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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You need to be a member of PanelingTools GH Add-On to add comments!

Comment by Rajaa Issa on April 28, 2015 at 10:08am: Dear all, if you have a question, then please "+ Add a Discussion" (instead of posting to the "Comment Wall"). It allows you to share files and is easier to reference and search. Thanks.

Comment by Rajaa Issa on April 16, 2015 at 8:39am: Did you have a chance check the manual and samples file?

You can send me the file that is failing and I can check it.

Comment by Oliver Hampel on April 16, 2015 at 6:46am: Hi Rajaa,

I was wondering if you had a working grasshopper sample for the Morph 3d Mean component. I am playing around with it but get an error message. Unfortunately do I only get the generic "Failed to Morph to Grid" without an further detail.

Thank you,

Oliver

Comment by Lorenzo Franceschini on February 25, 2015 at 10:19am: Thank you Rajaa, yes i think it would be helpful in the future!

Meanwhile it is still possible to distort an already distorted grid, if the assigned magnitude is fixed, luckily the component is not heavy, so even if i run 3 or 4 components consequently it is still fast!

Thanks, looking forward for updates!

Comment by Rajaa Issa on February 25, 2015 at 10:02am: Hi Lorenzo, there is no way to do that at the moment. The algorithm favors the closest attraction point and use the full magnitude to attract to the closest point. I will consider this for future development though.

Comment by Lorenzo Franceschini on February 25, 2015 at 9:04am: Hello!

I have a question. In grid point attractor, I have multiple points i want to assign different magnitude, how can i achieve that?

Thanks! :)

Comment by Luke Orford on January 15, 2015 at 2:15am: Ok thanks, i will try to do it the way you suggested! Thank you for your help!

Comment by Rajaa Issa on January 14, 2015 at 9:45am: The problem with mesh base is that it may not follow rectangular topology. It is a similar problem to turning meshes to nurbs. Sometimes you can extract construction curves (Use contour), then use those curves to generate paneling grids and apply panels. This technique might not work for all shapes, but it will get you closer. I hope this helps.

Comment by Cfeldman on January 14, 2015 at 4:02am: HelloJohn Stack

Thanks

(Ok...,i wil try it )

Comment by Luke Orford on January 14, 2015 at 2:34am: Hello Rajaa

I would like to panel in some sort of geometric patterns, its to create a sort of sculpture.

Thanks