Friday 20 August 2010

Tessellation in Grasshopper (Beijing Watercube revisited)


I've started enabling the tessellation (polygon packing) routines in Grasshopper, and the Bejing Watercube is such a great example of using this geometry I thought I'd post the grasshopper version.
Rhino file from here.
Grasshopper definition here.


I've also started implementing some spline variable cell filleting, I'm still looking at options for generating best results.  An improvement on constant radius results.

Thursday 5 August 2010

Three pin Truss

An assignment was set recently at UC Berkeley to model a three pin truss utilized at the previous Eurostar Terminal at Waterloo, London.



A question on how to generate this arrangement was posted on the Grasshopper forum, and I think it is a fantastic example of structure that should be modelled in Grasshopper to achieve the best design possible.

The assignment due date has passed (I hope), so I think it's safe to post how I would use the Geometry Gym plug-ins to model this structure.  This includes a new BullAnt Truss component, that allows you to select the nature of the truss connectivity (at present, Pratt, Warren, Vierendeel and Brown) between two chord curves.  Other truss types are available upon request.

GSA screen Capture

Download AVI from here

Robot screen Capture


Download AVI from here

And the files so you can try for yourself:

Rhino Model (Required for all Grasshopper Definitions)

Grasshopper definition for BullAnt
Grasshopper definition for Oasys GSA
Grasshopper definition for Autodesk Robot
Grasshopper definition for SAP
Grasshopper definition for SDNF (Steel detailing neutral format can be exchanged to BIM software such as Tekla and Digital Project)
Grasshopper definition for Strand7/Straus7
Grasshopper definition for Sofistik

Other software models coming soon, please request to accelerate.

Monday 2 August 2010

Skulpture

Wieland Schmidt recently posted two stunning renders of sculpture produced utlizing Geometry Gym StructDrawRhino routines in Grasshopper3d.  The components for geodesic domes, cell filleting and mesh inflation were used.  Fantastic work Wieland, thanks for sharing and would be nice to see them created in the real world.