Lunchbox for Dynamo 2.12

Hello,
Why did Proving Ground discontinue developing the Luncgbox package for Dynamo?
Does that mean that they lost faith in Dynamo and that Grasshopper is better?
I am learning algorythmic design and would like to make sure to invest my time into the most promising tool. I am work on Revit as well so thought that Dynano is the best for me but perhaps it is better to learn Grasshopper?
Kind regards, Vincent

I don’t think it’s a matter of faith more then a matter of time.
Any particular node that you are looking after? I stopped using the pacakge (the minute they left the delivery system) and never needed it so i’m sure we can help

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They decided to focus their Autodesk ecosystem efforts on other toolsets. They didn’t share much of the decision process, but they have done some impressive work since. It is likely that they felt this decision was in everyone’s best interests, though the users who started to use the tools and were abandoned likely disagree.

That said I never saw much need for the package as a “must have”, but more of a springboard to get to some results quickly as a you learn the toolset. Knowing how to construct stuff like paneling tools, mass addition, and the rest is central to expanding the capabilities of computational design at the individual and industry level. Otherwise we all do the same thing, and no one wants that.

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I do want to say, they did open-source the entire package though, and that is commendable. While they may be focusing on other efforts, open-sourcing it has enabled it to still be used and updated by the community.

I have a fork here that I updated a while back for Revit 2022 compatibility.
https://bitbucket.org/j0hnp/lunchbox-for-dynamo/src/master/

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Excellent point as always @john_pierson!

Having used lunchbox on both grasshopper (a lot) and dynamo (a bit) I would say it definitely feels more naturally at home in Rhino and probably began there too, so it made sense to keep it there at the very least. I believe the discontinuation roughly coincided with the advent of Rhino Inside, if not Conveyor - both which can provide the utility of Gh/Lb to Revit fairly easily.

Great to see the project lives on for Dynamo in open source however. I think most packages will eventually reduce in updates spare a few (even I don’t find much time for Crumple these days, mostly using pyRevit for deploying tools to firms these days). Better to knowingly EOL/open source a project than let it die and sit on the package manager, as many of them do (steam nodes input node issues come to mind…).

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While the idea of packages “fizzling out” bums me out quite a bit. I could not agree more with this comment.

If someone finds that a package is too hard to manage, they need to let people know. Questions come up routinely regarding some of these packages that have failed to see an update for years.

Packages we (unfortunately) have not used in a while *provided for information purposes only*
  • Steamnodes
  • Bakery
  • Lunchbox
    (even with the source code open as the workspace references extension has no way to reconcile since it cannot be updated on the package manager)

While some packages have not been updated and cannot be used in newer versions, I do find it interesting that something like Firefly still works and has not been updated in years. :sweat_smile: (perhaps its because it does not touch the RevitAPI)

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Well said John!

I think it’s less that the firefly package hasn’t had to be updated, but more that the underlaying tech it interfaces with is ‘downdated’ (yes I am making things up).

The Firefly package is quite awesome for what it does, and unique in that it is built a top hardware, which is often a entirely stabilized tech stack. After all when is the last time any of us updated our microwave?

But if the hardware which Firefly interfaces with has a different update things start to go bad. But since firmware can be set to any version (see this post for more info) it’s a bit of a moot point.

Effectively with Firefly is configuring hardware to a static state which will work with the Dynamo tools which can therefore be static; While other packages are dynamically configuring their Dynamo tools to work with their dynamic software it integrates with (Revit/AutoCAD/Excel/whatever) and the environment it runs in.

Firefly has other big advantages in that it was written as a zero touch node and so it doesn’t get impacted by the changes to the .dyf format that have come over the years. It also relies heavily on input/output protocol which is standardized internationally, which were achieved via consensus in the industry. This standards may have some security concerns, but if your’e in a closed loop it’s not much of an issue. Meanwhile in AEC

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Thank you very much for sharing.
Do you know if I can also use it in dynamo of Revit 2021…? :face_with_diagonal_mouth:

It should work in 2021, but… i would just avoid using it as no one has really updated it and the team have left it as well.

what tool are you looking for specifically?