Wacom Tablet to GH?

hi, maybe this is a very strange question considering GH is mainly a scripting software, but Ive been using RhinoGH and Zbrush for my Concepting work (architecture) since rhino is now moving towards "everything-you-can-get-from-autodesk-products-we-have-it-in-1 software" I would like to point out the thing that is missing in Rhino&GH

GH is a scripting plug in for rhino that can handle complex input, because rhino is not as "restrictive" as revit or other BIM software, I believe (as a designer), rhino is the best tool if you need to create a geometry with pinpoint precision (NURBS+Grasshopper) or conceptual massing (TSPLINE, CLAYOO, etc) however. I have not yet to find any implementation for Wacom tablet in rhino+GH.

the thing is,Wacom stylus can "send" a very complex input to the computer (pressure level, tilting angle, etc) so why not using that benefit to make GH even more powerful?

this would be very useful for let say, sculpting a free form surface by brushing it on control points (every stroke and pressure are translated into logic="move vertices along its normal dir". just like what Zbrush and other pixol software do)

another example would be modifying crease level. (the harder u put pressure on the stylus, the harder the crease would be). so there is a direct interaction between your hand to the GH input.

there are endless possibilities we can achieve with this method. if you are a designer, sometimes u need to start your design with NURBS or with Meshes, or by TSPLINE Sculpting,or maybe you would start with a box,... there isnt any certainty in designer's mind when we are doing the design, because we will always use different method, different approach and different geometry type to achieve what we want.

Rhino+GH and other awesome plug in really connect NURBS,Meshes,polygons all together. in just one software. in the next decade, the designer will come up with more unimaginable shape and form. where you need to use tools like Wacom or other fantastic tablet.

what do you guys think? please share your opinion.

sorry for the long post. and Xie Xie (thank you) for taking your time reading this

peace :)

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Armin Seltz on January 15, 2015 at 8:56am

Hmm, interesting idea and should be possible with some workarounds.

You could make a little tool in vvvv (a universal programming toolkit that works the same way as GH, ie. node-based programming), which translates the Wacom information to OSC.

Then you could use OSC as an input using the firefly plugin.

Using OSC is surprisingly fast in GH if your definition is not too heavy. I had a quite elaborate one and used the midi output of a drum machine to build up geometry in GH via OSC and it was nearly real-time. You could even use a midi-keyboard as input, which was kinda fun. I should post a video of that.

So yeah should be doable!

Permalink Reply by Armin Seltz on January 15, 2015 at 9:04am

If you have a mac AND a pc in the same network you can even use the brilliant Osculator (only mac unfortunately), which has built in support for Wacom Tablets. That would be much easier, becuase you only need to do a little work in the GH patch, but its not so much. Only tricky thing is to get the OSC addresses right.

Permalink Reply by Runnie on January 15, 2015 at 9:13am

that is very cool.., with Firefly it is possible to achieve that?. unfortunately I didn't use that plug in, and I believe the majority of architectural designers don't even know how that software works because it takes a serious programming skill and it is far beyond our field.

I think there should be more wacom user pouring out their ideas here so at least the development team in GH will finally notice us T_T

Permalink Reply by Armin Seltz on January 15, 2015 at 9:34am

I'll knock something together, have to look if I still have a Wacom lying around.

Firefly is amazing!

Permalink Reply by Runnie on January 15, 2015 at 9:46am

oh that is fantastic, I am gonna be the first one to try it then. let me know when you hv come up with smthing :D

Permalink Reply by Ethan on January 15, 2015 at 10:47am

Ill be second! I have a Wacom and think this would be super interesting. I could imagine using the orientation of the pen to set unique frame orientations on a line, or to use the pressure to define a slider so if you have a sweep along a curve maybe the swept profile grows or shrinks based on pressure... could be interesting...

Permalink Reply by Runnie on January 17, 2015 at 6:17am

yes, that can be a useful way to utilize wacom tablet. it would be great to plug the pen into several sliders and see them change in real time as we play around with the geometry.

currently I am fed up with having to export my rhino model to Zbrush everytime I need to refine and sculpt hardsurfaces (most cases are doing landscape detailings (rocks, pebbles etc.this is the stuff that even T-spline or Clayoo hard to handle) note that Zbrush is not scale sensitive and Rhino has no plug in to support Pixol modelling.

cant do anything but I hope GH vers 2.0 will have something similar to what we want :))))

Permalink Reply by Gideon Soares on April 21, 2015 at 4:31pm

Im working on a uni project using a stylus and wacom tablet to be able to control cnc tools like lasercutters, millers/routers and folding. It will create a crafted element to computer controlled making and allow users to build with these advanced tools. Personally I think its quite cool to hace a program try to record human input and translate digitally in a physical output.

What are your guys thoughts?

thinking I could post progress here :)

Permalink Reply by Runnie on April 22, 2015 at 7:59am

Thats great, i hv never used wacom for controlling cnc, mainly because my work doesnt rquire me to work with CNC. wacom is incredibly powerful that i think it is time for rhino to catch up with this technology. Fo ryour info, if you are into modelling, and would love to use wacom , i would reccomend to try combo Maya+rhino. I hav to use Maya recently as my modelling tool in conjunction with Grasshopper rhino that i link it as a reference file to maya, by doing so u can work in both platform with 2 file sitting on my desktop as import/export gate. U can take full use of wacom in Maya and maybe that would add smthing to your workflow.

For Any Grasshopper add on developer, please consider to add "paintweight tool" to allow me paint any deformation or data directly on my model with wacom so We dont have to jump to Photoshop as it is a little bit of an extra work to seamlessly stitch 2D image data in photoshop into 3d object in rhino. I think i saw a plug in in GH called "mesh paint" that could be A starting point.

cheers.

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