Meerkat: GIS to Grasshopper

Though not as streamlined as some other methods of bringing shape files into Grasshopper, Meerkat combines a straightforward UI in a .exe file with a handful of GH components to make 3D site models from GIS shape files. The UI provides a quick method of cropping the site to a more manageable size for use in Grasshopper.

Meerkat GIS to Grasshopper Overview from Nathan Lowe on Vimeo.

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Nathan Lowe on January 25, 2013 at 4:48pm

Sorry for the two month reply time! I'm still working through the details of the next version in the midst of other project work. I'll post when I'm done.

Permalink Reply by jalilhonarvari on April 1, 2013 at 7:13pm

I do not know where the link for download meerkat! please help me

Permalink Reply by jalilhonarvari on April 1, 2013 at 3:33pm

please help me!! I do not know where the link for download meerkat! please help me

Permalink Reply by djordje on April 1, 2013 at 3:51pm

There is no download link.
It seems Nathan's office did not allow him to publish this great plugin.

Permalink Reply by Benjamin Golder on April 1, 2013 at 4:03pm

Great work! I'm really glad to see more integration between GIS and 3D modeling.

Permalink Reply by Toussaint Jimenez Rojas on April 1, 2013 at 6:05pm

Why you dont try to use Finches Plugin ? i guess you can do the same with it

Permalink Reply by jalilhonarvari on April 1, 2013 at 6:57pm

If it is possible for me to send software Finches. thank you

jalilhonarvari@yahoo.com

Permalink Reply by José Nuno Beirão on April 18, 2013 at 11:37am

This looks awesome Nathan

Great work

Is it available for download?

It would be great to put my students working with this

Please keep me informed

José Beirão

jnb@fa.utl.pt

Permalink Reply by Jacob on October 1, 2013 at 4:21pm

Really like the work, but wanted to know if there is any type of tutorial on how to accomplish the same result but without the Meerkat plugin?

Permalink Reply by Nathan Lowe on October 1, 2013 at 4:28pm

I've totally revamped the plugin and will be releasing it it the next few weeks... the lengthy conversion process has been done away with. Basically, you open up Meerkat pick your shape files and crop in Google maps. Takes about 5-20 seconds dependent on file size.

Anyway to answer your question, the muscle work of the plugin is all in parsing and cropping a shape file. You need to deserialize GIS format into something easily recognizable (text, csv, etc.)... convert from shapefile point space (x,y,z) to model space (x,y,z).

Search for "shape file technical definition" and you'll find a pdf that lays out how shapefiles work.

David has built a shape file parser into the latest version of GH... but the functionality that I'm addressing with Meerkat involves branching all of the metadata per each shape, so you can organize the dbf file elements with the shp/shx file elements.... and of course, cropping the file... because rhino doesn't handle entire shape files very well (too big).

Permalink Reply by Jacob on October 2, 2013 at 2:25pm

Awesome, thank you. And look forward to the release of Meerkat

Permalink Reply by Jacob on October 4, 2013 at 11:49pm

What do you input if the parcel map doesn't have a x or y coordinate. Or is there other input parameters? The area I'm trying to work on is LA and this is the file I'm trying to extract from.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/jawdrxcrgjlxagb/Parcel_Map.shp