Lmnts's Blog (29)

We’re studying interactive interfaces which allow us to represent complex systems in a legible way. Have a look at our recent blog post for more info:

http://lmnts.lmnarchitects.com/featured/grasshopper-and-d3js/…

We've been making some tools that give us more control over the transition of data between grasshopper and other design platforms.  So far we have connections from Grasshopper to Revit and Catia V5.

You can check out an example and download the plugins from our post:…

We put together a user object for animating transformation matrices in GH.  This remaps each matrix value between an identity matrix and the final transformation from a given GH component with an "X" output.  For more info, check out our post here:…

We're assisting David T. Bradley at Vassar College with his research into Acoustic Scattering.  The pick shows the 14 surfaces we milled out of MDF for him.  More details …

A common part of fabrication is labeling the parts to make assembling easier, but typical TrueType fonts generally aren’t ideal for fabrication.  After looking into them a little, we discovered that the problem was because fonts need to be closed profiles and not just paths.  There are some pseudo single line fonts that can help minimize this problem, though there are often artifacts that may come through as missing or extra lines when Rhino drops part of the closed…

There are several commands in Rhino which have mesh splitting capability, but we’ve had limited success with them in the past.  This definition works for splitting a mesh with a set of a curves (lines, polylines, compound curves, etc.) by using a series of steps as described in the list below.  The sample file we’ve uploaded is set up to work in the XY plane, but can be quickly edited to work with other planes.

For more info, check out our post here: …

Erick Katzenstein of LMN Tech Studio is teaching a course on Grasshopper at Makerhaus this April and May. The course will be a general introduction to Grasshopper with a focus on fabrication. If interested, please register through the Makerhaus website.

The recently opened…

Mockup construction recently began on the GFRG Feature Wall for the Tobin Center for the Performing Arts that we've posted on in the past.  Below are a few of those panels.  Follow the link for more info.…

We first posted the Contour Tool back in June 2010 and it’s time for an update:

By selecting a surface in Grasshopper, the original definition sped up the process for creating laser cut physical models. But at the beginning of projects, we’re almost always dealing with a mesh, as either a toposurface from Revit or geometry from Sketchup. This updated definition works with surfaces,…

One of our projects, the University of Iowa School of Music: Suspended Theatroacoustic System, is a finalist in the 2013 Architizer A+ Awards categories of 

Architecture+Fabrication…

Check out our new post on adaptive components: http://lmnts.lmnarchitects.com/featured/adaptive-components/…

Check out our post on the new Vray Proxy and how it's use with Grasshopper:…

Check out our third post in our series on the design of the Tobin Center for the Performing Arts in San Antonio, TX.  The post focuses on the modeling of the feature wall which is the theater's face into the…

There is currently a large piece of the San Antonio Public Auditorium that is missing.  Someday this hole will be filled with the Tobin Center for the Performing Arts.  Until that happens, check out this post which documents the modeling that went into the Veil, the exterior cladding…

We’re developing a set of Grasshopper user objects to generate sun study diagrams using the DIVA sun vector component.  This post focuses on the overshadowing diagram, a powerful metric which offers comprehensive analysis for point of interest shading.

More info can be found on our blog.…

We have finally cleaned up our code, documented, and commented enough to release our depth-as-touch interaction with the Microsoft Kinect into the public domain as free, opensource, copyleft, GPL-licensed code.  As our demo interaction was built around our favorite software (Grasshopper), we thought it best to announce it here.  The source is written in C/C++ linked against Microsoft's Kinect for PC SDK.  We've provided the Visual Studio solution files, our code, but you will have to link it…

We've been playing around with the DIVA plugin for awhile now and are really impressed with the work that GSD-Squared is doing.  Follow the link to read more about how we've been using it.  We can't wait to use DIVA…

We have been working on a method of interacting with the Grasshopper Canvas with intuitive, multi-touch gestures registered by the RGBD camera on the Microsoft Kinect.   The Kinect depth resolution is enough to detect touch events on an arbitrary surface, so we've recreated a giant canvas using a projector, a mirror, and a pane of tinted glass.  So far, we've managed to…

We've finally increased to full scale and are currently waiting on testing of the performance mockup at the Construction Research Lab in Miami (shown in the image).  Throughout this project Grasshopper has been of great use to us in designing, documenting, and in this case fabricating the project.  We were sharing the geometry we created in Grasshopper with our…

We've just published a new post highlighting the documentation work that we did using Grasshopper and Revit for the Cleveland Medical Mart.  Doing quantity takeoffs in Grasshopper was possible but we were required to submit a model to the local architect in Cleveland which forced us to create a link between Grasshopper and Revit which we've named Cricket.  The…