DesignScript is a unique language that helps designers build and analyze complex geometric models that would be difficult to model with interactive techniques. DesignScript introduces the distinction between a generative description of a design (as a script) and the resulting generated model. The designer no longer directly models the resulting design: instead he develops a script whose execution generates the model.
Dr. Robert Aish is one of our Directors of Software Development here at Autodesk. Luke Church is Senior Principal Engineer on the DesignScript team. I got the following email from Luke that accompanied this latest update of the free DesignScript technology preview on Autodesk Labs.
Different tools are good for different things. One of the key ideas in DesignScript has been to allow people to use whatever tool serves their current task, and to remove any barriers between these tools. This is why we introduced both [Imperative] and [Associative] programming.
Today - we're announcing the biggest addition to DesignScript so far. Hybrid visual/textual programming.
With the new DesignScript Studio you can start designing by dragging some nodes, then do some text coding, and then go back to using nodes again. DesignScript Studio can even do the conversion to code automatically for you!
Download it now from here. For more examples see: www.designscript.org.
We think that this offers the advantages of visual programming, whilst also allowing people to deal with the challenges as their graphs grow into spaghetti. Other exciting features include always on, live execution and preview-as-you-work making exploring different geometries more interactive and enjoyable.
Secondly - we've heard from many users that they wanted a lighter version that they could use on computers without AutoCAD. So we're introducing a new package of the tool that run completely separate from AutoCAD. You can install it on any 64-bit computer running Windows 7 or 8!
It’s early days for the technology, that’s why we're releasing it here - to get more feedback and continue improving DesignScript.
To get started, head over to the Labs Page, and hit download.
Remember there’s our forums, our community site, and our email address. Please get in touch, we'd love to hear from you and see what you make!
Luke and Robert
P.S. — Throughout the next week or so we'll posting more graphs and models to our gallery.
Thanks Luke and Robert.
A hybrid is alive in the lab.
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