New Features

Work with External Files

One of the biggest new features in eleFront is the ability to work with "external" files. This means working with files outside of your active document. For example:

• Reference Geometry directly into your Grasshopper definition without having to attach it to your worksession.

• Bake directly to an external file.

  • Overwrite the file, or simply add to it, allowing you to build large Rhino files incrementally.

• Merge multiple Rhino files together.

• Add and Remove items from an external file without having to open it.

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"Ghost" Geometry

Sometimes in a Grasshopper script, you don't necessarily need the geometry of an object - just its attributes. Loading large models with complex geometry can be taxing on your computer's memory, so for scenarios where all you need is the object's attributes, we've introduced "Ghost" geometry:

• Maintains all the attributes of the Rhino object, for filtering, sorting, etc.

• Visualizes a bounding box of the original object, as visual feedback for what object(s) you are acting on

• The original geometry can still be "manifested" back into the script for geometric operations.

• "Ghost" geometry can be baked, or added to external files.

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Canvas Management

eleFront now comes with a "Data Description" component, that makes it easier to keep track of what data is moving through your script. Hotkeys make it easy to keep your script organized as you build it. If you already use Autograph, this functionality will be familiar to you.

However, we are very excited to introduce "in-line" tree shifting, which allows you to shift your trees directly from the context menu:

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Blocks

• Change a block definition without having to bake it

• Use all 3 block types: Embedded, Linked, Embedded and Linked

• Baking blocks is now much faster

• Improved control for handling different Block Definitions with the same name

• Block Information (name, transformation, source file) can now be accessed without having to Deconstruct the block

• Visual feedback in Grasshopper to let you know whether a definition was defined in Grasshopper or in the Rhino document.

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Pass-Through Components

• Define, Modify, and Deconstruct components have been merged into a single "Pass-Through" style component, for Attributes and Layers.

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Filtering

• Filter components now allow you to invert the filter, using it to exclude items

• Options for returning nulls

• Most filter components include parallel filtering

• New component: Sort by Key. Puts objects into separate branches for each distinct Value of a stated User Key.

Annotations

• Internalize Annotations, allowing you to transform an annotation without affecting its displayed value

• Improved Preview of Annotation objects

• When using Linked Blocks or external geometry, DimStyles are brought in, for accurate preview and baking.

Other Features

• Attach Attributes to Grasshopper geometry without baking

• Bake Settings give you more control over how to resolve Blocks and Dimension Styles with the same name

• In addition to the Bake All component, you can activate Bake components within the same group

• New component: Update All Reference Components

• New component: Update Grouped Components

• New component: Get Matching Branches will select branches from a tree, based on the existing branches in a guide tree. Accepts variable inputs.

• New component: Deconstruct Filepath makes it easy to separate file names and folder.

• Shift Match no longer requires explicitly matching trees

• Get Rhino Attributes, when used on reference objects, now separates the file name and the layer name when using worksessions