Random points distributed inside a triangle.

For a particular project for the office where I work, this month I had to develop a random distribution of points inside a triangle using Grasshopper. The aim is then to CNC cut holes in a complex triangular mesh, so I started from a single triangle to understand the geometry and the mathematical possibilities to perform this operation.

If you need to create a random series of points on a surface, it is very simple: you just divide the surface using U and V parameters... and you can randomize U and V to obtain a random result.

The problem is that the distribution is not entirely random, but it follows the U and V pattern.
For a Sphere you will obtain points more concentrated on the poles.
In this particular case, in a triangle, you will obtain the points more concentrated in one of the vertices.

(the image show just the UV subdivision, without any random function)

After a brief research I discovered some possible solutions to solve this issue.

Center for Architecture Exhibition in New York

I passed by the Center for Architecture of New York yesterday evening, and if you are around there, it is worth getting inside for a little tour!

I know this exhibition started over a month ago, so this post may look old, but I thought it was interesting to share it anyway

Even if this blog should be focused mainly on Parametric Architecture, I wanted to post this as I found it quite interesting: the current exhibition focuses on innovation in Architecture, integrating ecological features in the façades of the buildings.
The need of innovation in architecture is evident on many sides: if you consider a solar year, buildings consumes the 40% of the energy produced in the year. (the remaining percentage is shared between transport and production of goods...) And this is considering only the consumption for the maintainance, not the actual building phase.

Smart Geometry 2011 in Copenhagen announced!

A double news!

1. First news is that the annual SmartGeometry event will take place in Copenhagen between 28th March and 2nd April 2011. 

The clusters (the groups of research) are still not confirmed yet, but will come soon. If you want you can apply to propose a subject before the 13 of December.

All infos at: http://www.smartgeometry.org/

"Building the invisible" - Smart Geometry 2011

But there is a second news...!
In 2012 RPI will host the event!

Being in NY, I can only wait one year and a half to attend the next one, but fore everyone in Europe, it is an un-missable event. I attended in Barcelona in 2010, and it has been an amazing experience that I would recommend to any architect / designer into computational design to be updated to the latest researches in the field.

Advances in Architectural Geometry - Book

Geometry is obviously a fundamental subject that lies at the core of Architecture. This September took place an important conference in Vienna (Advances in Architectural Geometry 2010), that ended with the publication of this book, that summarize in great details the last researches in the field of computational design.

Galapagos tests - How random are the solutions?

From the previous post about creating a very simple curve with Galapagos, I've been asked why the solution is always different and random.

As I didn't really know exactly how to answer, I started to do some tests myself to understand it better.

I've used the same very simple file, just to not complicate things too much...
Always generating a line from 4 points, I moved the two central points using Galapagos, to obtain the curve closer to an attraction point. (you can get the GH file here).

The 4 points start as indicated (A, B), and in the image below you can see what happens after 10 tests (50 generations each):

As I was expecting, all the results are different... (but valid, as they are very close to the attractor point)... cool!

Genetic geometry - Optimize a curve with Galapagos in Grasshopper

In this days I'm doing very-very simple tests on genetic geometry, learning the complexity of the tool Galapagos that you can find in Grasshopper.

The video below shows a simple application of the genetic tool applied on a simple problem (in this example):
What is the closest curve to an attractor point (ATT) that I can generate moving 2 points (A and B)?

Galapagos allows to create genetic populations that get closer to a fitness target that you set.
In this case the target was to have the distance between the final curve and the attractor = 0.







Even if the solution of the problem seems easy, there are potentially infinite different solutions. It only depends on the genetic algorithm used. In this video, after few generations, the solution is displayed.
If you run again the program, you may get different results, but all of them will solve the problem.

Parametric Playground...welcome!

Hi! First of all, welcome to Parametric Playground!

The idea of this blog is to share with everyone my researches on parametric design, with the aim to enlarge the already big and growing community of designers that uses parametric softwares such as Grasshopper.

Check on the right side panel some other cool rocking stuff by other bloggers.

All of the things I've learnt so far (not too much!) are thanks to people that shared their knowledge. 

Internet is populated by a growing number of blogs about parametric design and hopefully publishing here my researches will help other researches, and I have the hope that all the comments to my posts will help me in developing the right results!

The name playground comes from the fact that my researches are done just playing around during my free time, so don't expect something too scientific... but still my hope is to be as clear as possible, explaining the basics of every step of the research I'm doing to help everyone interested to follow them.

At the moment I'm playing with Grasshopper and Galapagos for genetic design. 

I will post soon the first results...

Anyway, I'll try to be not boring as a church sermon!

Keep in touch