Is it possible to change the order in which Grasshopper references geometry?

When multiple geometries from Rhino are referenced (or set) in Grasshopper using (corner to corner selection), it seems like the order of items is set by the chronology of the modification of a single geometry. For example say you create an array of points and reference them in GH, the original point will be last on the list and last of the array first. Say you then move any point and reference them again, the one moved will be the first and the rest will follow in order of modification.

Of course, you can also select multiple geometries one by one and reference them in GH in the order of your choice. But does GH use some kind of timestamp on the geometry to sort them, and would it be possible to use eg. the original creation time of the geometry (or any property for that matter), rather than the time when the geometry was modified?

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Michael Pryor on October 6, 2011 at 1:35pm

right click on the points parameter, select "manage points collection" this brings up a menu where you can move the order around via dragging the bars that say reference point and re ordering them, also you can add more points and delete points here.

Permalink Reply by Thomas on October 6, 2011 at 2:09pm

Thanks, I know references can be reordered, but what I'm looking for is a way to control the way multiple geometries are referenced in general, not individually.

Permalink Reply by Michael Pryor on October 6, 2011 at 2:23pm

if you use sort list, you can reference based on other lists such as reference based on distance, area, rotation, height, ect. Attached is an example where i made random sized spheres and selected them, if you scroll through the first list item you will see it has seemingly no order, I use sort list to sort them by volume, now if u scroll through the second sort list you will see they are in size order. You can sort really based on whatever you desire.

Attachments:

sort by size.gh, 3 KB
spheres.3dm, 76 KB

Permalink Reply by David Rutten on October 6, 2011 at 2:14pm

It's possible to sort data if you can come up with a good rule for what the order should be.
Do you have any specifics?

--
David Rutten
david@mcneel.com
Poprad, Slovakia

Permalink Reply by Michael Pryor on October 6, 2011 at 2:29pm

what is it currently? selection order?

Permalink Reply by Thomas on October 6, 2011 at 2:33pm

Could the order be based on the time when the geometries were created in rhino (rather than the time when they were last modified)?

Permalink Reply by David Rutten on October 7, 2011 at 12:00pm

Rhino does not keep a record like that. The order of objects in the document is the order in which they were created/modified. When you window-select this order is preserved. When you pick single objects in a sequence the picking order rules.

David Rutten

david@mcneel.com

Poprad, Slovakia

Permalink Reply by Thomas on October 9, 2011 at 4:38am

Thank you David,

that answers my question. Too bad...

Permalink Reply by Will Krzymowski on October 6, 2011 at 4:04pm

I've been having a similar desire.

In my scenario, there is some down stream data that i want to input into a component as a list, and the sort order is not something you want to be done by some function, but there is some sort of subjective criteria.

Right now, it builds the list in the order you plug it into the component, but i'd like to see some way of the list being generated by the order in which things stack on screen, and you could just move things around at your own subjective whim as a quick way of re-ordering the list.

Original

New

Make sense?

Permalink Reply by Michael Pryor on October 6, 2011 at 4:15pm

Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't this the exact purpose of components like weave, merge, and the collection manager? I mean if we want to manipulate things manually and not operationally then whats the point of parametrics in the first place? Am I misunderstanding?

Permalink Reply by Will Krzymowski on October 6, 2011 at 4:24pm

maybe in the middle of a stream of logic, you would like to make a subjective decision that can't be governed operationally... i have come across a number of situations where i've inserted multiple streams into one component and wished I could have re-ordered them later.

Permalink Reply by Will Krzymowski on October 6, 2011 at 5:03pm

Collection Manager only allows you to re-order persistent data yeah?