Is grasshopper live connection dead?

[Pato99]

Hi folks. This is a direct copy from my post in the Beta forums. It's just infuriating how slow development is in all aspects of ArchiCAD, they hype everything and drop support to work on something new for their next promo video. Remember the window and door tool... Next year you'll be asking for stair and railing support.

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When the live connection was announced, it was such a big deal. I was pretty excited to combine the two platforms and went to A/C training where they did an introduction to the connection and showed a video with cupcakes.

Now it seems dead in the ass. There are still major problems, I can't do basic functions like rotate a column and support for AC20 has stopped completely. There is only 1 active Mod since September and the other two leading mods have no active posts since January.

The last developer topics were this time last year, so what's going on with the plugin? Has it been ditched for something CI can make money on instead? How many developers are actually currently working on this? Is this why there is no mention of it on the AC21 website?

The current state of this plugin is more like Alpha with community support.

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I'm making a stand. No more upgrades till my requests from 10 years ago are filled.

[Anonymous]

Pat,
I do not think complaints you have voiced are warranted are you using Ac21? If so who’s why does your signature not say so, why should Graphisoft release new features for old software, have you tried the alternative? I can guarantee that things are not any better on the other side (4.5 hours just to reinstall software already installed just because of changed licensing agreements to 1 of 20 workstations and the inability to save back even one version).
The window and door tool is from local reseller not Graphisoft I have found ArchiCAD development and support in Australia very ordinary and focussed on single residential development and this is really all this tool is useful for
Scott

[Pato99]

Thanks for your input, not sure if you have any info on the progress of grasshopper?

Comments are warranted by 12ish years full time, late9-21beta and I'd like to share them for anyone having the same experience.

[Anonymous]

Pat,
Grasshopper is still a tool / extension to Rhino that is still in development and as such the connection to ArchiCAD is still in development, new features have been added and a deeper integration has been implemented. I think that it is an interesting add-on and is much better implemented that anything on the competing platform.

My comment regarding the local reseller stands, and I believe the change of ownership in recent years will exacerbate the issues as we have a reseller that does not rely on ArchiCAD to deliver product.

I have been using ArchiCAD since version 4.5 (1995), have helped roll it out to a significant multinational architectural practice, and have delivered in excess of A$1bn of projects using ArchiCAD from simple residential renovations to city block developments.

My preference and that of many users is for better, more flexible and easy to use existing tools before extending links to 3rd party software (maybe.85% 15%). Previous comment were really influenced by the tone of your original post more so than the content.

Scott

[runxel]

You could also ask if Rhino is dead...
I don't think this is Graphisofts fault atleast this one time.
Rhino 6 should have shipped for now more than 3 years – but guess what?

Please note here, that Grasshopper itself didn't got needed updates for now also more than three years. It is still a beta and has not passed even version 1.0, which should have been an integral part of the Rhino 6 release.
Even further down in the pipeline is Grasshopper 2 for Rhino 7 which is getting a complete overhaul – thats why David Rutten didn't spend any time making updates for Grasshopper 1.

So please go and beg McNeel hurrying up.

[leceta]

Is hard to not have complaints about the development process of the connection tool. The lack of information and quasi-inexistent official support is discouraging.

Runxel, i dont get the point when so say that "I don't think this is Graphisofts fault at least this one time". Then, who is?

everyone who visits https://discourse.mcneel.com/ knows that Rhino is not dead. Now, visit Graphisoft forum dedicated to the connection tool... https://rhinoconnectionbeta.graphisoft.com/index.php?sid=dd6490a016c9867bbb991b0f6b014f4f and tell me if you don't have the feeling of being in front of a discontinued product...

[Pato99]

@sboydturner I appreciate your views and experience with ArchiCAD. I'm not comparing other products to ArchiCAD and I didn't say I'd leave the platform either. I have cancelled our long running subscription, so I stand by my comments (When I refer to "I", I actually mean the company and multiple licences). I would have stopped at 19 but when I heard about the connection I paid the additional subscription.

When you say "the connection to ArchiCAD is still in development, new features have been added and a deeper integration had been implemented" where are you getting this information? Because if this information was openly available in the beta forums I would have no need to question the development.

@runxel I don't follow Rhino development enough but from what I know its not dead. I'm actually happy that I'm still working on the platform I did years ago, rather than paying multiple licences for a new version with one or two new features, just so I don't have to pay two steps the following year. The Rhino community is thriving and developers communicate which is better than no communication.

How is this not Graphisoft/CI's fault they implemented the plugin, they advertised it as a feature, it's up to them to throw developers at it and provide something that at least doesn't crash when using a core feature. I'm not a developer so my comments aren't warranted here but there are so many more sophisticated GH integrations out there that maybe the team needs more support and that's why I asked how many developers are currently working on it.

@Leceta Yep, all I'm asking for is Weekly/Monthly news on the progress of bug fixes. If they're going to stop development or have only 1 developer looking at it then we should know about it. They throw up images on twitter of big architectural firms using the connection for their promo, but it's just not practical. We might as well bake and export to AC.

[runxel]

I'm sorry for being sarcastic here.
Surely enough Rhino's development is not dead. They are just saying "we will release this year" since 2014 – so I don't trust them either.
(Along these line my point was more like: if they say the same to other companies, maybe GS is just waiting for the release of Rhino 6 with Grasshopper 1 – but that was just a bold guess.)

I think we can all agree that Graphisoft's communication is shitty at it's best.
Can't imagine why you would want to upset your customer base... hopefully they realize that this is not working very well.

Why the hell did they even made another forum where you need new credentials? So yes, the ac-gh--forum is not really alive.

[leceta]

not worries Runxel, just wondering what was your point of view about that particular asseveration.

by the way, thank you very much for your development of GDL plugin for sublime!

[runxel]

leceta wrote:
not worries Runxel, just wondering what was your point of view about that particular asseveration.

by the way, thank you very much for your development of GDL plugin for sublime!

Got carried a little bit away in my first post maybe
Funnily enough: yesterday evening I got an invitation for testing a pre-release version of Rhino – seems like they ship Rhino 6 this year for real!
And with it comes: Grasshopper 1 with a lot of new features, bugfixes and great speed improvements...
My hopes at the moment are Graphisoft waited indeed for this.


Thanks alot Leceta, music to my ears! ; )
Stay tuned! I will release a new version in a few days with many improvements.