Incrementally Scaling floors of a tower?

Hi all!

This is my first ever time using grasshopper and am finding it a challenge but real good fun!

Any suggestions on how to incrementally scale the floors of a parametric tower?

I have the surface shape of the floor slab, and wish for the bottom slab to be the biggest with each successive floor becoming smaller [almost like a step effect].

I have managed to achieve it to a certain extent by using an Scale NU on the Y vector axis of the floor slabs generated, but this is scaling the floors in both direction of the Y axis if that makes sense, whereas i wish for them to scale around a point [like the normal scale tool does]!

There are also a couple of minor issues such as a random line at the top generated [maybe this is a really thin slab?] and i don't know how to connect a slider to manage floor slab thicknesses.

Images/further explanation in the attached image!

Any help from you pro's on any of this will be greatly appreciated!

Peace,

J

:-]

Attachments:

GRASSHOPPER FORUM HELP.jpg, 183 KB

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by David Rutten on January 6, 2010 at 8:25am

Hi Jali,

you should scale both X and Y factors in the ScaleNU component.

The random line is probably the result of a scaling factor of zero, which effectively collapses any shape into a singularity (or a line segment if you're only scaling perpendicular to Y)

--
David Rutten
david@mcneel.com
Poprad, Slovakia

Permalink Reply by jali on January 6, 2010 at 8:43am

Hi David,

Thanks for the speedy response!

I've just tried scaling the X and Y in ScaleNU now and unfortunately it still seems to make the slabs create a triangular type shape.

I have modeled the general idea of what I mean in Rhino and attached the image below - as you can see to the rear of the model, they all line up vertically.

Sorry if I'm talking in riddles!
Thanks again,

J

:]

Permalink Reply by David Rutten on January 6, 2010 at 9:05am

What about this:

--
David Rutten
david@mcneel.com
Poprad, Slovakia

Permalink Reply by jali on January 6, 2010 at 9:57am

thanks dave,

it appears to work like this as long as the curve/surface are a certain size.

If re-scaled, it then performs a bend or invert - which actually make rather good effects! :]

Would a more accurate method of vertical alignment lie in creating a Z line with spaced points, then growing surfaces from these points, and scaling them with with the points set as the center of scaling?

Many methods of madness!

Thanks a lot,

J

Permalink Reply by Andres Gonzalez on January 6, 2010 at 10:43am

Hi Jali

This may help some:
http://web.me.com/rhino3dtv/GH/GH_11_11_XForm_Rotate_Building.html

Happy new year!

Permalink Reply by jali on January 6, 2010 at 12:11pm

Cheers Andres! :]

Permalink Reply by Mattias Eriksson on January 6, 2010 at 7:41pm

I guess there is always the chance that you are actually not looking for a scaling at all. This seem to be a rather obvious architectural application and there is a good chance that you for constructive reasons want the floorslabs completely resting on each other.

If this is the case scaling will not work, but maybe a simple offset.

Of course you can exchange the simple range in the example above for something like the graph component in Davids def. to get a more exciting shape. This will fail miserable once the offset is great enough to trim the original surface down to two islands, where only one will be kept.

Anyway, hope it helps and good luck.
/Cheers

Permalink Reply by jali on January 7, 2010 at 3:33am

Hi guys,

All very interesting ways to solve the problem! :]

All scaling in the above examples seems to be based around a central scaling point, thus creating a triangular type shape [like model A in the image below], whereas, I am wondering whether it is possible to scale from a specific peripheral point, meaning the floors still align vertically after being scaled [like model B in the image below].

I'm not sure if this is possible but i have been trying and can't seem to get it with accuracy.

Hope this makes sense!

Cheers to all,

J

Attachments:

Grasshopper scale floor help 04.jpg, 95 KB

Permalink Reply by David Rutten on January 7, 2010 at 4:33am

Jali,

just put the scaling origin on the wall outline instead of in the middle, and you'll get the result you want.

--
David Rutten
david@mcneel.com
Poprad, Slovakia

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