folder. There are several possibilities for this.
The first that comes to mind is using symbolic links (also known as symlinks). They are like a special kind of shortcut. Whereas a shortcut is a small file itself that links to another location, a symlink is a link that to the operating system and pretty much anything else is indistinguishable from the actual thing. That's why a certain care has to be taken with them, but they are used by the OS much more than might be obvious at first. I have used them on OS X a lot (and in fact all of Time Machine works almost entirely through the use of symlinks). There is a good article on how to use Symlinks easily on Windows as well, using the Link Shell Extension.
So once it's installed you can go to your Grasshopper folder in Roaming and pick it as the link source like so:
Then you change to a location in for example your Dropbox or wherever else you fancy. I have a folder inside my personal Dropbox (we use Dropbox for Business at work, thats why I have 2 Dropbox folders), there is a folder called Apps, which is used by all sorts of Apps that sync using Dropbox. So just right-click in there and create a symlink like so:
So now it will create the symlink and when you double-click it, it will contain the contents of your Grasshopper folder and start syncing:
Sure enough, after some uploading you now have your folder in Dropbox and continually updating:
I will leave this now and see how I get on, but it should be fine and shouldn't cause any issues. Now doing this the other way round, for example to sync the folder on a second computer, that might be another story as things like permissions start to come into play, although it should theoretically work. I have done similar things in the past with other software, but Dropbox is not the best in keeping permissions. Or rather in most cases you DONT want the permissions to stay the same, but for them to be changed to whoever the user is on a different computer and that does not always work as expected. But worth a try. I don't have another computer at hand to try this. On the other computer you would to the steps in opposite order and pick the folder in the Dropbox as the link source and then drop the symlink in the roaming folder (rename the Grasshopper folder that is already in there, so in case it doesnt work you can delete the symlink and rename it back to what it was).
This should theoretically also work with other cloud backups or a file server, but I have not tried those.
You can delete the symlink in the dropbox without problems and it will just delete the link. If you delete something in the Grasshopper folder inside the dropbox it will also be deleted in the roaming folder.
Disclaimer: No guarantees, do this at your own risk, backup your grasshopper folder just in case, be careful with symlinks and use them sparingly, take notes of what you are doing, especially when doing this on more than one computer.
I know on OS X there are several tools specifically for Dropbox that basically do exactly the same like MacDropAny, I am sure there is similar stuff for Windows.…
Added by Armin Seltz at 2:56am on January 25, 2016
and export the geometry out to VVVV to render it LIVE! RawRRRR. In this case, a digital audio workstation Ableton Live, a leading industrial standard in contemporary music production.
the good news is that VVVV and ableton live lite is both free.
https://www.ableton.com/en/products/live-lite/
i am not trying to use ipad as a controller for grasshoppper. I wanted to work with a timeline (similar to MAYA or Ableton or any other DAW(digital audio workstation)) inside grasshopper in an intuitive way. Currently there is no way of SEQUENCING your definition the way you want to see that i know of.
no more combersome export import workflows... i dont need hyperrealistic renderings most of the time. so much time invested in googling the right way to import, export ... mesh settings...this workflow works for some, for some not ...that workflow works if ... and still you cannot render it live nor change sequence of instruction WHILE THE VIDEO is played. and I think no one wants to present rhinoceros viewport. BUT vvvv veiwport is different. it is used for VJing and many custom audio visual installation for events, done professionally. you can see an example of how sound and visuals come together from this post, using only VVVV and ableton. http://vvvv.org/documentation/meso-amstel-pulse
I propose a NEW method. make a definition, wire it to ableton, draw in some midi notes, and see it thru VVVV LIVE while you sequence the animation the WAY YOU WANT TO BE SEEN DURING YOUR PRESENTATION FROM THE BEGINNING, make a whole set of sequences in ableton, go back change some notes in ableton and the whole sequence will change RIGHT INFRONT of you. yes, you can just add some sound anywhere in the process. or take the sound waves (sqaure, saw, whateve) or take the audio and influence geometric parameters using custom patches via vvvv. I cannot even begin to tell you how sophisticated digital audio sound design technology got last ten year.. this is just one example which isn't even that advanced in todays standard in sound design ( and the famous producers would say its not about the tools at all.) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Iwz32bEgV8o
I just want to point out that grasshopper shares the same interface with VVVV (1998) and maxforlive, a plug in inside ableton. audio mulch is yet another one that shares this interface of plugging components to each other and allows users to create their own sound instruments. vvvv is built based on vb, i believe.
so current wish list is ...
1) grasshopper recieves a sequence of commands from ableton DONE
thanks to sebastian's OSCglue vvvv patch and this one http://vvvv.org/contribution/vvvv-and-grasshopper-demo-with-ghowl-udp
after this is done, its a matter of trimming and splitting the incoming string.
2) translate numeric oscillation from ableton to change GH values
video below shows what the controll interface of both values (numbers) and the midi notes look like.
https://vimeo.com/19743303
3) midi note in = toggle GH component (this one could be tricky)
for this... i am thinking it would be great if ...it is possible to make "midi learn" function in grasshopper where one can DROP IN A COMPONENT LIKE GALAPAGOS OR TIMER and assign the component to a signal in, in this case a midi note. there are total 128 midi notes (http://www.midimountain.com/midi/midi_note_numbers.html) and this is only for one channel. there are infinite channels in ableton. I usually use 16.
I have already figured out a way to send string into grasshopper from ableton live. but problem is, how for grasshopper to listen, not just take it in, and interpret midi and cc value changes ( usually runs from 0 to 128) and perform certain actions.
Basically what I am trying to achieve is this : some time passes then a parameter is set to change from value 0 to 50, for example. then some time passes again, then another parameter becomes "previewed", then baked. I have seen some examples of hoopsnake but I couldn't tell that you can really control the values in a clear x and y graph where x is time and y is the value. but this woud be considered a basic feature of modulation and automation in music production. NVM, its been DONE by Mr Heumann. https://vimeo.com/39730831
4) send points, lines, surfaces and meshes back out to VVVV
5) render it using VVVV and play with enormous collection of components in VVVV..its been around since 1998 for the sake of awesomeness.
this kind of a digital operation-hardware connection is usually whats done in digital music production solutions. I did look into midi controller - grasshopper work, and I know its been done, but that has obvious limitations of not being precise. and it only takes 0 o 128. I am thinking that midi can be useful for this because then I can program very precise and complex sequence with ease from music production software like ableton live.
This is an ongoing design research for a performative exhibition due in Bochum, Germany, this January. I will post definition if I get somewhere. A good place to start for me is the nesting sliders by Monique . http://www.grasshopper3d.com/forum/topics/nesting-sliders
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t. This was a reasonably effective workflow for the purposes of solving the initial problem. (in reviewing this post, it seems a bit lengthy, but hopefully it's of use to others).
Link to Illustrator Script example:https://forums.adobe.com/thread/508138
Portion I used: This applies to entire illustrator document. I am using Illustrator CC 64 bit and this worked okay. Tested a few times and it failed once, but a restart of Illustrator fixed it.
var v_selection = app.activeDocument.pathItems;SwapFillStroke(v_selection); function SwapFillStroke(objSel) { for(k = 0; k < objSel.length; k++){ var subSel = objSel[k]; var c_fill = subSel.fillColor; var c_stroke = subSel.strokeColor; subSel.fillColor = c_stroke; if(!subSel.stroked) subSel.stroked = true; subSel.strokeColor = c_fill; }} redraw();
My goal was to export colored geometry, (analysis meshes for example), from Rhino and get it into illustrator with solid fills.
If you want to know how meshes are colored in rhino...there are many explanations here on the forum, a quick search will get you more detailed information.
Short version: export your lines from rhino to illustrator and run the script listed above to make the stroke color the fill color. (in illustrator, shift+X will swap the fill and stroke colors on individual objects, but does not work on multiple objects..hence the need for the script).
Detailed Version:
In my case, I had 2 case studies I was working with.1 - wind rose meshes generated from Ladybug/honeybee2 - A mesh terrain that was colored by pre-set slope values.
NOTE: There are a few plugins to bake objects with color. I used Human tools, (Bake Geometry and JustifiedText3D).http://www.grasshopper3d.com/group/human (lots of other great stuff in there too!)
I had two types of geometry. (2 different definitions)
1- An analysis mesh, (HoneyBee/LadyBug),
2 - Lines generated from mesh faces. (mesh terrain/slope values).
Export results as a DXF, and choose "do not explode". (these were my settings)
DXF seemed to produce the most consistent results.
(you could export/save as an AI file and just open them in illustrator, but that seemed to give inconsistent results with the script).
Open DXF in Illustrator:
Apply Script in illustrator:
In the terrain example, there are only 5 colors, so selection in illustrator, by color, is very easy. In the results from honeybee/ladybug, (or any analysis process I imagine), the default colors are created with a much wider range of values. I presume the legend is then created by an average of those values within a range. My point is that, with the analysis results, selecting objects by color in Illustrator is probably not a very effective workflow.
I only tested this on my instance of rhino and Illustrator. mileage may vary.
In summation, at this point, it seems that the best way to get colored mesh faces, into illustrator, is to export the meshes, (which really ends up being the mesh face edges...curves), and bringing them into illustrator and running a quick script to swap the colors. Once that is complete, you can then select ALL the objects, and change the stroke color/weight at once.…
0 degrees) and +/- convex/concave sign for a given vertex of a mesh in a Python module in Grasshopper? I can't find Rhinocommon commands to even approach this for meshes instead of surfaces (which require a UV location using the Gaussian command) and even a list of connected vertices I am not sure if they will return in useful circular order around the vertex or just unpredictably, if I have to manually calculate angles one at a time around the vertex.
In fact, using:
print MESH.Vertices.GetConnectedVertices(45)
shows the returned vertex order is *not* in nice cyclic order around the vertex, so I don't know how to even calculate angles manually one at a time lest some pairs not even represent a face corner.
Daniel Piker suggests doing this calculation on a mesh here:
http://www.grasshopper3d.com/forum/topics/curvature-of-mesh
"What if you triangulated the mesh first, then measured the Gaussian curvature (using the angle defect) per vertex?
If there are non-planar quads then it is true that which of the 2 possible triangulations is used will slightly affect the value, but I imagine this would average out over the surrounding vertices."
I certainly don't want to have to remesh my efficient model with extra triangles though.
I display my face and vertex numbers outside of Python, as a guide:
Intuitively, I think I may be able to derive it from the face normals surrounding each vertex since on a flat mesh, they will all be the same normal versus the vertex normal and on a slightly curved mesh they will be slightly angled and on a sharp point vertex they will be highly angled versus the vertex normal.
This is all especially difficult since the Rhinocommon CHM file still has so few Python examples instead of just C# and Visual Basic. Also, how point data must be translated into Python lists manually using .X, .Y and .Z modifiers and sometimes back for me to operate on them.
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getting answers for on the web.
Our goal is to install a scientific research lab in a forest to study the proliferation of a deadly tree disease so we would like to design a sort of big cocoon that is in part randomly generated and that would wrap around the trees inside it similar to how the disease proliferates through the forest... Unfortunately, we are having a few problems modeling it on grasshopper, here are our questions :
First off we have generated a grid on which we have attached vertical lines that represent the trees of the forest we are working on, we have also modeled a grid that is the dual to the first one (links the centers of the cells of the first grid together to form another grid). We have generated points of random z coordinates that follow the x and y coordinates of the second grid, and we have applied metaballs to those random points.
1. We would like to know how to create a surface from the curves generated by the metaballs in my grasshopper file ?
2. We would like to know if it is possible to push the surface away from the lines on the grid, as if there was a magnetic field pushing matter away from them ? we are hoping it would look a bit like this (the black lines being the trees and the big grey volume the surface wrapping around the trees, avoiding them) :
If you have any ideas of a better way of representing what we want to model please let me know (or if it isn't well explained please call me out on that). What we like about our grasshopper file for now is that you can kind of change the sizes of the metaballs pretty easily, the fact that they are randomly generated and smoothly blend together, but if you know a better way of achieving a similar result please let us know!
A few pics of what it looks like as of now :
Here is our grasshopper file attached, to generate the metaballs you just have to make a point in the center of the very first cell of the larger grid, so the corner of the second grid, and link it to the point in the grasshopper file.
Thanks, Sarah, Vincent and Nicholas…
of the point cloud. It is super quick, compared to what you have seen so far in Rhino, to load and display point clouds, as it works on multiple threads. Amongst others you can section the point cloud for referencing your footbridge, decimate it as needed for creating the enviroment, denoise it, clip and save parts of point clouds etc. You can right click the cloud components, giving you access to dynamic preview of the cloud, so that it does not drag in viewport while panning and zooming and at the same time controlling the "thickness" of the points in viewport, in case your camera gets close to the point cloud. It is a matter of visual preference.
I think that even 200mil points can be loaded with volvox.
Some references
12million points
13million points
13million points (right click dynamic settings low thickness)
13million points (right click dynamic settings high thickness)
15 million points (around 20sec!! to l0ad)
My pc (i7 3820, 32gb ram, gtx670 4gb) felt comfortable working with up to 15 mil point clouds. But that has to do with hardware along with your patience while working.
All clouds have been loaded as .txt files where the mask describing the info was x,y,z,r,g,b,u,v,w. Depends on how your data is in-text formatted.
You can check fly through animations all done with gh and Volvox here
(starting @~2:20)
best
alex
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’s mid-point and whose direction is perpendicular to that edge. The following images are a summary of how I’m currently doing this. Keep in mind that the shared edge is not always parallel with the x, y or z axis… in fact it usually isn’t.
This is the vector I'm trying to get...
This is my workflow:
1- Find centroids of surfaces...
2- Find mid point of the edge. The for each surface, create vector from mid point to centroid and also reverse the direction. Place a point at the end of each vector...
3-Test to see which of the two points for each surface is contained within each surface's boundary and select that point (this parsing is necessary in some cases depending on the shape of the surfaces)...
4-Here is the kicker. In cases where one or both surfaces are skewed, the centroid of that surface is not necessarily "perpendicular" to the mid point of the edges as evident here with surface B. So I create a plane (technically its a "frame") that is perpendicular to the edge...
5-I then pull both points to that plane...
6-From there its pretty straight forward as far as getting the required vector...
So is this the best way to do this. In particular I'm curious if there is an alternative to step 4, but really any comments are welcome.
Thanks,
cbass…
umbers behave differently from the reals, in that when they are squared they give a negative result. They are written as multiples of the imaginary unit i, which is defined so that:
i*i=-1
Complex numbers are numbers which have two parts (hence the name complex) - a real part and an imaginary part.
For example:
3+4i,
or more generally:
a+bi, where a and b are some real numbers.
Well that's a definition, but I guess you might be wondering what is the point of them - I've not said anything yet about why they are interesting and useful...
Solving cubic equations was one of their first uses, but I doubt that is what most of you are interested in.
Where they really get fun is when you start looking at them geometrically.
The Argand plane is a setting that allows us to treat complex numbers a bit like vectors.
Each complex number a+bi defines a point relative to an origin (0,0), much the same as a vector with an x and y component.
Like vectors we can add and subtract them to get a new point.
But when we multiply them, unlike vectors, we add the angles (measured anti-clockwise from the positive real axis, also called the argument) and multiply the lengths (or the modulus of each number).
This all follows naturally as a consequence of the definition of i as the square root of minus one.
........
That is just dipping a toe into the great depths.
Complex number math, and in particular complex Analysis (calculus with complex numbers) is a vast subject that I obviously can't cover much of here.
If you are interested in learning more :
The Math department at Cal State Fullerton has some very nice Complex Analysis pages.
Chapters 5 and 6 of the film Dimensions covers complex numbers very visually. You can watch it online here, or read the description here.
Complex numbers on Wikipedia
on MathWorld
Hans Lundmark's complex analysis pages
The book Indra's Pearls is about making certain types of fractals with complex numbers, and includes a good introduction, along with lots of pseudocode.
To really engage with some of the true depth and power of complex numbers I particularly recommend the beautiful Visual Complex Analysis. This was the book that made me love this subject.
I'm really looking forward to seeing more designers make use of complex numbers. I think it is a wonderful tool. It is an advanced branch of mathematics, requiring some serious study to understand, but because of its strong geometric connections, I think relatively accessible to those who tend to think more visually. Now that David has included them in Grasshopper, starting to explore them should be easier than ever.…
Added by Daniel Piker at 4:38am on November 25, 2009
a reply.
Q1. I run two generations in my generation 0 I can distinguish 3 lines...what do they refer to? I got my Fitness as 5 values Heating, Cooling etc and thought there will be 5 lines
Q2. What are values on X/Y/Z axis and color legend? What colors means I got black 409.87 and red 33.63 amd tis dot 99.2:5 and green 2.27:4?
Q3. I can see that in every generation my values are condensed ...of course I shall run this for many more generations... but as result of my simulation which is minimize energy will be the last one that head down?
Q4. I was reading this forum and there is no current way of savings all results for each run ?
Q5. If there are some any general advice how I shall tackle my problem this would be great!
Ps. I will try to run this example over the weekend to see what is the result.
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nts that I have found helpful and will be included in the next release, but you can try them now. They are online at https://github.com/fequalsf/Crystallon/tree/0972066e468f0a7a592ff4e7e88226028dcb029c/V2.1I have been interested in finding ways to save settings for different iterations of a design which can be baked into a rhino file and used again later. These tools I've made are for working with divisions of a surface.The first tool (Divide Surface) is for dividing a single surface using UV parameters and outputting a quad mesh. Simple enough. What makes this powerful is you can use that mesh with the "Morph Between Meshes" tool to create your voxels. So now you can morph between surfaces with the same number of divisions but with different parameters. The other nice thing about meshes is they are simple to work with and can be further modified with other plugins (such as kangaroo). They can be baked, manually edited in rhino and saved as STL or OBJ files to use again later. I will be updating all the tools eventually to output meshes.
The next tools are for creating those divisions. Any of the components that require a parameter input need a range of values from 0-1. The simplest way to do this is with the "Range" component. The default domain is 0-1 so you only need to give it a number of steps.
To make the range non-linear, there's a few components you can use. Graph mapper is the most common tool, but you could also use the gradient tool.
But these can be difficult to work with and quite limiting. Graph mapper has a limited set of graph types to work with (I tend to use Bezier) and the gradient tool makes a steep curve which cannot change. Also making small changes is difficult and saving a setting for later is not easy.
So the next tool I made is a curve plotter. This takes your range of number (X values) and your remapped numbers (Y values) and plots the points to either a polyline or interpolated curve. This way you can see the curve the gradient is making or bake out a graph mapper curve you want to use later.
The next tool I made is a curve graph mapper, so you can map numbers using any curve drawn on the XY plane. This gives you much more freedom than the graph mapper and is easier to make small adjustments. Then you can always make many iterations of a curve and go back to any of them saved in the rhino file. There are options to view tags with the values on the curve as well as a gradient preview.
If you take a look at the curve created by the gradient tool, you can see it is basically creating a Bezier curve from the handles on the gradient (position is X value, color is Y value). The problem with using it for division parameters is the tangency of the points is always in the X direction creating a nearly horizontal section in the curve. This will give you a series of the same values, which we don't want. The falloff of the curve is also quite steep with no way of adjusting it.
If you make a lot of divisions you will also notice stepping in the curve. This is because the gradient uses RGB colors which is only a range of whole number from 0-255. So you only have a total of 256 values from 0-1.
Yet there is something elegant and user friendly about Bezier curves which makes them nice for creating gradients. So the last tool I made is for creating a Bezier curve from points. All you need to do is input at least 2 points. The second input is the tangent length multiplier (which can be one value for all or one per span of the curve) and the third is the tangent rotation in radians (also either one value or one per span).
The values are shown on the curve and can be baked as text tags if you want to save them and use the same points and values later. Or you can just bake out the curve. This makes for a simple smooth curve that makes a nice gradient.
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