Force fields might be one of the most influential component sets of Grasshopper. Thus it also becomes a de-facto standard design approach like the Voronoi subdivision. There are beautiful examples of this mathematical solution. Here is a good explanation of mathematics underneath, and here are my previous studies. I tried to use the Grasshopper’s force field components and see how it looks like when animated. Thus, multiple spin forces are merged together in this definition. Therefore, the overall effect of field…

Here is a simple description of Rhinoceros’ Printing dialog. It is the same with version 4.0, nothing changed in layout and printing dialogs in 5.0. Significantly our Architectural Geometry classes should benefit from this explanation. Most of these options should be tested with a plotter (e.g. pencil widths) before final print-outs. Also, you may try creating a PDF file of your homework from this dialog.

Below are some of the student works from the 4th-week exercise Bits and Pieces of this semester’s Basic Design studio. The gestalt notion of “figure-ground phenomenon” refers to the characteristic organization of perception into a figure that ‘stands out’ against an undifferentiated background. What is figural at any one moment depends on patterns of sensory stimulation. And on the momentary interests of the perceiver. Thus, the figure-ground relationship is an important element of the way we organize reality in our…

While searching for a way to work with random points and growing populations, this idea appeared accidentally. I wasn’t trying to mimic the behavior of Karyokinesis of biological cells (in fact I’m in serious doubt about biomimicry in general). The trick is to use a timer + data recorder + a knob for the arbitrary user input. It starts to breed when you start the timer, but to change the evolution speed, just roll the knob!  Of course, the knob…

I learned this method from the open math resources website. I couldn’t help myself repeat it in Rhinoceros. It was quite fun to solve circle tangency problems in 2D, this is one of them: drawing the circle that passes three given points, not using ready-made commands but only geometric tools of the circle (compass) and ruler (line). Here is the sequence of it: First of all, we need to know that the circle we are looking for is centered somewhere…

This was the initial example of image processing in our Parametric Modeling class. Hand-drawn and digital diagrams can also be digitized and used in order to describe certain parameters for design formation. Such algorithms would similarly use the Image Sampler Component of Grasshopper. In the algorithm below, image data is used to capture black pixels as attractors of a Voronoi subdivision. A regular point grid is dispatched according to Brightness values so that the points that lie on the lines of…

Here is a simple explanation of the famous Euclidean Constructions: Why didn’t Euclid just measure things with a ruler and calculate lengths? For example, one of the basic constructions is bisecting a line (dividing it into two equal parts). Why not just measure it with a ruler and divide by two?One theory is the the Greeks could not easily do arithmetic. They had only whole numbers, no zero, and no negative numbers. This meant they could not for example divide…

Grasshopper still surprises me. This definition draws a spiral by using a random component. It is obvious that the seed value of the random component has a relationship with an archimedean or a similar spiral. My intention was to create a definition to put a number of random points inside a circular area, not a rectangular one. While I grow the radius of a circle and get a t parameter evaluation from a random component using the same seed value…

I at the Center is a multiple-axes vertex deformation based on a quadrangular hyperframe, designed by David Oleson at the studio of William Huff in 1964. Below, you see the original drawing and my Grasshopper animation based on a single-point attractor, creating the “I” wherever it is. It was a pleasure to read and repeat this deformation, which is a nice exercise in data tree operations and also one of the first examples I see about point attractor algorithms in design…

This simple vb.net component controls the Rhino viewport background without a need to enter its options panel. It is used to change the viewport background color and grid visibility quickly within Grasshopper. Here is the definition file: [GHX: 0.9.0056]. In order to be able to return to default settings, I put a “default” toggle. Just click on it to “false” state, then the Rhino background color can be changed by the B input. This component also handles the grid. However I…