Fabric Formwork

Hi Daniel,

I tried following the steps you mentioned above, also ran the simulation as per your instructions but am still not getting the desired result. Could you please go through the attached files and suggest a solution.

Also, I am working on my dissertation which deals with structural optimization techniques with fabric formwork, similar to what Mark West from University of Umanitoba (http://www.umanitoba.ca/cast_building/assets/downloads/PDFS/Fabric_...) has done. Is there any plugin related to grasshopper which can be helpful for such experiments.

Any suggestions from anyone will be of great help.

Thanks.

Attachments:

forblog.3dm, 57 KB
forblog.gh, 8 KB

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Mateusz Zwierzycki on June 4, 2012 at 4:28pm

These trusses are awesome. I cant say is there any gh plugin which could help you.... there are too many different "styles" of forms. E.g. Structure from picture 4 at page 5 (01)could be made with some neat box morphing : like this http://www.grasshopper3d.com/photo/artichoke-3 made by Casey Wong.

Pre-cast panels(02) IMHO should be made with entirely different method - why not use displacement maps ? you can generate bitmaps with gh - make a mesh and control its colors with attractors etc...

Material simulation(03) (shotcrete shell panels) can be made with kangaroo: http://www.grasshopper3d.com/video/wind-test-2 (Daniel Piker)

Light-weight beams (04) are simple - just some standard lofting.

Bulge wall columns (05) - good approximation of this structure are minimial surfaces, but you already know it http://www.grasshopper3d.com/forum/topics/how-to-create-nodesbone

Permalink Reply by Suraj Suthar on June 4, 2012 at 4:41pm

Hi Mateusz,

Thanks for your reply. I am not much interested in the panels which are precast as in the pdf, but to design forms / formworks for such interesting structurally optimized elements. I have tried my hands on box morphing, but its not much useful for this particular case.

Permalink Reply by Mateusz Zwierzycki on June 4, 2012 at 4:59pm

About your gh file : (I cant open 3dm file which is saved in newer rhino version) When I open it the timer is set to 1 second - and should be to 20-100 ms, but this may be an opening bug. There are some odd settings also : "usually" naked vertices are used as anchor points - this is how it was here http://www.grasshopper3d.com/photo/tensiletubes002?context=latest (Kris Hammerberg). You dont have to use kangaroo settings, standard are working well for this simulation.

Permalink Reply by Suraj Suthar on June 4, 2012 at 5:44pm

Thanks again,

I tried incorporating both of your suggestions, but still its not doing what it should.

I found this script posted by Daniel on http://www.grasshopper3d.com/forum/topics/how-to-create-nodesbone. Again i have attached the Rhino4 file for the same, please have a look and reply.

Permalink Reply by Suraj Suthar on June 4, 2012 at 5:48pm

Sorry, the files..

Attachments:

forblog.3dm, 50 KB
forblog.gh, 7 KB

Permalink Reply by Diederik Veenendaal on June 5, 2012 at 5:30am

Well, both Karamba and Millipede are Grasshopper plug-ins with structural optimzation features. Resulting geometries should then be approximated with a fabric. So results from Karamba and/or Millipede can serve as input for Kangaroo.

I'm also working on fabric formwork. Will you be at the conference in Bath this summer, and are you aware of the Fabric Formwork Facebook group?

Permalink Reply by Suraj Suthar on June 5, 2012 at 5:37am

Hi Diederik,

Thanks for you reply. I will definitely try Karamba and millipede plug-ins for grasshopper. I am registered for the conference too and am a member of the facebook group too. Myself and a colleague are doing our dissertation on flexible formworks and we have almost just begun with it.

Permalink Reply by Suraj Suthar on June 5, 2012 at 1:52pm

Hi Diederik,

Do you know of any video tutorials for Karamba and Millipede?

Thanks!

Permalink Reply by Diederik Veenendaal on June 6, 2012 at 1:35am

Actually I have to admit that I have both installed but not really played with them much.

The Karamba guys have some videos on their group page.

Millipede is really new. As far as I know, there's just the manual.

Permalink Reply by Daniel Piker on June 5, 2012 at 8:20am

One thing in Kangaroo that could be helpful for fabric formwork is the depth-dependent pressure force.

I originally added it for buoyancy in sailing simulations a while back, but I think the same principle is relevant here.

It applies a force normal to the triangles of a mesh proportional to their area multiplied by their depth below the ground XY plane.

Depending on how stretchy the material is, I've seen how the outward pressure exerted by the liquid concrete can really influence the form - making it swell more towards the bottom, and maybe it would be useful to have a quick way of predicting this when designing.