Making a Generator

Critical Making

To build my generator I decided to use rhino and grasshopper. I was interested in the creation of unique patterns using a generator so I tried to make one on my own. With the help of a youtube video of course.

I started out by creating a rectangle and then putting smaller rectangles inside via grasshopper. Then I connected the points to create lines between the boxes that would essentially become the pattern initial shape.

Once I had my initial shape I was able to attach sliders to certain factors, which allowed me to adjust the angles of the lines or the size of the boxes, all effecting the overall design. I then ‘baked’ the designs together and wasn’t able to really adjust the pattern after that. I did that so I would be able to extrude the design into surface pieces. I ran into a problem when I was trying to offset the design so that it would go from a line to a border line. Rhino kept crashing, and so I had to settle with just the initial design in a flatter form.

i was able to get it to extrude one time, but for some reason the extrusion wasnt following the pattern lines. I thin kthat had something to do with the “union box” on certain conditions I had set, but everytime I tried to update this, again rhino would stop responding

With more work I thin kI will be able to generate all kinds of patterns with a similar workflow. This was the full process in Grasshopper.