blowing bubbles

Whats a good way to get this effect after I cut holes in a surface via split surface. I want to make domes on the cut out holes. previously i was using area for each circle then moving that point outward from the overall volume centeroid. then grabbing the cut out circle edge dividing it and connecting those points to the moved area center with lines. Then getting the center of those lines via eval. then moving them outward and then creating an arc and lofting all the arcs. This seems way to long a process and doesn't always have the best result. Anyone know a better more effective way.

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Jon Mirtschin on October 4, 2011 at 8:42am

StructDrawRhino has a feature to inflate a mesh, I think Daniel also added this feature to Kangaroo.

http://www.grasshopper3d.com/group/geometrygym/forum/topics/install...

Permalink Reply by Michael Pryor on October 4, 2011 at 8:48am

so the essential logic is: convert my cutout circles to meshes, set the cutout curves as anchors, then inflate?

Permalink Reply by Danny Boyes on October 4, 2011 at 8:48am

If you have access to the circle on the surface and can calculate its diameter (s) then you could use the formula for the segment of a circle. r= h/2 + (s^2)/8h where r is the radius and h is the height above the surface you want your dome to be.

With the results of r, the radius of the circle you can create a sphere below the surface that would only protrude above the desired dome shape. This could then be boolean differenced away from the sphere by the surface.