AN INTRODUCTION OF NJS_UTILITY

ARCHITECTURE
COMPILER
(AC)
N ,
S IO
E R
E V
T
A Y
E
L NL
M P
O E O S
C
IN R US EN T
O D
F STU
BY
For Grasshopper
First edition

NJ Namju Lee INTRODUCTION OF NJS UTILITY FOR GH AND CSHAP

[email protected]
1
INTRODUCTION
This NJS UTILITY is a grasshopper plug-in for geometry and fabrication. Initially, this project was started from small chunks

of in-house developments for my design projects in NJSTUDIO which is an architectural design, computation and visualization

studio, and it has been further-developed while I worked and studied at Harvard GSD, UCBerkeley CED, SENSEable City Lab at

MIT and other institutions. To share technology in design domains, I decided to recap digital functionalities for general use, but it

may be still immature for the a certain use. However, in my personal reflection, this utilities is able to facilitate for computational

analysis and automation in a sense. Again, this version is INCOMPLETE version, thus academic use is recommended, and please

report when you encounter problems related to this utilities to improve it.

Please look at the attached example file to understand the individual functionalities, and data flows. In case that you have

no example GH or the plug-in file, please Email me(nj.namju@gmail,com) . Thanks for your interest in this modest utility.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The idea about AC(Architecture Compiler) have been developed since 2014 in the joint class(ARCHI 229 Computational

Design + Fabrication) between CED(College of Environmental Design) and EESC(Electrical Engineering & Computer Sciences),

UC Berkeley, with Prof. Kyle Steinfeld, and Prof. Jonatan Bachrach, and further development was facilitated from Prof. Simon

Schleicher and Instructor Luis Jaggy at CED, UC Berkeley. In terms of implementation sections and extra help, I appreciate Mustafa

Ahmad’s strong efforts and dedication for fabrication, and Autodesk Peir 9 fabrication people in SF. Lastly, I thank Khoa Vu as a beta

tester for his fabrication project at Harvard GSD.

NJ Namju Lee
Architecture design, Computation, Visualization specialist
[email protected]

Director and founder of

NJSTUDIO / http://www.njstudio.co.kr

INTRODUCTION OF NJS UTILITY FOR GH AND CSHAP

2
TABLE OF CONTENTS

Overview ............................................................................................................................................................................ 04

Setup ........................................................................................................................................................................................... 05

Component ....................................................................................................................................................................... 07

GH Example ............................................................................................................................................................................... 12

Implementation A .............................................................................................................................................................. 14

Implementation B ...................................................................................................................................................................... 18

INTRODUCTION OF NJS UTILITY FOR GH AND CSHAP

3
Overview
The initial input at pass A requires a Brep or surface which will be modeled based on curve profiles to develop a single form.
The geometry is broken into individual Brep strips as output. Pass B will analyse the formation of the strips with one another
and develop tabs in the form of curves which will be used to join the individual strips together. Pass C analyses the geometry
and develops the nesting for the strips by unrolling and labelling for final fabrication.

The compiler for the parasitic urban furniture is divided into four steps. Pass A takes into account the geometric rationalization
of the design. This means that it takes a given mesh or surface and converts it into an unrolled two dimensional representation.
Pass B inputs joints, seams and tabs on to the two dimensional drawing for assembly and Pass C nests the drawings into a
boundary for fabrication. Finally Pass D gives the instructions that aid in the assembly process.

Methods
Our design methodology used a parametric process to generate multiple strips that combined to form a seat that could be
attached to a bus stop post. The parametric model allows us to adjust various parameters of the design in order to adjust
ergonomics and functionality. The design process was then run through the compiler to develop a workable file for fabrication.

Materialization
The strips were fabricated out of two, 4’x8’, 16 gauge steel sheets using an OMAX water jet. The steel strips were bent at
specific locations using a brake machine and attached to a unistrut using standard nuts and bolts. Steel was chosen as the
material of choice due to its bending qualities which allowed for flexibility of the structure after fabrication.

Realization
The obvious realization is the complications that unfold once a design is taken out of the digital phase and implemented
into real life fabrication. Bending steel at the correct angles was a challenge as well as rationalizing the assembly process in
terms of nuts and bolts. A thorough research of material properties and behaviour through test cuts and simulations is always
advisable so that one is able to grasp the possibilities and limitations of the assembly process. Future Work. We intend to
further refine the compiler so that the assembly can be a smoother process. The use of steel has been a challenging but
fascinating experience and we intend to explore the material and its possibilities for fabrication in the future.

INTRODUCTION OF NJS UTILITY FOR GH AND CSHAP

4
Setup
1 Launch Rhino and Grasshopper

2 Click on File>Special Folders> Components Folder on the

Grasshopper window

3 Copy “NumericalArchitectureCompilerForGH.gh” and “NJSUtil.

dll “ to the library folder ( In my case “ C:\Users\NJ9\AppData\
Roaming\Grasshopper\Libraries”)

4 Restart Rhino and Grasshopper

5. Click the NJS menu tap

INTRODUCTION OF NJS UTILITY FOR GH AND CSHAP

5
INTRODUCTION OF NJS UTILITY FOR GH AND CSHAP

6
Component

Pass A Pass B Pass D

converter between Brep Tab Ordering

and Mesh

Brep to Subdivision Joint Data listener

Mesh

Direction Converter Puzzle

Offset Mesh

Unfolding Breps
Pass C

DecomposeBrep
Mesh triangulation

stripping mesh Bake for cutting

Contour Label

Rebuild Strips
Nest

INTRODUCTION OF NJS UTILITY FOR GH AND CSHAP

7
 PASS A Geometry Converter PASS A Brep Subdivision to Mesh
Brep Brep Brep Geometry
Mesh Mesh Subdivision space Boolean

Space: 1.0 Space: 0.4

Brep Mesh

PASS A Triangulation PASS A Triangulation

Geometry Geometry Upper mesh
Mesh
Boolean Offset space Lower mesh
Both Side Original mesh

brep = Rhino.Geometry.Brep.CreateFromCornerPoints(faceVer[0],faceVer[1],faceVer[2], 0.1)

triMesh.Append(Rhino.Geometry.Mesh.CreateFromBrep(brep)[0])

brep = Rhino.Geometry.Brep.CreateFromCornerPoints(faceVer[0],faceVer[1],faceVer[3], 0.1)

triMesh.Append(Rhino.Geometry.Mesh.CreateFromBrep(brep)[0])

PASS A Unfold
PASS A Flip direction
Geometry Brep
Geometry
Brep Mesh
Offset space Boolean

V Direction U Direction

INTRODUCTION OF NJS UTILITY FOR GH AND CSHAP

8
PASS A Contour

Brep
Curve
Line
Joined Curve
Offset Distance
Joined Curve

PASS B Tab and hole

Brep
Origin Point Curve
Tab offset size
Hole or no hole
Breps
Hole size

INTRODUCTION OF NJS UTILITY FOR GH AND CSHAP

9
PASS C Layout
Breps Data
Origin Point
Scale Curve
Height size
Width size Brep
Bounding box of a tabed strip Rearranging bounding boxes for calculation Staking bounding boxes in order

Populating of strips on each bounding box on the sheet

PASS C Layout PASS C Template PASS C Template PASS Bake for Rhino objects
Breps CED GSD
Curve Geo
Template Template
Curve
Template
Curve
Brep Boolean

Layer
PASS D Ordering Tag

Geo Position
Offset number Ordering

Curves for laser cutter The curves for cutting The curves for engraving

INTRODUCTION OF NJS UTILITY FOR GH AND CSHAP

10
Baked curves for cutting

INTRODUCTION OF NJS UTILITY FOR GH AND CSHAP

11
GH Example

INTRODUCTION OF NJS UTILITY FOR GH AND CSHAP

12
INTRODUCTION OF NJS UTILITY FOR GH AND CSHAP

13
Implementation A
Parasitic Urban Furniture [Fabrication]

UCB,CED Parasitic Urban Furniture [Fabrication]

Team : Mustafa Ahmad( [email protected]) NJ Namju Lee ([email protected])

Instructors: Kyle Steinfeld, Simon Schleicher, Jonathan Bachrach, Luis Jaggy // Autodesk Pier 9

INTRODUCTION OF NJS UTILITY FOR GH AND CSHAP

14
Team : Mustafa Ahmad, Namju Lee
Instructors: Kyle Steinfeld, Simon Schleicher, Jonathan Bachrach, Luis Jaggy.
Link : http://www.njstudio.co.kr/main/project/2015_STRIP-BASED_FABRICATION[RESEARCH]/2015_STRIP-BASED_FABRICATION%20[RESEARCH].html
Instructables link : http://www.instructables.com/id/Parasitic-Urban-Furniture/

The goal of the project was to design urban furniture which could be easily attached to an existing infrastructure within
an urban context. Our material of choice was steel, in order to take advantage of its flexible qualities and the urban
infrastructure chosen, were the existing perforated unistruts (used as bus stop posts) to take advantage of their strong
structure and perforated surface that allowed us to connect the furniture with ease. The process taken to develop the
furniture was through a computational pipeline which began from a parametric model of the design that was fed into
a computational compiler. The compiler aided us in the fabrication and assembly of the final product.

Geodesic referece points The left images show an experiment

on the given Berkeley to understand how multiple strips
Pipe Model
can be fabricated and assembled to
develop curved forms. The following
object you see is made of paper strips
that have been scored and folded to
allow maximum flexibility.
Generating surfaces based
on the geodesic
curves on the surface

Convert from geodesic

surface to meshes

Unfolding the meshes

INTRODUCTION OF NJS UTILITY FOR GH AND CSHAP

15
A
A Parasitic
Parasitic Urban
Urban FurnitureCompiler
A Parasitic Urban Furniture Compiler

FurnitureCompiler
The compiler for the parasitic urban furniture is divided into four steps. Pass A takes into account the geometric
rationalization of the design. This means that it Mustafa
takes Ahmad,
a given mesh
Namju Lee or surface and converts it into an unrolled two
dimensional representation. Pass B inputs joints,Mustafa
seamsAhmad,
and tabs
Namjuon
Leeto the two dimensional drawing for assembly and
Pass C nests the drawings into a boundary for fabrication. Finally Pass D gives the instructions that aid in the assembly
process.

pass A pass B pass C pass D

geometric joints layout instructions
pass A
rationalization pass
and B
seams pass C
automation forpass D
assembly
geometric joints layout instructions
rationalization and seams automation for assembly

Overview due to its bending qualities which allowed for flexibility of the
Material
Overview
The test for
compiler and
thefabrication
parasitic urbanprocess
furniture is divided into four structure
due to its after fabrication.
bending qualities which allowed for flexibility of the
steps.compiler
The Pass A takes into
for the accounturban
parasitic the geometric
furniture isrationalization
divided into fourof the structure after fabrication.
Realization
design. ThisAmeans
steps. Pass that account
takes into it takes athegiven mesh or
geometric surface and of the
rationalization Realization
The obvious realization is the complications that unfold once a
converts it into
design. This an unrolled
means two dimensional
that it takes a given meshrepresentation.
or surface and Pass B design is taken out of theisdigital phase and implemented into real
The obvious realization the complications that unfold once a
inputs
convertsjoints, seams
it into and tabstwo
an unrolled on dimensional
to the two dimensional
representation.drawing
PassforB life fabrication. Bending
design is taken out of thesteel at phase
digital the correct angles was a into
and implemented challenge
real
assembly andseams
inputs joints, Pass Candnests theondrawings
tabs to the twointo a boundarydrawing
dimensional for fabri-for as
lifewell as rationalizing
fabrication. Bendingthe assembly
steel processangles
at the correct in terms
wasofa nuts and
challenge
cation.
assembly Finally PassCDnests
and Pass givesthethedrawings
instructions
intothat aid in theforassem-
a boundary fabri- bolts.
as wellAas thorough research
rationalizing the of materialprocess
assembly properties and behaviour
in terms of nuts and
bly process.
cation. Finally Pass D gives the instructions that aid in the assem- through test cuts and simulations is always advisable so that one is
bolts. A thorough research of material properties and behaviour
bly process.
Methods able to grasp
through the possibilities
test cuts and simulations and is
limitations of the assembly
always advisable so that one is
Methods
Our design methodology used a parametric process to generate process.
able to grasp the possibilities and limitations of the assembly
multiple
Our designstrips that combined
methodology usedtoa parametric
form a seat process
that could be attached
to generate process.
Future Work
to a bus stop
multiple stripspost.
thatThe parametric
combined model
to form allows
a seat that us to adjust
could vari-
be attached Future
We Work
intend to further refine the compiler so that the assembly can
ous
to a parameters
bus stop post. of the
Thedesign in order
parametric to adjust
model allowsergonomics
us to adjustandvari- be
Weaintend
smoother process.
to further Thethe
refine usecompiler
of steel has beenthe
so that a challenging
assembly can but
functionality.
ous parametersThe of design process
the design was to
in order then run ergonomics
adjust through the compil-
and fascinating experience
be a smoother process. and
Thewe useintend to has
of steel explore
beenthe material and
a challenging butits
er to develop aThe
functionality. workable
design file for fabrication.
process was then run through the compil- possibilities for fabrication in the future.
fascinating experience and we intend to explore the material and its
er to develop a workable file for fabrication.
Meterialization possibilities for fabrication in the future.
Meterialization
The strips were fabricated out of two, 4’x8’, 16 gauge steel sheets
using an OMAX
The strips water jet.out
were fabricated Theofsteel
two,strips
4’x8’,were bent atsteel
16 gauge specific
sheets
locations using a water
using an OMAX brake jet.
machine and strips
The steel attachedwereto bent
a unistrut using
at specific
standard
locationsnuts
usingand bolts.machine
a brake Steel wasand chosen as the
attached to material
a unistrutofusing
choice
standard nuts and bolts. Steel was chosen as the material of choice

INTRODUCTION OF NJS UTILITY FOR GH AND CSHAP

16
A parametric modeling and the compiler

Exhibition and physical the chair model

INTRODUCTION OF NJS UTILITY FOR GH AND CSHAP

17
Implementation B
Designed by Khoa Vu ([email protected])

INTRODUCTION OF NJS UTILITY FOR GH AND CSHAP

18
INTRODUCTION OF NJS UTILITY FOR GH AND CSHAP

19
NOTE

INTRODUCTION OF NJS UTILITY FOR GH AND CSHAP

20