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 […]
Posts categorized under Tools and Languages
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 […]
I realized this method of constructing basis splines from given control points while searching for a way to teach students about basis splines. I couldn’t find an easy and visual method to create clamped basis splines by connecting simple cubic Bézier spans. It is a tough job and requires lots of complex equations. However, I suddenly realized that there is a special way of doing that. So I decided to […]
Below is the Python code you can run in Rhino, that draws a cubic Bézier curve (degree 3). As you can see, the Rhino Python code is very slow and inefficient because we calculate every point with lots of computations. Instead, we can use the spline formulae to make this quicker but I wanted to show that the mathematical construction is parallel to the geometric one. This is a nested […]
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 […]
Yes, interesting topics started to reveal themselves, when I dig into the function curves, especially in the parametric representation. The first interesting application is the “derivative”. Nobody in high school told me that the derivative of a function at a given point gives the slope of the graph at that point. Moreover, it is possible to convert the slope value into an angle in degrees, showing the angle of the […]
This RhinoPython script handles the simple graphs of two-dimensional parametric functions. Therefore, it approximates these functions by drawing parametric curves. It generates many points by solving the functions. The graph of parametric functions is a major topic in most Design Mathematics courses. Because it looks like the building block of many concepts of CAD. However, there is much more to learn before saying that the third degree NURBS is a […]
Jumping into the world of mathematics as a designer seemed to be frightening at the beginning but I opened a new elective course at Bilgi, Design Mathematics. Starting today, I’ll try to log my experiences with the students while we are trying to understand mathematics. The ultimate objective is to find paths that may lead to answering the following question; “what is the relationship between design and math”? Next week, […]
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. […]
Below is a simple tutorial class we studied in Rhino in 2015 and 2016. The exercise is called “A Low-Poly Habitat”. The aim is to create simple polygon models by analyzing the overall geometric topology of an animal body. First-year design students attended the exercise and they are encouraged to create these models using blueprints from www. They used simple commands such as point, line, and surface from 3 or […]
Studied earlier in Grasshopper here, creating a cycloid-like curve actually mimics the physical process of rotating disks on a path. Below is a test in Rhino Python. # Drawing Cycloid-like Curves # 07.08.2017 www.designcoding.net – Tugrul Yazar import rhinoscriptsyntax as rs curv = rs.GetObject(“Select curve”) qual = rs.GetInteger(“Quality”,100) radi = rs.GetReal(“a radius”,4) radi2 = rs.GetReal(“Circle radius”,4) cua = rs.OffsetCurve(curv,[1,1,0],radi2) cevre = 2 * 3.1415 * radi mimi = [] for […]
According to Wolfram, “By the duality principle, for every polyhedron, another polyhedron exists in which faces and polyhedron vertices occupy complementary locations. This polyhedron is known as the dual, or reciprocal”. We can use this method to generate new polyhedra from known ones. I tried to develop a Dual Polyhedra Generator in this Rhino Python script. First, the script asks a user to select a closed polysurface object. Then, it […]
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, and scale, and precision drawing operations such as object snapping. Also, in Grasshopper, it can be a good challenge for looping. In Rhino Python, it […]
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. # Drawing Simple Fractal Curves # 31.07.2017 www.designcoding.net – Tugrul Yazar import rhinoscriptsyntax as rs import copy initials = rs.GetObject(“Select Initial Shape”,4) referenceA = rs.GetPoint(“Place Reference […]
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. According to ChatGPT: Phyllotaxis is the arrangement or patterning of leaves, flowers, or other plant parts around a stem or axis. Thus, it refers to the specific geometric arrangement of these structures in plants. The term “phyllotaxis” comes from the Greek words “phyllon” (meaning “leaf”) and […]
This was the Design Mathematics exercise today. I found a simple algorithm that creates the desired polyline of the given points. In the first lines, variables are defined. We find the first element of the set we are looking for. The leftmost point in the given point set must be the first element of the convex hull. Next, in the While loop, we start with the first point and iterate […]
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 points. It’s widely used in computer graphics and mesh generation. In 2013, I made the brute force code in Rhino Python which is a slow […]
Exercising the “folding” process of a nine-faced solid. Start from its net, and analyze the matching edges. Then, use sphere intersections to calculate the rotation angles. Visit here for more information about this solid: http://aperiodical.com/2013/10/an-enneahedron-for-herschel/
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 can be generated, and for the first time in Rhino, we can have a command that creates a hexagonal grid. I followed this tutorial to […]