Import NURBS geometry cleanly from Rhino into Maya

Moving geometry in and out of Maya can be difficult, especially moving geometry in a useable format between the two platforms. There have been attempts to move the geometry through a number of mediums, including .iges, .obj, .dwg, etc. I’ve found the majority of these to fall short in the face of highly articulated geometries. Rhino provides certain benefits over Maya, such as grasshopper and fabrication compatibility, but lacks much of the mesh control provided for in Maya.

In order to maintain the fidelity of the NURBS geometry, knowing that the geometry will be further worked in Maya, do the following:

1. Select NURBS object in Rhino. Run the command : ExtractControlPolygon. Move the polygon mesh away from the original NURBS geometry.
2. Export the object out of Rhino in the “wavefront OBJ” format.
3. Open the object in Maya.
4. Subdivide as needed. Done.

The upper screenshot below is of a surface in Rhino. The left geometry is a NURBS surface. The right geometry is the control polygon.

In the lower image is import geometry in Maya. The mesh on the right is the control polygon imported from Rhino. The surface on the right is a subdivided mesh straight from the control polygon (press “3” in the software…). Note that they are identical.

The only shortcoming of this method is that it only exports a single surface at a time, so if there is any mass to your NURBS model, each surface will need to be extracted and exported separately.

nouveau reframed

Update: Project was just suckerpunched - be sure to check it out.


Our conventions in architecture are to always work within the frame, the box, the cube. I suppose artists are the same in many ways – their work is so often defined by an edge or frame. Bonsoir Paris released a series of frames which begin to negotiate form within the construct of the frame itself, in a way reorganizing the frame to suit the aesthetic.
From the website:

DURAMEN is a series of handmade wooden sculptures. Born of a simple impulse, the one to break with conventional ways of exhibiting, Bonsoir Paris and its team have imagined a series of frames so strongly mistreated that they have become unrecognizable. Their wish is to break the properties of the compound, a form of compromise as minimal and it is efficient. They found a subtle twist while remaining faithful to a primitive form of revolt, without getting lost in vain styles effects. The choice of noble materials (Oak, Fir, Wenge, Pear, Linden) and the quest for finesse, enables them – with the DURAMEN series – to position themselves on the razor’s edge between two opposites, that of the deformed and that of the elegant, instinctive and thoughtful.

[website]
In terms of craft, no computation was used: hand-carved, sketched, hand-carved, sketched, done. Not sure if the distinction matters though – the end product is still pretty affective.
Also note the background: the formal paneling in clean white. Working in contrast, each index supports the other: the raw, fluid wood aesthetically reinforces not only the frame (being “melted”), but also the frame engaged with the wall beyond. It allows some motion to occur in the raw wood frame that would be lost in another setting.

Thesis: Asemic High

Image description:

1. Perspective from Windsor
2. Rail Interchange at base – Floor 02
3. Rail Interchange at base – Floor 01
4. Street Level Perspective
5. Aerial Perspective
6. Section
7. Rail Interchange – Floor 01
8. Rail Interchange – Floor 02

 

This project discusses the Asemic as a generator for certain geometries, certain spheres of sensation, while providing a paradigm for economically viable urban housing and integrated transit.

Asemic geometry denies signification in favor of the emotion of the glyph: that through the serialization certain geometries emerge, invoking sensations which are referential (perhaps) but maintain their independence from meaning. Exploitation of these tendencies, these geometries, yield techniques which allow for fluid conditions to exist between indices, largely defined by the line or curve.

The project is situated in Detroit just north of the Detroit/Windsor tunnel and will serve the dual purpose of a primary transportation hub for a 10 billion dollar rapid transit corridor proposed over the next several years, and a larger residential element situated atop this transportation plinth. Rapid transit will begin to connect the largely disparate suburbs of the Detroit Metro area, bringing residents back into downtown and into the recently redeveloped riverfront district. This high-rise will act as the mediator between the newly defined district and the transit system.

Economically, the project will be subsidized through a housing authority and deed restricted, reducing risk to the contractor (cost) and the government while providing an infrastructure and housing solution to the locality (similar to the Dutch Housing Act of 1901).

aperture & influence

fisker artega gt

The elevational surface of the artega gt aligns itself as knowing other geometries that are emerging from current architectural discourse (or work thereof): it’s eye-like aperture on the side is similar to the ornamental moves recently employed by Esquivel in his La Riviera renovation geometries (theoremas blog link):

At this point I contend that there are words/articulation needed to fully distinguish one aperture from another (as others certainly exist) wholly in and of itself, and not of a metaphorical rhetoric).

There is a specific move, where void makes a line, a delineation, about a surface, then invades or moves through the surface creating sub-surface expressed geometries in its wake; a moving void. In the same way there seems to be a movement about Esquivel’s work that entertains void objects about a surface, causing influences while not (in a similar move) ripping or destroying it’s plasticity.

Both discuss beauty in the most indiscrete way…perhaps this denies any true articulation to exist: they both leave the subject breathless.

la rivieria fabrication: link (I’ll post more of this incredible project as it comes online)

fisker automotive: link

asemic pliant geometries

An investigations into certain geometries which discuss the asemic as a mode of sensation and seriality in the high-rise typology.

(link to graphics)

Based on the pliant and the current economic state (as was similar in the past), certain architectural (urban) conditions are ripe for discussion: the fold (interstitiary connections), sensation, economic/sustainable drivers, ornament/structure, and geometry (as a study of the asemic as we "curve away from deconstructivism").

Infrastructure has to be retooled. In the next few decades, a huge initiative to create large public infrastructure projects will come to pass, creating a paradigm and a precedent. As people detach themselves from the ground, which will, when coupled with large vacant office high-rise space (due to the real estate boom's effect on rental values) create opportunity for the integration, of weaving, of high-speed and low speed (social condensing moments) infrastructure which spans from building to building. Sky lobbies will not be a vertically driven program, but now can be understood as a horizontally derived program as well. Therefore, certain public space accommodations must be made; a programmatic agenda, but a valid agenda none the less. These spaces must drip of movement, a muscled space pulled by (as a static expression) both the vertical and the horizontal.

Infrastructure disintegrates the ground in both directions normal to its surface: infrastructure of the air becomes as crucial as below level. This includes but is not limited by underground parking (as highway systems, which is being developed in Dubai), a lower pedestrian concourse, as well as subway or high-speed rail. Because of the project's site (see below), infrastructure will invade both the earth as well as the bay.

The fold, then, is an argument away from external, urban contradictions, as argued by the deconstructivists, and toward internal "heterogeneous" blends. Blended space, the space that retains several identities, will "fold" upon other space, still maintaining itself while becoming a construct of the whole (the Deleuzean "felt").

This logic (sensibility) is seen in the weaving of infrastructure about a redefined ground (or lack there of), and ties in well with other arguments of the asemic, or asemic geometries. Asemic is defined as "a wordless open semantic form of writing. The word asemic means 'having now specific semantic content.'" at the same time, we understand text (or the glyph) as having certain geometry which can be altered to create the phenomena of seriality. This can be easily understood by selecting a font in adobe products, in which the user is inundated with several hundred fonts, all with a distinct geometry about each character (again, glyph). These geometries, which here are devoid of semantic meaning, argue for other things, like emotion, all defined by some sort of sensibility or aesthetic. And while I say sensibility, as if we all define it for ourselves, there is a broader logic to this: that certain type sets (or styles of type sets) are typically be used for wedding invitation strongly deviate from that which is commonly used for rock concert posters, etc; an argument for geometry and style. If we look into architecture, one can see similar things: the tassel house by Victor Horta is a clear example of the use of graphic (for ornament, disintegration of the edge, etc.). One would argue this as a stylized look, but even so has a level of sensibility and sensation about the space (not to mention the lighting from above, color, etc.).

However, the asemic must be contained within that of the fold, the fluid connection. Geometry is one thing, but as indices weave and are warped about, opportunities for bending the column surface in upon the ground surface and in column to column relationships becomes a compelling argument for ornament and, again, sensation.

Note that these are preliminaries. The next phase of the work is to architecturalize the project. I will be developing a structural logic about the project with professors Holliday and Fry in the very near future which will allow for other extremely important considerations (like floor plates & vertical circulation) to be developed. At this point the project is primarily a study in geometry, and while the project will be developed in other ways, I would not call the current work Architecture, but again a study in geometry and sensation.

 

interior system

 

 

northern perspective | cell graphic

 

detail at sky lobby

 

entrance and ground articulation

parametric study – solar articulation/surface aggregation

 

For this study, I was asked to design a skyscraper who accommodates a system of panelization in which each panel is to be normal to the sun. One could think of these as either solar shades or PV panels. This condition allows for a level of sustainability about tall, topological projects, while still allowing the architect to control form while keeping the surfaces developable.

A number of steps went into solving the problem:

1. Planar surfaces where created from the NURBS surface using LIFT Architects Grasshopper Primer.
2. I then divided each panel into a 2x2 grid using U & V values, which yielded 9 points. I then extracted the corner points (1, 3, 7, and 9) and the middle points (5) into two distinct lists, or arrays. 
3. To create surfaces normal to the sun, I used trigonometry based on the vectors between the sun and the center/corner points of the original diagrid pieces. Because the magnitude (length) of the pre-existing vectors are known (both to the corners and to the center) as well as the angle between those vectors, a cosine function can be used to determine planar points along the corner vectors. Basically, as long as all end points of all lines draw a perpendicular vector to the existing central point vector, the surface, by definition, will be planar (see diagram). 

   GIVEN

   SOLUTION

4. Once I had the four new corner points, I used a ‘surface from four points’ component and baked the geometry into Rhino.

Because of the parametrics of grasshopper, one can view all possibilities of each panel, the number of panels, change the solar path relative to the building, etc.

To find the solar data I used an excellent excel spreadsheet put out by Greg Pelletier through the Washington State Department of Ecology (titled solrad.xls v1.2). It can be found on the web here.

Additional geometries can be explored (such as VT’s solar decathlon house wall pattern) which would do the same technique, in aggregation, which would perhaps give more variation to the work.

 

 

 

Images

(panels fixed in July position except in the video)

Interior Perspectives (January vs. July)

 

 

If the panels were to move in relation to the sun, it would look something like this (July solar data, of course):  

FlightPath

Aaron Koblin – Sand Box – Flight Paths

The paths correlate with various data tracking various flight paths about the US. I find the output (I hazard to say work…) to be quite beautiful in a way; the geometries are figural and, though complex, they seem to resemble some sort of logic, both in direction as well as in time (see the pulsing in the video).

The project also resembles the work done on processing (link to flickr stream | example 1 | example 2), the script used by Michael Hansmeyer in his Platonic Solid project, although the two do look entirely different…

Ultimately, in all of these, its not the script or the data that really matters: it is only (and will only ever be) the geometry, the articulation, and the beauty that captivates.

Images from the site: