Grasshopper 0.6.0043 available for download

Hi All,

as I'm leaving tomorrow morning for SmartGeometry, this is the last chance for about 2 weeks to upload a new version. I don't think we're quite ready to release a new version, but I don't want to wait even longer.

The usual warnings:

1. DO NOT overwrite old files. Makes copies of old files first. Files written with the new version will not be readable by older versions.

2. DO NOT use this version on critical projects. If something is seriously wrong there won't be time to fix it until mid-december.

Download EXE installer

Download ZIP Installer

A brief overview of changes (not complete):
- Settings are no longer stored in the registry, but instead in xml files in a special folder. This makes it easier to delete them (in case you want to revert to factory defaults), copy them, edit them, share them etc. etc. The folder which contains the settings files can be opened via the [File->Open Settings] menu. Note that many settings files are written when grasshopper closes.

- Toolbar panels have been shrunk. Not all components are now visible on the panels, you have to open up the dropdown to see them all. Not sure yet if this is a good way to go...

- Buttons on toolbar panels are now more logically grouped together.

- New Save on Exit dialog for unsaved files.

- Autosave has been added. By default autosave kicks in just prior to a number of predefined 'risky' operations. You can alter the autosave behaviour via the [File->AutoSave] menu.

- Objects can now be fully disabled. There are new buttons on the Canvas toolbar for this as well as new menu items everywhere. Disabled objects will not collect data and they will not compute solutions. Usually Disabled objects are drawn in dark grey.

- New colour scheme for the GUI. If you're seriously unhappy with the new scheme and you don't mind messing around with xml, feel free to edit the grasshopper_colours.xml file in the Settings folder.

- Gradient object now has custom presets and a custom default. New options available in the Gradient Object Menu.

- Path Mapper object has been replaced. If you're using the old one it will still load correctly, but you'll no longer be able to create a new instance of the old version.

- Remote Control Panel is being reworked. This version contains a semi-functioning one, but I recommend you don't use it at all yet.

- Bunch of new components.

- Bunch of bug-fixes (unfortunately not all reported bugs have been fixed yet)

I probably won't be able to read the forum or my email for a while, so if you're running into serious problems, please revert to the 0.6.0019 build.

--
David Rutten
david@mcneel.com
Robert McNeel & Associates
Poprad, Slovakia

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Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Thomas Bildsøe on November 23, 2009 at 11:01am: Excellent david!!

Looking forward to trying it!!!

/Thomas; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by taz on November 23, 2009 at 11:04am: Don't you have to take a holiday sometime too?

Have fun at SmartGeometry.

Cheers,
taz; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Danny Boyes on November 23, 2009 at 11:12am: Looks good, I like the GUI you ended up with. With the tool bars being truncated when too large would it be possible to have the most frequently used ones appear in the open?

A song for your travels http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OrljWGIHB7c; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by David Rutten on November 23, 2009 at 11:30am: I had this crazy idea.... Do you know what Markov chains are? Essentially it would allow not just to show you the most recently used components, but to even predict (on a per user basis) which one you want next.

--
David Rutten
david@mcneel.com
Poprad, Slovakia; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Danny Boyes on November 23, 2009 at 12:30pm: Do you mean depending on the previous component selected elsewhere it will display components relevant to that course of action?; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by David Rutten on November 23, 2009 at 12:46pm: What you do is create a database of user history. So if someone has frequently used a DivideCurve component after creating a Curve Parameter, you can already offer that option somewhere as soon as the curve parameter was created. The more steps you include in the database, the better you'll approach that users behaviour. For example:

Curve Parameter; Divide Curve; Curve CP -> Distance 30%
Curve Parameter; Divide Curve; Curve CP -> Smaller Than 10%
Curve Parameter; Divide Curve; Curve CP -> Cull Pattern 10%
'all other possible chains, 50%

So when someone has just creates those three components on the left, chances are good the next component the user wants is one of those three.

Of course, the longer the recorded chains, the more data there is to parse and store, but since it's all on local disk, it shouldn't matter so much.

--
David Rutten
david@mcneel.com
Poprad, Slovakia; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Danny Boyes on November 23, 2009 at 12:53pm: You could go even further with this instead of restricting it to the toolbars at the top you could have it accessed from the middle button and wheel to rotate a dial with the most predictable outcomes, or just move the mouse in the direction of the selection.; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Thorsten Strathaus on November 25, 2009 at 5:33am: Hi David,

having the potentialy wanted tools somehow pointed out could be interesting, but if the whole arrangement changes and you have to search for the "not-offered" tool at constantly changing places would not be so funny, in my opinion.
At the moment, I got a cellphone which changes the order of the letters/symbols when writing a text message, that's damn bad. I allready try to keep in mind which symbols I used the last times to compete against the phone. But I think the software should do what I want, and not I have to do what it thinks I will do.

Thorsten; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Christophe Barlieb on December 2, 2009 at 12:53am: that is a crazy cool idea!; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Theunis du Toit on November 23, 2009 at 11:57am: I feel like a child again, at Christmas.

Thanks for all the effort David. Much appreciated.; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Peter Mehrtens on November 23, 2009 at 12:23pm: Thank you Mr. Developer David.

Great work.

Have good fun in Delft.; ▶ Reply to This