Flow tool in Grasshopper

Hi,

I'm hoping for some help with how to use (or replicate) the Flow tool in grasshopper.

I want to flow a helix around a 2d cycloid.

It works really well if I bake it into Rhino then use the Flow tool manually, but I want to be able to do it fully within Grasshopper so I can use the sliders to change different variables.

I hope this isn't a stupid question, I'm stuck right at the end and it's driving me insane!

Thanks,

Tom

helix_cycloid.ghx

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Danny Boyes on September 2, 2011 at 2:36am

Hi Tom,

You could use the curve|plane intersection tool to generate a points in UV space around the base curve and then using the Orient Component generate them for the target curve. Then all you need to do is plug the points into an Interpolate Curve Component.

Attachments:

helix_cycloid_Orient.gh, 16 KB

Permalink Reply by Dedackelzucht on September 2, 2011 at 3:29am

hihi,

playig around with this definittion makes fun!

Thanks for sharing!

DeDackel

Permalink Reply by Tom on September 2, 2011 at 5:26am

Thanks so much danny! It's almost to where I want it!

I want the actual rail-revolved surface to Flow around the cycloid as well, giving it a moebius strip-like effect. I've included an example of a baked-then-manually-generated surface in the Rhino file.

So the line from the origin that goes up the z-axis is the base curve and the cycloid is the target curve.

I tried to do it myself by tacking on a few extra functions onto your curve but didn't really get anywhere...

Thanks for your help so far!

Attachments: