Interactive Parametrics Workshop with Studio Mode and MakerBot, NYC Feb 19-20/21

I’m excited to announce that I will be doing a workshop in interactive parametric modelling with Studio Mode and MakerBot in New York, Feb 19-20 (with an optional extra day on Feb 21).

We will be using Processing along with CAD tools like Rhino3D to produce parametric models to output 3D models for digital fabrication. MakerBot Industries have graciously offered to lend us some MakerBot Thing-o-matics to produce models from the workshop. Participants are also free to use on-site KNK High-Force cutters.

The full announcement follows below, please visit Studio Mode’s announcement for enrollment and more details. Also check out the series of Processing primers I’ve been writing in preparation for the workshop.

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Processing introduction post on Studio Mode’s modeLab blog.

Exciting news: Studio Mode (aka Ronnie Parsons and Gil Akos) and I are working on plans for a parametric design workshop using Processing and Rhino/Grasshopper in New York later this year. Studio Mode have already conducted a series of successful workshops dealing with parametric design and digital fabrication. See Material Intelligence and coLab Casting for reference.

Our proposed collaboration will join knowledge of materials and manufacturing processes with the flexibility and real-time nature of Processing applications. Processing may lack the geometry functions of Rhino, but its capacity for interactive dynamic models makes it a powerful tool for parametric modelling.

Exact dates and format of the workshop are to be determined, but we’re hoping for early December. Watch this space.

In anticipation of the workshop I will be posting a series of Processing tutorials on the modeLab.nu blog. The first has now been posted, featuring four examples that introduce basic syntax, variables, mouse movement, and for loops. Upcoming tutorials will explore more complex topics related to parametric design.

I’m working on a new series of three drawings titled “Arc Drawings”, made using a plotter technique that I’ve never tried before. The machine is not technically a plotter, it’s actually Studio Mode’s CNC cutting machine which they typically use for completely different purposes. But it can be fitted with a pen instead of a knife, and so doing some plotter drawings seemed like an opportunity too good to pass up.

I’m excited by the chance to continue exploring machine-assisted line drawing, which for me started with the Grid Distortion series. Just as the laser comes with its own material effects, the CNC cutter add some nice qualities to the drawn lines. In order to produce smooth motion the machine accelerates and decelerates at the start and end of every path, which causes a slight ink pooling at the extremes of the line. The drawings will be made on styrene sheets rather than paper, so the ink does not diffuse into the drawing surface.

My thanks to Studio Mode for letting me play with their machine and helping with fabrication. We’re planning to team up and do a workshop together later this year, as part of the great series of ModeLab workshops they’ve been doing dealing with issues in digital fabrication. I look forward to working with them and maybe hook Processing up to Rhino and Grasshopper for some parametric mayhem.

This landscape of randomized cube-like structures proved popular with the students in the AHO workshop:

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MIT IAP RhinoScript workshop – Danzer Variations

While looking for RhinoScript resources for the Digital Architecture workshop at AHO I found a recent posting of the final projects from a RhinoScript workshop at MIT IAP. It features some very nice-looking work, including the Danzer tile forms shown above. It also provides the source code for most of the experiments, well worth checking out.

The resource page for a previous MIT workshop is still up, it has more scripts and some useful links: Computational Design Solutions Part 1.

I am teaching a 3-day workshop in Digital Architecture at the Oslo School of Architecture & Design (AHO) this week, as part of a course by Søren Sørensen. The workshop will give an introduction to Processing, with a focus on synthesis of spatial form. If time permits we’ll also look briefly at Rhinoscript.

Be sure to look at the page I have prepared with links related to computational architecture. Code will be uploaded to:
http://workshop.evolutionzone.com/workshops/080211_aho.

• Basic Processing syntax
• Simple animation
• Control structures: If / else, loops, keyPressed(), mousePressed()
• Transformations: translate(), scale(), rotate()
• Complex drawing: beginShape(), endShape()
• Data structures: Arrays, classes
• Polygon mesh generation
• Output: PDF, STL, DXF

• RhinoScript
• p5Sunflow, a radiosity rendering library for Processing

Rhinoscript sketch, extruding a revolution surface along random curves. Good cheesy fun.

I had a chance to see a bit more of the impressive tool Rhino 4 during the Generator.x 2.0 workshop, and so I thought I’d have a go at making a simple sketch in Rhinoscript. As it turns out, the fact that Rhinoscript is based on VBScript makes coding feel horrible at first. Seriously, who would want to use syntax like that? It might be easy for beginners to pick up, but it quickly gets painful once you’re dealing with complex API calls and 100+ lines of code.

Nevertheless, frustration soon gives way to amazement at the built-in Rhino library and its vast array of heavy-duty functions for creating and manipulating curves, meshes and NURBS surfaces. In comparison, mesh generation in Processing is enough to give anyone a headache, and I seriously doubt anyone would even attempt to implement NURBS. Even Boolean mesh operations is a staggering task, with no good Java libraries readily available.

While Rhinoscript is firmly a non-realtime tool, its power for pure geometry is amazing. I would definitely use Rhino as a creative tool for digital fabrication projects, where animation is not the goal. There are some excellent RhinoScript resources online, for starters look at RhinoScript 101 and David Rutten’s tutorial. I would also definitely recommend using the Monkey Script editor instead of the built-in editor, it’s more powerful and has a very useful documentation feature.

The script below gives a basic idea of the Rhino syntax, and while it is a basic sketch suffering from 3D clichées, it shows the power and versatility of Rhinoscript. I just wish it wasn’t Visual Basic.

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