upgrading .gh files?

Does Grasshopper have a way of upgrading OLD items (components or parameters) to NEW items (components or parameters) in existing .gh files?

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by ng5 Alex on February 10, 2015 at 3:14pm

Hello

tab solution/upgrade components but i think it does not update all components (not sure)

cheers

alex

*edit menu not tab i keep mixing them

Permalink Reply by Danny Boyes on February 10, 2015 at 3:16pm

Solution Menu >> Upgrade Components...

Permalink Reply by David Rutten on February 10, 2015 at 5:02pm

Not all components have automated upgraders. The upgrade SDK is pretty poorly designed and it's a major drag to implement one, so I often don't and then try to make myself feel better by saying it's better to work on new functionality*.

* but only after listening to the new episode of The Unbelievable Truth...

Permalink Reply by Danny Boyes on February 11, 2015 at 3:25am

Do you get Radio 4 in Austria? :)

Permalink Reply by David Rutten on February 11, 2015 at 6:36am

I can listen to BBC4 online, and youTube always has old episodes.

Permalink Reply by Kim hauer on February 11, 2015 at 9:26am

Dear David:

I have given this some thought. From a Students learning point of view it is quite frustration, sifting through a complex .GH file, where the wires can make the scene file look like Spaghetti I'mAfraidSo :)

Since this job of upgrading OLD to New still needs to be done manually in most instances. I'm offering for consideration 2 suggestions, that could make the task easier.

1. Create a Freeze Wire option which leaves the Wire connections in place when the OLD item is clicked.
The Freeze Wire option is selected from the right click dialog box list when the OLD item is picked , DEL remove the OLD item, the connecting wires stay in place. Now I can insert the NEW item. Since the wires are still highlighted I can now reconnect them to the New item, then hit Freeze Wire again to Un-Freeze Wire.

Next problem: How to find the a NEW item ?

I don't know anyone who can remember the location of hundreds of Grasshopper Icons representing components or parameters, regardless how well meaning the structure to classify them under Group Titles may appear.

2. Perhaps FIND could become more useful. Such that when the OLD item is clicked: > Select from the right click dialog box > a new Title Item: Find New, This would find and place a NEW item needed in the scene.

Alternative to 2:

Provide a Right Click Dialog Box in the Component Tabs Tool Bar This dialog box would contain Find New and search for the New Item.

thanks for listening!

Permalink Reply by ng5 Alex on February 11, 2015 at 9:47am

1.double click in canvas pops up a find dialog to type the component you are after.

2.you can deselect draw icon from display menu and have the components displayed with their name. this gives you what to search for in find dialog. in very view cases has the component changed name. bringing the new component above the old you can hold ctrl+shift and drag multiple wires from one input,or output, to another. once the new component is wired you can safely delete the old.

3.holding ctrl+alt+left click to a component will point you its tab location.(though for uptodate ones not the old)

The spaghetti definitions is not a grasshopper functionality problem, but user boredom to organize the definition and make it more comprehensive. there various tools, like highlighting wires (with right clicks) aligning components that are very helpful to this.

hope this helps

cheers

alex

Permalink Reply by David Rutten on February 11, 2015 at 1:58pm

Alex' suggestion is indeed the best for now. Put the new component next to the one you already have (name should be identical or at least very similar). Then use the Ctrl+Shift keys to quickly rewire everything.

I know the spaghetti problem is huge and there aren't enough tools to allow people to reduce it. But it is what it is for GH1, there is no more development of new features. All the serious coding these days happens on the GH2 side. Hopefully I can make the upgrader logic a lot better this time around, so it'll be easy to provide automatic upgraders for all legacy components.

Permalink Reply by Kim hauer on February 12, 2015 at 2:29pm

Thanks! David & ng5 Alex

Does the new GH2 use C++ ?. The reason I ask, inserting formulas from Mathmod formerly K3DSurf: http://k3dsurf.sourceforge.net/ into Grasshopper creates a situation in Grasshopper where the Applications Window goes grey, waiting for a script to run, which is not a good sign.

Permalink Reply by David Rutten on February 12, 2015 at 4:13pm

No, GH2 is pure C#. We're ditching Visual Basic as a developer language, as too few McNeel programmers are familiar with it. GH1 was partially VB, partially C#.

I fail to see what Mathmod has to do with the programming language of GH though, can you elaborate?

Permalink Reply by Kim hauer on February 13, 2015 at 11:41am

A few years ago I was experimenting by entering math expressions into GH, of the type used In K3D to see how math surface generated could perform in paneling situation. I quickly abandoned the experiment because just generating one surface was far too slow.

Permalink Reply by ng5 Alex on February 13, 2015 at 12:11pm

Hello kim

this is a way to use any parametric equation from k3d in grasshopper (in this case klein2 surface)