Wish: Timer block access within Grasshopper GUI

Hi David,

When using timers, specifically with Kangaroo, I tend to use the global timer block switch on the Windows taskbar quite a lot. This works quite well, however it is somewhat inconvenient having to mouse down to the lower right corner every time. Furthermore it becomes problematic when "auto-hide the taskbar" is enabled, as one cannot tell whether timers are free or not without inspecting a timer on the canvas.

Would it be possible to add the global timer block switch to the Canvas Toolbar, perhaps also to the right- and/or middle-mouse click canvas menus? Adding it to the keyboard shortcuts options would also be great.

Best,

Anders

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by David Rutten on September 1, 2013 at 5:11am

The problem is that the timer events can prevent the UI from updating as often as it should. It is therefore very difficult to make a responsive button that is part of the Grasshopper UI. The taskbar allows me to get around this problem (even though there are still problems with responsiveness).

David Rutten

david@mcneel.com

Tirol, Austria

Permalink Reply by Anders Holden Deleuran on September 1, 2013 at 11:41am

Thanks for the explanation David. I had wondered about the taskbar approach for a while, but I can certainly understand the issues you point out. I'll stick to using a "non-hidden" taskbar for the foreseeable future. This has worked, almost, without any hitches so far..

Permalink Reply by Daniel Piker on September 1, 2013 at 5:18am

Hi Anders,

I presume you've already customized the taskbar ? - for those that don't know, you can right click the windows taskbar, then choose properties>notification area>customize, then change Rhino to 'show icon and notifications'. This at least stops the global timer toggle from hiding itself.

However, I agree that it is still far from ideal, and I agree that it would be nice to have better ways of controlling the timer.

In Kangaroo, what I would really like would be to get some support with making a Windows form, so we can have a nice (play/pause/step forward/reset) controller that always stays visible when GH is minimized.

also - any news on the return of the remote control ?

Permalink Reply by Anders Holden Deleuran on September 1, 2013 at 11:54am

Thanks Daniel,

I am indeed. Usually I have the taskbar customization options set to "Always show all icons and notifications on the taskbar". My main issue was that I usually have the taskbar itself set to "Auto-hide the taskbar", making the whole taskbar hide (along with the timer block) when the mouse is not touching the lower screen edge.

As is probably rather obvious, I highly agree with your thoughts on a timer interface/controller :)

Ps. I am currently contributing to a paper in which most of my bits implement Kangaroo. You wouldn't happen to have published a paper which I might reference (credit where due and such)? Preferably on the Kangaroo engine itself, but a primarily project related paper would also be great.

Best,

Anders

Permalink Reply by Daniel Piker on September 1, 2013 at 12:10pm

For now the most official publication to reference is this one:

http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/ad.1569/abstract

Permalink Reply by Anders Holden Deleuran on September 1, 2013 at 12:21pm

Brilliant, thanks again..

Permalink Reply by Aleksandra Wojciak on October 12, 2016 at 6:07am

Hi Daniel, I am trying to work out how to get the timer block working on Mac. Any idea? Every time I use the timer my computer crushes so I hope the timer block will help.

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