DynaShape

As others have said: Fantastic!
But on my set-up, like @Julien_Benoit1, I had to supply real inputs to the defaults for Utilities.RectangularGrid, Goals.ConstantGoal_Create, etc. Otherwise I got ‘Dereferencing a non-pointer’ errors on those nodes.
Just an idea: Maybe because we are on Metric Revit??

1 Like

Actually I did not have this problem on my computer. But it exists on some other computers. Looks like the default value does not work properly. I don’t think it’s related to metric system. Thanks for reporting the issue on you computer. Will looks into this.

1 Like

@LongNguyen
.
Hi Long;
I,ve got challenge with Dynashape. How could I solve it?
.
Screenshot (188)

3 Likes

I’m having the same problem.

1 Like

Please try to reinstall. This is usually caused by an xml file not being installed correctly

2 Likes

After several attempts, I finally got DynaShape to show up in Dynamo as well as in the package manager > Previously Dynashape was only visible in the package manager). Now I’m faced with “operation failed” warnings. I’m using Dynamo 1.3.2. Any advice on how to get it working?

1 Like

Can you please who the error message in the Solver.Create node.

2 Likes

The Solver.Create node says “Warning: Solver.Create operation failed.
Oh no, DynaShape could not get access to the Helix ViewModel. Sad!”
image

2 Likes

Hello!

Thank you for the amazing job! I was wondering, is there a component to generate spring forces?
I would like to create something similar to the image below, a network of hexagonal patterns with some variation, and using spring forces is the first thing that I thought of.

nervous

Any idea about how could I achieve this using DynaShape?

Thanks!

1 Like

I can imagine you can probably achieve something similar that in a more direct way, without using springs or a solver like DynaShap.

But if you want to try DynaShape, then yes you can simulate virtual springs using the LengthGoal

To achieve something similar to that screenshot, You can treat the anchor points as vertices in DynaShape. Then create the following goals for the DynaShape solver.

  1. For every node, create an Anchor goal that tries to keep them in the original positions. The weight for the Anchor goals associated with the attractor point must be very high compared to other anchor goals
  2. For every vertex, create Length goals that link them to each attractor points. The targetLength might be set to half of the original length (i.e. the distance between the vertex and the attractor)
  3. Run the solver and hopefully you will see the length goals pull the vertices toward the attractor points, while the anchor goals will try to slightly pull them back to original positions (without the anchor goals, all the vertices will likely to move too much and becomes chaotic.
3 Likes

Hi Long,

thanks for the answer! I have tried to do what you suggested, but I might have done something wrong because when I run the solver the grid disappear… Can you see what I am missing?

Thanks for your time!

1 Like

Here is my setup Attractor.dyn (37.1 KB)

You will notice that it is actually a bithard to tweak the parameters to get the right attraction blending ratio and falloff between multiple attractors.

In fact, there are better analytical algorithms (e.g. thin-plate-splines, FFD/Freeform deformation) that can achieve this kind of non-linear space deformation directly without the need for an iterative algorithm like the one used inside DynaShape

3 Likes

Thank you very much Long!

1 Like

Hi Long,
I’ve installed dynashape and tried some example files. 6,7 and 8 works but 1 to 5 don’t . I always get this error message for the Constantgoal_create component : “Dereferencing a non-pointer”
I also get this message after reinstalling it manually.
Do you know what could be wrong?
Thanks

1 Like

I’m not @LongNguyen but I might have an answer for you:
To my knowledge that kind of error generally happen because there’s an issue with the list structure. Are you using several lists as input? Have you tried it with just one input?
If the latter would solve your issue I’d say try solving it with a List.Map.

1 Like

This is likely because the default value for the “constant” input is not working properly (Some users have reported this type of issue)

It is very easy to fix: Just manually input a vector into the “constant” input. In this case, you should use the vector value (0, 0, -0.1) because that is this default value for “constant”

3 Likes

Works perfectly! thanks a lot :+1:

1 Like

Im having the same issue.

Did you find a way to fix it???

1 Like

Yes try to re install and solve it, the issue was teh xml file

Thanks Long great packages

2 Likes

Hy LongNguyen, first of all I have to thank you for your great contribution. It’s simply fantastic…
Right now I’m reading a bit about Form Finding and optimization applied to structural engineering. And, of course, your package is very useful.
I only have one question: What method do you use to determine the equilibrium surface? Is it the force density method or some other? I would like to understand the bases.
At this moment I have not read the code. But I will soon.

Thanks a lot

1 Like