.  Of course by then I hope I won't really be needing it ;-)

Permalink Reply by Robert Narracci on August 1, 2012 at 6:54am

I'm in Al's camp. I don't think its quite as simple as a Coke-vs-Pepsi thing. Isn't the point of this forum to be helpful and share ideas? What I mean to say is, if someone asks a question, then they likely won't be familiar with the every Component in a solution, nor their icons. Rather than forcing that person to search through every drop down in every tab for an Icon, providing them with Text alows them to simply doubleclick in the workspace and type the Text to retrieve the Component (this is language neutral...one doesn't need to understand English to retype an English word). Then they can ctrl-alt/right-click the component to find its location in the tabs.

Permalink Reply by Danny Boyes on August 1, 2012 at 9:13am

You're right it's not really a Coke vs Pepsi thing. It's more like a Trike vs Bike kind of thing :P

If you switch on the Obscure Components option on the View Menu and maximize the Grasshopper menu you will see all of the available components on a ribbon at once so there is no need to keep clicking drop down menus.

It's all about discoverability with GH. What if you're a beginner and don't know about the Create Facility (dbl click canvas) how can you find Extr?

Even if you hover over every component or use the drop down lists you will not see the name Extr appear anywhere.

Sure it makes sense that Extr is short for Extrude but it's also the Nick Name of Extrude to Point component

So you can easily miss the fact that one has a Distance Input verses a Point Input.

I think I made the move to Icons around about the move from version 0.5 to 0.6, possibly before. I initially thought that I would go back to text because I loved the mono chromatic look of the text but I soon realised that Icons were the way forward. The greatest benefit is speed. You don't need to digest and decipher every component (which is written 90 degrees to the norm).

I'm not saying you should move to Icons forthwith but at least consider that once you have a better knowledge and understanding of GH, Icons will set you free.

My top ten tips that I would highly recommend to anyone wanting to better themselves with GH.

1) Turn on Draw Icons 

2) Turn on Draw Fancy Wires

3) Turn on Obscure Components

4) Use the Create Facility like a Command Line eg "Slider=-1<0.75<2" or "Shiftlist=-1"

5) Use Component Aliases to customise your use of the Create Facility eg giving the Point XYZ component an alias of XYZ will bring it up as the first option on the Create Facility as opposed to the other possibilities.

6) Try to answer other people's questions even if it's not relevant to your own area. By looking into solving a problem outside of your comfort zone and then posting your results it is very rewarding but it also lets you see the other approaches that get posted in a new light.

7) Take the time to understand Data/Path structures. 

8) Buy a second monitor - There is nothing that can compare to real estate when working in Grasshopper.

9) Read Rajaa Issa's Essential Mathematics

10) Pick a panel in a tab on the ribbon and get to know every component inside and out and then move on. Start with the Sets Tab > List Panel

Permalink Reply by Robert Narracci on August 1, 2012 at 9:28am

To me "discoverablity" and "go search visually through 10 tabs with 60 icons each" are two different things. I prefer help to be helpful.

Permalink Reply by Danny Boyes on August 1, 2012 at 10:14am

How else would you discover something if you didn't explore. To be told where something is is not a discovery. Finding a new feature on your own that is discovery.

By talking about discoverability I'm referring to the user experience of Grasshopper. There are many layers to it and it's very rewarding when you find a new feature or approach that you were not aware of previously.

But don't just take my word for it here straight from the horses mouth:

http://ieatbugsforbreakfast.wordpress.com/2012/05/25/discoverability/

And how important icons are: 

http://ieatbugsforbreakfast.wordpress.com/2012/07/12/on-icons/#more... 

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