Swarm Apps are made from Grasshopper Definitions

General knowledge about how Grasshopper definitions are made into Swarm Apps

Swarm Apps are made from Grasshopper definitions. Definitions are converted into Apps by identifying Input and Output parameters with the Swarm Builder component, and uploading them to the Web App using the Rhino Client.

Apps are accessed by users in the Desktop Clients and the Web Viewer. When a new set of inputs is provided (like when a user references a guide curve, sets a slider’s value, and presses the Compute button in the Rhino Client), the Swarm App’s underlying Grasshopper definition is given the inputs and solved in the Swarm Cloud Compute Environment, and the outputs are given back to the user. Users can either create a Saved State to access the data the App generated at a later time, or they can bake the data into the authoring environment as native geometry (including metadata support using Attributes).

Because Swarm Apps are made from Grasshopper definitions, they’re pretty easy to make if you are comfortable in Grasshopper. And, like Grasshopper definitions, they can be incredibly useful. On the other hand, they inherit all of Grasshopper and Rhino’s quirks. They are further constrained by the cloud environment they are running in and by the inherent latency of a data-intensive, chatty web application. You win some, you lose some and sometimes you’re just happy to play.