20101112

Math Project: Grades 6-9

Math Project: Grades 6-9: "First, some easy folding, to make a cube and pyramid:
1. This should be done in Top view (Camera / Standard Views / Top). You will automatically open SketchUp in top view if you choose one of the “plan view” templates at startup.
2. Use the Rectangle tool to make a square."

Bruno's pages : Links : Tents : Software

Bruno's pages : Links : Tents : Software

This is a collection of links to tent and tension structure design softwares, this isn't complete and I'm not necessarily recommending any of these.
Free
  • Sailcut - Sailcut CAD is a sail design and plotting software which allows you to design and visualise your own sail and compute the accurate development of all panels in flat sheets.
  • Surface Evolver - The Surface Evolver is 'an interactive program for the study of surfaces shaped by surface tension and other energies'.
  • douglas zongker - polyhedra models - Nothing to do with tents, but some great cut-out and stick-together models of the 13 Archimedean semi-regular polyhedra.
  • ip slicer - A little tool for creating patterns to make the segments you need to assemble a sphere. It does it entirely with image files so you can turn an atlas into a globe etc..
  • NJIT - The New Jersey Institute of Technology have a small fortran package for patterning. it doesn't seem to work, but maybe you'll have more luck than me.
  • puzzles with polyhedra and numbers - Puzzles with polyhedra and numbers. In this site one can print copies of polyhedron puzzles (for non-commercial purposes only) and one can read several mathematical articles on the subject.
  • Vinicius F. Arcaro homepage - Vinicius is a Brazilian engineer developing software for shell and tension structures.
  • Taylors - Some AutoCAD lisp routines for manipulating polyface meshes, slicing and flattening them.
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20101111

MPanel Software

MPanel Software: "Tensile fabric structure designers can now have a complete set of tools, running in industry standard CAD software, AutoCAD or Rhinoceros®.

MPanel is our flagship product and works inside AutoCAD . MPanel software runs in many older versions of AutoCAD, releases 14 through to 2010, so you don't have to buy the latest AutoCAD version to use our MPanel products!

MPanel-R is the identical product to, MPanel, except that it works as an add on toolbar inside Rhino 4.

MPanel and MPanel-R, incorporate a set of design tools into a user friendly interface to assist tensile fabric structure designers. MPanel works inside AutoCAD or Rhino as a floating tool bar, and manipulates your CAD drawing from the initial relaxation of a mesh to the final production panels for you to send to your plotter or cutter.

MPanel was developed to assist tensile fabric structure designers, but works equally well on other projects, such as tents, awnings, exhibition stands, and inflatable structures.From this....
to this.....in just a few clicksThe MPanel add-on toolbar works with AutoCAD and Rhino, so there is no need to learn a complete new CAD environment. We let you leverage your CAD skills, so you are up and running with MPanel in a very short time"

form z vs rhino - Architosh Forums - Mac CAD and 3D Discussion

form z vs rhino - Architosh Forums - Mac CAD and 3D Discussion: "Originally Posted by frem001
It depends what you are planning on doing. I know that Rhino has some powerful scripts that allow you to flatten and label complex 3d shapes so it can be taken to a laser cutter and then assembled by hand. I haven't seen this in formz.

Both Rhino and formZ have the ability to flatten/unfold objects.

Rhino's buildt unfolding features are comparatively primitive, unless you spend $900 on a plug-on called Expander.

A suggestion would be to have a look at TouchCAD, which is built around the combination of 3D modeling and unfolding / fattenting features. It is the only true five-dimensional program, where all 3D panels are dynamically and parametrically linked to the unfolded patterns. These features integrate the production preparation and optimizing the use of material into the design process and generates production ready results very quickly. TouchCAD comes with a very extensive set of unfolding settings, such as split resolution, direction, overlaps/seam allowances, automatic coordinates, panel and point numbering, alignment marks, stretch unfold calculations, image unfolding etc. On the 3D side TouchCAD comes with a full set of modern push-pull tools, which works from any view and direction, dynamic cross sectioning which is absolute must-have for accurate shape control, etc. www.touchcad.com"

TouchCAD training movies, image unfolding

TouchCAD training movies, image unfolding: "Sail Mapping (7.5 Mb / 5.52 minutes) illustrates the basic steps for importing a background image and mapping it on a sail. TouchCAD currently supports importing from Sails Science Sailmaker, Sail Pack Mouldslize, Azure, Quantum Spinnaker, Prosail, North Sails PAN, Autometrix VRML and point clouds in ASC II TAB format. The import methods may vary slightly between these packages."

20101110

The Proving Ground by Nathan Miller: 3D Voronoi "Porn" in Grasshopper

The Proving Ground by Nathan Miller: 3D Voronoi "Porn" in Grasshopper: "There has been an interesting discussion going on over at the Grasshopper Google Group for achieving 3D Voronoi within the Grasshopper environment."

Finite element method - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Finite element method - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia: "The finite element method (FEM) (its practical application often known as finite element analysis (FEA)) is a numerical technique for finding approximate solutions of partial differential equations (PDE) as well as of integral equations.

Delaunay triangulation - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Delaunay triangulation - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia: "In mathematics, and computational geometry, a Delaunay triangulation for a set P of points in the plane is a triangulation DT(P) such that no point in P is inside the circumcircle of any triangle in DT(P).

Delaunay triangulations maximize the minimum angle of all the angles of the triangles in the triangulation; they tend to avoid skinny triangles. The triangulation was invented by Boris Delaunay in 1934[1].


For a set of points on the same line there is no Delaunay triangulation (in fact, the notion of triangulation is undefined for this case). For four points on the same circle (e.g., the vertices of a rectangle) the Delaunay triangulation is not unique: the two possible triangulations that split the quadrangle into two triangles satisfy the 'Delaunay condition', i.e., the requirement that the circumcircles of all triangles have empty interiors.
By considering circumscribed spheres, the notion of Delaunay triangulation extends to three and higher dimensions. Generalizations are possible to metrics other than Euclidean. However in these cases a Delaunay triangulation is not guaranteed to exist or be unique."

Walking in a Triangulation - VoroWiki


Walking in a Triangulation - VoroWiki: "Given the Delaunay triangulation (DT) of a set S of n points and a query point p, the point location problem consists of determining inside which triangle of lies p.

This is a necessary operation for the incremental constructing of a DT, for deleting a vertex from it, and also for different spatial analysis operations.

The method described here is called walking in a triangulation, and does not need any pre-processing or any additional data structures.

The adjacency relationships between the simplices in a DT are used to perform the point location. The algorithm was described in the earliest papers about the construction of the DT in two dimensions (Gold et al., 1977)[1]; Green and Sibson, 1978[2]): in a DT, starting from a triangle τ, we move to one of the neighbours of τ (τ has 3 neighbours; we choose one neighbour such that the query point p and τ are on each side of the triangle shared by τ and its neighbour) until there is no such neighbour, then the triangle containing p is τ. The algorithm is illustrated on the right."

Voronoi Diagrams and Delaunay Triangulation


Voronoi Diagrams and Delaunay Triangulation: "A Voronoi diagram is a geometric structure that represents proximity information about a set of points or objects. Given a set of sites or objects, the plane is partitioned by assigning to each point its nearest site. The points whose nearest site are not unique, form the Voronoi diagram. That is, the points on the Voronoi diagram are equidistant to two or more sites."

Modeling from Photographic Reference in 3DsMax

Modeling from Photographic Reference in 3DsMax: "Tutorials\Autodesk 3Ds Max
Modeling from Photographic Reference in 3DsMax"