Random selection of Facade panels

Hi,

I'm relativily new when it comes to working with Grasshopper. I hope you guys can help me with at problem i'm having with my project.

It might be a simpel solution, but i can't figure out how to make a random selection of panels i made with LunchBox.

I already got a random pattern from the imagesampler. The orange is a non-transparent, the colors between orange and white is simi-transparent and white is transparent. So i need to divide the colors into groups, so that i can work on the different types of panels seperately.

Maybe there is an easier way of doing this. I've looked into different ways of doing it. Cull patterns, random, boolean lists, but i can't find a way that works to make my selections.

Best Regards.

Hasse Bové

ps. My file hoogs a lot of memory, so it's a bit hard to work with.

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Permalink Reply by Hasse Bové Schou on July 29, 2014 at 8:37am

Thank you Alex.

I don't necessarily want to work with the bitmap approach, but it gives me the possibility to create that pixilated look and the selection groups i need.

I just made a new bitmap that looks like it, but with clean pure colors. It now gives me an output of 12. These i've connected to make 3 mesh selections.

Now i'm about to convert the mesh selection to surfaces, as i dont need the colors when i bake the mesh selection, but just the groups.

The other approach with the random component just gives me 2 selection groups so i need to divide one of the groups in 2. The advantedge here is that i don't have to convert from mesh to surface.

Permalink Reply by ng5 Alex on July 29, 2014 at 9:13am

If you want 3 selection groups you can try the following

if you want more change the divisor from 3 to whatever number of selection sets you want. the only thing you have to worry about is that the panels do not always get into equal list and some may remain. in the case of 3 selection sets the division leaves one panel in a fourth list. so to avoid that i added an expression of x+1 to have three list, three selections sets. same applies if you want more selection sets. (don't forget to right click and select match output in the explode component).

the jitter component jitters the panels, reorganizes randomly the list, so that the indexes of the panels are not ordered. to get different random lists change the seed slider. the j input determines how much the indexes are being jittered.

i guess with this one covers all you need right? is this for studio work?

cheers alex

Permalink Reply by Damon on July 29, 2014 at 9:57am

Alex, I just worked through this problem for fun, arrived at a similar solution, but using the Random component. I like your solution better for two reasons:

1. The Jitter component allows you to choose how much jitter there is, so it can be like the Random component or each tier is a different material, or somewhere in between.

2. The Explode Tree (BANG!) component is great! I'd never used that. I've always had a very clunky way with the Tree Statistics, List Item with 0 +1 +2... outputs, and multiple Tree Branch components. (Bottom group.) That means if I changed the number of divisions, I'd have to manually add the next List Item and copy a Tree Branch component. This is much better!

Thanks.

Permalink Reply by ng5 Alex on July 29, 2014 at 10:44am

Hello Damon

that is really nice in this forum. to see different approaches to a given problem. i believe the random solution is almost the same.

it is just that jitter gives that nice little extra control of randomness i couldn't resist to (lol).

the tree branch could work like list item if there was a zui available to the component to add +1 branch etc. instead David went for a standalone component which has this match output option.

cheers

alex

Permalink Reply by Hasse Bové Schou on July 29, 2014 at 10:55am

Hi Damon,

I like the effect you solution has with the gradient look. It reminds me of Torre Agbar by Jean Nouvel.

Permalink Reply by Damon on July 29, 2014 at 11:54am

It is all Alex. I just changed the value of the "J" input on the Jitter component. :)

Permalink Reply by Hasse Bové Schou on July 29, 2014 at 10:51am

Yeah Alex, this is exactly what i had in mind. Thank you so much. You have been a great teacher :-)

The project is just a personal project i'm doing. I'm not in a job at the moment, so i'm using my time to learn some new tools.

Permalink Reply by ng5 Alex on July 29, 2014 at 11:00am

You are welcome! :-)