First of all... WOW... I have been dreaming about a software like this for years, ever since I used Digital Fusion (now called Fusion) from Eyeon. Having used that software I would like to point out some differences that I miss in Grasshopper.
1. the connections shoud be an arrow indicating the direction of the flow of information 2. the point of that arrow (destination) can be dragged and dropped into the background to disconnect a connection. You can create a new connection from an input only if it is empty otherwise it disconnects. 3. you can activate a grid to align the nodes to it 4. you can drop a node over another to replace it and the connections remain 5. you can drop a node over a connection to put it in between two nodes 6. you have panel to manipulate all parameters of a node... for instance, an integer has a connection to a slider and a value that can be set locally also... in that panel you would have a slider to modify that local value. 7. The inputs and outputs rearrange themselves in order to avoid crossed connections 8. Since the connections have an arrow, there is no need to force a left to right arrangement so the diagram can be created in any way the user want 9. curved o straight connections can be used 10. the nodes have a collapsed mode which would be like the actual state of grasshopper and an expanded view in which the nodes show more information (in this case you could show a panel like node) 11. you can have instances of a node (applicable to replicating nodes that have local values 12. double clicking on a group of nodes allow to view inside it and edit the nodes 13. a group of nodes can be saved as a new node and you can choose which parameters will be editable in that new node and which will be the inputs an outputs... This is fundamental for sharing... the users can create new tools with the existing ones, share and reuse them... Now some of my ideas 1. multiple connections in a single input of a node is confusing, maybe that action could create a second input below the first, with the same name and it could be a visual remainder of the order of the list. 2. in a node properties panel you could activate or deactivate inputs or outputs... for instance, the output of a node is a plane but I only need the Z vector of it... in that panel I could choose the Z component of that plane and publish it as an output instead of having to add another node and a new connection. 3. you shouldn't have to bake the result to render... I am just starting to use grasshopper so please forgive me if some of these ideas are already there.. and please tell me about it... thanks.. fantastic software. Frane
