designcoding
About Table of Contents Keywords Monthly Archive
Support designcoding!

Animate Sketching of a Parametric Truss

July 25, 2012 | Algorithms
#animation #grasshopper #structure #timer

Previous studies on the timer component were based on understanding its use. This time, I tried to implement it in a geometric design task. Moreover, manipulating the timer component to change the regular animation of parameters. Time does not have to be equally divided into sequences. Rather, new possibilities may emerge with different time flows. A simple triangulation system is developed with a potential manipulation, based on a timer. This definition is exciting and new for me because I’m not designing geometry here, rather I’m trying to manipulate the flow of time. We can set different graph inputs to slow down, speed up and stop the time, or reverse it, within a dynamic environment.

Animate Sketching of a Parametric Truss Grasshopper definition

First animation shows a timer speed related to a sinus function, while the second animation is a Perlin noise function;

Animate Sketching of a Parametric Truss animation

The overall look of the geometry is based on an idea by Nilüfer Kozikoğlu. A randomized method is used to create the initial truss and generates an infinite number of alternatives for a hypothetical truss system. It’s effortless to implement and fun to play with. This time the truss is not based on a subdivided reference surface, instead, it is constructed from a shortest points collection. Unlike Delaunay’s triangulation, this way seemed more exploratory and under control.

Grasshopper definition (GHX)Download

Cite this post

Yazar, T. (2012, July 25). Animate Sketching of a Parametric Truss. designcoding. Retrieved August 24, 2026, from https://www.designcoding.net/animate-sketching-of-a-parametric-truss/

Related Posts

Headbanging Points

December 20, 2013

In this fun experiment, points rock and roll! It should be based on a sound input of course but this is only a test to see if I can handle a timer and graph input at the same time. I’ll modify this definition to actuate with sound.  The use of the timer component gives a certain degree of randomness to the overall formation. To run this definition we need a VB script to update a certain value. The code inside of…

Karyokinesis

November 2, 2013

While searching for a way to work with random points and growing populations, this idea appeared accidentally. I wasn’t trying to mimic the behavior of Karyokinesis of biological cells (in fact I’m in serious doubt about biomimicry in general). The trick is to use a timer + data recorder + a knob for the arbitrary user input. It starts to breed when you start the timer, but to change the evolution speed, just roll the knob!  Of course, the knob…

Regenerating Random Numbers

January 2, 2013

Just a quick tip as I thought might be useful in some cases. Generating random numbers in architectural scripting is not a too catchy thing for designers. It is for sure, we want every parameter to be under our control (as if it were possible!). I was thinking about that in Grasshopper. A dataflow graph such as in Grasshopper regenerates whenever necessary (a change on an input value “fires” every connected component), therefore random number component requires your action (for…

MusicXML to Grasshopper

July 20, 2012

We can model a musical composition using native Grasshopper components. After the experiments with the timer component (here and here), I managed to build a definition that allows us to produce outputs in various time intervals. I converted a small part of Bach’s Bouree in E-Minor into Grasshopper as a guitar tablature. I used Guitar Pro 5’s MusicXML export function to convert classical guitar tablature into XML data, then organized that file in Excel to suit my data tree design…

Metronome Continued

July 19, 2012

Here is today’s improvement on my metronome with the timer component, which started here. It’s straightforward to tell Grasshopper about seconds and organize it according to it. Using an interval smaller than 1 second, this small script catches every second and returns a different value. However, it’s much harder to implement smaller values than seconds. It seemed easy at first sight but getting accurate results smaller than seconds requires working with milliseconds. You can output the current millisecond’s value, but…

  • Chapters

    • Algorithms
    • Discourses
    • Fabrications
    • Studios
  • Explore

    • All Keywords
    • Table of Contents
    • Monthly Archive
    • #robot
    • #rhino-python
    • #kuka-prc
    • #polyhedra
    • #parametric-surface
    • #tessellation
    • #boolean
    • #moulding
    • #rammed-earth
    • #art
    • #design-object
    • #image-sampler
    • #terrain
    • #sandblasting
    • #stone
    • #eps-foam
    • #hotwire-cutting
    • #basic-design
    • #dome
    • #parametric-curve
  • Search

  • Support designcoding!

  • Enjoying designcoding? Support me on Patreon to keep it growing. Thank you!

  • copyright 2026 designcoding.net | about | privacy policy | end user license agreement