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  • Published 17 Mar 2021

Geometry nodes : add an "Attribute spreadsheet file" node

The new spreadsheet editor in blender 2.93 alpha had me have this idea : it would be great to use a spreadsheet of datas from a file (csv, excel, etc.) to generate data visualisation. Here is a quick mockup example : Image

Possible workflow

  • The basic mesh where the Geometry node is applied should be a single vertex
  • For the "attribute spreadsheet file" node to work, it would need to be associated with an "array node" , working like the array modifier but inside geometry nodes : it would interact with "the number of rows" attribute from the "attribute spreadsheet file" node to control the number of points needed to show the entire data from the spreadsheet file.
  • The column headers of the file would automaticaly populate the data names of the datas into the geometry for future usage in next nodes (example "data1", "data2"... see mockup). So a column in the spreadsheet represents a full set of data.
  • A refresh button would be there to refresh the data from the file if needed
  • "Number of rows" and "Number of columns" would be integers, usable as needed
  • We would then add a point instance with whatever geometry we need that would represent the data : a scaled cube, a pile of donuts, or a even a car if we want.

This should become a really nice way to do custom charts, in 2D or 3D style, more or less complex, and totally animatable for motion design presentation of data, and that should be gold.

Additionnal idea, I think of Google sheet that can expose online data as a csv. It would be great to have a connector available for Google sheet to have a totally collaborative realtime workflow.

Let me know if you find this idea interesting.

attribute_spreadsheet_file_node.jpg

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Development Status: Open

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Noki
17 Mar 2021

4 Comments

MrWillyWonka

Best idea that Ive seen here for months!

+100

3
ArtLab

* @Willy Wonka * yeap, very cool feature

Noki Author

It has been mentioned in the blender today cast that in the future, the spreadsheet editor will be editable, so maybe my proposition would become simply a "spreadsheet node", so we could copy/paste data from an excel file to the spreadheet inside blender. But this "spreadsheet node" could also have the functionnality of using a file.

georgebarrett

Love this idea, makes me think of David McCandless and his infographics, I've always wanted to create similar stuff

1