By Dennis Collin
With the recent release of Revit 2023, users have access to a new version of Dynamo, 2.13. This new version has a revamped interface with larger, new look nodes and improved grouping capabilities.
The nodes themselves have a darker looking appearance with icons for easier function recognition. These nodes display amber or red flags when a script has an error or problem.
Wires can be selected and either pinned for easier script diagnosis or Watch nodes added.
Grouping nodes and assigning a clear colouring arrangement is good practice for any Dynamo Script. I always consider Group names as a graphical equivalent to remark comments in conventional programming. A new feature in Dynamo 2.13, is that Grouped elements look clearer and a description can be added. These descriptions could serve as instructions for users running the script. Contact details, script packages and other information. Also, users can now add additional elements to an existing group. Previously groups had to be ‘exploded’ and reformed if new elements needed to be added to the group. Also, Groups can be nested, i.e. have groups within groups, this is a much-requested feature.
Dynamo also comes with additional nodes relating to units. These include being able to obtain the name of the unit and to parse the unit.
The Node search function has been much improved over the old ‘Hit or Miss’ search facility. Node Search now works much like any popular web browser search. Although improved, it can still miss what might be considered obvious names, but it is a step in the right direction!
When working with scripts that rely on packages or bespoke Python nodes the improved Workspace References will clearly show the problems when the script breaks or upon initial script access. This often happens when using new version of Dynamo because custom packages don’t get updated. The new “Workspace References” menu shows which packages are missing and users can install the right version directly from this menu.
In the example above, Dynamo politely tells you that the Archi-lab.net package is missing or out of date, but a recommended version is located and an install button available to select within the same dialogue. Similarly, if a script uses nodes containing older IronPython2 code, a warning notification appears.
In addition to the points made there are many other under the hood enhancements, bug fixes and speed improvements that will make a Dynamo scripters life a happier one!
In the coming weeks I will highlight some of the improvements in more detail and how to get some legacy scripts using Python and popular packages working in this newer darker looking release of Dynamo.