PanelingTools GH Add-On

Information

Parametric tools to create and manipulate rectangular grids, attractors and support creative morphing of parametric patterns.

This is a BETA version and works only with the latest Rhino 5.0 BETA on Windows 32 & 64 Bit.

Location: Seattle, USA
Members: 788
Latest Activity: Aug 12

Downloads and Installation (Last update: October 15, 2012):
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Each time you update, please do the following:

1- Download the latest service release of Rhinoceros 5 and the latest Grasshopper.

2- Download the latest PanelingTools for Rhino 5.0 and Grasshopper. Make sure to double click on the installer to install.
3- Open Rhino, you should see PanelingTools menu in Rhino. Open Grasshopper, you should see the PanelingTools tab in Grasshopper.

Where to start:
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The PanelingTools for Grasshopper Primer (PDF) has many tutorials and detailed description of all components with examples. You can use as a start point to learn about the plugin.

Download The Primer Examples and Tutorials. This includes all components example and tutorials as Grasshopper definitions.

Online Class (On-Demand):
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Join the developer for a comprehensive online class (10 hour). Click for details...

Overview:
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First step is to create a rectangular grid using one of the tools in "Grid" tab. Some of these components take a list of points, which you can generate using GH standard components, or divide a curve using one of the tools under "Curve" tab of PanelingTools.

Once a grid is created, you can shuffle it using one of the attraction methods under "Grid Attractors" tab. One output is the shuffled grid, another output is the normalized weights based on the attraction method that can be used for variable offset or variable paneling for example.

"Grid Utility" tab helps you do things like extracting points from the grid, replace points, extract center grid, expand grids, create surface from grid, etc.

"Panel Utility" tab has components to pull panel edges to a surface using pull, iso curves or shortest path.

"Panel2D" tab has many ways to panel the rectangular grid and populate 2D components.

"Panel3D" contain components to populate 3D patterns between 2 bounding grids.

If you used PanelingTools plugin for Rhino, then the Parameters tab is for you. You can use PanelingTools for Rhino to create your grid, then input into GH as a tree structure using "Select" component. The "Bake" components is to bake a grid in a format that can be used by PanelingTools plugin for Rhino. If you only work with GH, then you can safely ignore this tab.

Note: All input/output of PanelingTools Add-on to GH use standard geometry and you can use standard GH components to manipulate them. Grids for example are nothing but simple tree structures (no nesting). You can think of it as a list of rows or paths that contain certain number of leafs or elements.
It is important to try to avoid FLATTENING a grid. If you have to flatten a grid, there is a utility to recompose it if you knew the number of rows, but seriously, stay away from flattening!

Feedback:
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Please feel free to post bugs, questions and suggestions to improve the tools. Please use the discussion of this group to post question when possible.

Discussion Forum

PanelingTools+Game of Life CA 2 Replies

I updated an old sample that I thought I share with you. I hope you enjoy it.…Continue

Tags: Attractors, VB, Script, Life, of

Started by Rajaa Issa. Last reply by George Metters Aug 12.

PT Grid not depending on UV 2 Replies

Hi,I want to create a paneling grid unattached from the surface UV's. The surface is a free shape made with revlove command. I want to have the grid Points evenly distributed across the surface. With…Continue

Tags: Grid, Panelingtools, Grasshopper

Started by Magnus. Last reply by naasaki Mar 19, 2022.

PanelingTools Course (On-Demand) 2 Replies

Dear all,We are pleased to announce that the Introduction to PanelingTools course is now available online and on-demand. For details, please click …Continue

Tags: demand, paneling, rationalization, on, course

Started by Rajaa Issa. Last reply by Donald Baker Oct 25, 2021.

Question: Apply Custom Pattern 8 Replies

Hi Rajaa, hi everyone,I am new to Paneling Tools.I am trying to get my head around how to apply custom shapes using the "Morph 2D" component. Specifically, i try to apply a hexagon pattern and here…Continue

Started by FrankS. Last reply by Hannah Stevens Apr 15, 2021.

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Comment Wall

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Comment by Rajaa Issa on May 15, 2012 at 9:55am: So when you open (%appdata%\Grasshopper\Libraries) what do you see? Can you list all files with their extensions?

Comment by Rafael Marrero on May 15, 2012 at 9:53am: Yes I do.

Comment by Rajaa Issa on May 15, 2012 at 9:46am: One more question for you, do you see PanelingTools drop-down menu in the Rhino interface?

Comment by Rafael Marrero on May 15, 2012 at 9:31am: Hi Rajaa,

Yes, I did.

I did so again, just in case I had made a mistake before. There is still no PT tab in Grasshopper.

I guess the mystery deepens.

Comment by Rajaa Issa on May 15, 2012 at 9:10am: Hi Rafael,
Did you download PT-GH add-on from (http://download.rhino3d.com/Rhino/5.0/PT_GH/) and unzip and move to the following folder (%appdata%\Grasshopper\Libraries). Let me know how that goes.

Comment by Rajaa Issa on May 15, 2012 at 9:08am: Zayad,

If you install the PanelingTools.rhi, you should not have to move it to plugin folder. There is something wrong there and will have to contact you off the list to figure this out.

Also, May 3 is the latest release of PT, you are running an old version. Let's investigate this further.

Comment by Zayad Motlib on May 14, 2012 at 9:37pm: Hi Rajaa;

In the plugin manager, PT is located inside the plug ins folder for Rhino5. The version of that plug in is created on March 20, 2012.

I deleted that folder, along with the registery folder inside User's folder, then re-installed the PanelingTools.rhi installer. When I started Rhino, there was no paneling tools menu. I brought back the PanelingTools folder inside the Plugins folder, then I went to the Plug in manager to install it. PT menu was back again, but when I run GH, I still have the problem with the attractors. I run the PanelingTools.rhi installer again, but still same problem.

Am I following your steps correctly, or am I creating a mess here?

Comment by Rafael Marrero on May 14, 2012 at 8:58pm: Hi Rajaa,

I'm also having problems installing the PT-GH Add-on. I followed all installation steps and troubleshooting tips on this comment wall. After installing everything, when I run Grasshopper, no Paneling Tools tab appears on the interface.

I am running the latest version of Rhino 5 64-bit (5.1.2012.508, 05/08/2012), the latest Grasshopper (build 0.80066) and the latest PT version ( 03 May 2012) on a Windows 7 64-bit system.

Could you please help?

Rafael

Comment by Rajaa Issa on May 14, 2012 at 3:01pm: Can you please email your system details, versions of Rhino and GH you are using to rajaa@mcneel.com?