Hoopsnake Iteration Component

Hi all,

Just wanted to announce the release of a component I was busy with the past few weeks called Hoopsnake. Here's a summary:

"HoopSnake, apart from a mythical creature, is simple component for Grasshopper. What it does in principle is to create a copy of the data it receives at it's input upon user request and store it locally. This duplicate is made available through a standard Grasshopper parameter output.

What turns this operation from mundane to actually promising is the fact that the input of the component includes some custom programming to escape Grasshopper's recursive loop avoidance check.

What this means in practice is that it is possible through the use of HoopSnake to send the output of a set of components back to it's input in a looping fashion. With the help of a little bit of Data Tree / Data List manipulation, this should open up some new possibilities for iterative process modeling. "

Read more/download at Volatile Prototypes.

Please let me know of any problems/feedback/questions you may have!

Cheers,

Yiannis

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by RWNB on May 16, 2011 at 1:14am

many thanks, and i look forward to the examples.

Permalink Reply by Scott Davidson on May 16, 2011 at 12:24pm

Do we need a second output? From the component. An I output for the number of iterations? I can use the number of iterations to drive other components. Does this make sense or is it overkill?

Permalink Reply by Tudor Cosmatu on May 16, 2011 at 1:34pm

Also maybe store results in a tree (with each path corresponding iteration -therefore having a little bit more structure in the data)?

Anyway looks really promising! Cool job!

Permalink Reply by Diego on June 7, 2011 at 10:39am

Agree with that, having the posibility to look at generations thorugh groups and branches would be great

Permalink Reply by corneel cannaerts on May 16, 2011 at 1:40pm

Great component! Did some simple tests:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/introspector/sets/72157626607888891/

An iteration counter output would be helpfull... And maybe an input that forwards the itteration one step when data changes? Might be hard to code...

Permalink Reply by Jens Pedersen on May 16, 2011 at 2:10pm

Really nice, I used it a bit earlier today where I coupled it with geco, and created a evaluation loop... Its really easy to use and works great! Good JOB!!

Permalink Reply by Marios Tsiliakos on May 16, 2011 at 4:00pm

Great work...Thanks Yiannis.

Permalink Reply by Yoann Mescam (Systemiq) on May 16, 2011 at 5:39pm

Example with some basic (stupid) packing of any closed curve shape in any closed curve border.

Its stupid because it just tries to add the shape in a random location and checks if it doesnt intersect other or border.

Attachments:

Packing.ghx, 461 KB

Permalink Reply by Yannis on May 17, 2011 at 4:26am

First of all thanks once again everyone for your interest and great suggestions.

I set up a group where we can gather all information/feedback/examples etc. about the component:

http://www.grasshopper3d.com/group/hoopsnake

corneel, systemiq, I'd like to add your pictures and examples there too if it's ok with you.

As for the features:

A second output is indeed a great idea. I'm on it.

Storing results to a tree is also a good idea, I would like though to have it as an option that you can e.g. trigger through the interface.

Finally, triggering the component through data change should also be possible, although I'll have to look at it a bit more carefully to get it right..

So, I'll work on these points for the next version, which should be out in the next couple days or so..

Permalink Reply by Tudor Cosmatu on May 17, 2011 at 4:48am

Can't wait to see these things happen! :)

Permalink Reply by RWNB on May 17, 2011 at 4:56am

thank you very much yiannis, also corneel and systemiq.

Permalink Reply by Yoann Mescam (Systemiq) on May 17, 2011 at 8:03am

No problem, and waiting for the next version !