how was Grasshopper created?

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Scott Davidson on May 2, 2011 at 9:24am

There is not a premade API library to create an interface like Grasshopper. All of the graphics are David's design using .NET interfaces. 

 

Of course there is an API to create components within Grasshopper.

 

 

Permalink Reply by Mihai Pruna on May 2, 2011 at 9:32am

Scott

what kind of advice would you give to someone who wants to create a Grasshopper-like interface for another program?

-

in fact it would be a fairly standalone product but using an external solver and external databases.

Permalink Reply by David Rutten on May 3, 2011 at 8:48am

First carefully pick your graphics platform. Your typical options include:

1. Windows API GDI
2. .NET GDI+
3. OpenGL
4. DirectX
5. .NET OpenTK
6. .NET WPF
7. Java/Processing
8. Flash/Shockwave

I picked #2, mostly because I was most familiar with GDI+ when I started.If I had to do it all over again, I'd have a good long look at OpenTK first, though I might still end up with GDI+.

 

Expect to spend 2 to 3 years typing on the GUI before it's approaching anything that could be described as 'finished'.

 

Use your own UI all the time. Let other people use your UI from an early stage. Don't try and copy some other program, make decisions based on what makes sense, not on what is standard.

 

It helps if you invest a lot of time in making the graphics system flexible and plugin-able. Adding this at a later time can be quite cumbersome.

 

--

David Rutten

david@mcneel.com

Turku, Finland

Permalink Reply by Mihai Pruna on May 3, 2011 at 8:55am

Thanks David

my initial goals are not that lofty. I would like to have some elements that can be dragged by the user and connected to form an assembly.

OpenTK looks good because it works with C# which I am more familiar with.