Grasshopper

algorithmic modeling for Rhino

Dicking around on a Sunday. I haven't got Windows 8 and I've never actually used the new Tile based UX, but I was wondering if it made sense for Grasshopper. I'm not sure I like this yet, but I can see the point of having 'stuff' on the canvas if there's no document loaded.

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Comment by Anders Holden Deleuran on September 7, 2013 at 3:45am

Hi David. Did you give any thought to the option of turning off the MRU tiles? While I do like the tiles on Windows Phone, I find them really rather jarring when operating a mouse/keyboard system. Especially with vivid green/red tile colour scheme. Hope that makes sense..

Comment by Anders Holden Deleuran on June 10, 2013 at 4:26am

Just updated to 0.9.0056 and thought I would chime in here. When I open my GH it now looks like this:

As you can see I run a pretty minimal GUI and a tight ship when it comes to file names. The MRU kinda gets in the way of both these workflow styles. While I certainly applaud experimenting with GUI styles (use a Windows Phone myself and love it!) in this case I would definitely prefer using the existing "file -> recent files" options which is not only less of a break with the existing GUI (both Rhino and Grasshopper) but also lets me view the full filename (critical to the usability of a file browsing interface). So in this case a simple vertical list would probably be more useful.

In general I worry that adding too many different visual styles and features to Grasshopper will make it appear bloated and messy. I realize that is it obviously a question of personal preference, but it would be cool to, at least, be given the option of turning off such features (which is obviously already the option with widgets, toolbars etc.).

Anywho, other than that I'm really liking the latest update. Seems faster as well!

Best,

Anders

Comment by Vicente Soler on April 8, 2013 at 4:42am

Angel, I had no problem adapting quickly to the new interface on the phone and knowing where to click without bevels and drop shadows. In the phone it really adds value since you have little real estate and anything you can remove is a benefit (I also find it looks much better, but this is personal taste).  

Of course, there are far fewer things going on at the screen on a phone than in a computer. It's very possible this doesn't translate well into an interface for a software like Rhino. I've also had no problems using Windows 8 and a few simple 'metro apps' but these are simple apps that don't compare the complexity of CAD software.

Even Microsoft hasn't gone full metro in the desktop. They did however remove a lot of superfluous shadows, bevels and effects and it looks much better than in Windows 7 in my opinion.

 

In every new version of Windows I always resented they just added new effects and decorations to the UI without adding much to usability and only slowing down the system. I've found it strange that for the first time that I think they are moving in the right direction Microsoft receives the biggest backlash ever for it. Apparently I have a very heterodox view on good UI and when people were complaining on the superfluous decorations of previous windows installments they didn't really mean it, they just had an axe to grind with the company.

Comment by Ángel Linares on April 8, 2013 at 3:58am

I DON'T like metro style. The problem with it is that text and icons are just plain text and squares without anything that tells you "hey man!, click over me". Our education in UI that comes from the first windows system has taught us to search for some common graphic elements that always work in the same way: shadows, volume, underlined text... If we must change our digital interface education because we are winning something, ok, lets go and sacrifice icons and all the old fashion windows UI....

Comment by David Rutten on April 8, 2013 at 3:56am

Hi Jesus,

if your going to add a start-up dialog to grasshopper I'd be cool if it were related to grasshopper3d.com. Maybe a tile with new photos, another one with new members, discussions, featured content, [...]

Is that really something you care about deeply enough you want to be confronted with this information at start-up? One problem with loading remote data is that it takes time. When people start Grasshopper the assumption is that they want to use Grasshopper. This means either creating a new file or opening an existing file. They will do this within a few seconds of running the _Grasshopper command. That will not be enough time to load and display information from grasshopper3d.com. I certainly don't want to add something that users have to specifically close. These MRU tiles are only on screen when the screen is useless and they disappear as soon as a document is loaded.

Comment by David Rutten on April 8, 2013 at 3:52am

Hi Michael, the MRU list is already quite easily accessible via the File menu, and a canvas without a document is just sitting there doing nothing anyway. I assume one of the most common things people do just after starting Grasshopper is opening one of the files they were working on last time. I just wanted to make that extra easy.

I hesitate to actually load the files automatically (assuming there were open files when GH was last closed) as it can take a long time to solve one, but this -apart from the style break- seems like a useful feature that doesn't get into the way of anything else.

Comment by Michael Pryor on April 7, 2013 at 11:32pm
I feel like it would be more interesting if it is the same concept but activated via the left side tear down. Similar to when you drag and drop files to that corner and it folds over. Just a thought.
Comment by Archy Bloom on April 7, 2013 at 6:42pm

When will we meet GH 2.0 ?

Comment by David Rutten on April 7, 2013 at 2:54pm

I know it's a style-break. It's just that the 4 things I tried before this which were all very Grasshopper looked far too messy. Maybe GH 2.0 will move towards Metro style, no idea yet.

Comment by Jesus Galvez on April 7, 2013 at 2:51pm

Hey David,

if your going to add a start-up dialog to grasshopper I'd be cool if it were related to grasshopper3d.com. Maybe a tile with new photos, another one with new members, discussions, featured content, authors recommendations, last opened definition or pinned definitions... Just a thought. 

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