rotate panel(s) perpendicular to vector

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Permalink Reply by Damon on April 22, 2015 at 2:25pm

I think if anybody has downloaded your files and opened them, they are not responding because you are using Ecotect. I don't have it installed, so I can't give you a tested solution. However, I did give something a try:

1. By adding the +1, +2, and +3, it gives you access to the other points of the diamond. +1 is the top point you were using before.

2. Given that point on the diamond, I get the normal direction of the surface.

3. The input to this vector decompose would be your sun rays. (I was constructing a face set of vectors from some points, just to test.)

4. These decompose and compose vector components are essentially projecting the vectors onto the xy-plane, because all you say you care about is the x and y components.

5. The diamonds were pointing away from the sun, so I had to reverse the direction of the sun. There is probably a more rigorous way of doing this to account for multiple situations.

6. Measure the angle between the diamonds' normal direction and the sun ray.

7. Create an axis of rotation from the top points and bottom points of the diamonds.

8. Rotate about the axis by the amount calculated in by #6.

That's a way. I don't know if it works for you since I can use the Ecotect data. Hope it helps.

Permalink Reply by Maria-89 on April 22, 2015 at 2:54pm

Thanks for your reply!

I really appreciate it!

I created a simplified sunarc with sunvector. I tried your way, but the panels are still not rotating towards the sun. In fact they are not rotating at all?

Maybe you can take a look at the definition. Maybe I did something wrong.

I attached the grasshopper file with the simplified "sun"

Attachments:

• vorm rotatie diamond facade rotating to sun v3.gh, 39 KB

Permalink Reply by Maria-89 on April 22, 2015 at 2:59pm

Thanks for your reply!

I really appreciate it!

I created a simplified sunarc with sunvector. I tried your way, but the panels are still not rotating towards the sun. In fact they are not rotating at all?

Maybe you can take a look at the definition. Maybe I did something wrong.

I attached the grasshopper file with the simplified "sun"

Attachments:

• vorm rotatie diamond facade rotating to sun v3.gh, 39 KB

Permalink Reply by Damon on April 22, 2015 at 3:22pm

If you rotate the building, the surface you are subdividing will already be pointing in the direction of the sun vector! Therefore, each diamond is also pointing in the direction of the sun vector, no rotation necessary. What you did works exactly as I intended.

Do you want the panels to lift up? I was setting it up so that they rotated about a vertical axis. You could choose a horizontal axis. I guess I'm unclear what your final goal is.

Permalink Reply by Maria-89 on April 22, 2015 at 3:34pm

Thanks for your quick reply!

Ok then I did it right :-)

But, what I am actually trying to do is that the panels lift up towards the sun.

So that the panels are perpendicular to the sunvector or the line between the sun and panel.

I attached a picture with a sketch of how I want it to work!

Thanks again!

Attachments:

• FullSizeRender (2).jpg, 384 KB
• FullSizeRender (1).jpg, 53 KB