PanelingTools GH Add-On

Parametric tools to create and manipulate rectangular grids, attractors and support creative morphing of parametric patterns.


This is a BETA version and works only with the latest Rhino 5.0 BETA on Windows 32 & 64 Bit.

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  • James Lam

    Thanks, Rajaa,

    I got it solved, I rename to zip file, unzip, and see the win32 folder, then copy to appdata folder, then works

     

    Thanks again

  • Rajaa Issa

    You should not have to do that.  It must be a bug in the installer.  

    Can you please do the following:

    1. Open Windows Explorer
    2. Paste "%appdata%\McNeel\Rhinoceros\5.0\logs" in the address bar
    3. Press Enter
    4. Send the newest several "PanelingTools*.log" files to brian@mcneel.com and copy me rajaa@mcneel.com - We'll figure out why the installer is failing on your computer.
  • Brian Ringley

    I just added Paneling Tools to AEC-APPS http://aec-apps.com/app/app/paneling-tools

  • Kevin Hinz

    Hi Rajaa,

    I've successfully loaded the PT Toolbars given the instructions below.

    Do you have a recommendation for installing the PT Tools drop-down menu in a R5 Educational?

    The PanelingTools drop-down was successfully working in the R5 Evaluation and R5 Beta.

    Thanks in advance for the tip.

    _kevin

  • Rajaa Issa

    Hi Kevin,
    Did you install PT?
    If you did, then the plugin should be loaded when you open a new session and you'll see the drop down menu.
    Are you at least able to access the PT commands if you type their name in the command line?
  • Kevin Hinz

    Hi Rajaa,

    It seems that I did not achieve a clean uninstall of Rhino 5 Beta and Rhino 5 Evaluation before attempting PT access. Also, I tried a re-start before replying here.

    Although removing everything via my Programs and Features, there were still remnants of shortcuts and folders on the desktop and in the All Programs menu. I inadvertently used one of these shortcuts, thinking they were new.

    At least one of these shortcuts pointed to the Rhino 5 Education in the Program Files (x86) folder; PanelingTools does not work here but does function in Rhino 5.0 (64-bit).

    The PT toolbars will load into Rhino 5.0 (x86) but not function; perhaps it requires a 32bit PT install.
    Everything shows up as expected in the Educational Rhino 5.0 (64-bit).

    Thank you for the help.

    _kevin

  • Rajaa Issa

    Hi Kevin,

    PanelingTools installs both 32 and 64 bit.  I also can see that the 32bit is not loading for the released product. We'll fix that.
    For now, you'll need to go to PluginManager inside a new session of Rhino 32bit, and load the plugin from:
    C:\Users\[USER]\AppData\Roaming\McNeel\Rhinoceros\5.0\Plug-ins\PanelingTools {6CAED836-BC06-4EBC-B1FD-E10886A0DC94}\2012.8.29.114\Win32

    Let me know if this works now.

  • Kevin Hinz

    Perfect!  The Win 32 file path makes sense.I appreciate your help.

    _k

  • Friedrich Pei

    Hi, Rajaa, thank you for the nice plugin.

    been exploring PT-GH recently, just wondering how to morph a surfaces to a grid. you see we can morph curves to a grid. how to morph surface without using morph 3D?

  • Rajaa Issa

    Hi Friedrich,

    Try ptOrient component.  See the following example.

    Is that what you are looking for?

  • Friedrich Pei

    Hi Rajaa,

    Just had a try, worked pretty well. exactly what i'm looking for. Thank you.

  • Adam Castelli

    It seems that if I create a surface from lofting closed curves and then use paneling tools to create a grid and then shift it using one of the attractor components (e.g. mean curvature), then the cellulate component does not work properly. The points seem to get reordered in the process of moving from the regular grid to the moved grid causing the cellulate not to work. Any solution to this?

  • Rajaa Issa

    Hi Adam,

    I ran quick test for open and closed loft and could not duplicate the bug you are seeing.  Can you please send an example my way?  You can email it directly to me if you need to keep it confidential.
    Here is what I am seeing:

    attracted_closed_loft.png

  • Adam Castelli

    Hi Rajaa, thanks for the quick reply. Attached is a screenshot.

     

  • Rajaa Issa

    Adam, I see it and it looks like a bug.  Thanks.

  • Ali Bousta

    Hello dear members of the Paneling tools members..... i am happy to share my first work b the Paneling Tools plugin......and it seems intersting tool for Rhinoceros...also i dont use Grasshooper ...but only by seting points on Surfaces ( 2 surfaces ) as the first surface is the offset of the second  .....and i get that results.

    -----------> in the next time I'll do good examples so the surfaces are totally different  

  • Ali Bousta

    a new composition of a wall

  • Ali Bousta

    a shell by the same module

  • Ali Bousta

    a shell only by paneling tools commands on rhino interface without Grasshooper

  • Rajaa Issa

    That is really nice Ali.

    Feel free to post your work in a new discussion topic so you can get comments sent directly to you.  Also you can add your photos to the gallery and tag them "PanelingTiools" to show in the PT gallery as well.

    Thanks.

  • Ali Bousta

    ok Ms Rajaa Issa

  • Chad Greenlee

    Hey everyone,

    I am new to paneling tools and I am looking for a way to rebuild a complex surface into planar pieces. I am currently having two issues

    1. When I import the surface and use "surface domain number" it divides each surface separately  is there a way to have it divide the object as a whole rather than separate surfaces?

    2. Is there another way to rebuild this as planar surfaces where the gap between surfaces is not as extreme? I have been using "generate flat" faces, and it technically does what I want, but I would like to find a way to minimize the gap without sacrificing to much of the geometry. 

    I have attached the two files I have been working with, anything helps!

    Test%20Panel%20Surface.3dm

    Paneling%201.gh

  • Ali Bousta

    Hello freind....ithink that this is what do look for.TestPanelSurface%20unroling.3dm......also each edge on the 3d complex surface is labled on the 2d pieces

  • Ali Bousta

    i uplod the developed surfaces on the 3dm file

  • wang wei

    after install the file 'PanelingTools_2013_04_25_00.rhi

  • Rajaa Issa

    Hi wang, were you trying to open a file in Grasshopper?
    Can you email me the details (rajaa@mcneel.com).

  • RubenV

    I have the same problem, when i try to execute it, it just open Rhino 4.0, although i have installed 5.0. What can i do? The installer is a .rhi file.. and i can't execute it

  • Rajaa Issa

    Hi Ruben,

    We are working on fixing the installer bugs, and we need your help. nIf you have any problem installing, please email the following to Brian (brian@mcneel.com):

    - Your operation system

    - Version of Rhino,

    - Description of error or error message,-

    - The PanelingTools log (if plugin is installed, but not loaded).  The log is  located in: %APPDATA%\mcneel\rhinoceros\5.0\logs

    Thanks.

  • 筑梦NARUTO

    Very good plug-in

  • Muhammad Rehan

    hey Rajaa Issa... i have downloaded the rhino 5 evaluation version. i am not getting the panelling tool bar in rhino 5 as i have no idea what should i do with" .rhi" formate file... so i just drag it but it gives the error.... help

  • Muhammad Rehan

    i am using the panelling tool on grasshopper but it seems something is going wrong in this... whenever i drag the PLANAR GRID or another grid it does n`t become visible in rhino...

  • Rajaa Issa

    Hi Muhammad,

    The rhi file is a Rhino 5 installer.  You need to double click on the file and install PT.

  • Rajaa Issa

    Muhammad,

    Please make sure you have the latest GH version and verify that from the GH/Help/About.

    Also, I can see from your message that you do not have the latest PT. Please install the latest and let us know if you still have trouble.

  • Muhammad Rehan

    hey thanks i had a problem in my computer(because i have formatted it) some thing was missing so i figure it out by installing it in my laptop and yes! it works perfectly well...

    thanks for your consideration 

  • Darren Chang

    Hi, I'm relatively new to PT. I am applying PT to a curtain-wall that has a slanted edge, but I want perfect rectangular panels except the edge ones will be trimmed. So I had to apply first to a cw that has a straight edge to get the rectangular partition, and trim off the edge panels manually. Can PT automatically generate rectangular partition (instead of trapezoidal) on non-rectangular surfaces? Please see the attached image.

    Thanks in advance

  • Rajaa Issa

    Hi Darren,

    It can depend on your surface, but in general you should be able to do that.  Feel free to post the file in a discussion or email directly to me and I can walk you though the process.

  • Darren Chang

    Hi Rajaa,

    I have attached the rhino file of a tower I'm designing and the GH file. In the rhino file, you will see I have two CW panels: a 2D one with simple lines, and a 3D one with meshes. I'm just using the 2D one for now to save computing power. My issues are:

    1. How to subdivide a non-rectilinear surface (curved or not) with equal spacing into rectilinear subdivisions, like what happens on most buildings? (What I'm doing now is to use a rectilinear surface (on the Default layer), subdivide it, then manually trim the CW panels.)

    130918_tower%20paneling%20test.gh

    2. Instead of just specifying the number of divisions in the U and V directions, can I also specify the distance b/w each sub-division?

    Sorry I just realized my rhino file is too large to be attached here. If you want to see it, I can use drop-box or something. But the idea is the same regardless which rhino file we use.

    Thank you!

    Darren

  • Rajaa Issa

    Hi Darren,

    Please send me the Rhino file using:http://www.rhino3d.com/upload

    Upload to rajaa@mcneel.com

  • Darren Chang

    Rajaa, done uploading :)

  • Sushant Verma

    Hi,

    I am getting this weird error with 2 missing components! I have tried to download the latest version and re-installing but it still comes up as i open my old definition. Any fix for this? See Image.

    Many Thanks

  • Rajaa Issa

    Hi Sushant,

    Can you please check and post the GH version and PT version?

    To check the PT version, drag the ptVersion component (under PanelingTools->Param menu). It should be 2013.5.8.0. Also make sure you have 0.9.0061 GH version (GH->Help->About).

    Let me know how it goes.

  • Sushant Verma

    Hi Rajaa,

    Thanks for the quick response. Well - I noticed that ptVersion component is also missing. I think I know why this happened - I had copied an old 'gha' file into my new system and hence everything got jumbled up.

    Now I deleted all the existing PT data in AppData folders and it works perfectly fine after the new installation.

    Thank you very much for the help.

     

    Just wondering - is there an easy way of UNINTALLING PT, as opposed to finding the plug in files and deleting them? It might be a good idea to include an uninstaller with the setup as the plugin doesnt appear in the Conrol Panel programs. (This was my observaion -it may be specific to my PC though).

  • Kaz

    Hello Raja

    is there any way to fit the pattern to the surface edges ...the surface i am trying to pannel is irregular so i used trim grid component , but the results are not satisfying , thanks for your help 

    regards 

    pa1.gh

    PA1.3dm

  • Rajaa Issa

    Hi Mark,

    There is no trimming support yet in the PT-GH, but there is one for the PT-Rhino. I will add to the list the ability to support trimming in PT-GH.

    In the attached, I baked the component and the grid, then used ptPanelGridCustom with base surface, and PullCurves=Yes.  I hope that helps for now.

    pa1_RI.gh

    PA1_RI.zip

  • Kaz

    that was helpful , thank you Rajaa !

  • Iain Blampied

    Hi Rajaa,

    Does PT GH support hexagon grids. I'm attempting to form a hex grid on a sphere but am having issues with the seam of the sphere and was hoping PT would help but can't seem to find any signs of hexagon grids as of yet.  Thanks for any help 

  • Rajaa Issa

    Check this discussion about how to populate a hex pattern on a rectangular grid.
    http://www.grasshopper3d.com/forum/topics/question-apply-custom-pat...

    If you need further help, please post a sample.
  • khaleefa Al hemli

    hi all can you please help me I am try to panel a surface with this patter but I dont know how to create it with paneling tools

    I really need to know how to make asp help any one one

  • Nuru Karim

    Hello Rajaa,
    I am having an issue with assigning a number of panels to the Planar grid component ( morph 2D list ). There is  a loss in geometry. Is it be-cos of the complexity of the pattern ?

  • Rajaa Issa

    Hi Kuru, Can you please share the model?