Week 13

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WEEK 13: INTERFACE AND APPLICATION PROGRAMING

Day 1

For this week I’m going to be attempting to do an origami simulation with Grasshopper-Kangaroo that should respond to the sonar distance sensor I did for the input week.

I’m not entirely sure the word simulation is the correct word, but what I’m hoping to do is make a model of the origami tesselation I want for my final project in Grasshopper and with the use of Kangaroo, simulate the folding. The percentage of folding will be directly linked to the information it receives from the sensor, and it’ll ‘fold’ more or less depending on how close or how far a given object is to the sensor.

One of the last things that Neil mentioned in his class was Amanda Ghassaei’s origami simulator . I’ll be definitely be checking it out. Because it simply looks quite brilliant.

Day 3

I followed the instructions in the origami simulator page and the result was fantastic.

It really does give a clear idea, and what’s most, it even shows the stress points in the paper depending on the different percentages of folding.

Additionally I found a general explanation of the use of Python in Rhino that was quite illuminating if not completely pertinent just now.

Day 6

I’ve been trying to get the Grasshopper down for the better part of three days with no success.

I tried to take references from other Fabers like David Erkan , mainly his described work of Week 2 of the program, , but I’ve been having trouble intalling Kangaroo into my Rhino WIP. The Kangaroo instructions say it should be included in the lasted version of the WIP but when I type in the origami command, it doesn’t actually come up. The installation instructions that downloaded with the Kangaroo are only for Windows and I’ve followed several other download instructions with no success.

In the meantime, I did what another Faber, Arpi Maheshwari, did for her CAD modelling . Luckily for me, the tessellation pattern she chose is exactly the one I’m going to use, so I have the set up done and only have to follow each step, for when I figure out how to install Kangaroo.

Day 7

I managed to install Kangaroo, but for some reason not all the tools are available for the latest version. When I double click in Grasshopper and type Origami, nothing shows up. In fact, it doesn’t even appear in the toolbar above.

Furthermore, the Kangaroo Physics component required, is nowhere to be found.

I installed it several times and when I finally succeeded, the components needed where not there.

I tried installing two different versions at the same time, seeing as in the comment section of the Kangaroo page, it said they should work.

But no such luck.

I tried copying the Origami component from Arpi Maheshwari’s file, but my Rhino didn’t recognise some of the components.

After several attempts I decided to install a different version of Kangaroo where the tools I needed where in the description.

However, after further attempts, the Kangaroo Physics was still failing. When a given component in Grasshopper is orange, it means that it’s missing key information that it needs to work. Despite having all the right connections and operations, and each component being properly connected with their counterpart in Rhino, the Physics component wasn’t receiving any input data, and as such it wasn’t working.

I opened the Origami component and found that there are some connections that lead nowhere.

Day 9

I used the Windows computer in the lab to try to make my files work.

While some of the issues before aren’t a problem here, it still won’t work.

Day 15

I realised I didn’t make the mesh properly and that’s why Kangaroo wasn’t working properly in the Lab’s computer. I’ve finally made it work.

Now onto Firefly.