3d Voronoi again...

Hi guys,

I know there must be like a million discussions about generating a 3d voronoi model in grasshopper, and Im sure some of you must have done it like a thousand times,

but I really need your help.

The only thing I found is Dimitrie's post, which is using the qhull tool.

I couldnt figure it out, for some reason it didnt work on my computer.

I know that the new version on grasshopper contains a 2d Voronoi option, do you have any suggestions on how to create a full 3d Voronoi model?

(And not just to extrude the 2d surface)

I really hope you can help me, its really frustrating...

Lim.

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Permalink Reply by Wiet Mazairac on September 3, 2010 at 6:11am

I created a 3D Voronoi script myself. It still has a few bugs, so it's not suitable to upload here.

Maybe there are some plugins available to create a 3D Voronoi. You could download and install these. I believe some components were made to easily make a 3D Voronoi.

Another approach could be to create your own 3D Voronoi component. That's what I tried to do. You first have to come up with an algorithm. You could think out one by yourself or you could start from an already existing algorithm, for example the line sweep method. After you've got you algorithm you can try to translate the algorithm to a Grasshopper definition or to a script.

So I think various approaches are possible.

What is your goal? Only the creation of a 3D Voronoi or is it a starting point for something else?

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Permalink Reply by Péter Romvári on September 3, 2010 at 6:56am

Dimitrie's tool worked for me. In this post you can download the zip file (so far seems the latest):
http://www.grasshopper3d.com/forum/topics/3d-voronoi-1
You need to enter the code and change the path inside. Also Dimitrie sais to add System.dll version 2.o as a referenced assembly. If I add it, it doesn't work, if I do nothing, it just works fine.

You can also try this:
http://wiki.mcneel.com/labs/pointsetreconstruction

Hope it helps.

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Permalink Reply by Wiet Mazairac on September 3, 2010 at 6:59am

I just tried qhull again. First I could not get it working, but now I do.
As stated above, the reference assembly list has to be empty. Otherwise it will not work.

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Permalink Reply by leslie mignin on April 4, 2011 at 12:53pm

What version of grasshopper are you using to make this work? I have tried both the old and new versions and my qhull box remains red!

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Permalink Reply by Aaron Coffman on September 3, 2010 at 4:52pm

I have a pretty good 3d voronoi script that I used in my scripting class. I have to go through my externals to find my final files but I can try to explain it.

My method included using the pointsetreconstruction plugin for rhino which allows you to create a 3d voronoi system. From there I exploded the model to get each individual voronoi cell and I entered them into grasshopper as multiple breps. Then I exploded the breps into their comoponents and used a custom vbscript to remove all overlapping faces and edges (you dont really need to do this tho). Then offset the edges in on each surface and fillet them. To get the penetrations in the faces just intersect the faces with the inset edges and that should work. For my script I just used it on a basic 4-sided rectangular form. It will work for custom "organic" shapes but I can't figure out how to create non-coplanar faces in grasshopper; the inside cells come in just fine but the outside ones will be missing.

Pointsetreconstruction plugins are probably your best bet IMO just because you can easily create the 3d voronoi structure and begin to delete random cells then just put them all into grasshopper and make your structure, faces, etc.

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Permalink Reply by LGHRDSGN on September 4, 2010 at 1:40am

Hi guys,

Thanks for all your wonderful answers!
I'll try them and see which is best for me.

Aaron- I actually tried what you suggested a few months ago, with a different project I was working on, and used the pointsetreconstruction plugin to create different kinds of spatial models. The problem I got with this tool is that it is restricted only to orthogonal structures, since it puts the Voronoi in a cage like structure.

For this project Im working on Im trying to create something like this amazing work of Neri Oxman -
http://revminds.seedmagazine.com/img/photo_oxman_03.jpg

Do you have any idea on how to create this sort of spatial structure with a 3D Voronoi cells?

Thanks and have a great weekend!
Lim.

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Permalink Reply by Andrew Kudless on September 6, 2010 at 11:06am

Lim,

That is actually NOT a 3D voronoi geometry. Think of it more as 2.5D as it is really just a 2D cellular pattern mapped across a 3D surface. I did a similar thing years ago here:
http://matsysdesign.com/category/projects/voronoi-morphologies/

Back when I did this I had to write my own qhull-rhinoscript connection but now you can just use David's built-in 2D grasshopper voronoi and then map the points from XY space to UV space on a surface.

Andrew

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Permalink Reply by Tommy Zhou on September 22, 2010 at 10:57pm

Hi Andrew,

Do you think we can do something like this model with 2D voronoi in grasshopper?

http://matsysdesign.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/06/IMG_4339_mod1-59...
http://matsysdesign.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/06/drawings_01_voro...

Actually, I find one definition from dimitrie's blog.
http://dimitrie.wordpress.com/2009/05/01/3d-voronoi-in-grasshopper/

But I really want to control these cells within a bounding box, just like what you have done. I am quite new to grasshopper, I am really not sure what to start with if I want to write a definition for this.

Thanks,
Tommy

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Permalink Reply by Tommy Zhou on September 22, 2010 at 11:21pm

Hi Andrew,

I mean I am not sure I should start with try to write this definition in grasshopper. Or actually I do need to learn VB or C# coding?

Tommy

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Permalink Reply by leslie mignin on April 4, 2011 at 12:54pm

Lim- Did you ever figure this out? I have been reading the same threads over and over again and cannot seem to make a definition work for me! qhull remains red!

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Permalink Reply by RWNB on April 4, 2011 at 1:29pm

try this.

http://www.grasshopper3d.com/forum/topics/voronoi-2

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Permalink Reply by Andrew Heumann on April 4, 2011 at 1:34pm

Hi Leslie -

Glad to see some other Cornellians active on the board :) When I got your email believe it or not I was already composing a response!

If you follow the instructions on this page exactly: http://dimitrie.wordpress.com/2009/05/01/3d-voronoi-in-grasshopper/, the one step that remains is to right-click the qhull script component, choose referenced assemblies, and then REMOVE the selected assembly from the list.

If that doesn't work, try the attached edited version of the script component. Just make sure you update the Path to wherever you downloaded qhull.

Attachments: