This video gives a quick overview of Rhino, Grasshopper, parametric design, computational design, sustainable design, and previews points where they come together. Near the end of the video the glass sponge is introduced (Venus’ Flower Basket)—which is the natural model we follow for the remainder of this introductory series.

In this video we cover some of the most basic concepts in Grasshopper including points, vectors, curves, and lists. We start by looking at where geometry is stored in Rhino and Grasshopper. Then, we string components together to make a surface, noticing that geometry emerges from a sequence of steps in Grasshopper.

In this video we use the Series component to make a series of points and the Graph Mapper component to move those points varying amounts according to the outputs of a function. We use the moved points to create a curve and then a curved surface.

In this video we explore several new concepts to make a circular surface, a triangular surface, and a referenced surface (referencing geometry we draw inside Rhino).

In this video we explore deconstructing geometry to introduce the idea of making our own components that take in simple and available inputs. We deconstruct the surfaces we made to retrieve the bottom curve. We will later use this curve to make the squares for the glass sponge pattern.

With our bottom curve in hand, we use the Divide Curve component to get equal segments—these lines become the bases for our glass sponge squares. We also examine the differences between open-ended and wrapped surfaces.

This is a tangent video looking at curvature and why straight lines and circles fall into the same category with respect to curvature. This video features a closer look at the Evaluate Curve component.

This is a brief introduction to C# scripting. Basic Grasshopper scripts follow steps that generally move in only one direction. This doesn’t allow for the output of a later step to become the input for an earlier step. Recursive operations are extremely useful, however. Videos 07 and 08 introduce these concepts.

Recursive operations (in which a function's output becomes that function's input for the next step) are everywhere in natural systems and in computer programming. This video, and the previous video, touch on C# scripting in order to introduce these concepts.

In this video we make a grid of points on our surface(s). These points will be the corners for our squares. Here we solve the problem of reorganizing the points so it will be easy for us to make squares with them.

This is another tangent video. This one looks at trees in Grasshopper. This is concept you will use all the time if you continue to use Grasshopper (or any kind of computer or visual programming). A tree is just a way to organize data (points, numbers, lines, etc.)—it is basically a list of lists.

In this video we make a series of Series components in order to make a tree of integers (sounds like gibberish, huh?). We can use this tree (list of lists) to pick out the specific points from our list of points to make our squares (four points at a time, four integers in each branch of our integer tree ... whew).

In this video we find the points where the cross-braces meet the squares. We checkback to the article we have been referencing to get the equation estimating the ratio between the length of one square and the distance between a square’s corner and the nearest cross-brace intersection. Then we translate this math into a Grasshopper script.

The final video! In this one we make the cross-braces and then give apply the appropriate thicknesses to all of our glass sponge elements. Congratulations!

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