British Museum
This example will show how to generate the roof of the British Museum Great Courtyard in London. This example will show how to:
Create a
Patternfrom features (quad mesh)Make creases in the
ThrustDiagramby modifying theForceDiagramCompare the influence of patterns on force flow and distribution for the same boundary conditions
1. Pattern
1a. Create pattern
For this example, we will generate patterns From Features. In this Rhino file, there are four planar surfaces. Patterns B, C and D also have points on them.
Under Create Pattern, select From Features, then select one of the input surfaces. For Patterns B, C and D, also select the points as point features. For this example, we will use target edge length of 2.
The images shown in this example are showing all four Pattern options for comparison purposes only. In one RV2 session, only one pattern can be generated at a time.
The diagrams
1b. Modify pattern
Once the initial quad mesh has been generated, the pattern can be relaxed. Relaxation of the Pattern is not a requirement for successfully finding horizontal and vertical equilibrium. However, relaxing the Pattern during early stages of the RV2 workflow will ensure that the pattern is smooth, which will also make the eventual ThrustDiagram has smooth force distribution.
2 + 3 + 4. Define boundary conditions, create form and force diagrams
Once the Patterns have been defined relaxed, supports can be identified under Define Boundary Conditions. In this example, we will use the fixed vertices of the Pattern as the supports. When Identify Supports is selected, the fixed vertices of the Pattern will automatically be identified and defined as supports.
We will use all of the boundary vertices as supports, but not the singularities (the point features on the surface that were fixed in the previous step).
5. Horizontal equilibrium
6. Vertical equilibrium
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