Working with External Files

Reference Geometry from External Files

Reference components can now bring in objects directly from an outside file. This feature can be accessed through the variable input:

Why is this Useful?

Dynamic Worksessions
If you find yourself often loading and unloading files from your Worksession, or having to manage a large collection of Worksession files, this features lets you use Grasshopper to create flexible logic for selecting which files to read from.
Reduce Memory Usage
If you are using a Worksession only to reference the geometry into Grasshopper, then you are essentially creating two copies: one in Rhino, one in Grasshopper. This feature lets you skip loading into Rhino, thereby cutting your memory use in half.

Bake to External File

New Component: Bake To File allowing you to bake directly to an outside file.

There are also some important options in handling this operation:

Add To File - simply add geometry to the file, if it already exists.
Overwrite File - completely save over the intended file
Overwrite BakeName - treat the file in the traditional way, where items with the specified BakeName will be deleted, and replaced with the new geometry.

There are also options for Bake Setting presets. For more information, read about Bake Settings.

Lastly, there is an option called "Network Save", read about this below.

Merge Files

New Component: Merge Files allows you to combine Rhino files directly from Grasshopper.

The component features a subset of Bake Settings as well as Network Save

Modify External File

New Component: Modify Rhino File allows you to add or remove objects from an outside file.

The component features a subset of Bake Settings as well as Network Save

Network Save

When saving a Rhino model, the objects are added incrementally into the file. If the file is being saved to a network location (i.e. a location that is not on the computer you are using, but rather a file server of some kind), this can be a very slow process. With the "Network Save" option, the file will be saved to your local machine first, in a temporary location, and then when the file is complete, it will be moved to the final file path. This reduces the number of transactions across the network and is significantly faster for models with a large number of objects.