you working on a PV system which will power a domestic hot water boiler?
To answer your questions:1) Each grasshopper component (ghpython being one of those too) is using grasshopper's data matching algorithm. This algorithm takes care of complex issues which may arise from combining lists with single items, data trees with different number of items per branch and so on.I think there is a way of introducing a call to other processor's threads per each inputted surface, but this will be a very difficult job, as it will require writing a custom data matching algorithm. I do not think I am up to that task.Instead I tried to introduce the multithread only to the final part of the PVsurface component and one of its time consuming parts: calculation of sun angles, solar radiation and ac/dc power output.I attached the test file below, but sadly it didn't go well: the multithreaded version mostly runs at the same time as the regular version.I do not think I am qualified enough to answer why is that so, but I think that it may have something to do with the type of the function that the multithreading is applied to: the code is suppose to run few separate functions a couple of thousand times, and work with a couple of lists. From my experience, the multithreading works the best when a single list or two are supplied to a single function. I may be wrong on this.I am very sorry to say that I can not implement this feature.2) I am not familiar if open source PV modules database has been released.But one can always download the data for specific modules from producers websites. It can then easily be transferred to a .csv file or other text file.Ladybug Photovoltaics are based on NREL's PVWatts model.In comparison with other commercial software applications, PVWatts offers a more generalized system model, with some of the values and characteristics being assumed or embedded.The Fuentes empirical thermal model we are currently using follows the same logic: it generalizes the Module characteristics. The following characteristics are only editable: module efficiency, temperature coefficient and module mount type.It may be possible to replace Fuentes with some other, less generalized 5 parameter thermal model. But as an architect, I would definitively need help on this.
Sorry if my reply did not fulfill your expectations, and thank you for the kind words!…
r graphics get saved as 24x24 pixel images before they are put into the grasshopper application, which means the icons look like crap when you zoom in. This is the aforementioned problem that needs to be addressed in GH2. There have historically been two approaches to this issue:
Provide pixel images with several sizes.
Render vector graphics directly.
Option 1 is common for apps that do not have variable levels of zoom, such as Windows Explorer. When explorer shows file icons it either shows them in 16x16, 32x32, 48x48, 96x96, or these days, various HUGE sizes. As a result *.ico files allow you put in different images for all these target sizes. Since Grasshopper has variable zoom levels, this is not an ideal solution. Also, it requires a lot more work per icon.
Option 2 is becoming more and more popular as increased graphics speed now allows for the real-time rendering of vector graphics. Yet, you still need a renderer that knows how to draw vector geometry crisply at low sizes. All vector renderers I know just interpolate the geometry linearly and if a line happens to end up 'between pixels' it's just fuzzy.
I don't have hard and fast rules for the icons, but I try to adhere to at least these:
Keep a border of 2 pixels free around the icon content. So basically only use the inner 20x20 pixels rather than the 24x24 you're allowed. This is needed because the drop shadow needs to go there.
Only draw silhouette edges around shapes, not inner creases. Typically a 1-pixel line will do. I prefer to use a dark version of the fill colour rather than black for edges.
Loose curves can be drawn in 1 or 2 pixel thicknesses, depending on how important the curve is.
Try to avoid text in your icons (not always possible).
Stick to 1 colour family per icon, preferably per icon family. You can add highlights with another colour if you must, but too many hues make an icon hard to read (for the example the [Voronoi] icon, it has red, green and blue and it's a bit of a mess, on the other hand [Colour Wheel] has the full spectrum and seems to work quite well...).
Very roughly speaking, if there's both black and red geometry in an icon, it means the red is component input and the black is component output.
Drop shadows are pixel effects, applied to the 24x24 image. They have a blurring radius of 2 pixels, a horizontal offset of 1 pixel to the right, a vertical offset of 1 pixel to the bottom and they are 65% black.
When you use high contrast shapes (for example black edges on a light background) the anti-aliasing provided by vector renderers such as Xara or Illustrator won't be enough to make it look smooth. I'd recommend avoiding high contrast if at all possible, but if not possible then draw a 1-pixel line around the dark bits in 95% transparent black. This effectively extends the anti-aliasing range from 1.5 to 2.5 pixels and it helps make things looks smoother.
--
David Rutten
david@mcneel.com…
s levels of detail by subdividing a 6 sided cube mesh and projecting its vertices according to a referenced height map. This is one of the standard conventions for building full sizes planets. At the lowest level (0) the mesh planet is made of 6 pieces(each 32x32 resolution). The next level down (1) is made of 24 pieces... 6 divided by 4 = 24. Level (2) is 96 quads etc etc. The script will generate each quad at its sub-division level and compare edge vertices to neighboring quads. It will then make sure any shared vertices are in fact at the same projected vector. This ensures a planet quad with edge vertices that match.
The problems comes in texturing each quad.
If I build the quad as a nurb surface from points I can place the texture easily because each surface UV maps squarely to my texture map (which is also square).
If I build the quad as a mesh I cannot just apply the square texture to the mesh UVs. This is because when you unwrap the UVs from a mesh they will not unwrap like a nurb surface's UVs. Therefore to get the correct mapping I would have to manipulate each UV back to an evenly aligned array (which is 1024 points in a 32x32 resolution UV). Maya and blender have 'relax uv' and 'align UV' functions but they don't do the trick and manual corrections are out of the question. So why not skip the mesh method and use the nurb method?
I did this and there is a trade off. The nurb will accept the material texture I want with no other work on my end but when I export the object as an .obj rhino creates its own mesh to describe the nurb(with various unsatisfactory setting options). This works great up to a point because at some level the interpreted mesh will have vertices that do no match at the edges, ie .. creating visible seams in the mesh. The picture below is the nearly seamless planet at LOD(1) made of 24 quads, each with 32x32 vertice resolution and a 512x512 jpg texture running in Unity3d 5. It works but at close level there are seams. This will be resolved simply by having the next LOD(x) instantiate before getting close enough to see the seam but at core nerd level I want the seamless mesh.
So, I can make the seamless mesh but I can not realistically texture map it. I can also make the nurb surface from points and texture it at the expense of the edge vertices matching. I am at the split in the road but I want to have my cake and eat it too. Thoughts, comments, trolls...?
Thanks for reading =)
Footnote: For you pros I am not using seamless noise across the map I am using grasshopper to sew up my otherwise non perfect edges.
Other programs in the pipeline:
-WorldMachine 2
-Wilbur
-Photoshop
-Unity3d…
:
______________________________________________________________________
As most of you know by now, Grasshopper will be included in Rhino 6 for Windows. We are almost finished with the Grasshopper in Rhino 6 development and you are invited to try it.
There are many enhancements, including:
High DPI displays are now supported.
Compatible with existing Grasshopper plug-ins.
New components including Make2D, Bend, Flow, Maelstrom, Splop, Splorph, Stretch, Taper, and Twist...
GhPython is now included. It features its own GHA compiler and a major node-in-code speed up.
Stable development target: Your plug-ins continue to work each minor Grasshopper upgrade.
RhinoCommon enhanced: More Rhino core functionality is accessible from within Grasshopper.
Developer documentation is online with guides and API references.
Now:
Download the current Rhino WIP for Windows
Try all your existing Grasshopper definitions
Report any problems you find here...
We want to make sure this new Grasshopper works for you. If you have any issues, David needs to hear from you very soon.
Thank you,
- Bob
Visit Grasshopper at: http://www.grasshopper3d.com/?xg_source=msg_mes_network
______________________________________________________________________
So...
Any news about OS X version? Many of us won't use Parallels or whatever win emulator or have a win machine nearby.
Hope you are working at it.
Cheers
gbrl
…
Added by Gabriel Netto at 3:44pm on October 29, 2016
ect + Geco
TUTORS:
Arturo Tedeschi (Authorized Rhino Trainer) + Maurizio Arturo Degni
Il workshop avanzato ECOLOGIC PATTERNS affronta l’impiego di strategie parametriche all’interno del processo progettuale, approfondendo l’utilizzo di Grasshopper in sinergia con plug-in, software di analisi ambientale e simulazione fisica. Obiettivo fondamentale è la generazione della forma come risultato di tecniche di form-finding e di input ambientali (solari, termici e acustici). Verranno acquisiti nuovi strumenti operativi e di simulazione al fine di costruire modelli parametrici ottimizzati in grado di adattarsi a diverse condizioni di contesto.
MORE INFO…
o Common - just like C#. But Rhino Python has a "Scripting Language Wrapper" which breaks commonly used taks down to simpler functions.
Here's a general Example:
Take a look at the code on this website http://wiki.mcneel.com/developer/rhinocommonsamples/addline). Generally it's Rhino Common code in three language to create a line. They look equally difficult.
But if you use Rhino Python Scripting you can use an simplified syntax to get the same result. It's very similar to Rhino Script.
The code would be:
import rhinoscriptsyntax as rsstart_point = rs.GetPoint("Get start point")end_point = rs.GetPoint("Get end point")line_id = rs.AddLine(start_point, end_point)
OK - No Error Tracking here, but still you can see that the syntax is much simpler. (And in the end you just have less lines of code you have to debug.
And the good thing about Rhino Python is, that you can mix these approaches. Once you reach a level where Rhino Python Script doesn't get you there, which by the way happens very rarely, you can still use the Rhino Common methods.
Also, in Python Sycripting 99% of what you probably would like to do is available as a "wrapped" script function.
Rhino Python Script is currently also better documented than Rhino Common for C# and VB.Net. If you have used Rhino VB Script before, these functions will be very familar to you.
I'm not sure, why it's currently a separate plug-in. I belive the reason is that Rhino 4 (which is supported by GH) doesn't support Rhino Python. Also it's currently WIP, so it needed to be updated more frequently than GH itself. In the long run (I believe) it might be integrated into GH as a general component
- Martin
P.S.: To use Rhino Python within GH is a little more tricky than my example - but nothing compared to developing C#
P.S.2 Here's the code with Error Tracking:
import rhinoscriptsyntax as rsdef AddLine(): start_point = rs.GetPoint("Get start point") if start_point is None: print "No start point was selected" return end_point = rs.GetPoint("Get end point") if end_point is None: print "No end point was selected" return line_id = rs.AddLine(start_point, end_point) return line_idAddLine()
…
well, very similar input data must result in wildly different hashes. For example, imagine we have an algorithm which computes hashes of text, and the hashes it computes are all numbers between 0 and 999. We then apply this algorithm to a piece of text:
"When Spring comes back with rustling shade" = 385
So far so good. Now imagine we change the text slightly, for example by removing a single "l":
"When Spring comes back with rusting shade" = 973
Minor change -> very different hash. There are of course way more unique texts than there are numbers between 0 and 999. This must therefore mean that a lot of text will result in the same hash. For example "When Spring brings back blue days and fair." may also result in a hash of 385. Because of the pigeonhole principle, there is nothing to be done about this.
Now for the tricky bit. Hashes are often used to validate executable code. Say your friend James at MI6 sends you a small program that will allow you to eavesdrop on Angela Merkel, and -over the phone- he tells you the hashcode for that application. You can then hash the application yourself, verify that it indeed results in the same hashcode and then you know you can trust the executable.
But now Jack from the FBI intercepts the email and adds a few sneaky lines of code to the original application allowing him to determine from your internet search history with up to 95% accuracy whether you like extra cheese on your pizza. The application has now been tampered with, it can no longer be trusted and you should be able to figure this out as it will no longer result in the same hash code.
But wait! Some hashing algorithms are more secure than others. MD5 is now officially considered to be 'hacked' and it is no longer recommended for doing naughty spying. Specifically, Jack will be able to inject his own code in such a way that it does not result in a different hash. Instead, the SHA family of hashers are to be used, as it is not yet known how to trick these hashers.
This is where the problem comes in, because apparently the US government has forcefully disabled the use of MD5 for all purposes. This is a shame because I use it to quickly compare bitmap icons for identicalness so I only have to store an icon in memory once. There is no security hole due to this, because I'm not hashing secure data. MD5 is somewhat faster than SHA, and since I have to hash several hundred icons on Grasshopper start, I opted for the faster one.
(Very) long story short; you're hosed. Grasshopper uses MD5; USgov does not like; Grasshopper does not run on USgov computers.
I'll do some testing to see if I can switch to SHA and then we can see whether or not that solves the problem. This however will take a while as I'm going on a business trip next week and have yet to prepare my presentations.
--
David Rutten
david@mcneel.com…
Added by David Rutten at 12:06pm on March 31, 2014
size component supported only ground PV panels and angled roof PV panels.
Download the newest PV SWH system size component from here (Click on "View Raw" to download it. Then move the downloaded .ghuser file to File->Special Folders->User Objects Folder, an confirm to overwrite it with previously located one).
Just a few opinions on the project you are currently working on:This kind of fixed, non-transparent (overhang) PV panels attached to a building facade are vert convenient for locations with higher latitudes.The reason for this is because they (fixed overhang PV panels) are dimensioned according to the sun position at summer solstice. Elevation angles on summer solstice at higher latitude locations are lower, than those of lower latitude locations.Due to Incheon's low latitude (37), you will get rather short length of the PV panels* : less than 10 centimeters (0.097 meters in the attached .gh file below). As you have mentioned, Galapagos needs to be used too.I will just mention some of the good and bad ways in which the upper issue could be somewhat avoided:1) Increasing the vertical distance between PV panels (PV panels appear above every second window).2) Increase the tilt angle. This will increase the length of PV panels also, but will decrease the final annual AC energy output.An example of this solution has been applied at FKI building in Seoul (latitude: 37N):I already did some tests (with tilt angles: 40, 45, 55) and this does not seem like a good solution, though.3) Shrinking the "sun window" by using the minimalSpacingPeriod_ input. In Photovoltaics, a planner is suppose to make the 9h to 15h part of the sun window free of any obstructions. If you try to decrease the "sun window" to 10 to 14h, the length of your PV panels will increase. You can try to experiment a little bit with this (set your minimalSpacingPeriod_ to 21th of June 10 to 14hours). In general, shrinking the sun window on summer solstice is not a good principle during planning.4) Using tracking PV panels, not fixed ones. But Ladybug Photovoltaics components do not support this kind of PV systems. They only support fixed ones.I would personally go with the first option. You can also experiment with the second and third one.Comment back if you have any other questions.-----------------------* By "length of the PV panels" I mean the: tiltedArrayHeight_ input of the PV SWH system size component.…
ed file and code below:
Color ColorAt(Mesh mesh, int faceIndex, double t0, double t1, double t2, double t3) { // int rc = -1; var color = Rhino.Display.Color4f.Black;
if( mesh.VertexColors.Count != 0) { // test to see if face exists if( faceIndex >= 0 && faceIndex < mesh.Faces.Count ) { /// Barycentric quad coordinates for the point on the mesh /// face mesh.Faces[FaceIndex].
/// If the face is a triangle /// disregard T[3] (it should be set to 0.0).
/// If the face is /// a quad and is split between vertexes 0 and 2, then T[3] /// will be 0.0 when point is on the triangle defined by vi[0], /// vi[1], vi[2]
/// T[1] will be 0.0 when point is on the /// triangle defined by vi[0], vi[2], vi[3].
/// If the face is a /// quad and is split between vertexes 1 and 3, then T[2] will /// be -1 when point is on the triangle defined by vi[0], /// vi[1], vi[3]
/// and m_t[0] will be -1 when point is on the /// triangle defined by vi[1], vi[2], vi[3].
MeshFace face = mesh.Faces[faceIndex];
// Collect data for barycentric evaluation. Color p0, p1, p2;
if(face.IsTriangle) { p0 = mesh.VertexColors[face.A]; p1 = mesh.VertexColors[face.B]; p2 = mesh.VertexColors[face.C]; } else { if( t3 == 0 ) { // point is on subtriangle {0,1,2} p0 = mesh.VertexColors[face.A]; p1 = mesh.VertexColors[face.B]; p2 = mesh.VertexColors[face.C]; } else if( t1 == 0 ) { // point is on subtriangle {0,2,3} p0 = mesh.VertexColors[face.A]; p1 = mesh.VertexColors[face.C]; p2 = mesh.VertexColors[face.D]; //t0 = t0; t1 = t2; t2 = t3; } else if( t2 == -1 ) { // point is on subtriangle {0,1,3} p0 = mesh.VertexColors[face.A]; p1 = mesh.VertexColors[face.B]; p2 = mesh.VertexColors[face.D]; //t0 = t0; //t1 = t1; t2 = t3; } else { // point must be on remaining subtriangle {1,2,3} p0 = mesh.VertexColors[face.B]; p1 = mesh.VertexColors[face.C]; p2 = mesh.VertexColors[face.D]; t0 = t1; t1 = t2; t2 = t3; } }
/** double r = t0 * p0.FractionRed() + t1 * p1.FractionRed() + t2 * p2.FractionRed(); double g = t0 * p0.FractionGreen() + t1 * p1.FractionGreen() + t2 * p2.FractionGreen(); double b = t0 * p0.FractionBlue() + t1 * p1.FractionBlue() + t2 * p2.FractionBlue();
ON_Color color; color.SetFractionalRGB(r, g, b);
unsigned int abgr = (unsigned int)color; rc = (int) ABGR_to_ARGB(abgr); **/ var c0 = new Rhino.Display.Color4f(p0); var c1 = new Rhino.Display.Color4f(p1); var c2 = new Rhino.Display.Color4f(p2); float s0 = (float) t0; float s1 = (float) t1; float s2 = (float) t2;
float R = s0 * c0.R + s1 * c1.R + s2 * c2.R; float G = s0 * c0.G + s1 * c1.G + s2 * c2.G; float B = s0 * c0.B + s1 * c1.B + s2 * c2.B; color = new Rhino.Display.Color4f(R, G, B, 1); } } return color.AsSystemColor(); }
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