Help with rotating circles! im sure this is mega easy for most!

I am very new to Grasshopper. I need to produce a curve with rods sticking out along the curve. I cant seem to change the rotation of the circles so that they point in a sideways direction. I have attached the v tiny definition that i have started. I have tried rotating the circles by changing the axis, but i cant seem to get it to move the circles 90 degrees, so that their face is pointing sideways.

The Rhino file shows what I'm looking to achieve in 3d, with the curve being a frame on the longitudinal edge of the spiral. I would like the circle to rotate so that they are perpendicular to the curve, and then i can offset them to create each rod. I have left a curve in the rhino file to use with the ghx. file.

I'm really interested in the producing a ribbon effect with the rods, and altering the length, and thickness of the rods as they spiral.

I really like the Tape worm definition that someone created. Is there any way someone can help me achieve this with rods?

Thanks Claudia

Attachments:

Tube rotation along curve.ghx, 37 KB
Spiral.3dm, 635 KB

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Danny Boyes on January 13, 2011 at 9:33am

Hi Claudia,

I would approach this by setting up my planes/frames at each point so that I could create circles in situ with a known Axis system.

1) Use the Perpendicular Frames component instead of Divide

2) Re-orientate the Plane so by swapping its axis system over using the "Plane Components" component and the "Plane" component

3) Create Cirlce

4) Extrude the required amount

5) and Finally Rotate the geometry if you need to tweak the direction perpendicular around the curve

Permalink Reply by Claudia White on January 13, 2011 at 10:12am

Thanks Danny - Big help. I definitely need to do some tutorials!!

Is there anything you have added into the components? any formulas?

Permalink Reply by Danny Boyes on January 13, 2011 at 10:14am

No. In version 0.8x any additional expressions/inversions/flattening/grafting etc are shown by an extra icon to the left of the inputs effected.

Permalink Reply by Chris Tietjen on January 13, 2011 at 11:04am

I'm using loft in this def so you can vary the tube shape easily. Additional 'neckings' could be added.

Chris

Attachments:

Tuberotationalongcurve.ghx, 199 KB

Permalink Reply by Claudia White on January 14, 2011 at 4:55am

Hi... thanks for the response.. :) what im looking to achieve is a varied length of tubes.. which i guess you can do here by creating the tubes in between the two curves. It could be good to vary the circumference/thickness of the tubes...

Permalink Reply by Claudia White on January 14, 2011 at 5:13am

Hi Chris... I just opened the file... and all i get is what is shown in this screen shot.. Is it because i need the updated version of grasshopper? i have the 0.600 version..

Attachments:

Tuberotationalongcurve.pdf, 315 KB

Permalink Reply by Chris Tietjen on January 14, 2011 at 7:02am

Claudia,

I would say you should update to the latest GH version 0.8.0004. If you still have problems with opening the def let me know. I tested the previously posted file and it opens correctly in 0.8.004.

I was assuming that you would change the length of the tubes by varying the separation of the two input boundary curves. How were you thinking of doing it?

Chris

Attachments:

Tuberotationalongcurve.ghx, 199 KB

Permalink Reply by Chris Tietjen on January 14, 2011 at 8:36am

Here's another try relative to a single helix but without line length adjustment.

Chris

Attachments:

SpiralTubes.ghx, 188 KB

Permalink Reply by Andres Gonzalez on January 14, 2011 at 9:15am

Chris, could you go over the last part of your nice definition, why you used that Matrix Transform or Flip at the end?

Thanks!

Permalink Reply by Chris Tietjen on January 14, 2011 at 10:51am

Andres,

Coming out of the circle components you have three separate trees. You have the one tree (zero index) having one branch (zero index) and N items on the branch which in this case is 16 items. {0;0} N=16. In order to get the loft component to work correctly you need 16 trees, each with one branch having 3 (circle) items on it (one from each initial tree). The items also need to be in a particular order so that the loft 'makes sense' visually. Using the Flip component gives you one tree (zero index) with 16 branches (0->15) with one item on each branch. {0;0->15} N=1. Using the Merge component all corresponding indices of the three input trees will merge (first process) and concatenate their respective items (second process). This is why it's important to have tree/branch structures that match before merging them. At least that's been my experience. You end up in this case with 16 trees each with one branch having 3 items on it. Within the branch these items are indexed according to the order in which you connect the three lists to the Merge component (ie. A,B,C; B,C,A,etc). I can't say for certain that this is a complete and accurate explanation but it's how I've been considering it. Hope it helps. It can also be described in terms of matrices but I'm trying to stay true to the language of GH.

Chris

Permalink Reply by Andres Gonzalez on January 14, 2011 at 12:16pm

Thanks a lot Chris, it is very clear for me now. Now I see where I will be using this component a lot!

Permalink Reply by Claudia White on January 15, 2011 at 12:23pm

Hi everyone... managed to get things working on the updated version of g.hopper! So thankyou to you all for your input, has been really helpful! My first experience on this forum was great! Hope its helpful to anyone else too! claudia x

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