#grasshopper

This is a simple trick that shows the utilization of the “surface split” component in Grasshopper. It is used for detecting the inner regions of any given two-dimensional linework. Thus, it resembles the hatch boundary detection of AutoCAD and similar software. There is no built-in hatch component in Grasshopper. But maybe you can use this as a starting point if you want to develop it. The definition starts with drawing a circle around a point large enough. The size of…

Today’s tip is about two-dimensional curve-point calculations. It is very handy to use “closest point” components in Grasshopper. You can calculate distances and directions between curves, surfaces, and points. Then, place point objects in relation to the proximity of another object. However, there is no “farthest point” implemented yet. I tried to calculate the farthest point from a curve. First, I tried to translate the curve in a fashion that would result in the opposite of the closest point calculation….

It has been a while since I didn’t post any patterns. Here is a beautiful one from the iconic design studio of William Huff. Crossover Parquet Deformation is a single-axis, line-based deformation algorithm, constructed on a regular quadrangular hyperframe, designed by Richard Lane at the Basic Design studio of William Huff in 1963. It presents two different parquet deformation sequences linked together. Thus, the designer created a transition between the borders and inner cross-shapes gradually. This transition is visually smooth…

After becoming a ready-made component in Grasshopper, the Delaunay triangulation lost its popularity quickly. It used to be a nice problem of computational geometry for designers obsessed with scripting.  Last month, Benay reminded me of the method of circle checking. She showed her Rhinoscript that creates circles from point triplets and checks if a point is inside or not. Today I studied this in Grasshopper to see if I can handle the required point combinations quickly. However, my first attempt…

Kündekâri is an old woodworking technique, composed of interlocking parts without any glue or nail. It is primarily used in wooden doors and minbers inside Mosques. The interlocking system makes the whole structure very durable. I tried to model this technique using the Voronoi pattern, naming it Voronoi Kündekâri. Below you see a typical example of Kündekâri pieces and the resulting pattern. The interesting part of the Grasshopper model is to define the tongue-and-groove detail. It is similar to a…

This is based on my failure of creating an optimum solution for planar polygonal subdivisions. There is a method called Tangent Plane Intersection (TPI), explained briefly here (sometimes similar algorithms are called “planar remeshing” and  “variational shape approximation”) which is effectively used in the Trada pavilion (here). I tried to implement a similar method using only native Grasshopper components and no recursion, but it quickly became much more complicated than I thought. It was based on the simple idea that…

Below is a classical Truchet Patterns example we used to discuss in design computing class. Now, we can create a much faster and cleaner definition using the newly added Array component. The new version of Grasshopper brings several important features: Patch surfaces and date/time components. We used to implement a VB component to create simple clocks that measure temporal operations in Grasshopper. Parsing and executing MusicXML and related applications were based on that. Now I see there is a whole…

The story of Atatürk Cultural Center (in Turkish: Atatürk Kültür Merkezi – AKM) dates back to the 1930s. Auguste Perret designed the first version of the project and started the construction in the late ’30s. However, war and financial problems halted the construction. The project continued in the early 1950s with major updates and extensions. Faruk Akçer and Rüknettin Güney were responsible for this second version. Hayati Tabanlıoğlu designed the last version of the building. He studied the previous version…

A newly established student club, “E3 Architecture and Design” is organizing a two-day workshop at İstanbul Bilgi University Faculty of Architecture between June 10-11, 2013. The Grasshopper Workshop will be the first one in the faculty. The event will be conducted at our computer lab. so the seats are limited to 28. I’ll try to explain the basic concepts of dataflow management in computer-aided design. Also, I plan to test a couple of problems apparent in computational geometry but not…

Below is the final production of the three-day workshop at Bolu İzzet Baysal University Faculty of Engineering and Architecture. For more information about the process and the photos from the first student prototypes, you may visit the workshop blog at infections2.blogspot.com Grasshopper definition developed within the workshop is a simple multi-attractor system that deforms (or re-constructs) a regular square grid using the well-known Voronoi subdivision. I’ll post the definition here. Here is an interview in the local TV (in Turkish).