STUDIO AIR2014, SEMESTER 1RACHEL MUIALGORITHMIC TASKS

2.2.

Algorithmic Challenge 01

This week’s challenge involved creating a space using lofting. Curves were referenced in grasshopper, and then the “loft” component was used to create a surface between the curves.

Then, the “bake” command was used to create a lofted surface in rhino. This also acted as a way to “save” different outcomess of the surfaces after altering the starting curves.

Thus, a taxonomy of lofted surfaces using the above grasshopper definition was generated, as shown below.

[TOP] top view[Bottom] side views

3.3.

These are captures of the form that I found the most interesting (3rd outcome)

Some results of playing around with other grasshopper components

4.4.

Algorithmic Challenge 02A series of closed curves arranged in a circle was lofted to form the solid I used to create the plywood slices.

I had problems with my lofted donut twisting, which would be fixed by flipping the curves. However, I didn’t know which ones were causing the problem so I just connected them one by one to the loft component and flipped the trouble makers. If it wasn’t an issue, I would usually just set multiple curves to one curve component and connect that to loft.

The loft was baked, and the starting curve to be offset is drawn in the middle of the donut shape.

5.5.

I had to flip the starting curve too, because the offset curves were appearing on the inside rather than the outside of the 1st curve

The generated offset curves are then extruded up so that they cover the entire donut shape.

The intersection between the donut surface and the extrude surfaces were calculated with an intersection component, resulting in curves.

The outside extrusions are exploded because some of them (the kinks) generate 2 surfaces rather than 1.

The faces from “explode” become the surfaces which are split with the curves from the previous step. “SrfSplit” was used.

The result was baked, and unneeded surfaces manually deleted.

6.6.

7.7.

8.8.

Algorithmic Challenge 03

9.9.

10.10.

Algorithmic Challenge 04

This week’s algorithmic challenges look at using point attracters and fields, expressions and subdivision.The following images are some of the results I got after completing the exercise videos.

11.11.

12.12.

13.13.

This is the definition I made following the video tutorial. Nothing really that interesting, but it was fun to get a few different iterations by changing the variables. It also seems to break if you change the number of sides past 5.

14.14.

This is my own definition, which uses an L shaped block as a starting point. I wanted all of the block to be changeable, so a number of sliders are available on the left. The length of each arm can be changed individually. Thickness and height can also be changed.

15.15.

The shape subdivides twice, and the size of each subdivision can be changed via number slider too.

16.16.

This is a variation of the previous definition, but this time the starting shape is a 4 pointed star with adjustable arm lengths and thickness.

The image on the left is run with 2 subdivisions, but I thought it was a bit too much so the rest of the images are only subdivided once.

The length, thickness, height and size of subdivisions resulted in many strikingly different outputs due to the number of vertices in the starting shape.

17.17.

18.18.

19.19.

20.20.

Algorithmic Challenge 05

21.21.

For this week’s algorithmic challenge, I decided to give L systems a try. Rabbit for grasshopper was used. I wanted to try and make something similar to Michael Hansmeyer’s l system consisting of several room modules attach onto a path generated by a non-self colliding l system string.

To do this, I used a “Hilbert Curve”, which is a non-colliding space filling curve that was also available as a 2D or 3D string on the Rabbit website.

The image to the left is a hilbert curve at 90 degrees, while the top image is at around 60-70 (unfortunately I didn’t write down what it was exactly, sorry!)

Both use the 3D version of the curve, and have 2 generations.

22.22.

Pseudo-code:1) Generate L-system (non-colliding)2) Translate to regular grasshopper curve3) Divide curve, generate points at divisions4) Create rectangle surfaces at points5) Create solid prism from surfaces6) Create truss with lines across box corners and edges7) Pipe the lines8) Create box modules which appear at n steps

23.23.

This is another L system which appeared in part B of my journal.