It looks to be just what I want. So I’ve got as far as dragging the relevant plugins into the viewport, then typed “ImageBasedCirclePacking” into the command line, followed by “planar”.
Then I’m stuck. I have no understanding of what the other instructions mean.
Can anyone give me an idiots guide as to what to type or do here?
It’s been some years since I’ve written anything with RhinoScript, but can’t you open the script in the script editor and read what it does? Even if you don’t write scripts you should be able to guess what it does based on the similarity between the script function names and the keyboard command names. There’s also good info on scripts in the Rhino help.
I barely comprehend anything you just said. I have no idea about any of this at all. I’m sure it’s fairly simple, I just need idiot proof help. I came here to avoid hours of searching, reading, head-scratching and further failure. Thanks fort your comment, but I hope someone can assist with some instructions.
Steve,
That workflow as describe on Jarek’s site is pretty straightforward. Just follow the instructions on the command line.
preliminary step: create a planar surface (pick the plane tool, or type ‘plane’ and hit enter). follow the instructions on the command line. pick a point to start plane, then drag out the opposite corner and click. Create a plane with similar proportions to the image you want packed circles for if you want.
Then invoke the script. Start typing ImageBasedCirclePacking and the command line will show the command after the first few characters are typed.
1-Base image surface. pick the surface you created in preliminary step above.
2-minimum radius? put in the smallest radius of the circle you want.
3-maximum radius? put in largest radius circle you want.
4-pick the image you want. browse to the spot the image file is located
5-number of circles? be aware the larger the number the more your machine will crunch the math.
6-circle offset? how far apart do you want the circles? enter 0 for touching, negative number for overlapping, larger than 0 for space between the circles.
7- draw circles outside of the base surface? yes or no. No will keep the circles in within the bounds of the base surface.
8-center of solution? just click somewhere on the suface, that’s where packing will start.
9-add more circles? trial and error time. add more or hit enter to finish.
Umm. This is embarrassing. I don’t know what you mean by “pick surface”. How or where do I pick the surface and input the radii etc? If it’s on the command line, what syntax do I use?
It’s taken a week of experimenting and a rather large amount of manual finessing, but the help I got here was invaluable. Thank you very much. Here’s what I’ve created as a result of your help…
keep on experimenting! keep the brain juice flowing! there are so many scripts, tools, doohickeys, gizmos and plugins out there, keep you busy for a few months at least!
