Issue with spheres normal to the surface in the U direction

I’m not understanding something, I think it has to do with paths. I have a sphere oriented to the surface that I want move along the normal U vector along the surface as shown. However, I want to choose a number of these equally divided across the surface, hence the input box with 6 chosen. The issue is, the outside spheres should not be there; Why and how do I fix that. Secondly, what if I want did want to add a second sphere along the same U vector and want to scale that sphere separately, would the same issue rear it’s head again?


normal position.gh (38.7 KB)

Does this work for you?


normal position_2023Sep17a.gh (8.1 KB)

If you want more spheres just add more sliders.


normal position_2023Sep17b.gh (11.4 KB)

I can make that work…very elegant, lol. Your simplicity is awesome, thanks. I did figure out how to fix mine by connecting the Normal from the surface divide to the surface closest point, and then to the uv of evaluate surface. Thank you very much!

Marking your own reply as the solution doesn’t make sense, eh?

In case you want the spheres to be just touching the surface instead of centered there:


normal position_2023Sep17c.gh (12.7 KB)

Thanks Joseph, appreciated!

If I wanted the spheres to align equally with the divided surface, say 6 again, how would I do that using your solution?

Play any data tree games you like.


normal position_2023Sep17d.gh (11.0 KB)

Dude you have really helped my understanding. I was over thinking it. I can’t thank you enough.

The real trick is knowing how to play data tree games. There was no reason to graft the Pt ‘Y’ input in version ‘d’ above. More challenging would be to have each circular “row” of spheres advance in a spiral… :thinking: This isn’t that. Data trees aren’t always trivial.


normal position_2023Sep17e.gh (13.2 KB)

Consider this - Grasshopper is fun :exclamation: :sunglasses:


normal position_2023Sep17f.gh (24.2 KB)

Love it …data trees are the key to having fun with Grasshopper.