Cloud Compute Environment

General knowledge about Swarm's Cloud Compute Environment

Swarm solves Grasshopper definitions in the cloud. We’re using several of McNeel’s new technologies and systems - namely 3dmIO, Compute, and Cloud Zoo Licenses - to make this run and scale in Amazon’s EC2 compute environment.

V7 WIPs

Rhino only rolls this way in V7 - Swarm runs on top of a headless version of Rhinoceros V7 WIP. This keeps everything interesting. The WIPs expire after 45 days, and each one has its own ins and outs. They are after all, by their very definition, Works in Progress. We’re developing some automated tests to ensure stability as much as possible, but this is a known source of static for Authors and Users alike.

Headlessness

One of the constraints of the cloud environment is headlessness - the instances of Rhino we’re solving Grasshopper definitions on top of have no [Rhino or Grasshopper] user interface, and limited access to an active Rhino document.

Any code that presents forms, throws dialog boxes, error windows, or any other UI elements during execution will cause the Swarm Server to fail.

Plugins Support & Scripting Components

We do support a number of popular plugins, and we currently allow Grasshopper Scripting Components in Apps. The plugins are loaded by all Grasshopper instances in the compute environment. Some plugins work beautifully out of the box. Others, especially those that rely on an active Rhino document, struggle in the headless Compute environment.