Algorithms

As studied earlier in Grasshopper here, the sunflower spiral, or Phyllotaxis, or Fibonacci’s spiral, could be drawn as an exercise of looping in Rhino Python. Phyllotaxis is the arrangement or patterning of leaves, flowers, or other plant parts around a stem or axis. Thus, it…

This Rhino Python code calculates the cross-product determinant used to determine the orientation of three points (current, next_point, and point) to see if they form a left turn or a right turn. This is a well-known technique in computational geometry to check the relative orientation…

Boris Nikolayevich Delaunay was a Russian mathematician and mountain climber. He developed the Delaunay triangulation, which is a method in computational geometry. It is a triangulation of a set of points such that no point is inside the circumcircle of any triangle formed by the…

This python code proves how much effort it takes to create a simple hexagonal tessellation. There are, of course, much easier and faster methods than this. But here you see a code that introduces students to Rhino Python. Using this code, a new Rhino command…

This is done because I needed to represent relationships between different factors and layers of a design process. Although this method of “Chord Diagrams” is a very common technique in information design, it became very hard to find an effective tool for generating those diagrams quickly….

After several readings, I’ve understood the way of working the new and very interesting feature of Kangaroo 2: “Grab”. Now, we can actually grab the Grasshopper objects from Rhino viewport! Also, on one hand, the new Kangaroo has a very special way of working (not…

It is a nice exercise to study various components of point-to-curve transformations and vice versa. Tower Crane was our second-week exercise at İstanbul Bilgi University Faculty of Architecture Parametric Modeling class, asking students to design and draw a parametric object that has joints and parts…

This is a classical method of generating tree-like forms utilizing a simple command “Arc SED”. The idea is simple, as the command draws arcs using an input direction vector, so this could easily be implemented creating a “smooth” composition of curves just by iteration. Actually,…

Utilizing “Force Field” components of Grasshopper to show my students how it is easy to develop flexible surfaces in design. The classical parametric canopy design is introduced in this video: According to Wikipedia; In vector calculus, a vector field is an assignment of a vector…

Based on this post, the problem of modeling tree-like fractal shapes is still a good question for the early years of computational design education. Last time, I used Rhino’s macro to study these fractal trees in an “impossibly” limited interface. But this time I used a…

Some facade studies as early sketches of an architectural project; all of them are utilizing a similar Grasshopper approach. My favorite “Graph Mapper” generates the overall gridal deformation, then some of them are drawing geometry for membranes, while others are generated to be realized from…

Further studying iteration in Grasshopper, this time, inspired by George Stiny’s “Chinese Ice-Ray Lattice” subdivisions with Aneome, instead of the Hoopsnake add-on I tried in the previous work. As you know, loops add various ways of usage to Grasshopper. In future versions, loops may cease…

Site models could be calculated for laser cutting easily using Grasshopper’s native components. This definition was a practical one we created in the Parametric Modeling course to see that Grasshopper could also be utilized to prepare fabrication documents not generating design outcomes. However, this definition…

This is a useful tip both to solve some of the problems with custom surface subdivisions, and to explain the uses of parametric surface evaluations (the U, V, W thing) and the practical use of data lists. Step 1: Put your points inside 0,0,0 and 1,1,0…

Image Sampler of Grasshopper saves life if used responsibly. While explaining the component to this year’s ARCH362 students, I used this simple example that generates numbers from a beautiful picture of “metal foam” and uses it to generate lots of circles: Metal foams are lightweight…

Finally, I had a chance to test and understand the force fields tab in Grasshopper. It creates a continuous vector field inside of a given boundary. Therefore, it is very useful if you want to create an effect of the continuous presence of a force, such…

After this tutorial, we are still working on the basic ways of making contouring easier in Grasshopper. This is the updated version of the 2-year-old contouring definition in Grasshopper, with some additional functionality. It produces a flat and properly numbered output for each section. However, it…

Gaudi-like columns are generated as part of the “boolean” classes of Design Computing. The most inspiring, beautiful, and ugly variations are often done by boolean intersection, as this operation is the surprising one of the three brothers. While the class deals with the concept of…

This quick project was about a special tiling pattern inside a multi-story residential building’s hallways in Grasshopper. While drawing the construction documents of the project, it was necessary to apply some coding here, as each floor had a different shape to be tiled. Although it is not…

Euclidean constructions, when represented computationally, rely on algorithms and mathematical principles to generate geometric shapes and forms. Through precise calculations and logical operations, a computer program can emulate the actions of a compass and straightedge, constructing lines, circles, and polygons with accuracy and efficiency. These…