This is my first experiment with the Fourier Series in Grasshopper using Python. This is a technique to decompose functions into their frequency components. Fourier series have a wide range of applications in physics and engineering. What makes it especially fascinating, however, is the visual intuition it offers. It looks like a kind of mathematical “magic” that emerges from the geometry of frequency. I explored several excellent visual explanations online, […]

The SpaceChase plugin for Grasshopper focuses on initiating dynamic capabilities to Space Syntax theory by introducing the “Dynamic Canvas” model along with real-time editing capabilities in an interactive physics-based environment. SpaceChase is a software development project for “Mekan Dizimi Tasarım Uygulaması” under the ARDEB 1001 program of TÜBİTAK. It is a collaborative research project between İstanbul Technical University, İstanbul Bilgi University, and Tuşpa Design Studio. You can find more information about the project […]

I like to deal with possible small computational geometry problems. These fun games are taking 2-3 hours. In addition, these are also memorable exercises. I was reviewing the Anemone plugin last week. I noticed that the Golden Ratio in Grasshopper was not geometrically generated before. Some of the greatest mathematical minds of all ages, from Pythagoras and Euclid in ancient Greece, through the medieval Italian mathematician Leonardo of Pisa and the Renaissance astronomer Johannes Kepler, to present-day scientific […]

Here is a design exercise I’ve been giving to students. It aims to familiarize students with the concept of dataflow diagrams used in Grasshopper. Dataflow is a different concept than conventional computer programming. Here is a good comparison between control flow and dataflow languages. In most educational settings (such as courses and workshops) we concentrate on the fundamental issue of dataflow management via design projects. This requires us to think […]

In this short study, I generated Rumi Improvizations. The rumi motif, prevalent in traditional Turkish decorative arts like tilings, window lattices, and fabrics, features a round shape with a comma-like body. Despite resembling stylized leaves, rumis have zoomorphic origins. Rumi compositions depicted stylized animal figures, including birds, lions, deer, fish, and mythical creatures like dragons and Simurg. They symbolized strength, fertility, and the eternal struggle between good and evil. The […]

Here is a short series of videos showing the basic usage of Ladybug tools in a canopy design. So, I prepared this for my Parametric Design Systems elective course. Then, I encouraged my students to design their own canopies utilizing a similar Ladybug workflow in Grasshopper. In this first video, I am building a test surface in Grasshopper. I use the Graph Mapper component to derive 3D points and Interpolated […]

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 it to more significant numbers. Also, you should have Anemone components installed in order to run this definition. The generator curve is a special one. […]

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. There seem to be a solution called “Circos” but however, even installing it on the computer became very boring for me. So I decided to […]

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 common to us, native Grasshopper users) and on the other hand, it is very very easy to use and understand now. I loved that. Here […]

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 that are moving alongside straight lines. Below is the most “safe-side” solution for me, although there are also very complicated solutions such as Mertcan’s. [GHX: 0.9.0076] here […]

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, this has been a previous study, discussed before here, using Hoopsnake. Now, this time I’m implementing the same algorithm using Anemone and a couple of other […]

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 to each point in a subset of space.[1] A vector field in the plane, for instance, can be visualized as a collection of arrows with […]

The A-Chord folding structure was developed and constructed for the World Wood Day 2015 event in İstanbul. The structure had fifty wooden struts of 4 cm X 4cm with changing heights from 200 cm to 230 cm. Two struts joined with a hinge enabled the folding motion of the structure. Thus, the nearby unit is folding in the opposite direction. The Grasshopper model generated all construction details and drawings automatically. As a result, […]

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 VB.net script. Here is the code inside of the VB.net component: Here are the inputs. x is the number of iterations. The Crv input is […]

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 sheet metal. Hopefully, one or two of these could be further studied: I hope I’ll be able to improve these sketches and publish their definitions […]

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 to be just an add-on and become native components of Grasshopper. Until then, loop plugins like Anemone take on this task. In the example here, […]

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 is a draft one and could be improved more by putting labels inside of each cut piece, trimming the edges properly and so on. It is […]

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 so that the resulting coordinates can easily be converted to U and Vs. In the example, we are putting some random points between 0,0 and […]

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 but strong materials, that are typically produced by injecting gas into the liquid metal. Of course, it becomes easier to teach something when you manage […]

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 as gravity. The Wikipedia definition of a vector field is very basic and understandable: In vector calculus and physics, a vector field is an assignment of a vector to each point […]