Minimal surface between enclosed curve, network curves, or surface

[DanielPiker]

Hi Jack,

For length goals, they act as a spring following Hooke’s law - the Length input is the rest length, and the Strength input is k - the spring constant. To use known material properties you can calculate k using EA/L, where E is Young’s modulus, A is area, and L is the rest length.

Some other answers I’ve posted on the units and methods that might be helpful:

Analysis of catenary

Any way to materialize a catenary into a cable with its material properties, such as cross-section area, E-modulus, etc… and then apply a point load at any given point and see deformation?

How does Kangaroo solver work?

Kangaroo works by minimising total energy. The various Goals define different energies which are zero under certain geometric conditions. The Kangaroo solver iteratively moves the points so that the sum of the energies acting on all the points in the system is as low as possible. For example, the Length goal acts as a spring, following Hooke’s law, so the energy is zero when it is at its rest length, but increases if it is stretched or compressed (in fact the energy increases as the square of…

You can find some example definitions here, including catenary form-finding for compression structures:

GitHub - Dan-Piker/Kangaroo-examples: Example grasshopper definitions for the Kangaroo...

I hope this is helpful