ARCH362 Midterm

About to finish the well-defined section of this year’s Parametric Modeling course, here are the mid-term questions I’ve asked;

First question checks if the curve < > point conversions are well understood in Grasshopper. Evaluating a parametric curve and generating the closest point from another curve. This also requires a basic understanding of the use of the Grasshopper interface.

The second question was testing a basic and classical use of attractors on grids of objects. Students generated their own grids and put pyramids on each cell, as the height of these pyramids would be equal to an attractor point distance. This is a quick check if it is ok. and if students understood the use of numbers as a dynamic sources of certain parameter inputs.

The third and last question asks to map a two-dimensional Voronoi subdivision on any surface. Although the definition should be as short as 4-5 components, there are some tricky parts of this solution that checks if students understood the parametric evaluation of surfaces (in U and V) and the use of data lists to transfer data into other parts of the definition. The simple 2D Voronoi cells should be exploded in order to rebuild on the surface. At this point, the output of the explosion creates a data tree that plays a very important role to carry information on which vertex belongs to which cell. The basic version of the data flow process a designer should manage while working with Grasshopper.

The word “ANY” any point, any curve, any grid, and any surface was used in the questions many times, as we wanted to create systems of geometric relationships, not single solutions. Overall, students were quite (unexpectedly) successful in the first two questions. I hope we’ve finished the basics part, and we’ll be able to go further this year.