CAADRIA 2013 - Open Systems Workshop from (C)ODE-(C)OLLECTIVE on Vimeo.

Workshop: Ardunio + Processing - Delta Robot Testing Prototype
Institution: CAADRIA 2013 - Open Systems (NUS - National University of Singapore)
Collaborators: Taro Narahara (NJIT) / Jens Pedersen (AA - Emtech) / Wendy W Fok (Univ of Houston CoA / Harvard GSD DDes / atelier//studio WF)

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Digital Media & Design Program | Gerald D Hines College of Architecture:
Led by Prof. Wendy W Fok | Assistant Professor

The Digital Media & Design Program (DMDP), at the Gerald D Hines College of Architecture, University of Houston, functions as a program which utilizes new media and technology as a departure point to formulate and develop the function of architectural and computational design by way of emergent design systems.

In an era of increasing globalization, digitization, and collaboration, the function of digital and computational design has evolved into significant aspects, dynamic approaches, and vital innovations for community engagement, urban planning, architectural design, media practices, and public dialogue.

The DMDP embraces the research and development of innovation through a cross-hybridization of both digital and analogue tooling, techniques, and systems. Research is placed on the forefront through faculty and student projects, as well as community-engaged projects within the United States and the international design arena.

Responding to the increasingly important and sophisticated role of digital technology as a catalyst for integrating innovative societal, cultural, and economic change, the role of the program is two-fold, and is directed to provide a basis of both digital and analogue tooling for students, at both the undergraduate and graduate level.

Our courses range from a dynamic cluster of applied research based courses that involve design-build, digital fabrication, new media art installations, digital urbanism, transport and digital way-finding applications, and interdisciplinary (inter-departmental) partnerships. In addition to graduating with a Professional Architecture degree, Graduate students at the College have an opportunity to obtain a Certification of “digital systems and fabrication”, which is a deeply involved and focused research certification honored through completing several courses within the cluster of DMDP approved courses.

Unique to the Gerald D Hines College of Architecture program, the DMDP develops a core foundation of knowledge and projects in collaboration with the industry, and entrepreneurial operations and courses that are geared towards project incentives that equip the students to reach out into the larger regional, national, and even international community for project collaborations that are significant to the contemporary needs and future of the technologically adaptive architectural and design field.

Updated: 20 March 2013 | Prof Wendy W Fok

DIY 3D Printer - Test Print (Dodecahedron) from (C)ODE-(C)OLLECTIVE on Vimeo.

Finding the strongest shapes with 3D printing

Finding the strongest shapes with 3D printing. (Thanks to the community for the tip!)

Prof. Heinrich Jaeger’s research group examines materials and phenomena that appear simple at the surface, but which reveal tremendous complexity upon close examination. One such phenomenon is jamming, in which aggregates of randomly placed particles, including spheres or more complicated shapes, or even molecules, transition from fluid-like to solid-like behavior. 

Jamming lends itself to soft robotics, in addition to other applications as explored in a workshop at the University of Chicago last October. In recent computer simulations and experiments, Jaeger, the William J. Friedman & Alicia Townsend Professor in Physics, and graduate student Marc Miskin investigate another aspect of jamming. They analyzed how the properties of a jammed material can be tuned by changing the shape of the constituent particles. Their results on “Adapting granular materials through artificial evolution” appeared Jan. 20 as an Advance Online Publication in Nature Materials.

Miskin and Jaeger addressed a daunting question in their research: Given a design goal for the jammed aggregate, for example to have it as stiff or as soft as possible in response to an applied force, what particle shape will best produce the desired outcome? For this complex optimization problem, they faced an infinite variety of shapes to choose from. So Miskin employed a computer algorithm—referred to as an “evolutionary optimization” in the accompanying video—to answer this question….

Source: http://www.adafruit.com/blog/2013/03/21/finding-the-strongest-shapes-with-3d-printing-3dthursday/

we-designs:

April Fools was almost a week ago, but we couldn’t resist sharing one of our favorite fake news stories of the week. ThinkGeek announced the release of a new Play-Doh 3D printer that works in tandem with the iPlay-Doh 3D app that you download to your iPad to create any design you can dream up. The (imaginary) device can print up to three colors at once by blending them like soft-serve ice cream. It’s easy enough to imagine this product becoming a reality, and it’s probably only a matter of time before toy companies begin marketing the wonders of 3D printing to kids.

Read more: Play-Doh 3D Printer Would Bring iPad Designs to Life | Inhabitat - Sustainable Design Innovation, Eco Architecture, Green Building

WeWantToLearn.net

Diploma Studio 10 at Westminster University School of Architecture and the Built Environment

Source: https://wewanttolearn.wordpress.com/

Here’s a demo of a script lmnts archiects are using to create section boxes in Grasshopper similar to those in Revit. This doesn’t split geometry but helps with managing a large file in your viewport.

This is similar to Luis Fraguada’s script (http://datable.net/animated-clipping-planes-in-rhinoceros/), except this script runs with a closed brep and uses Python.

Click the link to download the file and get more info: http://lmnts.lmnarchitects.com/visualization/section-boxes-in-grasshopper/

Mom’s festive cut outs may take a back seat this year to Holleis’ high design 3D printed cookies. He began by designing the spiral and ring shaped cookies in a 3D imaging program. Loading up the 3D printing machine with colored sugar cookie dough (rather than the usual plastic), he set the printer to work, watching as it designed one delicate cookie at a time. Once complete, the cookies were popped into the oven, before being devoured.

We all remember watching as the Star Trek Replicator would recreate Earth foods for the Next Generation’s crew. Holleis’ project brings food replication one step closer to becoming a common thing in our lives. In the past few months, 3D printers have become more commonplace, with shops and products popping up in the consumer world.

What was once an expensive process just for techy designers is now accessible to the average consumer, with shops and stations set up offering customers to come in and 3D print almost anything their heart desires. Shops like MakerBot and 3DEA offer not only 3D printing stations, but affordable 3D printers that customers can take home to print at their leisure.

This holiday you can indulge your sweet tooth and your inner nerd by modernizing holiday cookie baking into a technological treat!

+ Ralf Holleis

Read more: Forget the Cutouts! This Year’s Coolest Holiday Cookies Are 3D Printed | Inhabitat - Sustainable Design Innovation, Eco Architecture, Green Building

The 3D-printed wood takes on the appearance of molded paper when printed at a uniform temperature.

Printed plastics? So 2011. And high-end printers have been working with metals and ceramics for some time. But now the 3-D printing community is toying with a material more natural in origin: printed wood.

The new concept has a mysterious start. A Thingiverse member going by the nom de printer ”Kaipa” recently uploaded pictures of 3D-printed parts that weren’t made of extruded plastic, but a wood/plastic mixture he created on his own. The maker wouldn’t share the process for making the material, or even what the ingredients were, but he did offer to send sample spools of his experimental filament to interested hackers.

Not quite wood, not quite plastic, this hybrid material has captured the imagination of makers across the globe.

Forward-thinking French fabricator Jeremie Francois took Kaipa up on the offer and put the filament, called Laywood-D3 through its paces. He found that the material had interesting properties. On his blog he reported that “It actually looks like something between cardboard and a springy MDF. The printed object also really can be painted, much more than with PLA or ABS.”

With a couple of printer tweaks, the material went from imitation wood to an organic, natural appearance.

The only problem with this material is that Kaipa can’t seem to make enough.

The one website that carries it is perpetually out of stock, while the only other option is to buy small batches through Germany’s eBay. With no open source sharing, it’s impossible for others in the fledgling community to continue helping its development. Some have expressed interest in trying to re-create the product’s formulation, including Brentwood, California, high school student Logan Dorsey, who has started an IndieGoGo campaign to raise research funds, but that comes with no guarantees.

3-D printing wood might not rival traditional production methods in terms of cost or quality, but it stands alone for its unique aesthetic. And in a world where 3-D printers are printing coral and fixing eagle beaks, it might be just the tool a sustainability-minded engineer needs.

Source: Wired

Since I am using Attractors frequently in my research, I decided to spend some time on organizing a GH User Object which is basically a grasshopper component that takes an array of points attracted to a certain point and returns the new array of points. If you don’t know what a GH User object is the go here and type GH User). You can easily install this component by placing the file provided into the User Object Directory [ in GH File-> Special Folders -> User Object Folder]. Simple as that and it is ready to use in User tab in the GH toolbar under the category Digital[Sub]stance. The component has five different input values: the attractor, the point array, the field of attraction, the force of attraction and the visualization toggle. The outputs on the other hand are the vectorfield of the attraction, the resulting point array and the visualization of the attraction range.

The field arranges the range of the attraction while the force defines the density by which the attractor point draws the others. By setting the force values to negative we obtain repulsion. The organization of the force is achieved by implementing a Bezier equation graph for smoother attraction.

The code might be containing some bugs so any feedback is deeply appreciated. Any upgrades are also welcome ( multiple attractors, curve attraction  ect). Download as usual from the [Sub]Code page.

Source: digitalsubstance

Material: Reflection Layer

This section is about how to add and edit the refection layer. Please click on the red cup in the scene. Click on Edit button under Material selections in properties.

Adding Reflection Layer

1. Click on the “+” next to Cup_red under Scene Materials to pull out all the layers. Right click on Reflection Layer. Select “Add new layer” to add a new reflection layer for this material. There will show Reflection under the material control section, as it shows on the second image below.

2. To remove a new added layer, right click on the layer you wish to remove then select remove.

3. By Default the reflection layer has a fresnel map which varies the amount of reflection based on the viewing angle. If that map is removed then the reflection is constant over the whole material. Since the reflection color is set to white this leads to complete reflection on the whole material. This is a good setting for chrome or a mirror, but not most materials.

4. Now we will go through the specifics of the fresnel map. Click on Reflection on the right section, and then click on the m box to set reflection.

5. If it is not already enabled scroll down the box next to Type, and then select Fresnel. Fresnel IOR is to control the reflection intensity. Keep the default value of 1.55, then click Apply.

6. Click on the Material Preview again. The Material now has reflection quality with the same color on it.

7. Notice the “m” on the right side of the Reflection is now changed to “M”. That means the Map has some other characteristics associated with it now. Please use the same method and apply Fresnel to other colors and render it. The white spot on the cup is the Rectangular light from above.

8. Below image rendered with Fresnel IOR set to 2.5, it has more reflection and looks more like a metal texture now. The cup has some black reflection due to the default setting of the background color is black. Under V-Ray Option, change the color under Environment>Background to white and see what will you get.

Fresnel Reflections

Fresnel Reflections are a naturally occurring phenomenon that states that an object becomes more reflective the greater the angle at which it is seen. An example of this principle would be a window that is seen from straight ahead as opposed to at an angle. Through manipulating the Index of Refraction (IOR) the reflective characteristics of an object can be changed. A lower IOR means that a larger angle is needed between the observer and the surface before the object begins to reflect. A higher IOR means that a smaller angle is needed, which in turn causes the object to reflect sooner. To have your renderings be more physically correct it is recommended to have the IOR of an object correspond to its actual IOR.

Below are six rendered samples each with a different Fresnel IOR. The last one is a rendered with full reflection to create a chrome material.

Source: VRay