Creating I-beam that changes according to different parameters

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Jon Mirtschin on January 30, 2012 at 2:13pm

Hi Minghui,

See if the attached definition gives you some insight into one way of making a proportional size column.

Post if you have problems applying this to your project.

Cheers,

Jon

Attachments:

• 120131 column size.gh, 6 KB

Permalink Reply by Minghui Cui on January 31, 2012 at 10:57am

Hi Jon, 

Thanks for the reply, I can make the I beams now. Although I don't quite understand the "Create the structural section property" component. Would it be possible for you to explain it a bit please? Thank you!

best,

Minghui

Permalink Reply by Jon Mirtschin on February 1, 2012 at 2:02pm

Hi Minghui,

You can actually bypass this component and achieve the same result.

In the underlying database, this component means that only a single profile is generated and saved, so if you apply the profile to many (hundreds or thousands) of curves, it references the same profile. If you bypass it, the profile curve will be calculated each time.

Hope this makes sense,

Jon

Permalink Reply by Minghui Cui on February 1, 2012 at 12:22pm

Hi Jon,

I have a question about beam orientation. I have a rectangle shaped glass curtain wall and I want the mullions (beams) to go around it. However, they are not always perpendicular to the glass, which is the way they are suppose to be, instead parallel to the glass. I am uploading my grasshopper file and snap shot of rhino. Thank you!

best,
Minghui

Attachments:

• Crown Hall_Grasshopper_Massing02.gh, 39 KB
• Mullion Orientation.PNG, 35 KB

Permalink Reply by Jon Mirtschin on February 1, 2012 at 2:04pm

Yes, I was looking at orientation of the sweep when setting up the example for you. I want to upload a new build ASAP that accepts an orientation vector. In the interim, you can use a surface normal as per the attached file. It was a bit hard to apply it to your definition, the rhino model associated wasn't attached.

Cheers,

Jon

Attachments:

• 110919 sweep orient.gh, 5 KB

Permalink Reply by Michael van Telgen on January 31, 2012 at 1:27am

Do you want to do a check on the structure as well? In that case I would suggest building a model that can be exported to analysis software. Jon makes plug-ins with which this is possible. On the other hand, the input for I beam section type will not automatically change with the length of the columns.

If you want to try it, check the discussion page, I made a tutorial a while ago.

In any case, can you keep us updated? This sounds very interesting to me, and I'm curious as to how you will solve your problem.

Permalink Reply by Minghui Cui on January 31, 2012 at 11:01am

Hello Michael, 

Thank you for your interest! I was thinking connecting the slider controls the size of the beams to some kind of function that has length of the beam as a variable. I haven't worked it out yet, since I am learning and doing at the same time, so it's a bit slow. However, I would love to keep you updated:D

I couldn't find the tutorial that you mentioned, what's the name of it?

best,

Minghui

Permalink Reply by Michael van Telgen on February 1, 2012 at 12:46am

The aforementioned tutorial can be found here: http://www.grasshopper3d.com/group/geometrygym/forum/topics/learnin...
What kind of function are you thinking of? I would always suggest doing a hand calculation of what you want to do first, before building it in Grasshopper. It helps to gain valuable insight, and after building in Grasshopper you can check results (always check results!!)
Are you thinking of doing a strength check on the columns only? or also a buckling check?