Grasshopper Canvas with Kinect Interaction: Part 3
This post – part of a series of 3 posts on the Kinect Multitouch Interaction – is a detailed technical walkthrough of the code we implemented to support touch from depth. The downloadable code that this post refers to is in Part 2 in the series. This post is meant to serve as a foundational primer for the major modules of the code that build up the touch-from-depth interaction.
Grasshopper Canvas with Kinect Interaction: Part 2
Over the past year, we’ve made the Microsoft Kinect sense touch – and in turn, gestures – which we then used to control the Grasshopper canvas via keyboard and mouse events. We’ve had a lot of fun building Kinect Multitouch Interactions but – being an architecture firm – we can only spend so much time developing the code. We think we’ve created a solid foundation and would like to share with the broader community to use, modify, and extend. Obviously, Grasshopper is only one possible application and we’d love to see what others could do. In the spirit of openness, we’re providing the complete source.
DIVA is Awesome and Everyone Should Use It
We’ve been playing around with the DIVA plugin for Rhino and Grasshopper for the past month. DIVA stands for Design Iterate Validate Adapt which is similar to the approach that we take with parametric modeling.
By looking at a large number of iterations it often is possible to tease out patterns of performance which can help to find a “satisficing” solution and help designers to develop a better intuition about how to approach a problem.
Flexible Grids in Self-Structure Exhibition
Our flexible grid research project is currently being exhibited at Le Lieu du Design in Paris. While preparing materials for the exhibition we decided to try and build a longer version of the flexible grid. Our previous grid prints were sized to take up roughly half of the print bed (5″x7″) of our Objet Alaris30, but for the exhibit we wanted something bigger. We ended up being able to get an 8″x20″ version, and learned a number of lessons along the way.
Grasshopper Canvas with Kinect Interaction: Part 1
In a previous post, we elaborated on how more real estate for the Grasshopper Canvas can be beneficial and usable with Wiimote interaction. Since then, we have been toying around with the Microsoft Kinect (more so after the release of the beta version of the Kinect SDK for the PC), looking to identify a more [...]
ACADIA/FLATCUT Competition Entry
A few of us in the office (kbeck, scrawford, svandyck) put together an entry for the partition category of this year’s ACADIA/FLATCUT competition. We made it into the group of finalists (despite formatting our boards incorrectly), but unfortunately we were not selected as the winner (probably because we formatted our boards incorrectly, only kidding). The competition put forth an interesting challenge: use both rigid and flexible sheet materials to create an assembly (light, furniture, or partition) that highlights the properties of each material while minimizing the amount of waste. Included are the images and text from our submission as well as the final boards.
Med Mart 5: Panel Fabrication
As we developed our precast panel surface geometry, we found ourselves increasingly pushing the limits of our rendering engines. We knew that natural light could potentially reveal different effects on the complex surfaces, and physical models would be the only trustworthy method of study to ensure a more predictable final product. The fabrication process of the model paralleled the fabrication process for the full size panels. Our close collaboration with the form-liner and precast fabricators helped to fine tune the design beyond our initial assumptions.
Med Mart 4: Facade Design Coordination
The ambitious schedule of the Cleveland Med Mart project required us to reexamine and retool some of the ways we design, document, and deliver a project. As the leaders of the design effort, we knew that we would need to find and build smart connections between our generative design tools and our documentation process in order to not only meet deadlines, but also adapt to the parameters that were developing throughout the design-assist process. This post outlines our linking of Grasshopper and Revit – through a custom utility called Cricket …
Med Mart 2: Panel Texture and Geometry
While studying the overall configuration of the Medical Mart facade, we were also developing textural concepts for the surface of the precast concrete panels. We were interested in using the surface texture of the precast concrete panels to build increasing layers of detail to what will be a very large scale facade. With very little time to execute the study and produce a constructable solution, we knew we needed to develop a faster way of generating ideas. Our working process developed rapidly into a focused study of rectangular surface forms.
Form Finding with Flexible Modules
Panelizing free-form surfaces is usually done using a large number of uniquely shaped pieces. A free-form surface can also be approximated using a predetermined module. The advantage is being able to limit the number of unique pieces necessary to fabricate that surface.
For this experiment, the module was flexible between panels, but each panel is rigid. A set of forces are then established between each module to control the relationships between modules once they are pulled to the base surface.
Med Mart 1: Generation of Facade Geometry
From the beginning of our design work on the facade system for the Cleveland Med Mart, we desired to develop a system that would give the building multiple layers of varied, unifying texture, legible from multiple scales. Initial explorations of this concept focused on the textural capacities of precast concrete panels and later move on to studying the process for panelizing the entire facade with precast and glazing units. Parametric modeling allowed us to explore many iterations of the facade while also keeping control of the information needed for fabrication.
Med Mart: Introduction
This is the first in a series of post that will describe LMNts involvement in the design of the Cleveland Medical Mart. In February of 2010, a joint partnership between Merchandise Mart Properties (MMPI) and Cuyahoga County chose LMN Architects as the designer for the Cleveland Medical Mart and Convention Center project. The Cleveland Medical Mart and Convention Center is the city’s most prominent effort to date in reinventing itself as the country’s hub of medical research and trade activity.
Grasshopper Analysis Key
This is a quick post about a definition that we’ve put together to create an analysis key in the Rhino viewport. The key will automatically update to the current view when the timer component is activated. There is the ability to control the size, position and colors of the analysis key.
PDX Video: ScriptJigs
I recently gave a talk at Portland State University’s Fridays@4 lecture series. I focused on the relationship between parametrics and performance analysis and gave demos of using Grasshopper, GECO, and Ecotect. The video in this post – recorded during the talk – is an overview of the process and how we use these tools in practice…
Lecture: Firefly Experiments
For those of you in the Seattle area, Jason Kelly Johnson of Future Cities Lab in San Francisco will be at the University of Washington for a lunch-time lecture to demo Firefly and show recent projects produced by his lab. Firefly is a software bridge between Grasshopper and the Arduino micro-controller, the internet and a number of other Human Interface devices. It allows near real-time data flow between the 3D digital and physical worlds, and will read/write data to/from internet feeds, remote sensors, connect with machine vision protocols, etc. We have been toying around with Firefly here at LMN and having a lot of fun. Jason Kelly Johnson’s introduction should serve as a great overview of the software and where it’s going.
DIY Glowflake
Shortly after we posted our 2010 Holiday Card video, we had many people ask us for the patterns and a how-to manual for making spherical, “glowflake”-style shapes. Fortunately, making a “Glowflake” isn’t hard or time consuming. We’ve posted both the Grasshopper definition as well as the 2D pattern for our Glowflake below. Just follow the simple instructions and you too can be the proud owner of a custom magnetic light fixture.
Happy Holidays from LMN
Happy Holidays from everyone at LMN.
This Holiday Season, we made “Glowflakes” …a hybrid of snowflakes and LED throwies. Glowflakes!
Seattle EUG: ScriptJIGs
I will be presenting at next week’s Seattle Ecotect Users Group meeting. I’ve been asked to speak on the topic of “scripting.” I’ll explain how LMNts has been employing Grasshopper as a sort of “digital script jig” to guide other tools, including Ecotect. Specifically, I’ll present a number of case studies on how analysis data is brought back into our design environments and how/why/when it is used to inform decisions.
Grasshopper Canvas Real Estate
Grasshopper needs more real estate. We’ve been addressing this problem by moving our Grasshopper definitions to a table-top display, tracking an IR LED light pen for interaction on the canvas. The canvas can take up the entire table-top while the linked geometry can be projected on a nearby wall. We’ve only begun setting up the equipment, but our early tests are promising.
Stage Lighting with LEDs, Arduino, & Firefly
We used 10 high-intensity LEDs to light a 1:24 scale model of a studio theater. The LEDs were wired to an Arduino micro-controller and programmed using the Firefly components for Grasshopper. All 10 LEDs can be individually controlled from a Grasshopper definition or wired together (in GH) to form banks of lights. The result is a computer-controlled mini theatrical lighting system on the cheap.
Grasshopper Contour Tool
This definition was written to speed up the process of creating a contour model while limiting the amount of waste generated during the fabrication of the physical model. An interface was developed within Grasshopper where all of the important settings can be controlled, allowing those who know little about grasshopper to still use the definition. [...]
AIA Seattle: Parametrics for Sustainability
AIA Seattle is sponsoring a Grasshopper Tech Demo: Parametrics for Sustainability meeting. Part demo, part discussion, this event will feature two Seattle-based firms’ use of an increasingly popular design tool.
Date: May 25, 5:00-6:30 pm
Location: The Miller|Hull Partnership
Cost: Free
Surface Patterning with UV Coordinates
Developing a patterned surface can be fairly simple when the surface you are working with is flat, but if you were to develop the same pattern from scratch on a curved surface then things become a little more difficult. Luckily, there is a way to convert a flat pattern to a curve pattern through the [...]
Grasshopper to ANSYS
If you’ve played with Grasshopper then you know how much fun it can be to throw the sliders back and forth and watch your geometry change. What if you wanted to get analysis data for everyone of those iterations? Parametric modeling eases the task of generating multiple iterations, but it can be a bit laborious [...]