[Utilities Series] May 11, 2014 - Panelling machines.

As easy as it sounds. David R. proposed some days ago to search for neat and clean solutions for common and simple problems that everybody could understand. I've tagged this c+GH post as "Utilities series", but it could be changed in the future with nicer and more interesting names.

It's perfectly known that lot of plugins has been released to empower GH panelling capabilities, but usually lightweight and native systems could be required to accomplish specific little (or big) design tasks. In addition to this, the panelling process is a task that let the user to play and learn and practice deeply concepts about surface/meshes topology, list and data trees management, etc. So I though that this could be a perfect starting point for the "Utilities series" in c+GH.

To open this group of c+GH post I will start with something simple that everyone that have used GH has tried sooner or later in his/her learning process: how to panel a surface using standard/built-in GH components only.

Topics that could be covered (aka, problem categories):

• Planar panels. 
• Curved panels. 
• Mixed solutions: curvature/distortion triggers or limits.

Given a NURBS surface, create a single panelling system that implement one of the categories described for only one kind of panel (triangular, quadrilateral, n-gon). Of course, curved panels are not compatible with triangular shapes, etc,  so try to pick a compatible combination.

Further considerations:

• The implemented solution should let the user to interact with every panel easily, so the proposed algorithm should track the panellization process avoiding to destroy helpful information/data structures for further modifications in the panelling system.
• NURBS and mesh solutions are both allowed.
• None, plugin or scripted component allowed.
• The cleanest, shorter and less processing-time-expensive solution in every category will be the winner (please, consider using profiler intensively).
• Deadline: May 18, 2014.