Triangle and quad panel packages

Since Lunchbox discontinued its development for Dynamo, are there any replacement packages that can create quad and triangle panels?

Meshtoolkit, or just Surface.PointAtParameter will do. :slight_smile:

I managed to copy the Lunchbox folder to the 2.6 folders and it works. However, it is of concern that many design-oriented packages are being discontinued or not updated, which is logical as the demography of dynamo users are mostly non-designers especially compared to grasshopper users.

Design Script / Dynamo allows the creation of custom workflows for unique design processes and this is something that hasn’t yet been adequately explored or exploited.
While the nature of work matters and I certainly don’t represent the mainstream, I use Dynamo for design regularly and have almost never used any packages as I believe canned tools aren’t always an advantage to a designer.
It might be true that not many designers use Dynamo, but it doesn’t have to discourage one from exploring it’s potential.

uc = 6;
vc = 6;
srf01 = Rectangle.ByWidthLength(10,10).Patch();

//Quads
pnt01 = srf01.PointAtParameter((0..1..#uc+1)<1>,(0..1..#vc+1)<2>);
pnt02 = List.DropItems(List.Sublists(pnt01<1>,0..1,1)<1>,-1);
pnt03 = List.Transpose(List.DropItems(List.Sublists(pnt02,0..1,1),-1)<1>);
pnt04 = List.Reorder(List.Flatten(pnt03<1><2>,-1)<1><2>,[0,1,3,2]);
qds01 = Polygon.ByPoints(pnt04);

uc = 12;
vc = 8;
srf01 = Rectangle.ByWidthLength(10,10).Patch();

//Triangles
pnt11 = srf01.PointAtParameter((0..1..#uc*2+1)<2>,(0..1..#vc+1)<1>);
pnt12 = List.DropItems(List.Sublists(pnt11<1>,0..2,2)<1>,-1);
pnt21 = List.RemoveItemAtIndex(List.DropItems(pnt12,-1)<1><2>,1);
pnt22 = List.GetItemAtIndex(List.DropItems(pnt12,1)<1><2>,1);
pnt23 = List.Flatten(List.Transpose(List.Transpose([pnt21,pnt22])<1>)<1><2>,-1);
tri01 = Polygon.ByPoints(pnt23);

Building such workflows from scratch might reveal the potential for Dynamo to be used in creating something far more interesting and challenging

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Or is it that grasshopper is only used for design? :wink:

In all seriousness, I challenge this notion that dynamo is mostly used by non-designers. Looking over the ‘new posts’ for me this morning (as I do every morning), and all but one is related to a task which are a design task. Generative Design clearly is being used as a design task. Also Dynamo has a LOT of users in FormIt, Alias, and Sandbox none of which aren’t really documentation tools.

All of that said, the loss of any package is a blow to a community and something which is concerning. This concern is part of the reason which the package manager has a ‘you cannot delete a package’ policy, which still holds true. This means you can use what is posted there without fear of the workflow breaking down. Any package which doesn’t use that distribution method should raise flags for use (in fact I wouldn’t recommend building workflows around them without robust backups in place).

For the record, I’m 100% advocate for the use of Dynamo in the design phase. Unfortunately, our designers here at the office use Grasshopper exclusively even though we tried numerous attempts to persuade them over. The packages like Lunchbox, Ladybug, Kangaroo (DynaShape), etc. were a huge incentive to move to Dynamo or at least try it as it proves that both platforms have the same packages. But if these packages are not updated or discontinued due to limitations within Dynamo or because of lack of usage, makes it challenging to get colleagues on board. Even more so, when we send them to several Autodesk learning resources, they are taught that Grasshopper should be used for Design while Dynamo for the automation of boring repetitive tasks.

Designscript does give you a bit more freedom, but I’m not sure if it’s easy enough for the majority of users. They are accustomed of ready to use nodes.

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