The Grasshopper Bitmap primitive

The latest version of the plugin comes with a new Bitmap component, which you can find in the Primitives panel of the Parameters tab. This Bitmap object is the one that will be used in all image-related components for inputting or outputting images. Conveniently, you can internalize this format in Grasshopper, which means that your definitions can embed all the images you import or produce using the image tools, without linking to external image files.

Use with the ShapeDiver image components

The Grasshopper Bitmap type is used as input to the ShapeDiverImageSampler and the ShapeDiverImageToMesh components.

Grasshopper Bitmap As Texture Inputs

Perhaps the key feature of the Grasshopper Bitmap type is that it can be used as input for the texture parameters of the ShapeDiverMaterial component. Color texture, metalness, roughness, normal and opacity maps can all be defined parametrically inside Grasshopper and used to display in the online viewer.

Use with the Squid plugin

In the Shapediver version of the Squid plugin, the native Bitmap type of the plugin has been replaced by the Grasshopper Bitmap. It works identically as the original plugin, except of course it can be combined with all the other features listed above.