Generating grid shell pattern from a Kangaroo mesh result

Hey everyone! I am a student who is interested in designing self supporting grid shell structures and I have a few questions regarding generating grid shell pattern from a kangaroo simulation mesh result.

At the moment, my usual workflow involves first creating a nurb surface then using a plugin called Bowerbird to find their asymptotic or principal curves. Specifically for asymptotic curve, since it doesn’t involve rotation on the x plane, meaning that the material building the structure could be straight lamella, saving material and well… being cool… In the case of Bowerbird, the plugin takes in a nurb surface then returns its respective requested curve on a specified point on the surface.

diagramm.jpg (1439×753) (wordpress.com)
Bowerbird - Grasshopper (grasshopper3d.com)
Reference image (792×1100) (ning.com)

However, recently I started exploring into structures that are more complex. Specifically, I am interested in generating a lamella pattern coming from a relaxation simulation in Kangaroo with multiple openings like the above (photo from the internet). Since the output would be a mesh instead of a NURB surface, the plugin Bowerbird as a result could not be used. I am therefore wondering: Is it possible to generate a grid shell pattern from a mesh surface?

While I believe that grid shell are best generated if they come from a mathematically defined surface but what if someone wants to build a grid shell coming more from the sculpting/ simulation side? My current solution involves extracting points on the mesh and then generate a nurb surface from it. However, due to the structure’s complex nature with multiple openings, it doesnt seem that feasible.

I understand that this would be a broad discussion but my guess is this is not a new topic.

Thank you very much and for whatever reasons images could not be uploaded. Apologies regarding that!

Hi @fovis

Since you talk about the asymptotic lines I’m guessing you are trying to do something like in this thread:

There are some examples there which give you the asymptotic curves directly from the relaxation.