Creating an even ribbed effect on a contoured kangaroo surface

Grasshopper
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1

Hi,
I have been struggling with this for a while and was hoping the GH community could help me.

I have a form (which was originally created in kangaroo but edited a bit in rhino so now internalised as a brep) which I am trying to add some vertical ‘ribs’ to, to increase the structural rigidity of the form, but also for aesthetic value.

As this form will be 3D printed in clay, the final output from this should be a series of contours of the form (set at 2), as single curves- which is the pathway of the printer, rather than a solid brep.

However, no matter what I try to do, I cant seem to create an even ‘ribbed’ effect which matches up on each contour level. I am relatively new at GH, and have already sought help from friends, but was hoping this community could help!

I have attached the GH script with the different methods I have tried so far (with mixed results) and also a screenshot of diagrams of what I am trying to achieve.

My first attempt was to divide each curve contour by a set length. then dispatch the points to catagory a and b, then take all the points in a and move it inwards by x. then weave a and b back together, and create a polyline. This works, but they are uneven on each level of contour, as the curves are all different lengths.

Secondly, I used anemone to simulate water falling down the surface, to create vertical ´stress lines´ which I then tried to find the closest point in a divided curve, to then pull in. This worked slightly better, as they appear to stack, however the ribs are not evenly distributed, and there seem to be some points which are skipped out.

Thirdly, I dont know if there is a way to pull the curves at a specific point on them towards the points created from anemone, or if its better to distort the original surface first then contour it afterwards?

Apologies in advance if I have not explained this very well- please let me know if im not making any sense and I will try to explain further!

Screenshot 2020-12-11 at 18.07.38
Screenshot 2020-12-11 at 18.07.381190×840 57.5 KB

![Screenshot 2020-12-11 at 18.10.16|606x500]
(upload://6hFS62mFi0E9HlXtsPqb5yHX48E.jpeg)
Screenshot 2020-12-11 at 18.25.14
Screenshot 2020-12-11 at 18.25.141145×872 138 KB

KHstructure08.gh (3.5 MB)

2

The first thing I noticed is that you have three copies of your internalized geometry instead on using one copy for all three “options” Making this change reduces the size of the GH file from 3.5 MB to 1.34 MB.

P.S. The second thing I notice is that preview is enabled for all three options, making it difficult to tell what is going on.

3

Hi Joseph,

Thanks for pointing that out… I usually work with the ‘only draw preview for selected objects’ on- so I forget that I havent got all the previews turned off normally.

Attached is the updated (and reduced size) file. Hopefully this is now easier to understand!

KHstructure09.gh (1.3 MB)

4

I’ve already gone way beyond that. It looks like you are facing a problem similar to laying bricks in that as the contours get shorter, the gaps between bricks won’t align as desired. I have no advice, sorry.

5

Thanks so much for looking at it for me- super grateful for the speed :slight_smile:

Back to the drawing board I guess…