Mesh - Shadow - Mesh connection...doable?

Hello everybody!

I am new here and i am a grasshopper newbie. I am working on a project that has to do with shade. I have created a loft out of 4 ellipses, converted it to mesh and calculated its shadow using the mesh shadow tool.

Using this great file (http://codequotidien.wordpress.com/2011/07/30/solar-incidence/) i can set the sun position.

What i want to ask is...is there any way to reverse the mesh-shadow connection?

I want to be able to change the shadow shape, and the mesh to change accordingly.

I dont really know grasshoppers full potential so i dont know if this is doable, easy or hard.

Any help n thoughts would be appreciated

ty in advance

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Danny Boyes on April 20, 2012 at 5:50am

To create a shadow you are using a 3D model to project onto a 2D plane. Now to reverse that process you want to take a 2D projection and generate a 3D model. Where are you going to get the extra Dimension from?

.....

I would say that you still need to go from 3D to 2D but to try and use Galapagos (GHs evolutionary solver) to generate variations of your model and test them against a set of goals. Galapagos can manipulate sliders that represent your variables (height, width etc) of your shape and then test the results against your fitness algorithm.

Beyond this I cannot help you much more but hopefully it will give you some direction with your research.

Have a look at David's "I eat bugs for breakfast" blog

Permalink Reply by Andrew Heumann on April 20, 2012 at 12:12pm

I agree completely with Danny - the problem is an indeterminate one, since there are an infinite number of forms that could cast one shadow, but only one shadow possible per form.

However, if you take your shadow and extrude it backwards in the direction of the light source, that will give you a space of possibility within which to work. Any shape that falls outside of the extruded volume will definitely not produce the desired shadow, but something constrained by it might, like a boolean between that extruded form and another one, for instance.

Permalink Reply by ath.michalis on May 17, 2012 at 7:18am