Archive for 2012
Section Boxes in Grasshopper
Here’s a demo of a script we’re using to create section boxes in Grasshopper similar to those in Revit. This doesn’t split geometry but helps with animating or managing a large file in your viewport.
The section box script is similar to Luis Fraguada’s clipping plane script, except this script’s input is a closed brep and uses Python.
Rhino will limit the number of clipping planes in a viewport to 10. The script will work on any closed brep with 10 or fewer faces. It can also be quickly edited to work with planes. Enjoy!
Focusing on Fabrication – Part Nesting
Recently, we’ve been having discussions about the effort that goes into making the formwork for casting an object and how wasteful that mold making process can be depending on the amount of shaping that is desired. This is one in a series of posts where we’ll be looking at how an early focus on the fabrication process can influence the design of a object or system and the potentials that might arise from this approach to design.
Kerf Bending
We take an active interest in minimal waste digital fabrication methods. It’s a good challenge to create efficient templates for subtractive manufacturing, and successful results allow us to create more prototypes with limited stock material. This post focuses on digital models for kerf bending, a traditional method for creating flexible forms out of rigid materials.
People as Particles
The tool we’re sharing in this post we’ve named the People Populator and it came about from a desire to visualize what a few hundred people would look like in a lobby space. Each person is instantiated in the digital model as a point object or particle that tries to achieve it’s preferred proximity from others while also avoiding standing in front of doors, stairways, and other obstacles.
Automating R-value Calculations
When designing a roof with tapered insulation that meets energy code, it’s often assumed that the thinnest part of the roof (near the drains) meets the minimum R-value requirements for the entire assembly. This is a conservative assumption, and one which usually results in excessive thickness for a roof’s target insulation value. We’ve developed a way of streamlining this process into a tool we can quickly use on any project.
Medical Mart Progress Update
It’s been over a year since we last posted about the Cleveland Medical Mart, but a lot has happened since then. In the summer of 2011, we had the opportunity to travel to the Construction Research Laboratory in Miami, FL to witness the performance testing of a mockup of a corner of the Medical Mart. This past May we traveled to Cleveland to see the building coming together. This post shares some photos and videos of where the building is at this point.
Laser Cutters and Circuit Boards
Lately we’ve been looking at the Arduino, an open source microcontroller which enables interactive designs. As we delve further into open-sourced electronics, we’ll get the chance to create custom circuit boards. And while Fritzing is a great site for helping with this, laser cutting a circuit board in house would not only be awesome, but would also save time and money.
Tangible User Interfaces
Here’s an early look at the tangible user interface with Grasshopper. In this video, we’re using the Reactivision Listener for Firefly (a plugin for Grasshopper). While the video represents one basic model, we can use hundreds of these tags (called fiduciary markers) to represent building masses or program blocks. By plugging a physical model into Grasshopper, we now have access to a wide range of tools for simulation, visualization, and geometric generation. Each scheme can be saved with a simple toggle and studied further.
Adding to the Toolkit
If you’ve ever been in LMN’s office then you know we like to build big models so we can really get our heads in there. These larger models (1/2″ = 1′-0″ or bigger) allow us to explore the finer details of a design while still using the tools that we have available in our office. As we learned with our 3D printer, sometimes the acquisition of new tools opens up possibilities that we wouldn’t have considered otherwise or at least makes the exploration process more feasible. I’ve heard this described as sometimes the tool shapes you while other times you shape the tool. With this in mind we set out back in March to build a CNC router.
Make2D Animations
All Rhino users love the Make 2D command. It allows one to quickly create drawings and have a high degree of control over their visual output. We’ve put together a Grasshopper Python script which will create Make2d drawings as an animated pdf.
The line weights and color can be controlled within Grasshopper, which leaves little required post-processing and allows us to drive these values with other parameters. For example, the above video shows an example of line weights changing size as the camera moves further away from a target object. This way we can establish rules of traditional drafting and use those as parameters for driving an animation.