t, let's talk about randomness. Randomness is a problem in computing because digital computers are deterministic. If you give them the exact same instructions they always end up with the exact same result. It turns out to be mathematically impossible to generate true random numbers using a digital computer, but it is fairly easy to generate pseudo-random numbers. This is actually not bad news as pseudo-random numbers -unlike real random numbers- can be generated again and again and you'll end up with the same random numbers every time. Being able to get the same random numbers on demand increases the reliability of these number sequences which in turn makes them easier to use.
Pseudo-random numbers are numbers that have certain characteristics. Note that when we talk about random numbers we are really talking about numbers. Plural. It's easy to generate only a single one, as xkcd so eloquently put it:
So what are these characteristics that define pseudo-randomness? Without being actually correct, I can sum them up as follows:
The sequence of generated numbers should never repeat itself*
The numbers in the sequence ought to be spread evenly across the numeric domain**
There are a lot of different algorithms out there, some better than others, some faster than others, some solving very specific problems while others are more generic. The generator used in Grasshopper is the standard Microsoft .NET Random, based on Donald Knuth's subtractive algorithm.
So let's imagine we want random integers between 0 and 10. What would a bad random sequence look like?
3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 (about as bad as it gets)
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 (not random at all)
1 3 2 5 3 9 1 2 4 2 5 1 1 2 8 1 5 2 3 4 (too many low numbers)
2 8 4 6 0 9 8 2 4 8 6 4 2 2 5 1 4 8 6 2 (too many even numbers)
So what about good sequences? Well, here's a few:
6 9 1 2 0 4 2 8 5 7 2 9 1 9 2 5 3 1 9 2 (sure, why not)
6 2 5 3 4 1 9 7 8 0 2 1 6 4 5 8 9 5 0 9 (looks about right)
1 8 5 2 3 4 5 7 9 5 2 1 0 2 1 0 9 7 6 4 (I suppose)
9 0 6 4 8 3 1 5 2 7 6 1 4 6 0 1 9 7 5 6 (whatever)
There are a lot of valid pseudo-random sequences. (Seriously, loads). So even if we have a good pseudo-random generator we may be given a random sequence that isn't entirely to our liking. The shorter the sequence we need, the more likely it is that statistical aberrations invalidate that particular sequence for us. What we need is some control over the generator so we don't just get a repeatable sequence, but a repeatable sequence we actually like.
Enter seed values. The random generator requires a seed value before it can generate a random sequence. These seed values are always integers, and they can be any valid 32-bit integer. Every unique seed value results in the same sequence. Every time.
Unfortunately there is no clear relationship between seeds and sequences. Changing the seed value from 5 to 6 will result in a completely difference random sequence, and two sequences that are very similar may well have to wildly different seeds. There is therefore no way to guess a good seed value, it is completely trial-and-error. Also because of this extremely discontinuous nature, you cannot use tools like Galapagos to optimize a seed value.
If you are looking for a pseudo-random sequence which has custom characteristics, you may well end up having to write your own generator algorithm. Ask questions about this on the Grasshopper main forum or the VB/C# forum.
Conclusion: Seed values are integers that define the exact sequence of pseudo-random numbers, but there's no way of knowing ahead of time what sequence it will be and there's no way of tweaking a sequence by slightly changing the seed. Even the tiniest change in seed value will result in a radically different random sequence.
--
David Rutten
david@mcneel.com
Poprad, Slovakia
* This is not actually possible. A finite amount of numbers always repeats itself eventually.
** This should only be true for long enough sequences, short sequences are allowed to cluster their values somewhat.
Interesting links for further reading:
Coding Horror: Computers are Louse Random Number Generators
StackOverflow: When do random numbers start repeating?…
Added by David Rutten at 9:52am on October 20, 2012
Looks good, How can I then select those circles as a branch? For example,
I want to divide all the Radius 3 circles into 8 parts, all radius 9 into 6 parts etc.
Many Thanks for your help
a follow up question... how do I wrap a list onto itself at a certain frequency?
i.e. I want the list {1;2;3;4;5;6;7;8;9}
to become {1,4,7; 2,6,8; 3,6,9} wrapped every 3rd item
Added by Joshua Jordan at 5:30pm on November 17, 2012
uld be much better than Rhino at huge mesh collections. I'd personally try free Autodesk Meshmixer and ZBrush first but most designers are more familiar with rendering programs like Maya or 3DS Max. I'm not familiar enough with architecture to suggest a list as only Revit and Sketchup come to mind.
Looking more closely, CAD Exporter is only for 2D curves and points, how silly, and it requires baked geometry in a Rhino layer:
I could write a Python script to export an STL but that would be a large ascii format file instead of binary. Better to use OBJ to retain quad faces, too.
Ah, well, OBJ files are also ascii format when exported from Rhino, so it would be quite easy to make a script to export those directly to disk from Grasshopper. Here is one box, 10X10X20 in size, with quad faces:
# Rhino
o object_1v 10 10 20v 10 10 0v 10 0 20v 10 0 0v 0 10 20v 0 10 0v 0 0 20v 0 0 0f 5 7 3 1f 5 6 8 7f 3 7 8 4f 2 4 8 6f 5 1 2 6f 3 4 2 1
If I have time I'll make a little script to write such OBJ files unless you can find a native Grasshopper plugin for direct OBJ export in full 3D for meshes.…
etc.
Group 2 - 1, 6, 11, 16, 21 etc.
Group 3 - 2, 7, 12, 17, 22 etc.
Group 4 - 3, 8, 13, 18, 23 etc.
Group 5 - 4, 9, 14, 19, 24 etc. "
except in data, the branches start at 0, so 'group 1' is branch 0
as for the order of your points, that depends on the input prior sorting...
yrs …