rhinoscripting playground

Robotic Arm Fabrication

2010-11-16T15:31:00.000-08:00

Radlab is currently hosting and conducting a new course exploring robotic arm fabrication for architectural applications. You can visit the course blog here.

Armstrong Teasdale Rhino Script

2010-04-20T13:23:00.000-07:00

This is a script that was written at Radlab for CW Keller, enabling them to CNC mill a series of compound curved surfaces by subdividing them into horizontal, sectional ribs.

Architecture Competition

2010-02-27T08:43:00.000-08:00

I'm running an architecture competition.

http://allthatglittersisgood.tumblr.com/

The rules are simple.
Submit any drawing that is 1.) of architecture 2.) uses glitter and win $500 USD. All you have to do is upload a picture of your drawing. (The jury is also pretty rad.)

WIT // SP10

2010-01-23T20:13:00.000-08:00

Well, we've kicked off the spring semester of Design Computing and Digital Fabrication at Wentworth. This semester we're thrilled to have sponsorships from Z Corporation, Epilog Laser, and it looks like Au Bon Pain is going to sponsor the final review with delicious coffee and pastries! Thank you all for your wonderful support. It's going to be an exciting semester.

WIT // FA09

2009-12-21T16:30:00.000-08:00

Below are some samples of work from the Design Computing and Digital Fabrication class at Wentworth (WIT) this fall. Further details of the projects can be seen on the class blog. Most of the models were built using Zcorp 3d printing at Radlab. Rhino was used as the primary modeling software, in conjunction with Rhinoscripting and Grasshopper.

Adams Pendant

2009-04-27T21:51:00.001-07:00

At Radlab we recently completed a light pendant, and for both the process of generating design possibilities, and for solving issues of fabrication, vbscript for Rhino helped enormously. I've included some process images and photographs that we didn't post to the website.

Custom designed for a private residence in Southern California, the twin lanterns serve as hanging center pieces for the main gathering space. Given the height at which they were to be positioned and the space they were intended to illuminate, the goal of the design was to elicit a continuous fluidity of light and motion around each pendant. By developing an algorithm that referenced a volume, an external 'point' of view, and an array of surface control vertices, a textured volume of non-repetitive sections was achieved. A selection of unique isoparametric curves that undulate in both latitude and longitude were then sampled to produce the resultant form.

New Workshop

2009-03-13T19:04:00.000-07:00

I'm going to be teaching a new workshop in Rhinoscripting geared towards architects in Portland with Kenfield Griffith.

I'll be updating the workshop progress and outcome here. Kenfield is currently setting up a class site with all the materials, most will probably be very familiar to anyone who's taken a workshop with us.

Radlabinc.com is live

2008-12-20T14:30:00.001-08:00

We have at last launched the website for Radlab, Inc. There are still a few projects that we need to upload and texts we are going to revise/rewrite, but for the most part it's there. Garett Hwang and I designed the site, and Themba Nyathi did all of the programming. Needless to say, we're very glad to have it up and running. Let us know if you need a hand with any rhinoscripting projects. If you check out the website at radlabinc.com, I would very much appreciate your opinions and observations. Oh, and Radlab is moving! Our new address is 25 Drydock Ave, Boston, MA 02210, and the official move in date is Feb. 1, 2009. Merry Christmas!

L-Systems

2008-09-12T10:29:00.000-07:00

This has been a Rhino week.

On Wednesday, I met with David Rutten, who's just as brilliant as you might expect from his work. He's an architect turned programmer (ahem), but he's one those cases where he's actually a very very good programmer. He showed me a beta version of Grasshopper, formerly called the Explicit History Plugin, which is a visual programming language (using boxes and arrows-- much like Yahoo pipes) for parametrics in Rhino.

Then my former teacher and mentor, Meejin Yoon, asked me to put together some scripts and images of my old work for her tenure packet. The script required some man-handling to get working. It's quite ugly, but here it is if you want it.

I was thinking it might be cool to remake these L-Systems in Grasshopper. If you do it, send me a link!

Anyway, here are the pretty pictures.

More pics here.

RhinoScript 101

2008-04-25T19:10:00.000-07:00

This has been out for a few months, but anyone who's learning RhinoScript should check out David Rutten's RhinoScript 101. It's a great resource and gets you up to speed on scripting in v4.

Post Scripting Questions Here

2008-02-25T16:25:00.000-08:00

A few students have asked me script related questions after the workshop. This is a special post (thread) for some of those questions.

The Final Presentations

2008-02-10T19:52:00.000-08:00

The students worked very hard over the six days of the workshop to both learn Rhinoscripting and design something intelligent and meaningful. Although these are still works-in-progress, they've succeeded in the types of provocations that are the hallmark of good design. Congratulations!
~John Snavely

Here are the projects in no particular order:

GROUP I
TEAM: Sergio Araya, Duks Koshitz, Garrett Hwang, Yuchen Liu
Danzer Variations

This project attempted to design a Rhinoscript algorithm for generating Danzer tiles. Using an iterative search and sort approach, the team assembled various tile arrangements.

DOWNLOADS: FULL PRESENTATION (PDF) | SCRIPT (RVB)

GROUP II
TEAM: Lin Yang, Aydin Oztoprak, Masoud Akbarzadeh, Ayodh Vasant Kamath, Gabriel Cira
Expandable Tessellation

The second group designed a 3D solid/structure composed of expandable surfaces. The strategy was to build a unit surface which transforms into a larger one under controlled forces.

DOWNLOADS: FULL PRESENTATION (PDF) | SCRIPT (RVB)

GROUP III
TEAM: Leslie Lok, Alyssa Wright, Sonia Klemperer-Johnson
Performance Glassware

This project sought to re-conceptualize a drinking glass as a mass rather than a single surface. Once thought of as a mass with a gradient of permeability, the glass can have new performance qualities of cooling, straining, and liquid mixing.

DOWNLOADS: FULL PRESENTATION (PDF) | SCRIPT I (RVB) | SCRIPT II (RVB)

Review

2008-01-30T09:39:00.000-08:00

The final review was great! We had a heated discussion at the end of the presentations about the differences between an intuitive vs computational design approach. I hope the debate continues outside the classroom.

Many thanks to our reviewers Kenfield Griffith, Saeed Arida and Tim Danford.

Congratulations everyone on completing the workshop and producing great work. I hope this the beginning of an exploration into digital design. Hopefully, we will have an opportunity to teach this again in the summer or next year, perhaps even at an intermediate level.

I'll be posting the final images and scripts of the three projects in the next few days so stay tuned!

Final Presentations

2008-01-23T10:11:00.000-08:00

Tomorrow we will begin final presentations promptly at 11am, with approximately 30 minutes allocated for each review. Each group should give a 10-15 minute slide presentation that will consist of:

1 :: Clearly described design intentions (a paragraph)
2 :: Sample pseudocode and code (just the important parts of your script, not the entire thing)
3 :: Variations and iterations possible using the script (renderings, animations)
4 :: Photos of any physical prototypes (units and conglomerations)

We will use the remaining time to discuss the project in terms of its successes and failures, and consider what alternatives or additional trajectories might be helpful to consider. You guys have done an enormous amount of work in a very short week, and it's been a pleasure to work with you.

Concept Presentations

2008-01-21T13:40:00.000-08:00

Schematic designs and initial ideas for each group (furniture, architecture, and food), from the presentations on Saturday, are posted below. Everyone is making good progress. There has been some degree of prototyping in every group, but primarily at the level of the unit. We need to move quickly to bring the scripts to a point of completion so we can start producing physical conglomerations. We've got two days left and then final presentations on Thursday. The work looks awesome, and the prospects are high!

Furniture Group

2008-01-21T13:34:00.001-08:00

Architecture Group

2008-01-21T13:09:00.001-08:00

Food Group

2008-01-21T13:05:00.001-08:00

Sunday

2008-01-19T15:33:00.000-08:00

Hey class,

Good work. I spoke with 2 of the groups before the day ended.

1.) Architecture. Duks and I talked about some 3 dimensional aperiodic tiling. It might prove more fruitful than the petagonal stuff. I think that's the way to go.

2.) Furniture. You guys are perfecting your module and demonstrating how it aggregates and also how it might behave parametrically.

3.) Food. I didn't get a chance to talk to you. I think the process you guys described lacks some of the elegance of the concept. Is the cup really just a populated surface? I have some ideas. Let's brainstorm tomorrow.

Tomorrow we start at 11. I'll be working in each group (starting with food) writing code. I did a little of this for the furniture group, but now it's time for everyone to get scripting!

~John

Worksession Animation

2008-01-19T12:01:00.000-08:00


Set Up:
 - Create a folder on C: called Render (it's important that the directory 
   link does not have any spaces (like "C:\Render\")
 - Create two rhino files
 - Red&BlueUnit-01.3dm :: Build a 5x5 red cube at the origin, and a 5x5 
   blue cube adjacent to it
 - Red&BlueField-01.3dm :: INSERT, as a block, the Red&BlueUnit, and then
   make copies of it around the origin, rotating each iteration 90 degrees
 - From the Red&BlueField-01.3dm file, open a worksession, attach 
   Red&BlueUnit-01.3dm, and save the worksession
 - Move back and forth between the files through the worksession, and make 
   sure all layers are turned on.  Setting up a MASTER layer for the blocks 
   may be helpful for visualization, but isn't necessary.


option explicit

'Work in UNIT file
'perform geometric operations on the unit
'save
'access the FIELD

'Work in FIELD file
'update units (blocks) in the field
'Render the field
'Save
'Go back to the UNIT file


Function Parametric_Cubes

 dim Render_Folder: Render_Folder = "C:\Render\"
 dim Count: Count = 3
 dim BlueScale
 dim BlueScale_Origin
 dim i,z
 
 BlueScale = Rhino.Getobject ("Select object to scale.  Pick the polysurface, not the block instance!")
 BlueScale_Origin = Rhino.Getpoint ("Pick point to scale from")
 
 For i = 0 to Count
 
  call rhino.scaleobject (BlueScale, BlueScale_Origin, array(1.5,1.5,1.5))
  
  rhino.command "_save"
  rhino.command "-worksession current Red&BlueField-01 enter enter "
  rhino.command "-blockmanager update all enter enter "
  
  
  z = i+100
  rhino.command "-ScreenCaptureToFile" & " " & Render_Folder & Cstr(z) & ".jpg"
  rhino.command "_save"
  rhino.command "-worksession current Red&BlueUnit-01 enter enter "
 
 Next
 
End Function

Call Parametric_Cubes

3d Grid of Cubes

2008-01-18T13:52:00.001-08:00

option explicit
rhino.clearcommandhistory()

'Rhino v.4 Script for building a 3d grid of cubes,
'9 cubes wide, by 9 cubes long, by 9 cubes high

dim i,j,k
ReDim points (9,9,9)
Dim p1,p2,p3,p4,p5,p6,p7,p8

'create a FOR loop
'loop through a cube

  For i = 0 to 9
      For j = 0 to 9
          For k = 0 to 9
              'store i,j,k
              'rhino.addpoint(array(i,j,k))
              points(i,j,k) = Array(i,j,k)
           
           
          Next
      Next
  Next

  'Take 8 points at a time and draw a cube

  For i = 0 to 8
      For j = 0 to 8
          For k = 0 to 8
              'Draw a cube
              p1 = points(i,j,k)
              p2 = points(i+1,j,k)
              p3 = points(i+1,j+1,k)
              p4 = points(i,j+1,k)
              p5 = points(i,j,k+1)
              p6 = points(i+1,j,k+1)
              p7 = points(i+1,j+1,k+1)
              p8 = points(i,j+1,k+1)
           
              call rhino.addbox(array(p1,p2,p3,p4,p5,p6,p7,p8))
          Next
      Next
  Next

Presentation

2008-01-18T11:06:00.001-08:00

Hey class,

Great work today. Tomorrow each group will present their ideas to the class which will be posted to the website. Here are the requirements for the presentation:

1.) Intention: A paragraph describing your design intent.
2.) Algorithm: A short description (it could be pseudo-code, if you're ambitious) of how you will be using Rhino and Rhinoscript.
3.) Presentation: 5-8 Slides as a pdf.

We meet at 11am and end at 3.

Monkey

2008-01-18T07:18:00.000-08:00

Here's the link for the script editor, Monkey.

Scroll down to "Download the latest version,
Monkey for Rhino4 RC 24th of August 2007"

You have to type in your/an email address, but that should be it.

Next class

2008-01-17T20:01:00.000-08:00

Hey Class,

I haven't posted a homework assignment, since, at the end of the day you all seemed to be doing fine with your own explorations. Keep going and we'll talk about where you are tomorrow.

Lecture tomorrow will only be half the day. For the rest of the time, we'll get into groups and make some headway on defining our projects.

Also, check out Sergio's post on the script editor. It's a lot nicer than the one we've been using.

See you tomorrow!
~John

Agenda for the Week

2008-01-16T12:28:00.000-08:00

First Class

2008-01-14T08:41:00.000-08:00

Our first class will be in Room 9.250 at MIT from 10am to 5pm with a half hour lunch break at noon.

Please have your laptop, assignment 1, and any progress you've made on the design exercises ready to go.

See you soon!

Problems I: Packaging

2007-12-31T08:07:00.000-08:00

(Image from foldschool)

Hey Class! Sorry it's taken me so long to post. This post contains your first assignment. (And some suggestions for those who are ambitious.)

Your First Assignment: Get a copy of Rhino 4. (QED!)

In the meantime, let's start to talk about ideas and applications of tiling and hedral packing.

In your emails to me, most of you wanted to use Rhinoscripting to populate surfaces. If I'm not mistaken, Rhino already has a plug-in to do just that. In addition, Matt and Travis also wrote a script in the first workshop at MIT which also does simple surface population. We're more interested in volumes in this workshop and we're going to try and stay focused on problems which relate to tiling and hedral packing. I've decided to get you started with a few design problems that relate to something we're all familiar with: packaging.

We're going to start out really easy and gradually get harder. You can attempt all or none of these design exercises.

1.) There's a lot of work (buy me that book if you want to get an "A" in class ;) ) already on display or packaging that can be folded and formed from flat packed sheets. (Flat packed sheets can essentially be thought of as 3d tiling of thin rectangular prisms. Once it's inside the assembled packaging, there is also a value in having the product itself be tilable for storage and display.

Design a module that can be cut and assembled from a single flat sheet of material that assembles into a 3d tilable unit.

2.) Some flexibility with flat-packed units could also be useful, perhaps even from a sustainable point of view. Here's a flat packed module that folds into a cube (a box) or a table.

Can you design two modules which interlock yet have the same method of production? (It doesn't necessarily have to be flat-packed.) For example, can you design chairs and tables for a school that are tilable modules?

Hint: It might be helpful to think of one table and two chairs as being a single unit which you can then tile in 3d.

3.) To sell an item, a store owner has to buy both shelving and the product itself. Why can't the shelving and product be the same?

Design a packaging module(s) (no more than 3 modules) such that the packed interior volume can be shelving while the surface/perimeter displays the product in a consistent orientation.

Hint: The difficulty here is that you want a tiling system that can behave in two different ways. Have a look at the links in the previous post which tiling systems might work well together. Try to design the boundaries between the units first. (How many different types of boundaries are there?)

None of these problems are required, just the assignment, but they'll be helpful to think about. If you and a team get far along with one of these problems, during the workshop we could concentrate on how Rhino and fabrication can work together or develop variable/parametric implementations of your solution.

Feel free to work in any material, in any software program, in whatever manner you feel comfortable, but at least try and model your final product/module(s) in Rhino. Work in teams if you can. Please post photos and screenshots here.

For those of you who aren't interested in packaging. I'll be posting another set of problems soon on a different topic seen through the lens of tiling and hedral packing.

Drop me an email if you've got any questions.

A Random Selection

2007-12-02T09:43:00.000-08:00

Image from Bathsheba Sculpture

Here's a few links I'm looking at for tessellation:

Meejin clued me into pentagonal tessellation. (2d but still, very cool). This woman is dope.
http://tessellations.home.comcast.net/~tessellations/

A more formal version is here.
http://www.mathpuzzle.com/tilepent.html

This wikipedia page is a nice catalog of different kinds of hedral tessellations.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Convex_uniform_honeycomb

This set of mathematical surfaces looks interesting.
http://www.susqu.edu/facstaff/b/brakke/evolver/examples/periodic/periodic.html

(That site is from here, which is fun to just wander in.)
http://www.ics.uci.edu/~eppstein/junkyard/

There's a sculptor who uses some of these periodic surfaces in her work.
http://bathsheba.com/

This wikipedia article is nice introduction to aperiodic tiling, which seems to have a lot of possibilities... there's not there on 3d aperiodic tiling.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aperiodic_tiling

There's a ton I haven't looked at. (I haven't even touched Islamic art.) Please add to this!

Tenative Course Description

2007-10-27T17:24:00.000-07:00

Dates: Jan 17-24th, 10am to 5pm
Participants requested to attend all sessions (non-series)
Prereq: Experience with Rhinoceros preferred, but not required.

An intensive 8-day workshop that provides an introduction to Rhinoscripting. The topic of the workshop will be three-dimensional tesselation, exploring hedral and packing patterns as well as their structural, formal and programmatic implications. Since this IAP course will follow a workshop format, the schedule will therefore be structured as a short lecture period covering Rhinoscript basics accompanied by group led research on the topic. This will be a collaborative design charette.

Although the workshop will be skewed toward architectural applications, participants from all disciplines and areas are welcome. The intent is to produce simple, but clever and concise scripts and physical prototypes.

This workshop is open source. All materials, images, and scripts will
be published on http://rhinoscripting.blogspot.com and available for public download.

Rhinoscripting Chile

2007-10-08T18:25:00.000-07:00

Here's a magazine spread for the last workshop we taught in Chile. It's really wonderful to see what the students have produced and read their comments about what the experience meant for them. They worked tremendously hard for a week and half. I am very proud of the work they did. Some of them had never used Rhino. Most had never scripted before.

Please go to www.dma.cl to see the magazine. (Sorry, spanish only!)

Links Etc.

2007-10-06T07:55:00.001-07:00

I reserved this spot a long time ago without writing much in. Well, I've finally gotten into blogging. Soon this spot will have results from a new Rhinoscripting workshop at MIT. For now I've added links to the two workshops I co-taught with Kenfield Griffith, Daniel Cardoso, Pablo Herrera at the Universidad de Chile and the original class at MIT. Enjoy! More coming soon...

For your viewing pleasure I've posted some pics of an old scripting project I did for one of my studios at MIT.

2006-01-28T15:57:00.000-08:00

Coming soon!