Feeding back into dynamo

I have a graph in dynamo that uses some random numbers to generate starting points for a shape…

Putting it into generative design it brute forces my required outcome… Albeit fairly slowly.

However, as I’ve used random numbers for starting points I can’t feed it back into dynamo as the random number changes when it goes back.

I can’t share my graph on this one so I appreciate it may be a tad confusing but has anyone got any ideas as to how to overcome this?

I’ll start by saying this: ‘random’ isn’t a generative method to base a design on. If you use it, you’re not going to get reliable results the next time out. There are random looking methods (ie: select a white noise image and sample given pixels via a controlled shuffle) which might get you there, but as they aren’t truly random you won’t be exploring the entirety of the design space under any circumstances. Also, because the ‘adjacent setting’ will return an unrelated value to the previous study, there is no pattern to the results based on any input you needn’t bother with the optimize button, instead use really big randomize studies instead. With that out of the way…

Instead of using the random values, in the ‘record’ portion of your graph, pull the values which were generated by generative design either by writing them to a new file or pulling the top performer from your hall of fame data. This will ensure you’re not using new random values but instead using the values which happened to work out for the best.

It’s likely that there is a way to do this without relying on a random value, but without knowing where you are I can’t give you directions to the town hall.

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Pretty much the conclusion I’d come to… Irritating but… meh, it is what it is… Maybe I’ll think of a method that doesn’t involve a random start… but so far it’s winning by miles.
Thanks :slight_smile:

There is always a way, but it’s hard to know what that is without knowing what you’re up to.

Number sliders, Integer sliders, list permutations, physics solvers, etc. all apply well. :slight_smile:

I’m fitting the largest possible rectangle into a irregular polygon.