Making Curve Blob

Hi all,

I would like to make a curve version of a blob. Currently there are plugin to do it for plane surface. I am wondering if it is possible to do it in grasshopper.

the first images is what the plugin can do.

the second image is a model which i have subdivided the surfaces and would like to make a blob version of each piece.

Please advice.

Thank you all,

Sky

Attachments:

plugin.jpg, 182 KB
5.png, 140 KB

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Skyduo on November 25, 2013 at 3:31am

Hi all,

Is this idea impossible to implement with grasshopper? Is VBscript necessary? I cannot think of a way of logic to even start. The only method i can think of is to flatten every piece and use the plugin to blob it. Which would then change the design totally.

Pls help.

Thank you.

Sky Lo

Permalink Reply by David Rutten on November 25, 2013 at 4:35am

Does the result have to be a surface (polysurface? trimmed surface?) or can it also be a mesh?

David Rutten

david@mcneel.com

Permalink Reply by Skyduo on November 25, 2013 at 4:38am

Hi David,

Thank you for your reply.

I think mesh is fine. Since 3d printing it needed to be meshed.

Sky

Permalink Reply by David Rutten on November 25, 2013 at 4:40am

Then Kangaroo with an inflation force may work. I'm currently unable to load Kangaroo (version conflicts which I'm trying to resolve), but I might be able to see if it works in a bit.

If anyone else is willing to take this on in the meantime I'd be grateful...

David Rutten

david@mcneel.com

Permalink Reply by Skyduo on November 25, 2013 at 5:14am

Hi David,

I have found a script which uses the kangaroo force (attached). But I am not sure how to control the mesh, its currently shifting all around.

The script only work with old version of grasshopper though.

Sky

Attachments:

fabricform_test.gh, 15 KB

Permalink Reply by David Stasiuk on November 25, 2013 at 5:34am

Skyduo, can you supply the starting geometry? It looks like you have a collection of base surfaces in mind. It would be much easier to help you model it if you could attach it.

Permalink Reply by Skyduo on November 25, 2013 at 5:39am

Hi David Stasiuk,

Thank you for your help and reminder~

Attached is the model~

Sky

Attachments:

geometry to blob.3dm, 930 KB

Permalink Reply by David Stasiuk on November 26, 2013 at 4:07am

Hi Skyduo...There are definitely going to be several challenges with the model you're working with. The chief one is related to how you can effectively convert your existing panels into working baseline elements. A lot of it comes down to their initial construction: you've built a brep and trimmed out a series of sub-domains.

It looks to me that the best route in general for you to take will be to follow the mesh inflation strategy that David has set up. But the most effective way to make this happen will be for you to start with clean meshes. I would highly recommend taking the time to build your model as a set of quad meshes. It looks like most of your panels can be rationalized this way pretty quickly, but some others cannot. I would take the time to identify those that can't and set up collections of perimeter curves comprised of four edges. Then if you feed them in along with those that can already be rationalized as quads, you'll be able to execute a good mesh inflation. Following you'll see first those elements that were (fairly) easy to clean up into four-edge surfaces and second those that will need special treatment. Also you can see what the result is after the inflation of each successfully captured panel.

Attachments:

inflate.gh, 25 KB

Permalink Reply by Vicente Soler on November 26, 2013 at 9:52am

I used part of David Stasiuk definition for an alternative fake way of "inflating" using Weaverbird's Catmull Clark component without having to use Kangaroo.

I added an extra goodie of converting the mesh to a NURBS surface in case you need it that way (if not, you can connect directly the Catmull Clark component to the Surface Morph).

What David says about rationalizing your model is even more important using this method. With Kangaroo you could at least inflate an ugly mesh from a trimmed surface, but it's not really ideal.

Attachments:

inflate 002.gh, 83 KB

Permalink Reply by Jesus Galvez on November 26, 2013 at 11:33am

Vicente, I think you forgot to add the boundary.

Permalink Reply by Vicente Soler on November 26, 2013 at 11:47am

That's strange, GH should automatically convert the rectangle to a surface when connected to a surface parameter.

Was it returning an error in your computer?

(btw, GH is smart enough to create an untrimmed surface in this case, I don't think it has always behaved like this)

Permalink Reply by Jesus Galvez on November 26, 2013 at 12:00pm

This is what happened upon opening.

When using the boundary component, parts of the surface are not "cushioned".

By the way, removing the vertices of a curve that are not in its corners sucks. This has been posted many times. When is someone going to come up with a component that does it automatically :D