Interpolate Curve, Lists and Query

Hi everyone!
New to this quite helpful site, but I've been experimenting with GH for quite a few months now. I'm doing my thesis at the moment and I have (I'm guessing) a rather simple query, but just can't seem to find a way to work around it.

Just to give you a quick notion of what I'm trying to do is to create Curves that are influenced by Surfaces ( Attractor Surfaces let's say) so I can then manipulate multiple Curves and Surfaces all together and get a more close to emergent phenomena field of action.

Problem lays when I try to connect <Points> that derived from <List Item> to create an <Interpolate Curve>. List Item Pts are Generic Data that are results of Surfaces (Spheres) that have been <Exploded>. A <RectGrid> sets the centers of these Spheres (instead of CNR) that have various radius according to distance from "Attractor Surface".

The reason why I've set <RectGrid> to show Spheres instead of CNR is because I thought It would be easy to get the max Pts of the Spheres in Z axis and then connect all max Pts of different radius Spheres ( with same Y) to produce a "contour-like" parallel analysis of the field.

Assuming I'm making any sense, my problem more in specific is that I can't seem to find a way to connect all same Y axis points to connect with different Z values (out of the list of the overall Grid) to create an Interpolate Curve. It gives me a negative feedback of insufficient vertices or curves.

Any suggestions?

Attachments:

SNAG-0005.jpg, 359 KB

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by taz on March 10, 2010 at 10:04am

[Interpolate] needs at least 2 points to make a curve. It looks like you're feeding it only one.

Also, you might want to try working with the most recent GH version.

For more detailed questions you'll have to post your definition.

Permalink Reply by Chris E on March 10, 2010 at 10:16am

What I understand is that [List Item] outputs Generic Data. If I select the component it highlights all the points I want ( the tip of the spheres) . Trying to create Pts out of [Vectors > Points] ,depending on where I hook up the Data in (X,Y,Z) I always get a list of points from the center of the RectGrid as expected. If I plug in those Pts to InterCrv it sends back an error. Maybe I don't understand how to manipulate Generic Data. Numbers to Pts and then extract specific values.

Attachments:

attractors_AND.ghx, 175 KB

Permalink Reply by Chris E on March 10, 2010 at 10:29am

sorry forgot to upload the .3dm file

Attachments:

test1003.3dm, 32 KB

Permalink Reply by taz on March 10, 2010 at 10:57am

Your error from last time was not that you were inputting 1 point, but that all your points are the same.

Here is what I see when I look at your GH file. You have a lot of tree data structure you need to get a handle on (the bubble lines).

View > Draw Fancy Wires

If you don't have that as a display option you should upgrade to the latest version.

Permalink Reply by Chris E on March 10, 2010 at 11:16am

Thank you for all your replies ! I do have Fancy Lines View Option with my current version. So you are saying that all the Fancy Lines are Data that need to be assigned as tree structure data?
Sounds complicated. Maybe there is another way? Like setting up a Plane and subdividing it , instead of the RectGrid.. ?

Permalink Reply by taz on March 10, 2010 at 1:55pm

Some components will automatically create output data with a tree structure. You can see in the screengrab that [Divide Surface] is creating a tree structure. Your [Divide Surface] is obsolete in the current GH version (This doesn't mean it doesn't work, just that it may behave differently) which is why there is no icon.

You can flatten the tree data to get rid of it using [Flatten Tree] or right-click on each input parameter that is receiving tree data and toggle the "Flatten" button.

In your case you've already been working with tree data without realizing it. The reason [Interpolate] is creating separate lines is because of tree data.

Flattening all tree data will will make your current definition not work, but it's worth it to try to understand how tree structure is useful.