to be best in grasshopper what do we need to know or what are requirments

to be best in grasshopper what do we need to know or what are requirements i want to be good in grasshopper but i always stuck after 4 or 5 step. suggest something.

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Daniel González Abalde on October 28, 2015 at 2:01pm

Well, from my point of view (obviously), I always say to my students:

1. Assume that machines are fucking stupid. This is important, because you do not have to fight againts it, but to understand it and give it love.
2. Everything else is to know the nature of the data and components. Data is all: numbers, formulas, colors, lists, branches, graphics, visual representation, connection between data, hierarchies, etc.
3. Work, work and work.

Have information is know about data, have knowledge is to know how the data is related with everything else and have wisdom is to have the right mental-programs to process data. And then there's the creativity, divergent thinking, ingenuity and talent that make the mental architecture not be something rigid. Then, to carry out algorithms, the mindset I usually follow is, I start with data/parameters to perform a design, and decompose the process into smaller processes that can manipulate. If I'm at a point where I do not know how to do, two things can happen, that I know what I have to do but can not, or not know how to do, the first is probably lack of knowledge aboud data or components, therefore, it is time to learn; and second, rethink the previous processes if I can avoid the problem, which often leads me to redo the whole algorithm, which is not allways bad.

In short, delves into the data and components, so your mental program of execution will be more optimal if you know more about posibilities. And think in terms of process, not in terms of outcome. And work, work, work does the rest. There is no trick, just eager to learn. I did not start to understand that it was really the 3d until I began to learn programming, but this way I will advise you when you have confidence using grasshopper.

Perhaps is not what you expected, but it all boils down to devote more hours. Grasshopper is easy to use and hard to learn.

Permalink Reply by vikas kumar on November 1, 2015 at 9:23am

thankyou so much for your reply,

Permalink Reply by Nik Willmore on October 28, 2015 at 11:48pm

Daniel is amongst the best indeed.

I will add:

(1) A desire to kill both boredom and to kill problems, violently, with wrath, like your life depends on it, since in many ways, in a job market or in your own business, it does.

(2) A experimental sense of strategy, that geometry and mathematics contain an answer, damn it, and only once you delve into Platonic reality in your own mind and in math/science journal articles will you then gladly suffer Grasshopper, so "slow down to speed up." One elegant strategy avoids a lot of spaghetti.

(3) A sense of humor, since Rhino 6 / Grasshopper 2 are not here yet and existing Rhino 5 / Grasshopper 1 were never designed to accommodate the fantastic dreams of a generation of inventors. And there's no manual either, ha! This forum is the manual.

Permalink Reply by vikas kumar on November 1, 2015 at 9:23am

thankyou so much for your reply,

Permalink Reply by Anders Holden Deleuran on October 29, 2015 at 3:10am

Just in case you've missed it, this is a terrific resource..

Permalink Reply by vikas kumar on November 1, 2015 at 9:23am

thankyou so much for your reply,

Permalink Reply by martyn hogg on October 29, 2015 at 6:27pm

I think a big part of GH fluency is really understanding the data structure. I still struggle with this but the more I get used to being able to visualise how trees of data work, the more success I have with GH.

This forum is a great source of info and inspiration. Read the problems people post and see if you can follow the topics that interest you. Practice practice practice. Use the Data Viewer to follow data through definitions and experiment.

Apparently, to become genius level at anything, you have to put in 10,000 hours!

Permalink Reply by vikas kumar on November 1, 2015 at 9:22am

thankyou so much for your reply,

Permalink Reply by vikas kumar on November 1, 2015 at 9:23am

thankyou so much for your reply,

Permalink Reply by vikas kumar on November 1, 2015 at 9:23am

thankyou so much for your reply,

Permalink Reply by Nik Willmore on November 1, 2015 at 2:52pm

One strategy I've adopted is to think mainly in easy to use Python instead of using complex data tree strategies at all, along with abandoning Rhinoscript in favor of directly using Rhinocommon, within Python. Python can use Grasshopper components as functions, thanks to the recent developer hack update of it, and Rhinocommon is a finite beast to learn, despite its weirdness in command reference. I also like that I can issue direct command lines in the Rhino interface itself to access things like Make2D and exporting of files in detailed format.

The data tree Path Mapper still confuses me, and one I was used to Python, the inability to quickly include data trees for input/output of Python scripts made me happier to ramp up me scripting skills rather than specialize so heavily in Grasshopper itself. That said, Grasshopper represents the best scripting library of all, already optimized for Rhino, with countless man hours contained in various plugins.

Permalink Reply by Oliver Hampel on October 30, 2015 at 6:49am

I guess we all were in your situation at some point. Once you understand the basics by going though tutorials and the primer. Working with grasshopper as often as you can. Come up a simple problem that you want to solve. Once accomplished become somewhat more complex - I found it best to expand on previous solutions. Go back and revise some of your earlier works with new knowledge acquired - you would be surprised how much more efficient you can be with a broader understanding of grasshopper. As already stated - This forum is the holy grail to free knowledge and resources - Use it.