Twisting Surfaces

The first Module is made up of a plain surface that gets twisted to become the next module. There is a relationship between the amount of the twist and the two environmental factors of air transfer and light exchange as the twist causes openings on areas that were previously covered by the surface. It is interesting to note that the maximum air transfer is occuring at Module C, as the twisted surface starts to block the opened spaces in the following Modules.

Water/Light Module

 

A series of modules dictating fluctuations of light and the capacity of water that can be held.

KARAKUSA PATTERNING

Needs to be simplified , but the unit allows for connection at any of the 16 points in space.

Module A/ Light Transfer/Opacity

trefoil knot (pin-up 01/21/09)

the trefoil knot is established to document the differentiation of heat and visual permeation.

Unfolding and Unrolling

1. If you have made a developable surface in Rhino you may select the “unroll” tool to unroll your surface. This will make a 2d template that you may then print out or laser cut and score and reassemble to make a physical model that accurately resembles the digital model.

2. If unrolling does not work for you because your surface is not developable, try unfolding with Pepakura. http://www.tamasoft.co.jp/pepakura-en/. You can download it and try it for free. If you like it, it only costs $15.oo. It’s unbelievably easy to use.

Contouring

1. Make sure that your object is not just a surface but that it has thickness. You can do this by selecting the object and extruding it. 

2. Contour the object. Follow the prompts given to you in the window. You will be asked to select the surface perpendicular to the direction of the contours. 

3. Type in the distance between the contours. This distance will be based on the thickness of the material you are using. Your Rhino model should be the same size as the physical model you intend to build (so scale up or down before you contour if it is not). 

4. If your contours were made on the xy plane, you should them distribute (so they are not on top of each other)  then and make 2d for cutting. 

5. If your contours are perpendicular to the xy plane, use the orient3pt tool to lay them down and distribute them simultaneously for cutting. If you are going to laser cut them you may wish to label each piece so that you later know where it goes in your laminated model. If you are going to cut them in the wood shop or by hand at your desk, you may label then and print them with the labels or write on them by hand, before you cut them out.

Rhino tip

1. Select “rhino options” 

click on “mouse” 

change middle mouse button to “pop up menu”

This will allow you to see and quickly track back to the last 20 commands that you used. It will be a good record and a fast way to work. 

 

2. Pressing the space bar allows repeat use of a command.

T-Splines

T-Splines is a very useful plug-in for rhino. It allows you to create complex free-form surfaces that you can edit without having to patch together multiple surfaces. There are other nice features that you should check out on their website. You can download a free 30-day trial version or buy a single license for $199.

Rhino Tutorials

Here is a quick video tutorial for Rhino that I found on youtube. There are plenty of other tutorials on the web, so search and post any that you find for the class.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4pWmhXEbmIU