#laser-cutting

For a research project with Avşar Gürpınar in 2024, we studied lace patterns. During this process, I had the opportunity to try out two Grasshopper plugins: Parakeet and Clipper. When combined, they allow you to obtain laser-cutting patterns. Parakeet is a very good plugin that generates tessellations. This was something I always dreamed of developing back in my youth. 2-Uniform Tiling In this design, I used the Parakeet component named 2-Uniform Tiling. In geometry and tiling theory, a 2-uniform tiling…

The Image Sampler has always been a very effective Grasshopper component. Once again, I had the opportunity to use this component for a professional job. As you can see, with the help of a straightforward and short script, we can create a relief of an image to fit the desired panel dimensions on the screen. We can process this onto a suitable material using a CNC mill, laser cutter, or water jet. For the beginners, here are the image sampler…

Catalan Solids are the duals of Archimedean Solids. They were first described by mathematician Eugène Charles Catalan in the 19th century. There are 13 Catalan solids, and they exhibit interesting symmetries and unique characteristics. While coding the vertex coordinates of these solids in Grasshopper, I made a simple lamp design to exercise the programming language. The code generates the 13 Catalan Lamps with flaps. Since the polyhedra have planar faces, they can be cut out by hand or a laser…

In this short trial, I will be testing the Open Nest add-on for Grasshopper. The add-on is available in food4rhino as of 2023. For this test, I will use the latest exercise on Interlocking structures I experimented with here. Nesting is an important topic, especially in today’s economic crisis. It reduces the waste materials on laser-cut plates. First, I should re-visit the interlocking structures Grasshopper definition here. The below image is the new definition for the interlocking structure: The new…

Here is a short tutorial on getting help from Grasshopper in physical terrain modeling. It is a classical architectural terrain modeling process. Let’s see how Grasshopper can help us with this. Part 1: Terrain modeling for Laser cutter The terrain model entered in the Brep data store in this application is a closed/solid model. For now, you can also use ready-made components such as Cone or Sphere (Sph) to quickly produce a solid model. In this application, after we obtained…

This is the six-pointed star lattice definition in Grasshopper. The definition is generating CNC or laser-ready results as seen below. In this code, first, I developed a common star pattern by exploding a hexagonal grid. The tricky part of this definition is the last part. There, you can see how you can use the Region Union (RUnion) component to add thickness to a pattern we have drawn before. The operation here will require trimming and extending commands under normal conditions….

After this tutorial, we are still working on the basic ways of making contouring easier in Grasshopper. This is the updated version of the 2-year-old contouring definition in Grasshopper, with some additional functionality. It produces a flat and properly numbered output for each section. However, it does not include optimized nesting to reduce material use.

Third and the final outcome of the Animate Patterning workshop is coordinated by Mehmet Ali. Students tried to develop a kirigami-like surface animation (which is also a good solution to my one-servo question) while they studies numerous variations. They ended up with this panel, ready to be moved by Arduino; The workshop is organized together with Mehmet Ali Altın and Fulya Akipek. Students are, Murat Akırmak, Gizem Ceyhanlıer, Cem Kıyak, Bartu Can, Tuğba Levent, Seda Orhan, Gizem Gümüşkaya, Yunus Emre…

Here is another student project from the three-day workshop we conducted together with Fulya Akipek and Mehmet Ali Altın. Briefly, the idea was to develop a system of cogwheels that spin together to animate an entire pattern. It was about to develop a kinetic system with a simple Arduino-based setup, probably with one servo and a motion sensor. The integration of the cogwheels system and the underlying pattern was interesting research. Although it seemed very simple for a servo setup,…

This is one of the works of the three-day workshop at Eskişehir Anadolu University, called “Animate Patterning“. This project is based on our previous folding experiment posted here, while students advanced it, testing a folding style called “Miura”. They built a 2.5m x 1m folding pattern, explained briefly here. After analyzing, and testing the folding technique, they drew the tessellation composed of a single parallelogram. They joined the structure together with hinges and screws. Finally, an Arduino setting is added including a continuous…