Today we release Dynamo 2.13 - An absolutely monster release focused on the “Dynamo Visual Refresh” - a modernization effort to give Dynamo a fresh coat of paint, lower the barrier to entry, hone the rough edges and introduce a whole swathe of epic new tools and features for you to explore!
Come explore the first blog post, Part 1/3, here, discussing Node updates and Graph Authoring improvements among other things, then jump into Part 2/3 here and explore all the good stuff that has changed around Packages, before finishing up with a (maybe not so) light read in Part 3/3 where we explore a bunch of new nodes around Units and Geometry, dive into performance gains, memory reduction and Search speed improvements before talking about API changes, Python and a bunch more.
Blog TL:DR
Visually reimagined and refreshed Dynamo experience, introducing a modernized user experience, fresh color scheme, tonnes more information at your fingertips and clarity towards both paradigm and approach to how Dynamo works; nodes, wires, authoring behavior and the UI experience have all been jazzed up [Part 1/3].
Implementation of two Dynamo Interactive Guides for First Time Use Experience and Packages, with more to come[Part 2/3].
A refreshed Package authoring and download experience [Part 2/3].
An expansion to the Workspace References extension to include local definitions and external files [Part 2/3].
We now have a richer way to handle installed packages via states and resolve conflicts [Part 2/3].
New Unit nodes [Part 3/3].
More seamless Python 3 Autocomplete [Part 3/3].
Performance improvements to Search, the scaling of graphs and the Virtual Machine improve Dynamo use [Part 3/3].
A swathe of security updates [Part 3/3].
A new node that groups curves together [Part 3/3].
35 bug fixes, with a particular focus on Crashes to improve stability of the overall Dynamo experience [Part 3/3].
The dark theme is great for working. But it would be great to have an light theme for tutorials / handouts / books which are still often printed. White background (not the light grey - I always need to use SnagIt to remove the light grey), white Nodes with black/grey boarders, black text, optimized source code colors for white background, light colors on the menu.
The grey “hidden preview” indicator bar at the bottom of the node, shouldn’t be completely obscured by another indicator bar (error, warning). I would prefer that it is shown both in some way.
I would love to have an option for a compressed visual style, where I can see the same Information within less space. The Nodes have a lot of unused space which could be shrinked. It would be super nice for tutorials, because the space is very limited to show a script without filling many book pages and it would also be nice to get a quick overview of a script without panning too much.
The note pin to a node feature is a great idea. Is it possible to add the drag and drop functionality to that feature? Dropping a text note onto a node will pin it to it and places directly above of it.
For some reason Sandbox 2.13 will crash ‘reliably’ when I try and edit a new python node. I may have too many pythons living in my machine now… time for a clear- out. Anyone else getting this?
Thanks for the feedback! A few thoughts as follows
We have discussed plans to enable color theming of Dynamo in the Visual Refresh, as a way for you to choose, but it wasn’t as important as other things for the first phase. We can look into it again for sure. In the meantime, I can show you how to build your own Sandbox and where to change the colors if you want The background is a one color hex code change.
This is why we have dual indicators (Alert bubbles and eye icon) to showcase multiple states. Theoretically a warning/error should be resolved when encountered (Can dismiss them now too), leaving the preview state as default.
Nodes now have better contrast, offer more information (i.e. icons), or access to content (i.e. context menu). This does come at a size cost of ~20%, which unfortunately does make it harder to have more on screen at any one time.
Re: the Library, we are retooling icons in the future so this is partially prep for this. More space also helps understanding for newer users. I hear you that scrolling is inefficient, so we can check if minor tweaks will improve, but won’t be making major changes right now.
The Package Manager information compression is similar to the above, and I personally wouldn’t want it tighter. I’m curious what others think here?
Re: Size limits… can definitely look into this
This is a brilliant idea! We can 100% add this one in. Pinned notes was done a while before Group stuff so we didn’t loop back on it. Would be an epic add for sure
As always, thank you for the depth of feedback dude!
Another problem with pip install with new Python version 3.8.10
I have some warning and for some package there is a conflict with original Python38 location
I already found that style settings in …\UI\Themes\Modern and I will try to make a customized white color set for printing in the future. And I like to compress the node size and the tree view of the library. I have achieved it to make the ports smaller, by adjusting values in the xaml files:
I’m still stuck at removing the margin (marked in red) between the ports and reduce the margins of the header.
Can anyone tell me which values I need to change to edit the margins of the nodes?
The xaml files are a real large mess and with no comments. And I think some of the source code is not in use by Dynamo 2.13 any longer.
I wish there would be a Dynamo Lookup Tool to inspect the elements like in an internet browser
And I couldn’t find the grey canvas 3D background hex color In the old xaml files it was much easier to find.
And I am still searching for the grid row height of the library Where is it defined?
It would be nice to have an option in Dynamo to change between 2 or more themes. For example if you create an additional folder Modern_CompressedWhite, an option in the settings will be available to change the theme.
I need more experience with this. It was just my first impression. But I don’t see any reason why you can not show more than one color bar underneath each other instead of on top each other.
If you look at Dynamo books and handouts, even with the old UI, some authors try to make the nodes smaller, by cutting the unused space of the nodes (This is so much time consuming unnecessary work). Sry for that, but I want to be honest, I don’t like that the size of the node gets even bigger with the new UI. The nodes should use a flex system where unused space will automatically removed to make a node as small as possible.
Maybe the reason is the tablet compatibility? ok, I understand u need space for the fat fingers. But then u should create 2 UI modes: an optimized touch mode and a compressed space optimized mode.
The space in the library between the items is way too much. As you can see in my mockup, it can be reduced up to 60% without loosing any information (text size is still the same). Is there somewhere a hidden setting as well, to reduce the padding/margin?
Pleasepleaseplease, as much as I like the effort to revamp the UI, the green bold arrows and green text are sort of eating away the simple elegance it had before. Round corners for nodes are nice too, but maybe there is a chance to set this as an option ?
Or, as pointed out above by Thomas, maybe there`s a chance to share some info on the relevant parts in the xml ?
No nagging, but a UI preference / style option would be great;
thanks for making 2.13
Correct @john_pierson, you would also need to close the host as nothing has changed in this regard yet. The advent of .NET 5/6 could change this though, and we are monitoring!
I’ll edit the blog post to make that clear - thanks for the heads up!
issue.
living in my machine now… time for a clear- out. Anyone else getting this?
The background is a one color hex code change.
Go have a read and tell us what you think!
