Grasshopper

algorithmic modeling for Rhino

Hi David

I am teaching Grasshopper and one of the things my students find hard to grasp is the meaning of the Input and Output letters. The fact that sometimes a letter means one type of data and sometimes another is confusing to them, and forces you to stop over the letters to find out what kind of data it is.

Take this definition for instance.

The letter S means three different kind of things: Curves, Interval2 and Surface.

The "Interval2" kind is represented by three letters: I, S and D

The "Surface" is represented by two letters: L and S


Connecting the output of the "divide" component to the correct input of the "isotrim" isn't very intuitive since you have to connect the letter "S" output with the letter "D" input, and not with the "S" input...

I don't even think about this and I just pause over the letters to see what kind of data they are, but I have noticed that it is confusing when you are starting to learn.


In most cases I think the letter should represent the data kind. The "loft" component would be easier to understand if there was a "C" input for "Curves" and an "S" output for "Surface". But take the letters U and V of the divide tool and they wouldn't be clearer if they were an "I" for "Integer" kind of data...


Maybe there could be two letters (with the risk of affecting the aesthetics of grasshopper)  or an option to toggle a learning mode with more info, or some kind of color coding... 


I haven't figured out a good solution yet


By the way, in some cases there is also confusion with the difference between the name of the component in the menu and the label of the component in the canvas, like Isotrim and SubSrf.


One more thing... the learning process would be easier if there was a way to know which kind of data can be used instead of the "official" one... like using "line" instead of "vector" or "point" instead of "plane"... something like a list of acceptable alternatives...


Thanks


Bye




Views: 1228

Replies to This Discussion

"Also it would be better if wrong type connections were not allowed."

Again, I cannot decide in advance whether or not a connection will work. And even a connection that does work now might no longer work later or vice versa.

Also, what happens when only some of the items in a list can be converted while others fail? It's actually quite a useful feature to be able to filter circles out of a list of curves just by running the data through a Circle parameter.

--
David Rutten
david@mcneel.com
Seattle, WA
This would be SO helpful for teaching Grasshopper. It would be much appreciated by many students I'm currently helping.

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