Help with Complex Hex Motif? Using individual Cell Segments

Hey All,

I'm trying to replicate a complex hex motif that I made in Rhino in Grasshopper. (shown below in grey and attached) I've done a few paneling definitions but this one has me stumped.

The idea was to start with a basic Hex cells from lunchbox, make a curve from center, then make surfaces from those curves.

There are two obstacles for me as I see it:

1) i'm used to grabbing a normal from each cell, but cannot find out how to grab the local X value of each cell to create a vector, to create a line, to then make into a surfaces.

2) Once I have this centerline, how can I tell grasshopper which individual cell segments to make a surface out of?

That's the path I see to making the attached geometry anyways, maybe you all have a different suggestion for me to pursue?

A screengrab of my current definition is below as well.

I'm thankful for any advice you can offer on either or both of my challenges, or an alternative approach to replicate my Rhino Surface.

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Riccardo Majewski on December 29, 2015 at 4:00am

Hi Derek,

I was not able to understand your request.

"The idea was to start with a basic Hex cells from lunchbox, make a curve from center, then make surfaces from those curves. " is a bit vague....

Can you please explain it better?

They gray geometry on your pic doesn't help (me) to understand what it is, it also contain squares (!) that you never mentioned...

Also, there are no .gh or .3dm attached to your post.

cya

Permalink Reply by Derek smith on December 29, 2015 at 6:31am

Hey Riccardo, (and anybody else following)

Sorry I wasn't clear on that, let me try again. Sorry the attachments didn't work, let me try that again!

I have a hex motif in Rhino that works on flat surfaces, but not compound geometry.

Here is an individual cell:

And here is what is looks like arrayed on a flat surface:

So, how could I recreate this same paneling system in grasshopper, that would work on compound surfaces?

I"ll attach the .3dm and GH file this time, sorry about not doing that earlier.

thanks again!

Attachments:

-- COMPLEX HEX.gh, 8 KB

Permalink Reply by Matt Gaydon on December 29, 2015 at 9:24am

Ok try this, Its not perfect as the part cells on the side are not coded and the only way i found to quickly make the hex surfaces was to use fragment patch on the polylines. but hopefully it will give you some ideas.

Also the way the part cells are culled needs work as it does not always remove the right ones on more crazy shapes

Attachments:

Hex-Sq_Surface Pattern.gh, 18 KB

Permalink Reply by Derek smith on December 29, 2015 at 10:37am

Wow, pretty awesome end result Matt! I'm still a bit new into GH to be able to understand each component and how you are using them, but I'll dissect your definition in more detail and see what I can glean from it.

Thanks for putting the time into it!!! Just a question or two?

1) what Surface are you referencing at the very beginning of this definition? When I bake the final component I get the same result as you show above, but can't see it otherwise. I ask, because when I try to assign a different surface, it 'break's the definition as shown below.

2) The 'item' component is how you are separating the individual vertices, right? How do you know which vertices correspond to which numerical outputs on the component?

Thanks again for the extra help, It definitely got me going on the right track, even though I still have a lot to learn.

Permalink Reply by Matt Gaydon on December 29, 2015 at 11:25am

Hmm Don't know why you can see the surface at the start, I have the preview turned off for it but it seems you have that on in your screen captures. Its Internalised so i did not have to upload a .3dm too. I was working in Metres but that should not mean you can't see it if you can see the output when baked.

I have attached a simpler updated code regarding removing the part cells from the edges which I think was the reason you where having issues when you input a new surface, seems if I changed the shape to much the code broke here too.

As for the Item Component, just used a point single item component to find the index I want or just attach a Point Param to the output to check. You could use a points list component as another option.

Attachments: