Continuing with the experimentation and research of honeycomb morphologies and a as example for a Workshop I gave recently I developed a Grasshopper tool for creating a responsive skin system ,using my previous VB script component for creating honeycomb patterns.
This definition has some responsive properties,It changes the size of apertures of each individual hexagonal cell or panel depending on a simple context analysis ,to do this I used a piece of a definition of Zubin Mohamad Khabazi book for making an angle comparison between an environmental vector (in this case a single curve determined by an user) and the surface normal vector from the center of each hexagon , in this way when the difference between angles is small it would mean that panel will receive light in a more direct way so the tool will put a closed panel and when the difference between the angles is big ( the user can also control this parameter) the tool will place an open panel.
Besides this functionality I wanted to find a way for using Grasshopper data and integrate it with Tsplines to create a single an smooth skin so I configured the definition to create meshed structures besides the normal Nurbs surfaces , so I can convert this mesh structure into a T Spline,for being able to do this this I had to bake separately each part of the mesh structure , and join them on the Rhino environment, I also had to use the Mesh Repair Plugin to get a final Mesh without errors so I can then transform it to TSplines and smooth it.
Hope you find it useful I´ll keep working with this one , got some ideas for implementing it on a product design lets see where it goes.
The mesh obtained from the Grasshopper definition for convert it to TSplines
Screenshot from the Mesh already converted to TSplines for organic surfacing
Responsive Skin Rhino #GH3D from Rodrigo Medina on Vimeo.
Preparing the model .stl file for print it with ZCorp technology
Applying resin to the printed Model
3d printed test model
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File Name:ResponsiveHoneycombPanels.ghx
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Jamie
Hey, great website, and another great script.
I am only just getting to grips with Grasshopper, so this is providing a good chance to experiment!
I can get to the same stage as your video, ie, a surface with the geometry on, but i would love to be able to test our university 3d printer, how do i go from the geometry on the curve, to a seperate entity with a thickness that i can .stl?
Any advice would be greatly recieved, and hopefully fairly straightforward!
Cheers
J
Apr 15, 2010 @ 9:21 am
Rodrigo
Hi Jamie thanks for your words they mean a lot , I would recommend you to downlad the .ghx file wich is a more complete definition than the one in teh video the final output is a group of meshes you can join to create a structure with thickness you´ll have to use de repair mesh plugin (link above) for correcting errors on the mesh then you are ready to go you can transform directy that mesh into .stl or first smooth it using TSplines afaster way to do this is by simply transforming the surfaces you already have into meshes , then convert them to Tsplines and use the “tsThicken” command.
Apr 17, 2010 @ 8:16 pm
Rory
Hi Rodrigo,
Firstly I want to say nice work!? I haven’t seen grasshopper and Tsplines used together before. The results are great! I seem to be having similar problems to Jamie. I have downloaded the latest version of your .ghx (responsive_honeycomb_morphologies.ghx)but tSpline still is not liking the file. I have put it through Mesh Repair but I can’t seem to join all the elements in Rhino without getting “bad mesh” all the time!? How do you fix the your models in mesh repair? Do you join the mesh in rhino before or after putting it through Mesh Repair? Also…Am I right in saying that once the I get “good mesh” in Mesh Repair I will just be able to hit “Convert” in Tsplines before smoothing it!? Some tips would be much appreciated as this script could really add something to my current university project.
Thanks. Keep up the great work!
Rory
May 11, 2010 @ 9:19 pm
Fredrik
Wow, this was nice!
We are planing to use Grasshopper for design optimization in product design, and the hexagon pattern work you did is very interesting in to me.
Best,
Fredrik
May 12, 2010 @ 3:02 am
Rodrigo
Hi Fredrick , glad you find this aproach interesting I do believe integrating this kind of patterns on product design has lots of potencial.
May 12, 2010 @ 12:48 pm
Rodrigo
Hi Rory and china blue , I think I know why your´re getting a bad mesh I forgot to mention about erasing the inner contours meshes , I ´ll try to make a video showing how to do that , however ther is a simpel way to generate the topology by just backing the upper part of the definition , the joining the meshes , transform the to TSplines and then use the TSthicken command to give your topology the thickness you want
May 14, 2010 @ 6:13 pm
china blue
Rodrigo I succeeded in wrapping the mesh over an elongated sphere but ended up with a problem. Not all of the hexes touch at the closing point because of the hex size issue (overall size is too big to create a new layer). Thus I have a gap. Since I do not want to make them smaller to fit is there a way to program them to touch via a grasshopper (if/then) or force connecting them via Rhino? If scaleing occurrs that is ok. Can send image but no option here.
May 22, 2010 @ 1:32 pm
Danny
Hi,
Really awesome tutorial, i’m just starting out with Grasshopper also! you have inspired me to look further deep into the ideology of skins. Planning on doing a project on it now!
Anyways cool site as well!
Aug 12, 2010 @ 6:03 am
Rodrigo
Thanks Danny , great you find it useful !!
Aug 12, 2010 @ 1:43 pm