Minimal Surface

Hei,

I'm tring to do a structure similar to the one in the photo but i cannot really reach my purpose, i've tried with Geometry Gym but without result. Someone told me to try use metaball but i don't have really any idea of it's works.

Any Idea!!!!!

Attachments:

dzn_Fatty-Shell-1.jpg, 36 KB

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Permalink Reply by David Rutten on December 6, 2010 at 12:16pm

I think they may have meant something akin to the attached files.

--
David Rutten
david@mcneel.com
Seattle, WA

Attachments:

metaball slices.3dm, 26 KB
metaball slices.ghx, 63 KB

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Permalink Reply by alex webb on October 15, 2011 at 1:02pm

is there a good way to get a surface out of these curves?

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Permalink Reply by Giozzi on December 6, 2010 at 12:56pm

Yep danke....
it can work, but i' not sure that with metaball i can control all the paremeters i need. Because i need to project a bridge in funciotn of the strenght on the structure and light....DO u have any other idea??
Thanks

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Permalink Reply by Vicente Soler on December 6, 2010 at 1:05pm

The easiest way would be using mesh subdivs. The weaverbird plugin for grasshopper has a component for this. The downside is that you don't have very precise control over the final shape.

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Permalink Reply by Giozzi on December 6, 2010 at 1:15pm

Yea, the problem is i really need to optimize a structure, so i need the most control possible, now i'm trying both with voronoi and kangaroo plug-in, but it's going to be difficult...:-)

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Permalink Reply by Giulio Piacentino on December 6, 2010 at 3:29pm

Ciao Giozzi,

se cerchi precisamente una superficie minima, in realtà, non hai poi molta scelta sulla superficie in sé - puoi cambiare le curve di partenza (anche nella forma di ancoraggi, ecc) o la connessione delle parti. Quelle forme nella foto sembrano abbastanza minime se non per le parti che sono, appunto, "fatty", grassottelle (questa parola nel contesto è divertente!)

Un approccio non minimo potrebbe essere con la suddivisione di una mesh più grossolana, per esempio con WeaverBird. Posto un esempio. Potresti poi rilassare questa o un altra mesh non minima, per esempio con Kangaroo, ed il plug-in minimizzerà le tensioni.
La parte più difficile è modellare una mesh di partenza. Alcuni comandi che ti potrebbero servire sono _3dFace, _Join, _UnifyMeshNormals e _DeleteMeshFace. Spero ti sia utile.

- Giulio

Edit: tra l'altro, potresti anche provare ad usare T-Splines per costruire questo oggetto.

Attachments:

suddivisione.3dm, 131 KB

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Permalink Reply by taz on December 6, 2010 at 8:40pm

That looks like fabric formed concrete. Like Giulio says, it's not the same thing as a minimal surface. The fatty bits appear to be locations where the volume of concrete has stretched the forming fabric.

Do you have any details on the specifics of the construction sequence? It would be interesting to see since (unless the photo has been photoshopped) there has to be some rebar in there to allow it to stand up under it's own weight...

A reference link for you:

http://umanitoba.ca/architecture/cast/research/fabric_formwork/inde...