Scripting and Code Tutorials

Grasshopper contains a VB.net and C# component. These components allow you to run your own custom code within Grasshopper. Understanding how to make even simple code components can be very useful in Grasshopper definitions.

The VB.NET and C#.NET components in Grasshopper access the Rhino .NET SDK (Software Developers Kit) and OpenNURBS (Geometry format) within Rhino. As you learn about the Code components, knowing a bit about the SDK and OpenNurbs will be useful.

Note to RhinoScript users: There has been many requests to support RhinoScript in Grasshopper. This is not technically possible. We are working on making VB.net more accessible to Rhinoscript coders. The following tutorials are created to help RhinoScripters to make the transition to VB.net within Grasshopper. In the future we are looking to add many of the RhinoScript style functins into VB.net.

The last chapters in the Grasshopper Primer are a great introduction to the VB.net component within Grasshopper. Topics range from:

An Introduction to Scripting Script components Basics Debuging Information Introduction to Visual Basic DotNET VB Variables, Arrays and Lists VB Conditional Statements, Loops Recursion Lists and Trees Grasshopper File I/O
Rhino .NET SDK Overview Understanding NURBS OpenNURBS Objects Hierarchy Class Structures OpenNURBS Geometry Transformation in the SDK Global Utility Functions

Click here to download the Grasshopper Primer...

Further specific sample definitions and code examples can be found here:

General information on the SDK and VB.NET is also available:

• Rhino 4 VB.NET SDk Pages - Contains reference material for the VB.NEt SDK and sample code.
• VB.NET School - Covers all you need to know to start programming in VB.NET.
• C# School - Covers all you need to know to start programming in C#.
• Other Developer learning resources - Various links for general programming information.