EXLABFABRICATEdefinition manual

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Fabrication Tool 01Layout for fabrication

CNC cutting machinery is informed via vector line patterns which it then follows across the fabrication material. The most common of these fabrication technologies are limited to two dimensions (laser cutters, card cutters, 3-axis routers). To effectively and efficiently communicate, elements are assembled in a single plane similar to how you would manage a print file.

This clustered component orients any number of planar curves to a grid on the XY plane. It requires you to supply 1) the geometry to be arranged, 2) a source plane for each geometry to orient from (in the case of planar curves, the geometry itself can be used) and 3) a point grid where the geometry will be oriented to.

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Fabrication Tool 02Label for fabrication

A by-product of fabricating increasingly complex designs is the increasing importance of documentation of individual elements. This process of data extraction and conversion into labelling for fabrication can also be automated.

As CNC machinery dutifully follows the vectors it is instructed to, it is important to try to minimize time taken to fabricate extra documentation elements such as part number/description. This clustered component contains a script which bakes curves of input text in a ‘single-line font’ chosen because of its suitability for this task. The default font used is ‘Machine Tool Sanserif’ which needs to be downloaded (for free) for the script to work. This script was developed from that of Benjamin Golder and Guilio Picentino.

For other single-line font labelling, font download link, other text info, bug-checking and troubleshooting:http://www.grasshopper3d.com/forum/topics/invalid-text-lines-single?commentId=2985220%3AComment%3A73107

http://www.grasshopper3d.com/forum/topics/text-curves-from-a-string?commentId=2985220%3AComment%3A58246

http://www.grasshopper3d.com/forum/topics/more-control-over-text-tools

http://rhinotoday.com/2009/07/single-line-fonts-in-rhino/

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Fabrication Tool 03Make Tabs - Type 01 - Simple

This clustered component takes an unrolled polysurface (or a series of them) and adds tabs to allow for the 3 dimensional assembly of 2 dimensional fabricated elements.

For efficiency, this definition does not check that tabs are created on the outside of the shape. Although this is most common result, the direction of the tabs can be ‘flipped’ with a boolean toggle. Tab width is defined via a number input (assuming dimensional units from the open Rhino file) Taper is defined as a factor which scales from the original offset length. Most commonly this will be around 0.7 (70% of original length) though tight geometries may require less.

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Notes:Testing is often required to ensure that tab size (width) is adequate for fixing and that tabs are tapered sufficiently for acute corners. Occasionally shattering the original outline of the unfolded geometry causes errors and changing the level of discontinuity (from the default of 3 to 2) fixes this.

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Fabrication Tool 04Make Tabs - Type 02 - Zip Teeth

This clustered component takes an unrolled polysurface and adds a number of ‘teeth’ to each segment so that it can be ‘zipped’ to the strip next to it.

This aims to demonstrate that using the same input geometry as previous we can amend the definition to create our own custom method of connection.

A number of alternative methods were developed byModeLab in their Strip Morphologies workshop series:http://www.behance.net/gallery/Strip-Morphologies-II/3097757

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Fabrication Tool 05Make Tabs - Type 01 - Detailed

This clustered component takes an unrolled polysurface and creates fabrication documentation to allow for the folding and assembly of an unrolled 3 dimensional object. This takes the previous cluster further, enabling the extraction of ‘fold lines’ on the interior of an unrolled polysurface. It also gives the option of creating these as dashed lines.

To enable dashed lines simply switch the boolean toggle to ’True’. The dash type controls a cull pattern so different dash/space ratios are possible.

The same notes apply from the simple tool regarding testing, flipping and discontinuity.

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Documentation Aid Bake with Attributes

This scripted component was developed by Giulio Piacentino and is available, along with a number of other handy tools, from his website at http://www.giuliopiacentino.com/grasshopper-tools/

By connecting the curves coming from the MakeTabs component up as supplied we can bake out the geometry while assigning them to a layer, assign the layer name and the colour of the curves.

To activate, double click on the boolean toggle and set it to true. Make sure you return this to False immediately afterwards or every change you make will be baked as well (and will probably crash Rhino soon enough).

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Fabrication Tool 06Unroll a polysurface

This tool takes a series of joined planar surfaces and unfolds them onto the XY plane.

This is a handy tool to use either at the end of the design process to allow fabrication of complex geometries or alternatively early in the process where generated patterns can be mapped to the surface or simply overlaid to create various effects.

This script was adapted by AL-TU + T_A_I from the Giulio Piacentino renderAnimation component.

For other surface unrolling, bug-checking and troubleshooting:

http://www.grasshopper3d.com/forum/topic/listForTag?tag=unroll

In particular:

http://www.grasshopper3d.com/profiles/blogs/unrolling-surfaces-in-1

http://www.grasshopper3d.com/forum/topics/unroll

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For other surface unrolling with curves, bug-checking and troubleshooting:

http://www.grasshopper3d.com/forum/topics/unrolling-ruled-surfaces?xg_source=activity

http://www.grasshopper3d.com/forum/topics/unroll-curves-with-surfaces

http://www.grasshopper3d.com/forum/topics/unroll-surface-and-breps

Fabrication Tool 07Unroll a polysurface with curves

This scripted component takes a list of ruled surfaces and unrolls them using Rhinos ‘UnrollSrf’ command. (Literally. It bakes the surface, runs the command and then references the unrolled surface back into GH)

It also accepts a list of curves which are on the surface and unrolls them with it. While it is a very simple script, it is unfortunately process intensive. So it is to be used only once you are set to fabricate. Then, activate, go and make a coffee, (eat properly, have a shower for once) and come back.

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Fabrication Tool 08Waffle Grid - Type 01 For a surface

This cluster component takes a surface geometry and find intersections in perpendicular directions (X and Y). The intersections are then used to build ribs to support the surface. The intersections between ribs are then found and notches are substracted so that the sections can be joined together.

For other waffle/grillage scripts, bug-checking and troubleshooting:

http://fancywires.com/?p=59

http://www.grasshopper3d.com/forum/topics/grillage-fabrication

http://www.grasshopper3d.com/forum/topics/grillage-fabrication-reopened

http://madeincalifornia.blogspot.com.au/2012/04/ribs-structure.html

http://www.grasshopper3d.com/forum/topics/a-solid-waffle-for-laser

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Fabrication Tool 09Waffle Grid - Type 02Solid geometries

This cluster component takes a solid geometry and divides it in perpendicular directions. The intersections of these sections are then found and then notches are substracted so that the sections can be joined together.

For other waffle/grillage scripts, bug-checking and troubleshooting:

http://www.grasshopper3d.com/forum/topics/a-solid-waffle-for-laser

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Fabrication Tool 10Waffle Grid - Type 03For existing intersecting surfaces

This cluster component takes perpendicular planar surfaces and creates notches for fabrication and assembly.

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Fabrication Tool 11Waffle Grid - Type 04For panelised surfaces

This cluster component takes a input surface and creates a series of intersecting ribs composed of straight segments. This enables it to support planar panels generated from the same surface (in the same proportions). The tool works in a similar way to the ‘Fins’ command in Paneling Tools.

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Fabrication Tool 12Connection Profiles

This cluster component takes a list polylines that have been generated from a mesh or panelised surface. It then finds the intersection between adjacent faces and a plane perpendicular to this. The resulting polylines can be used to generate custom connection details.

The cluster also outputs strings to create labels documenting which faces the profile curve connects.

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Fabrication Tool 13Joint Type 01H - Clip

This cluster component takes a list of polylines with two segments which defines the angle two surfaces meet so that a connection can be detailed. This geometry can be generated with the ‘Connection Profiles’ tool shown opposite. This is a basic connection type but is included here to demonstrate how a custom joint type can be implemented.