Inflatable structure with Kangaroo

Grasshopper
1

Hi everybody,

I am starting to investigate inflatable shapes resorting to Kangaroo.
Since I am not an expert of meshes, I have some trouble defining my geometry.
Comparing the simple example of a cubic mesh (which is working) and a mesh I’ve created, I noticed that my mesh has some edges with a valence of 1 (meaning that my mesh is composed of multiple meshes which are not properly connected I guess).

Then, my questions would be:

  1. How to create / join meshes properly to use them with Kangaroo? (For now, I have used many components meant to join meshes but none of them seem to create a continuous mesh)

  2. Do I need to create a closed mesh if I want to apply a “pressure” thanks to the Kangaroo component?

Thank you !

NB: I attached my gh file if need be

inflation 2.gh (16.1 KB)

2

Have a look at the attachment.
If you want to make a closed mesh, then usually join all your meshes first and secondly weld all your mesh vertices in order. You’ll need Meshedit plugin’s Mesh WeldVerticescomponent to weld within tolerance.


Canvas%20at%2023%3B51%3B47
Canvas at 23;51;47.png1347×587 249 KB
inflation 2_re.gh (30.6 KB)

3

Hi Radis,
I think the problem starts before the meshing.
It will be much simpler if you make your surface all in one go, instead of revolving each segment individually.
Then you can mesh, clean up to remove duplicate vertices and inflate:
inflation_.gh (23.9 KB)

As for your second question - no, the meshes don’t need to be closed. Of course they need to be restrained in some way or the pressure will just make them fly away, but for instance you can fix the boundaries of a flat mesh and inflate it into a pillow shape without needing it to be a closed volume.

Also note- the pressure and volume goals work always with triangulated meshes - if you give them quads you may get odd results

1 Like
4

Thanks to both of you !
The mesh can be used with Kangaroo now obviously.

@DanielPiker:
Truly speaking, I generated this mesh this way because I wanted to use the edges located between each portion. The idea is to restrain the inflated surface at these edges.

I managed to get a result by anchoring the points along these edges.
image

I saw that a similar result can be achieved thanks to collision:

I’ve tried to use this strategy using the component “SPC” or “solid collide” but it fails to collide…
Indeed, using a collision strategy, I would be able to account for the stiffness of the restraining element around the inflated element. Would you be able to give a quick guidance about it ?

Thank you.