POLYLINE ATTRACTOR: GRASSHOPPER DEFINITION 3
Monday, June 15, 2009 ;)
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I have been seeing a lot online with point attractors. The idea is that geometry will change its size or form based on its distance from a point. The further the object is from the point, the larger or smaller it will get. I wanted to expand on this idea further and see if a spline curve could take the place of the point as the attractor. The Line could represent a multitude of things from streets of a city, to circulation paths. For this experiment, I used the letter A as the attractor. The way this definition works is by determining the distance from each point within a grid to the line. Each point in the grid finds the closest point on the line, and uses that distance for its extrusion height as well as its radius for the geometry.
This video demonstrates how the definition is set up, as well as the parameters that control it. The amount of objects in script is kept to a minimum to avoid a choppy video, however, the images above show the definition with a larger amount of objects.
Also placed in the definition is a cap to restrict the size of the geometry. This allows the user to control the geometry from intersecting each other or just limiting the size to a more realistic manner.
To adjust the way the attractors manipulate the forms, I also set up the definition so that the distance from each point to the line is inversed, resulting in the objects growing larger as they get closer to the spline (this is highlighted in orange in the bottome left image). Parameters control the grid size, grid spacing, maximum size, the rate at which the forms change size, and form shape.
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Reader Comments (10)
great vid. but would it be possible to the growth follows the spline and decays as it gets farther away? i've tried replicating your deff, but no luck in getting to work in reverse. any ideas?
About midway through the video, I inverse the distance so objects do get large as they get closer to the plines. I don't have the capabilities to post the definitions, but I can send you the definition via email.
hey alex
this definition is greatly helpful as i am trying to make diagrams, but i had no luck getting it to work at all, would it be possible for me to get the def from u??
thanks
Hi Alex ^^
Sorry for by bad english but i'm french ^^
I'm imprest by yours greats definition and i want ask you to send me this definition. ^^
If you are Ok this is my email : mageos@hotmail.fr
throughout your choise thanks for your web site ^^
Bye
hey Alex
impressive work thoughout this website~!!
I am really interested in looking into this script I have just started learning grasshopper, and this seems amazing.
So is it possible to send me the definition?
lishi.li.ls@gmail.com
Hey Al,
Nice site!
Just wondering if you could email me the definition to explore and hopefully even build on.
Cheers mate!
Matt
Hey Alex,
just learning to work with grasshopper for my diploma. would it be possible that you send me the full skript, since I can't make it work.
Thx,
Nadine
Hey Alex,
Great work! I was trying to change the circle component of the definition and replace it with a hexagonal grid so that all the attractor transformations of the definition affect the hexagons and scale them based on the polyline? I required the hexagons to deform the way the circles do except I want to maintain the grid format so that even if the grid scales, all 5 sides of the hexagons will still touch the neighboring hexagons sides.
Will be very grateful for your help.
Anand
Alex,
I just found your site in April '11 and I'm stoked. I have a couple questions regarding grasshopper:
How did you become proficient? I find I'm really slow at picking it up.
Secondly, Is it possible to synthesize the polyline attractor Def. with your box generator Def. ?
I am currently working on a project for grad school that relatively incorporates these two ideas. I am quite the rookie with Grasshopper and all the SketchUp in the world will not allow me to accomplish this.
Thanks
Hi,
Great tutorial and script you have done. However I am experiencing some difficulty setting multiple curve to the Curve definition. I have three curves which i define into a single Curve definition but the affected circles seems to work one only one of the curve rather then all three at the same time.
Is there any solution for this?
Much thanks.
Regards,
Barry