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Introduction to Grasshopper

Download & Install

Grasshopper is included in Rhino 6+. Type Grasshopper into the Rhino command prompt to launch.

The Basics

Objective: Become familiar with the Grasshopper interface and workflow to create a parametric model.

Interface

  • Setting Units (in Rhino)
  • Arranging windows / Hide show Grasshopper
    • Dual monitor is ideal setup to see both Rhino and Grasshopper
  • The Canvas (where you drop components)
    • Double click to type in name of a component you want to add
    • Space bar to access quick commands like preview, bake, and preferences
    • Recent commands bar (on bottom left)

Tool Bars & Component Groups (Tabs)

  • Primitives
  • Math
  • Set
  • Vec
  • Curve
  • Surface
  • Mesh
  • Intersect
  • Transform
  • Display

Working with components

  • Drag and drop components into the canvas
  • Selecting components
  • Tooltips
  • Connecting / Disconnecting components
  • Aligning components
  • Messages (Orange and red bubbles on component)
  • Grouping components

Working with geometry

  • Assigning Rhino geometry to Grasshopper components
  • Creating Grasshopper based geometry and visualizing it in Rhino
  • Baking geometry (Geometry in Grasshopper -> Rhino)
  • Points, Lines, Planes, Volumes

Examples

The following examples are in the cm-design/grasshopper folder.

Example 1: Basic Image Sampler

Example 2: Basic Attractor

Example 3: Vase Builder

This example shows a way to implement a Vase or Vessel type design using Grasshopper. The screenshot shown in the repo is rendered using Keyshot.

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