Fractals

The Hilbert Curve is one of the results of David Hilbert’s vision of mathematics as a network of symbolic systems. Defined in 1891, this curve is a fractal that fills a two-dimensional plane with a one-dimensional line in the limit. It exhibits self-similarity. It emerged…

The Koch pentagon is a fractal shape that starts with a regular pentagon. Here, we divide each side of the pentagon into three equal parts. Then, we replace the middle with two sides of an outward-pointing equilateral triangle. We repeat this process for every new…

A fractal is a complex geometric shape that we can split into parts, each of which is a reduced-scale copy of the whole. This property is self-similarity. Fractals often exhibit patterns that repeat at different scales. We can find fractals in nature, such as in…

The Flowsnake, or Gosper curve is a space-filling fractal. It is also known as the Peano-Gosper curve. There are other similar space-filling fractals such as the Dragon curve, or the Hilbert curve. A space-filling fractal is a special type of curve, that fills a plane…

In computer-aided design (CAD), a polyline is a series (or a chain) of straight lines. Each straight section of a polyline is a “segment,” and the points where the segments connect are “vertices.” If a polyline’s starting and ending vertices coincide, it is a “closed…

Today’s computational curve is the beautiful Sierpinski Triangle. It is a fractal named after the Polish mathematician Waclaw Sierpinski, who described it in 1915, though it had been previously described by other mathematicians. It is a self-replicating pattern that arises from a simple recursive process….

The Hilbert Curve, also referred to as the Hilbert space-filling curve, was initially introduced by the German mathematician David Hilbert in 1891. It is a continuous fractal curve, presenting a variation of the space-filling Peano curves uncovered by Giuseppe Peano in 1890. After a study…

This week’s fractal is the famous Dragon Curve. Dragon Curve exhibits self-similarity, meaning parts of the curve resemble the overall shape, regardless of scale. It’s fascinating because a relatively simple construction process generates a complex and visually captivating fractal pattern. The Dragon Curve is often…

In this study, I explore Cesaro Fractal, generated by Grasshopper. Usually, it is not possible to code recursive algorithms in Grasshopper. With the help of the Anemone add-on, these fractal curves are easy to model. I studied similar fractal algorithms here before. This one is…

The Animated Tree Growth is an interesting study for Grasshopper. First, I developed a regular tree generation definition similar to those I studied earlier, here, here, and here. In component group 1, I develop an initial generator arc. Then, in group 2, I generate the…

Here is a tattoo design I am currently developing by using Grasshopper. 11 years ago, I developed a Grasshopper definition that approximates Julia Sets here. One of the experimental outputs of that definition looks suitable for a tattoo design. It is a beautiful fractal shape….

This is an implementation of the famous Koch Snowflake Fractal in Grasshopper. We will be using the Anemone add-on to handle the iterations. In this fractal, we start from an equilateral triangle. Then, we form new equilateral triangles, one-third of the side. So that each…

Introducing the new YouTube channel for designcoding! The architectural Geometry playlist will contain video tutorials on several topics of basic geometry exercises for designers. Below are the introductory exercises of polyline drawing and some planar transformations such as scale and rotation. It is also an…

Anemone components are still working great, extending the abilities of Grasshopper. Here, I studied a space-filling (or plane-filling) fractal called the Gosper-Peano Curve. You should be very careful about the number of iterations (the N input). Because it can crash your Rhino if you change…

We will see a simple Rhino Python exercise here. I called these Polygon Fractals (or Pentaflakes sometimes). It is both educational and fun to play with them. In Rhino, it can be a good exercise for basic CAD commands and transformations such as move, copy,…

A simple Rhino Python script that generates fractal curves. An example is a test with the Gosper-Peano curve. However the script is not supporting segment directions, which is why the result is not the intended curve. Curve directions could be implemented in the future.

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,…

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…

Today’s design computing class was about fractals. In Rhino, writing macro statements are very easy to learn as it just mimics your behaviors in a sequential text. There are a few syntactic rules that we should know. First, you should watch the command line carefully…

Today’s fractal is the famous Mandelbrot Set. The Mandelbrot set is a well-known and complex mathematical set often associated with fractals and chaos theory. Named after the mathematician Benoît B. Mandelbrot, it’s a set of complex numbers defined by a simple iterative process. The Mandelbrot…