Total number of GH users worldwide?

I was just thinking about how many people use grasshopper, obviously the forum member count is un-reliable, i know lots of students and workmates who don't have a membership. (including architects that use the software professionally) So i'm sure 22,581 is a low figure.

Awareness of it in industry is undoubtedly on the rise, if i asked any architects or engineers i know about parametrics they would only be able to identity gh as a parametric program. Grasshopper is becoming synonymous with parametric architecture. That in mind the numbers must be increasing exponentially.

Are there any statistics about the number of times gh has been downloaded. Or is there are quoted figure anywhere for how many users McNeels estimate they are serving?

This is probably more for McNeel or David

Anyway, just curious

Thanks

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by David Rutten on April 2, 2013 at 12:06pm

We have no idea. The only figures we have are the number of registered members and the number of downloads. Neither one is a good indication of the number of actual, active users.

David Rutten

david@mcneel.com

Poprad, Slovakia

Permalink Reply by Nick Tyrer on April 2, 2013 at 12:19pm

Well that's unfortunate, what about when you download grasshopper, it asks you to put in your email address. (I know its not mandatory but i didn't realise until a few builds in). Maybe a count of all unique email addresses on that list might be more accurate.

I suppose that wouldn't separate active from non.

Permalink Reply by Danny Boyes on April 2, 2013 at 12:28pm

That wouldn't included classes of GH students who have it already installed. Or office users who have it as a company resource but that don't use the forums etc

Permalink Reply by David Rutten on April 2, 2013 at 12:35pm

Installers are shared amongst people sometimes. Companies and Schools might install a single version on all machines. And indeed there's no way of knowing whether users are still active.

There's an average of about 100 downloads every day. As for registered users (valid emails entered during the download/registration process), see these approximate numbers:

Rhino4 ~500k
Rhino Mac ~200k
Rhino5 ~130k
Grasshopper ~130k
Flamingo ~20k
Brazil ~20k
Bongo ~15k

David Rutten

david@mcneel.com

Poprad, Slovakia

Permalink Reply by David Rutten on April 2, 2013 at 12:44pm

In addition, I am interested in certain statistics but at the moment we're not collecting any. It's also little more than vague interest, I don't know what I'd be doing different once I knew how many people use how often and which components are used the most.

Rest assured, if/when we do start collecting statistics we'll definitely ask for permission first :)

David Rutten

david@mcneel.com

Poprad, Slovakia

Permalink Reply by Jesus Galvez on April 2, 2013 at 1:48pm

Alexa and Google Trends have some entertaining statistics. Seems people have trouble with surface and solid operations :S

In my field of work (architecture, Spain), I know many people that have downloaded grasshopper and used it once or twice, but the learning curve is steep and becoming proficient is even more difficult. Not to mention all the related plugins/platforms and/or coding. So of the people I know I'd say about 20% of users (or less) who start stick with it more or less. And I'm taking about young people. As can be seen in Alexa, those are the ones that use it most; or at least they log into grasshopper3d.com more.

Permalink Reply by Vicente Soler on April 2, 2013 at 2:12pm

A few weeks ago when I went to teach a workshop at your home town (at COAMU) the average age of the student was around 45-50.

But I guess it was due to the price point and limited seats.

Permalink Reply by Nick Tyrer on April 3, 2013 at 3:18am

Cool thanks for the figures.

Hey Danny is back on the forums!

Well we all probably have different reasons to be interested in the numbers.

Obviously an actual breakdown of gh use would have more application to a developer. Deeper analysis of how people use gh, where beginners get stuck. Maybe it would just be more helpful in how tutorials or assistance are provided.

Personally i was interested in the usage figures out of professional interest, gh is pretty much in by job description at my office, and has given me great opportunities. But its really hard to judge how wide spread this emerging industry is. Conferences like Fabricate, Smart Geometry, Shape to Fabrication, give me a biased view of how many people use it. As i said before, just curious.

Permalink Reply by Dedackelzucht on April 3, 2013 at 4:18am

My experiences after doing workshops now for a while is that most of the participations are wondering that grasshopper does not offer the "just make it" component. Only some do like to think of how they can get a specific result. To find a clever and smart defenition is my passion about grasshopper. Only some share this way of thinking.

Most of the time I get told that they like grasshopper and that they believe in the strength of this tool. But they prefere to do it by hand (for hours) than to learn grasshopper by doing. It is hard to convinces them, that if you once understood how grasshopper is working it is a very easy tool.

I agree that about 20% stick to it with a everyday/week use.

How about a grasshopper-user meeting in Stuttgart. I would love to go with you all for a beer.

Best Regards DeDackel

Permalink Reply by Rémy Maurcot on April 3, 2013 at 5:41am

Whaouh

Rhino4 ~ 500k
Rhino Mac ~ 200k
Rhino5 ~ 130 K
Grasshopper ~ 130 K
Flamingo ~ 20k
Brésil ~ 20k
Bongo ~ 15k

Permalink Reply by Rémy Maurcot on April 3, 2013 at 5:46am

it must also add the number of user who uses cracker versions! unfortunately
and given the number of results in google I think we should double these numbers ...

Permalink Reply by Piero on April 3, 2013 at 5:46am