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 by Rajaa Issa on May 29, 2012 at 12:36pm: Hi,

Here is a suggested solution for your problem. The limitted typed of panels you can control through the way you divide the 2 curves. I did not elaborate on this, but rather just gave a general path to solving the problem. Here is the Rhino & GH files. Let me know if you have questions. PT_DifferentPanels.zip

Comment by shabnam on May 29, 2012 at 10:11am: Hello Rajaa and the rest of the PT crew,

I’m wondering if I can get some help setting up a definition using the panelling tools in grasshopper:

Essentially, I would like to panelize a surface by orienting two different panels onto a grid based on curvature.

I’m wondering if there is a way to divide the grid (using an if statement based on curvature values) and assign different panels to these “sub-grids”.

I’ve attached the rhino File and the grasshopper script that I have set up so far.

Please let me know, your help is much appreciated!

Comment by Arie-Willem de Jongh on May 22, 2012 at 10:35am: This plugin is great! Thank you for the great work and keep up the good work!

Comment by Michele Calvano on May 22, 2012 at 6:24am: Now pt works and works well. Thanks at all!

Comment by shabnam on May 16, 2012 at 2:48pm: ok. thanks!

for some reason there was an error with the newest panelling tools in rhino and wouldn't load. It was going back to the older verion of panelling tools.

I did a complete uninstall and re-install of everthing, and it's good now.

Comment by Rajaa Issa on May 16, 2012 at 1:26pm: Hi,

You have an older version. Can you download the latest installer (May 3):
http://download.rhino3d.com/Rhino/5.0/PanelingToolsV5/
Close any Rhino session, then install PanelingTools.rhi.
Now open new Rhino session and see if PanelingTools drop-down menu is there. Now close Rhino.
Next, make sure you have the matching PT-GH (May 3rd):
http://download.rhino3d.com/Rhino/5.0/PT_GH/
Unzip and save to (%appdata%\Grasshopper\Libraries)
Next, open Rhino, then GH and see if you can use PT components.
Let me know how that goes.

Comment by shabnam on May 16, 2012 at 1:16pm: Hi Rajaa,

here's the info:

General

Name:Panelling tools

Version: Apr 9 2012 16:16:51

Technical Info:

registry path:

\\HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\McNeel\Rhinoceros\5.0x64\Plug-Ins\6cae...

Comment by Rajaa Issa on May 16, 2012 at 1:03pm: Hi shabnam,

Do you see PanelingTools drop-down menu in Rhino? If so, can you go to PluginManger in Rhino and click on PanelingTools in the list of plugins then click "properties" & let me know the path is is save at?

Comment by shabnam on May 16, 2012 at 12:36pm: still having no luck getting panelling tools in grasshopper to work. Grid doesn't get generated. Some kind of problem with the install I think, although I can see the paneeling tools tab in grasshopper and I just went through the steps 1-3 posted by chris regardless.

If you have the same problem or you know how to fix it please let me know.

thanks!

Comment by Brian Gillespie on May 15, 2012 at 4:38pm: I've found and fixed the problem installing PanelingTools on 32-bit Windows. The problem is in the program that displays the installation user interface, and will be fixed in the Rhino 5.0 Beta release that goes out this week. Thanks everyone for your help repeating and documenting the problem.