Stressed..

 Yesterday I tried 3d printing my gear wall facade. For some reason, almost every machine was completely stuffed. The one machine I could get working didn't print properly and screwed up halfway through. If we are to 3d print our models by Wednesday...well..lets just say that is very very very wishful thinking..lets do the math shall we..about 40 -50 students..6 3d printers or so - 1-2 of which are actually functional haha..oh im so stressed its not funny..ive come in a few times over the past few weeks..and none of them have been functional anymore than they were the other day..

Anyways here is a picture of 'gears'. As you can see..the print stopped when the gears were no more than 1/8th of their thickness...I really don't know how Im going to get anything done by Wednesday..

My stadium alone will take days to 3d print..so im really not sure how im going to be able to do this.

More Pictures of the finished model in Rhino

Assignment 5: Nature Inspired Architecture - The Wave Stadium

For my 5th installment of grasshopper  we had to create something that emulated an aspect of nature. I chose to combine my two favorite things - soccer, and of course, the natural aspect - the australian surf.

I thought of several ways to get my design across, in a way that saw it fitting for both my ideas - It is the year of the 2014 world cup after all. It inspired me to design for a conceptual future in which Australia would one day host the world cup. The design takes the formulation of an ocean wave tumbling down to create a unique piece of architecture.

In the beginning when I started many weeks ago, I thought to myself - how am I going to model a stadium..let alone something that mimic's forms from zaha hadid. I came up with this. It was my first attempt at shaping something like a stadium. I figured, building blocks. Take small steps and build up towards what I want to do.

 My first attempt - as you can see, consisted of me trying different approaches to creating a basic stadium structure. This attempt saw me create triangular prism's to make the shape of basic grand stands. Of course, this was not want I wanted, and thus I continued my endeavour.

My next attempt saw me create a 2d shape of a grandstand and then extrude in several directions, allowing me to create a slightly more complex stadium structure - first without a roof, then with one.

without roof

with roof

As you Can see - my early designs were quite flawed. Firstly, they didnt look anything like a wave (i had not yet come to that part) but more so, they looked very prismatic. I wanted something more free flowing - and Thus, brought me to my next design.
I had finally created the shape I wished for.

The design shows a 360 view of a wave slowly building up. Just as a wave starts off as nothing more than a small lump in the ocean, one side of the grandstand is very low. As it builds up, it gets higher and higher, until it curls and crashes down.

Inspiration for the design

 As I kept designing the stadium, I began to run into several problems. Firstly, I found it very difficult to place seating in, considering the shape of the stadium. I ended up going with the approach shown in the picture blow.

I had placed seating on the bottom level within the parameters of where I wanted it to go.

Now for the roof...

The Roof was troublesome to say the least. I wanted an interesting patten, yet once which still contained the concept of modern Australian living, combined with the love of the beach and aussie surf.

This random generation script I obtained from http://www.co-de-it.com/wordpress/code/grasshopper-code combines both of these. The individual square holes, when places in random matrices such as these, creates somewhat of a foaming effect - the same way an ocean foams whilst rolling and crashing back into itself.

The Stadium roof will have led lights through it, so for the final exhibition it can have several lighting features.

I am undecided whether or not to add a second level to the stadium. Perhaps for the final exhibition I will but for now it is complete.

I call it - The Wave Stadium 3.0 :)

(1.0 and 2.0 were the ridiculously failed earlier attempts)

I have to say I am quite pleased with it thus far. It will be interesting to see if it prints as I wish it to however.


Script Link: http://www.gamefront.com/files/24258890/DANIELJOSEPH_3332502_WAVE_STADIUM_ASSIGNMENT5_BENV2426.zip

Gear Facade Complete

I finally got around to finishing my gear facade after working extensively on it for the past 4 days. After class last week,  I decided to add more gears, creating somewhat of a curved surface. he premise is that if it were 1:1 scale, a person could walk through and have the gears surrounding them begin turning- possibly with a proximity sensor. To manually demonstrate this, I have two gears on the base with only one circle cut out, allowing the user to place their finger inside it, and rotate, witnessing the gears spin clock and counterclockwise to create the desired effect.

 

Link to the file

http://www.gamefront.com/files/24245106/Daniel_joseph_Assignment_4_Gears_facade.zip

More Work on my Gear concept

 Today I would be lying if I said I spent less than 8 hours on my project script. I dont say this to boast, but rather to demonstrate the fidelity of these gears and their consequential rotation axis'.

I have now created the gears as well as their axis rotation gears. I did this by creating a long shaft (extruded from the inner gear, which was an offset of the bigger gear pattern..if that makes sense..) and then extruding it to the desired height. I thought to myself "yes! I've done it" .. Buuuuuut as I kept thinking, I realised that this wouldn't make a decent gear spindle at all. Instead, I Made a circle and extruded it a to create somewhat of an anchor point for the gear not to slip through, leaving enough gap to let the gear slide on, and subsequently have a bit on top to place a cap (so the gear doesnt fall off). Below is a diagram for reference..

I have been sitting at the desk trying to get everything to line up. In order to get gears to spin, the teeth need to be in perfect sync - otherwise it will cease up. I fear that when I go to print I may encounter some problems regarding this, however, it wont be hard to fix. All I will have to do is move the sliders.

I have now created the start of a shape for which my gears will be organized upon. I am uncertain whether I wish to make it more complex at this point by introducing more angled gears, but for now I am content.

More Work On The Gears Concept

Today I worked on another gear design for my conceptual gear wall. I also created a rotation method, which automates a rotation based upon a C# script and a middle axis point.

As you can see, I am attempting at rotating the gears on more than one axis - and as I continue my research and development into this idea, I will attempt to spin on a diagonal axis also.

I have also done a quick paint sketch on the ways gears move so I havea rough idea which way each gear will have to rotate.

PROJECT 4 - MOVING / JOINING PARTS

For my fourth installment for Benv2426 I decided to go with something that I have been wanting to try within grasshopper for quite some time - Modelling a wall of moving gears.

At first, i thought this process would be quite simple, but as I have now been working on it for well over 11 hours today,  I have realized that it will indeed not be as easy as I originally thought.

Before I began, I began brainstorming all the possible ways for me to make the gears themselves. Sure, I could just cheat and download an already done script off the net which I don't understand, but then, whats the point in that? there's no challenge - It defeats the purpose of me going to university.
My first attempt began with something very simple  - A Circle. I figured by dividing the circles radius into even points, I could then create a second circle, and align the points crookedly, so that I could make it a zig zag pattern.

After a good two hours of trying I soon realized that this was indeed beyond me. It had seemed to easy a thought to work, and I was definitely right. This is experimental modelling after all, and so I endeavored for yet another way to achieve what I had set out to do.

My next attempt followed this similar notion of thinking, by getting two circles, joining the vertices with a parallel line between each opposing set, and then numbering them for reference. I had originally planned to take every second and third vertex and extrude it further away to created the jaded gear effect. However again, after another 5 hours of trying different combinations, I was still unsuccessful. Hell, I had even tried to place a rectangle I created with curved edges at the centre of my circle, and then placed it on each division point in the hope of being able to get them to work like an attractor point, all facing towards the center..but again, I was unsuccessful for one reason or another.

It was at this point I began getting frustrated, so I walked away from the computer. My eyes, blurry and bloodshot as I attempted to regain my focus upon my return back to the desk in my  room.

I began to attempt yet another...well..attempt at creating this stupid gear which I had already devoted the better part of my Thursday to. This time, rather than creating a circle, I created a radial, divided the distance by an arbitrary figure, added a rectangle yet again with curved edges to each vertex point, and then attempted to rotate3d to gain this same movement as what I had tried earlier. My idea behind it was to create all the shapes to point towards the center of the circle, and then it would have been as simple as solid unioning the two faces once extruded to my desired outcome..but this did not work.
Here is a picture for reference..

I began trying yet another way -one which I made significant progress with. I began by creating a point and circle, offsetting it and then dviding and sifting it to get the desired effect of a gear. By offsetting the inside, I was able to create the smaller area within the centre for which to create my gear's starting point. This configuration was one I had thought of previously when attempting to place stadium seats inside a stadium I designed (personal project on grasshopper). It was essentially done by creating a zig zag pattern from two circles, and then playing around with the parameters as I mentioned previously. It was at this moment I shouted "YATTA" (Japanese for I Did it!)

Call me crazy, but after spending over 12 hours at this point on a bloody gear, one has to proclaim such an achievement (in my books anyways)

After yet another several hours of messing around with this configuration I had thought of, I began to play around with the parameters as well as the multiple integers. I was able to come up with the basis for my first successful attempt. As you can see, I have created a gear which is not perfect, but it does have a much more categorized look towards it compared to the previous stage.

I figure experimental modelling is about learning new things, and the only way you learn is through experience. I could have just found someone else's work online, but as I mentioned in the above, what would that have achieved? I know my skills with grasshopper are still somewhat limited seeing as we've only been using it for about 7-8 weeks now, but for someone who was never good at maths, this algorithmic modelling is starting to come to me :)

My next step will be to continue modelling the gears until I am satisfied that they will work in all sizes. Of course, in order to do this, I am really going to have work do some mathematical calculations in regards to gear ratios, turning circles, gatored gear types etc.

A major principle of gear movement I found upon researching this, is that gears have to have identical gear ratios and spacing of their subsequent teeth in order to work properly, especially at high speed. I want them to be parametric, so that when I move the slider to a larger number, the gears all stay uniform.

For a few more hours I muddled around with different things, and came up with a simple, yet elegant pattern for some of the gears. I have several other patterns in mind which I will get around to doing tomorrow or in days to come - but for now..im happy :)

I'll keep you posted - Eliot / Hank / Rebekah (or anyone else) - If you are looking at this, drop me a comment for some feedback please :) I want to get this assignment finished as quickly as possible so that I may spend time printing every component. It will be a wall of many moving gears after all, and that will take time, even if the gears are predominantly small.

:) Time to model some of the supporting framework!