Creating an plaited wire form

[jackmogden1 (Jackmogden)]

Hi,
I am trying to create a 3d model of a type of plaited wire that is found in medieval jewellery for bracelet hoops etc… (old drawing attached) It is made of 5 “plaited” round-section wires and is an equilateral triangle in cross section. I can understand the construction and the basic curves, but am unable to create it in Rhino by trial-and-error adjustment of control curves - manage to stop one intersection/overlap only to create another! I am intermediate Rhino user. I imagine this is something that Grasshopper mighty help with, but I have never really used that and I think the learning curve would be problem within a sensible time frame. Can anyone see a simple answer? Thanks

[DiegoKrause]

I think you could use RecordHistory for this. I mean. draw a single curve, then array polar and then _Pipe to the 5 curves andthen modify only the first curve, the rest will update to check collisions and shape.

[AlW]

This looks like the kind of thing that would benefit from the blocks feature. Determine and draw the basic repeat and make it a block definition. Then make the subsequent cycles of the basic pattern as block instances. This will save a whole lot of memory and computational time. Check out these old threads:

Need optimization for very heavy (shower)hose

Holo makes a very important point. In real life armored coverings over flexible hoses are made of stuff which is much less flexible than the hose. It might rely on geometric displacement of the overlap between turns (for rigid spiral wrap), elastic deformation (materials harder and tougher than the hose but still deformable) or even complex shifting of individual strands of braided wire. A truly realistic depiction of this behavior would need to duplicate the construction and properties of the r…

New Video: Making Pipes, Ducts, & Hoses

I’m trying to make one new video every week for my class. This latest one covers three killer tips for making quick and easy machinery parts. I show how to make pipe collars and seams, flexible ducting, and everyone’s favorite, the spiral wiring for your old rotary dial telephone. Running time = 13:58 There is a page for all of the prior videos here: video page The site has a front page with ‘sporadic and random 3D and nerd bits.’

[jackmogden1 (Jackmogden)]

Thanks guys,

Looked into both those ways. I had tried Record History, but the cloud of control points still made me see stars! I can see Blocks working there, but somehow didn’t get far with it… Anyway, eventually just resorted to slow trial and error. Working on one “unit”, then repeating, arraying, piping, then undo back to basic unit and making slight adjustments. Took all day but finally got the results I needed. Thanks again for your input - will try some other approaches when I do the next one - even more complex interweaving…