Modelling question. Frame around an object

[Kaamil_Hasan_Dahodwa (Kaamil Hasan Dahodwala)]

Hi, I have this drum as an architectural feature. I want to cover it with a structural frame: See examples below. I used the pipe command and manually connected lines using the perp line from a base point to another point from the circle at the bottom to the wider ellipse on the top. I want the geometry of the pipe to be rectangular, such as a steel rectangular beam construction. I tried using array polar but because the geometry is not a perfect circle and sways to one side the lines do not array properly or maybe I am not using the command properly. Is there any way to essentially make a polyline frame between the top and bottom parts of this drum and then extrude them into rectangular 3dimensional objects rather than a round pipe. If there is any other solutions I appreciate it, sorry for rambling on.

Here you can kind of see what I am desiring if you were to look at this in Elevation.

[pascal (Pascal Golay)]

Hi Kaamil - is something like this the idea?

-Pascal

[Kaamil_Hasan_Dahodwa (Kaamil Hasan Dahodwala)]

Wow thats exactly right. Maybe a few more vertical members are needed to make it look less jagged, But I have a question which I realized when I saw your model, for the horizontal members is there a way to make them more curved. So that it looks almost more like a rounded curved frame that goes around the shell with the straight vertical members. Could you share how you achieved this! You are amazing. Thank you for taking the time!

[pascal (Pascal Golay)]

Here’s what I did, you can use whatever bits seems helpful- (note this seems like a good Grasshopper exercise and very possiblt more approprate to do it there)

1. Joined the top and bottom edge curves into two closed curves

2. SrfSeam to force both closed curve seams to a logical location - the quads of the lower circle and the larger top arc, for example, rkight on the X Axis.

3. Divide the curves with whatever number of verticals you like.
   

4. Connect each pair of points with a line
   

5. Use Section or Coutour on the lines to make level sets of points at vertical intervals.
   

6. CrvThroughPt on the sets of points - Degree 1 if you want a polyline, degree 3 if you want a smoothly interploating curve. Note there may be two points at the seam of the curves, delete one of them.
   

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That makes the skeleton curves - the square frames from these are a bit of a pain - first the verticals:

1. Polygon (4 sided) > AroundCurve on a vertical line at the bottom end, and ‘eyeball’ for now, the orientation so that a flat side will be outward

2. ExtrudeCrv to the far end of the line. Repeat all the way around.

For the horizontals, make a vertical square and copy it to corresponding locations on the intersections of one of the verticals and the horizontals:

Sweep1 each of these on the matching horizontal.

Note this is all very crude, if you need to represent a buildable frame, there is a lot more work to do.

-Pascal