HELP NEEDED - challenging problem!

hi guys,

this is a very simplified version of my first grasshopper project. help would be VERY appreciated since i don't manage to solve it on my own...!

i have a hierarchy of circles - 4 groups of circles that i individually want to loft (see image)

i want to create a grasshopper definition that randomly selects a circle from group 1 --> lofts it with a random circle of group 2 --> lofts with a random circle from group 3 --> consequently lofts a random circle of group 4

it's supposed to result in something like this (see image2) but i would like to be able to control the outcome by maybe having something like a slider for different variations of the random selection, so that grasshopper generates different possibilites of the connections/lofts, and then i could be choosing between different versions of connections (to pick the one that looks best/serves my needs in the end)

i'm sure there's somebody in this community who can solve this, go challenge yourself! would be very thankful for help!

- Jen

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Permalink Reply by Yoann Mescam (Systemiq) on February 2, 2012 at 5:24pm

Wouldnt you have something more challenging ?

Ok, you know how to use psychology.

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Circloft.gh, 9 KB

Permalink Reply by Jenny Salvatore on February 2, 2012 at 5:59pm

hey come on... for me this was mission impossible!!! :-)

THANK YOU SO MUCH!

i had to get the newest gh version before i could rebuild it step by step, i tried to comprehend what's going on in that solution of yours. it obviously works, but i don't really understand how it works. would you mind explaining it to me?

for example: why does the Jitter Shuffling Engine need to be grafted (what is graft?)

what is the flipping matrix, what does it do?

you've been a great help, thank you again!

Permalink Reply by Yoann Mescam (Systemiq) on February 3, 2012 at 5:00am

After Entwine, we have 4 different branches, Jitter needs a different seed for each branch, or they will be shuffled the same way. If graft is not used, Jitter will shuffle each branch with each seed (4x4), if used it will match each branch of circles with the seed in the corresponding branch of seeds (4x1).

Now we have circles structured like this:

0: A0,A1,A2,A3 (first row-branch of circles)

1 :B0,B1,B2,B3

2: C0,C1,C2,C3

3: D0,D1,D2,D3 (last one)

We want to loft A0,B0,C0,D0 etc A3,B3,C3,D3 so inverting rows and columns, thats what the Flip matrix does.

Permalink Reply by Jenny Salvatore on February 3, 2012 at 7:46am

i'll stick to my description as "challenging"!
took me a while but now i get what's going on!
when i rebuild it, there's some different behaviour though! using your definition, i can put the ShufflingStrength down to zero and the lofts are perfectly straight and aligned. mine do not do that! any idea why?
i rebuilt it being very cautious but i don't end up with the same behaviour!
my first difference is right at Entwine: when i attach a panel to check for the outcome information, your Entwine tells me "Circular Curve"
my Entwine says "Referenced Circular Curve"

Permalink Reply by Yoann Mescam (Systemiq) on February 3, 2012 at 8:31am

It depends how you linked your 4 series of circles in Rhino to the 4 Curve components in Grasshopper.

My definition has the circles internalized and I picked them in the "right" order, just input your circles differently (picking them one by one instead of drawing a selection in Rhino, by example) and you will understand.

Permalink Reply by Jenny Salvatore on February 3, 2012 at 9:09am

WORKS!!! :-)
so i assume "internalize data" means grasshopper notes the exact position and radius of the circle?

so glad i got it now! amazing support, thank you!

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