12th April Tutorials

Below are several pictures from our last tutorials.

Above: An impressively strong laser-cut model from Dan Dodds made of 2mm card. the small four-sided component which is repeated is based on this “space-packing” (leaves no gap) Archimedean solid: http://www.matematicasvisuales.com/english/html/geometry/space/truncatedoctahedrontessela.html

 

Above: A Grasshopper definition generating an entire building from Chris Ingram. This is for a growing TechHub around the Sillicon Roundabout.

 

Above: Floating Earth Island for the Twa tribe in Zambia by Kayleigh Dickson. The physical model is made from a steel mesh, a layer of waterproof cement and an earth and straw compound. PLants have started growing on the entire structure now.

 

Random Linear Growth – Hoopsnake

This example shows an animation of my ‘work-in-progress’ Grasshopper definition that uses Hoopsnake to recursively perform a ‘copy by mirror’ function on a geometric form. The two examples are based on a cube and a tetrahedron. The growth is linear; expanding by one module with each step. The position of each new module is determined by a new randomly selected face of the preceding module.

I would like to develop the definition so that it doesn’t self intersect, so any comments with ideas on how to achieve this would be appreciated!

Grasshopper and Hoopsnake

This video shows a summary of the potential using grasshopper combined with Hoopsnake.

The intention is to be able to multiply the component to a large amount of them by controlling the angles of rotation and building a mega-structure out of it.

As grasshopper is not very good on closed loop systems the Hoopsnake plug in comes in to repeat the definition over and over again in order to produce the outcome. The video indicates how you do it. Simply by double clicking on the Hoopsnake component in the definition and then adjust the preferable angles and click loop.

You can repeat the operation as many times as you want with different variation of angles and once the satisfied result is there you can bake the meshes into Rhino and then use them to render.

The possibilities are numerous and pretty exciting results can occur.

Black Light

Black Light from Michael Clarke on Vimeo.

This is a walkthrough of my proposal for an art pavilion at the Burning Man Festival in Nevada. The pavilion is a network of tubes filled with water and a fluorescent dye that slowly travels from a central tank around the woven structure. UV lights housed on steel supporting elements set off the fluorescence. This model was an earlier design and as such has since been refined – a better video of the final proposal will follow.

Please excuse the jerky camera and the very dodgy shadows (I didn’t set a target for the sun direction): this was my first attempt at an animation using Maya. These issues will all be improved on the final proposal animation including the addition of sound and people.

The model was constructed in Grasshopper for Rhino and then imported to Autodesk’s Maya to animate. It was composed in Adobe After Effects.

Daniel Piker’s Lecture at Strelka Institute

Below is a great lecture by Daniel Piker, the developer of Kangaroo, at the Strelka Institute in Moscow. He shows how the plugin works, how playful it is and what can be done with it:

SPM Vector Components

“Daniel Hambleton  is a mathematician working in the AEC industry (Architecture Engineering and Construction): a role he hopes will continue to push the boundaries of current design practice. In 2009 he helped start the Studio for Progressive Modelling (SPM), a service provided by Halcrow Yolles that combines expertise in structural engineering, mathematics, and computation, to solve complex problems in architecture.

Since the official launch of the SPM, Daniel has worked on projects both locally and abroad, collaborated with established and emerging architects, organized an interdisciplinary discussion series, lectured at the University of Toronto, presented at international conferences, written technical papers, and generally been incorrigibly interested in the interaction between mathematics, engineering, and architecture.”

Daniel and Chris Walsh have developped a plugin for Grasshopper called SPM Vector Components which you can download on Food4Rhino. It provide some utilities that deal with vector fields, emitters, particules and motion. Below are some examples of the plugin being used:

 

Above: SPM VC Dynamic Emtters

 

Above: SPM VC Sprites

 

Above: SPM VC General demonstration

LIVE COMPONENTS BLOG

The LIVE COMPONENTS blog is a fantastic resource for parametric designers for both inspiration and technical knowledge. It is run by Hyoung-gul Kook, a specialist in Advanced Architectural Geometry from Columbia University and an architect at Weiss/Manfredi in New York. The blog details a wide range of projects which are mostly based in Grasshopper, and provides detailed tutorials of how their definitions work. This forces you to build the definitions yourself and understand more fully the process being followed, as opposed to downloading a ready made Grasshopper file. Projects range from complete systems such as La Fabrique Sonore to individual components.

Mesh Relaxation – Kangaroo Tutorial

Daniel piker has posted three tutorials on how to relax mesh using Grasshopper and Kangaroo to simulate tensile structures. Follow them on Vimeo:

Tutorial 1 – Relax an example Mesh

Tutorial 2 – Relax your own mesh

Tutorial 3 - Adding ridge and boundary cables

Branching structures in Grasshopper / help

Hey guys.

Quick question…

Does anyone know how to do branching structures without having to repeat and copy everything for every level of branches? I’ve been trying to find a way but no luck. There must be a solution where you can just by pulling a slider adjust the number of levels, while the proportions of one unit (four branches) stay the same… Would be much easier and faster to test how strong a structure with multiple levels is compared to one with only one or two…

Below are three pictures, first one shows the entire Grasshopper screen, second one just one component (piped line with set directions) and the third one the result.

Really hope someone can help me.

I hope your work is going great.

Thanks in advance,

Luka

 

DIVA and Work by Jeff Niemasz

LMN Architect has just published a review of the DIVA plugin for Grasshopper. 

DIVA uses Radiance, a free environemtal simulation software which you can download and install to run alongside Ecotect.

Radiance is more precise than Ecotect and can be used for Daylight studies, producing extremely accurate renders.

DIVA was written by Jeff Niemasz, a Harvard GSD student, as part of his masters project on re-visiting the aqua tower by Studio Gang.

You can register to the DIVA for Grasshopper group on the forum and follow the tutorial on installation (See videos below).

 

 Above: Portfolio page from Green Re Articulates Red, my diploma project at the AA

 

 Above: Simulation Matrix from LMNTS using DIVA for Grasshopper