Grasshopper 0.8.0051 available for download

Version 0.8.0051 is now available for download from the usual location.

Note that you need the most recent Microsoft Runtimes to be able to load Grasshopper in Rhino4. You can download the latest runtimes from the Microsoft Website, and be sure to get the 32-bit ones (vcredist_x86.EXE).

This release mainly features bug fixes and small tune-ups. The only major addition is a second solver for Galapagos, modelled on the Simulated Annealing stochastics/meta-heuristics approach.

Here's a full list of new features since 0.8.0050:

2000+ LolCats.
Added Toggle Enable menu item to the Solution menu.
Toggle Preview shortcut is now Ctrl+Q, shortcuts for Preview On and Preview Off have been removed.
Toggle Enabled shortcut is now Ctrl+E, shortcuts for Enabled On and Enabled Off have been removed.
Added a Description output to the Null Item component that provides additional information regarding invalidness.
Show All Components menu item has been renamed to Show Obscure Components.
Obscure components are now always stacked along the right edges of panels and groups.
When the Grasshopper tool panels are too narrow to show all icons, obscure components are now hidden first.
Re-organized the Mesh Tab.
Added Mesh Face Circles component (Mesh.Analysis panel).
Added Mesh Face Normals component (Mesh.Analysis panel).
Added Mesh Cull Faces component (Mesh.Util panel).
Added Mesh Delete Faces component (Mesh.Util panel).
Added Triangulate Mesh component (Mesh.Util panel).
Added Quadrangulate Mesh component (Mesh.Util panel).
Added Stack Data component (Sets.Sequence dropdown).
Added Contour component (Intersect.Mathematical dropdown).
Added Contour (Ex) component (Intersect.Mathematical dropdown).
Added Curve Contour component (Curve.Division dropdown).
Added Curve Contour (Ex) component (Curve.Division dropdown).
Added Rectangle 2-Point component (Curve.Primitive dropdown).
Added Shift Path component as per Studio Mode request (Sets.Tree dropdown).
The Mesh Face Parameter is now available on the Params.Geometry dropdown.
The Mesh Face Parameter can now hold persistent data.
Added persistent targeting mode to the Data Viewer window (this is the default).
It is now possible to open more than one Data Viewer window.
Selected Data Viewers now draw pink cones around their targets.
Pressing MMB for the Radial menu now always selects the object underneath the cursor.
Radial menu and Legacy menu are now both active all the time.
Radial menu no longer closes when the MMB is released within the bounds.
Radial menu now also pops up on SpaceBar, provided the cursor is above the canvas.
Galapagos no longer has a Maximum Iteration Limit for the Evolutionary Solver.
Galapagos now has optional time-based limits for all solvers.
Galapagos now has a second solver, modeled on Simulated Annealing stochastics.
Galapagos options UI has been redesigned, Mutation editor is gone for now.
Galapagos numeric settings now change colour to indicate sensible value ranges.
Galapagos numeric settings now have presets (in pop-up menus) for most scrollers.
Galapagos Genome Parameter menu has been beefed up.
Cursor wrapping during panning drags now takes both the Canvas and the Screen edges into account.
Groups now have an Ungroup menu item.
Groups now have an Add To Group menu item.
Groups now have a Remove From Group menu item.
Operator and Function components now try to do a better job of handling Text inputs.
Added AssignDataToParameter() method to the Grasshopper RhinoScript object.
Added BakeDataInObject() method to the Grasshopper RhinoScript object.
Added RunSolver() method to the Grasshopper RhinoScript object.
Volume components now have warnings for non-solid geometry.
When a Grasshopper group is baked, the resulting objects are also grouped in Rhino.
Radial menu now always selects only the object under the cursor.
Version History windows now uses HTML formatted text.
Added Zoom to Preview button to Canvas toolbar zoom icon.
Timers now have a 'Remove Target' menu item.
Timers should now only fire when their own schedule expires.

And a list of bug fixes:

Galapagos object tooltips did not reflect newest features, this is fixed.
Expressions that contained string literals starting with operator symbols would fail, this is fixed.
Data viewer automatic targeting was very fragile, this is fixed.
Output Parameter names were drawn too close to the Component, this is fixed.
Expressions were missing from output parameters, this is fixed.
Toggle Preview menu item didn't do anything, this is fixed.
Ribbon Layout Editor would not include components that were on the dropdown only, this is fixed.
Curve output parameters did not have the Normalise menu item, this is fixed.
Surface output parameters did not have the Normalise menu item, this is fixed.
Value Tracker object did not display correctly, this is fixed.
Legend Object layout was totally hosed, this is fixed.
Script inputs that used a System.Guid type hint would not convert from referenced geometry, this is fixed.
Path Wrapping with the Relative Tree item components did not work correctly, this is fixed (fingers crossed).
Extreme tags in the Quick Graph were drawn in the wrong rectangle, this is fixed.
Digit Scrollers would not repaint on MouseUp, this is fixed.
Restoring states would recompute for every slider, this is fixed.

And as always, let's be careful out there.

David Rutten

david@mcneel.com

Poprad, Slovakia

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Mohamed Naeim on August 24, 2011 at 5:59am

Very Interesting work David, Congratulation again

Permalink Reply by Steve Lewis on August 24, 2011 at 6:46pm

Great.

One issue i always have is how to navigate effiiciently on the canvas to upstream components used for input to a component or a downstream component used as output from a component.

In a future release would it be possible to auto re-zoom to an upstream or down stream component based on right clicking an active component and saying rezoom to upstream/downstream component on the canvas? This is similar to being able to select a component and asking to zoom onto the geometry in the Rhino work space.

Permalink Reply by David Rutten on August 27, 2011 at 7:21am

Hi Duck,

is Ctrl+ArrowLeft and Ctrl+ArrowRight not working for you?

David Rutten

david@mcneel.com

Leusden, Holland

Permalink Reply by Steve Lewis on August 30, 2011 at 4:30pm

Perfect, thast is going to nake things so much easier, you do think of everything dont you ;)

Also, i now like the new option of allowing you to find the names of any components/variables on the canvas from the middle mouse button.

Im happy that the solution replay button is easily accessible form the middle mouse button.

Only problem, if I am using a magic mouse or magic track pad with my mac its not possible to use the middle mouse button.

Permalink Reply by Steve Lewis on September 1, 2011 at 10:59am

Silly me, space bar solves this ;o

Permalink Reply by Thomas Bildsøe on August 25, 2011 at 1:39am

Is it intentionally that the default Selected object color is the same as the Normal in preview settings?

Permalink Reply by Danny Boyes on August 25, 2011 at 2:37am

No. Its a bug. If you don't want to change it manually then there is a fix here: http://www.grasshopper3d.com/forum/topics/default-selected-objects-...

Permalink Reply by Thomas Bildsøe on August 26, 2011 at 12:59am

Thanks

Permalink Reply by Danny Boyes on August 26, 2011 at 7:50am

In case someone else reads my post above about a fix. The drag and drop data method does not work at present (v0.8.0051) you will need to reset the colours using the sliders. Red = 0, Green = 150, Blue = 0, Alpha = 100

Permalink Reply by Jeroen Janssen on August 25, 2011 at 4:02pm

Hey David,

Great update, the radial menu is great, specially the spacebar function now I'm only using a laptop mousepad at the moment :).

I'm using the VB script component a lot and some small things which are a little annoying to me in the scripting environment I would like to share with you:

- when you type in a command or object type and the pop up composer shows, you can hit return to fill out the command quickly. While doing that when you're adding something in the middle of a line (with some text already present to the right), the rest of the line will be deleted. I think this is something that changed around revision 10 or 11.

- when you type in 'New' it fills itself out to 'NewLineHandling' and with List and DataTree it adds brackets <>. I know hitting the Escape prevents this, but I don't know if there's an easy way to solve this.

- when you're using .item(i) and want to use some of the properties of an object, the pop up composer never shows up (BTW 'item' isn't even an option in those menu's), in order to have a small memory support what those commands are.

I don't know if it's too much to change, but it would a huge improvement. Specially if I have a look at all the people that came about these small issues to me already.

Thanks and keep up the good work!

Jeroen

Permalink Reply by David Rutten on August 27, 2011 at 7:24am

Hi Jeroen,

I know, it's a major pain in the *ss. Unfortunately we use a 3rd party editor for that and I can't really do anything about those bugs instead of bitching to the developers.

I don't really know where we're going with this in the future, I still have to look into using Visual Studio Express as an external editor, or maybe using a different code editor. We have this problem across all of Rhino (windows and mac) so it's actually quite pressing we solve it.

David Rutten

david@mcneel.com

Poprad, Slovakia

Permalink Reply by Jeroen Janssen on August 28, 2011 at 6:59am

Hi David,

Thanks for the reply, that explains why...

Then I guess we have to deal with it a little longer. Let's see what the future brings us!

Best,

Jeroen