My team and I used Python to visualize and optimize surfaces. We used Mayavi, ImGui, and OpenGL libraries then we rendered the resulted surfaces using Blender. The image below is a final rendered gridshell.
Freeform Architecture
Freeform Architecture i.e. smooth surfaces with irregular shapes, can be simplified into families of curves forming gridshells. These curves can be categorized into either asymptotic (A) or geodesics (G). My thesis research explores the different gridshell designs generated with these characteristics.
Mesh Computation
My thesis focuses on the initialization of hybrid gridshells of asymptotic (A) and geodesic (G) curves. These structures have been extensively studied by my research group with Professor Helmut Pottmann. While our team has developed a discrete computational approach for designing these curves, the initialization of the surfaces remained in process.
We believe that a geometric approach offers an intuitive solution This presents a significant advantage due to the simplicity of computing derivatives while still achieving satisfactory results.
Our approach begins with an initial triangular strip just like the left picture. Subsequently, we employ mesh propagation to generate another strip that, when combined with the initial one, satisfies specific requirements for creating the desired hybrid gridshell. Through numerical optimization, this process iterates until a complete surface is generated, which can be seen in the right picture. This illustration was made by my PostDoc Bolun Wang.
Interactive Design tool
In this program we created, I implemented a tool such that the user can change the position of vertices while maintaining the structural integrity of three families of geodesics. This can be done through an optimization algorithm with some constraints that ensure smoothness of the surface.