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 Kaz on February 12, 2014 at 9:38am: Hello Raja

is there any way to fit the pattern to the surface edges ...the surface i am trying to pannel is irregular so i used trim grid component , but the results are not satisfying , thanks for your help

regards

pa1.gh

PA1.3dm

Comment by Sushant Verma on November 1, 2013 at 10:33am: Hi Rajaa,

Thanks for the quick response. Well - I noticed that ptVersion component is also missing. I think I know why this happened - I had copied an old 'gha' file into my new system and hence everything got jumbled up.

Now I deleted all the existing PT data in AppData folders and it works perfectly fine after the new installation.

Thank you very much for the help.

Just wondering - is there an easy way of UNINTALLING PT, as opposed to finding the plug in files and deleting them? It might be a good idea to include an uninstaller with the setup as the plugin doesnt appear in the Conrol Panel programs. (This was my observaion -it may be specific to my PC though).

Comment by Rajaa Issa on November 1, 2013 at 9:24am: Hi Sushant,

Can you please check and post the GH version and PT version?

To check the PT version, drag the ptVersion component (under PanelingTools->Param menu). It should be 2013.5.8.0. Also make sure you have 0.9.0061 GH version (GH->Help->About).

Let me know how it goes.

Comment by Sushant Verma on November 1, 2013 at 6:52am: Hi,

I am getting this weird error with 2 missing components! I have tried to download the latest version and re-installing but it still comes up as i open my old definition. Any fix for this? See Image.

Many Thanks

Comment by Darren Chang on September 20, 2013 at 12:40pm: Rajaa, done uploading :)

Comment by Rajaa Issa on September 20, 2013 at 12:27pm: Hi Darren,

Please send me the Rhino file using:http://www.rhino3d.com/upload

Upload to rajaa@mcneel.com

Comment by Darren Chang on September 20, 2013 at 10:56am: Hi Rajaa,

I have attached the rhino file of a tower I'm designing and the GH file. In the rhino file, you will see I have two CW panels: a 2D one with simple lines, and a 3D one with meshes. I'm just using the 2D one for now to save computing power. My issues are:

1. How to subdivide a non-rectilinear surface (curved or not) with equal spacing into rectilinear subdivisions, like what happens on most buildings? (What I'm doing now is to use a rectilinear surface (on the Default layer), subdivide it, then manually trim the CW panels.)

130918_tower%20paneling%20test.gh

2. Instead of just specifying the number of divisions in the U and V directions, can I also specify the distance b/w each sub-division?

Sorry I just realized my rhino file is too large to be attached here. If you want to see it, I can use drop-box or something. But the idea is the same regardless which rhino file we use.

Thank you!

Darren

Comment by Rajaa Issa on September 20, 2013 at 9:36am: Hi Darren,

It can depend on your surface, but in general you should be able to do that. Feel free to post the file in a discussion or email directly to me and I can walk you though the process.

Comment by Darren Chang on September 19, 2013 at 6:09pm: Hi, I'm relatively new to PT. I am applying PT to a curtain-wall that has a slanted edge, but I want perfect rectangular panels except the edge ones will be trimmed. So I had to apply first to a cw that has a straight edge to get the rectangular partition, and trim off the edge panels manually. Can PT automatically generate rectangular partition (instead of trapezoidal) on non-rectangular surfaces? Please see the attached image.

Thanks in advance

Comment by Muhammad Rehan on July 9, 2013 at 2:28am: hey thanks i had a problem in my computer(because i have formatted it) some thing was missing so i figure it out by installing it in my laptop and yes! it works perfectly well...

thanks for your consideration