Cool, I have been waiting for a discussion topic to cover lofting with
the VB component.

I have uploaded a file that modifies what visose has done (with Mr.
Rutten's suggestions, of course) to create a set of rotating "organic
louvers" along a curve.

http://grasshopper3d.googlegroups.com/web/VB_Loft_Organic
Louvers_nmiller.jpg
http://grasshopper3d.googlegroups.com/web/VB_Loft_Organic
Louvers_nmiller.ghx

This is too much fun.  Thanks guys!

-Nate

On Oct 20, 3:33 pm, visose <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> I did a simple example of multiple lofts with the help of the pointers
> mentioned above:http://grasshopper3d.googlegroups.com/web/loftcurves.jpg
>
> In GH i create a 3D grid of points and I place a horizontal circle in
> each of the points.The radius of the circles is a function of the
> x,y,z values of its corresponding point (so all or most circles have a
> different size).
> Then I order the list of circles by its Z value.
> In the script component i select the curves that have the same X,Y
> position and loft them.
> My scripting skills are really bad, so the way i select the curves to
> loft was a bit of trial and error and its probably not the best way to
> do it. I tried to include only the necessary lines to create a loft,
> but there are a loft more loft options available.
>
> On Oct 20, 3:28 pm, David Rutten <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
>
> > Hi Visose,
>
> > that is indeed too simplistic. The Loft component is not part of
> > Grasshopper, it is part of the Surface.gha file which ships alongside
> > grasshopper. GHA files in Grasshopper are similar to RHP files in
> > Rhino. There's no way for a plugin to hack into another plugin. Only
> > functions that are available inside Rhino core (and inside dlls you
> > specifically reference when you compile your plugin) can be called
> > from within a plugin.
>
> > I could make a simple Loft function in Grasshopper somewhere, which
> > could be used by people writing scripts. But since we (read: Dale
> > Fugier) are already in the process of porting all RhinoScript
> > functions to the SDK, I'd rather wait until V5 comes out so we can get
> > all this for free.
>
> > The EH_Box, EH_Integer, EH_Surface classes you saw indeed come from
> > Grasshopper. I didn't bother changing the prefixes on all classes when
> > the name changed to Grasshopper, and to avoid a double naming standard
> > I still call everything "EH_". But, these classes are not components,
> > they are data types. EH_Curve can be likened to OnCurve, EH_Colour is
> > similar to System.Drawing.Color etc. etc. These classes typically do
> > not offer much functionality, they merely contain data.
>
> > --
> > David Rutten
> > Robert McNeel & Associates
>
> > On Oct 20, 4:09 pm, visose <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
>
> > > What I'm going to ask is probably very simplistic and naive since i
> > > don't know how the internals work too well.
> > > But when the popup list appears when writing code the are seem to be
> > > some GH components like EH_box, EH_circle, EH_curve (I assume EH is
> > > from 'explicit history').
> > > So I thought maybe there was a way (or there will be a way) of using
> > > the grasshopper component 'loft' inside the scripting component
> > > instead calling the SDK loft directly.
> > > So it would be as simple as: (here comes the most naive part of the
> > > post)
>
> > > Having as input parameter of the scripting component 'loft_curves' and
> > > 'A' as output:
> > > Dim loft As New GH_Loft()
> > > loft.inputcurves = loft_curves.ToArray()
> > > A = loft.outputgeometry
>
> > > On Oct 20, 1:11 pm, David Rutten <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
>
> > > > Hi Adam,
>
> > > > Lofting is not easy. You have to construct a new instance of
> > > > MArgsRhinoLoft, which contains all the loft settings and curves. Then,
> > > > you have to call RhUtil.RhinoSdkLoftSurface and pass it your
> > > > arguments. There's no function in the SDK which is as easy as
> > > > Rhino.AddLoftSrf in RhinoScript. I agree that there should be, but
> > > > there isn't.
>
> > > > Let's assume you have a collection of 100 OnCurves, and you want to
> > > > loft the first 10:
>
> > > > 1) Create a new list of MRhinoLoftCurve and populate it using a loop
>
> > > > Dim loft_curves As New List(Of MRhinoLoftCurve)
> > > > For i As Integer = 0 To 9
> > > >   Dim crv_section As New MRhinoLoftCurve()
> > > >   crv_section.m_curve = m_original_curves(i).DuplicateCurve()
> > > >   crv_section.m_bClosed = m_original_curves(i).IsClosed()
> > > >   crv_section.m_bIsPlanar = m_original_curves(i).IsPlanar()
> > > >   loft_curves.Add(crv_section)
> > > > Next
>
> > > > 2) Then, create new MArgsRhinoLoft and populate the values:
>
> > > > Dim loft_args As New MArgsRhinoLoft()
> > > > loft_args.m_loftcurves = loft_curves.ToArray()
> > > > loft_args.SetClosed(<<value that indicates whether you want a closed
> > > > loft of not>>)
> > > > ....<<set other loft settings in similar fashion>>
>
> > > > 3) Finally, call the RMA.Rhino.RhUtil.RhinoSdkLoftSurface() function
> > > > with loft_args and an array of OnNurbsSurfaces.
>
> > > > --
> > > > David Rutten
> > > > Robert McNeel & Associates
>
> > > > On Oct 20, 1:48 pm, "Adam Holloway" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
>
> > > > > I'm relatively new to scripting.  I want to sort a number of curves, 
> > > > > in
> > > > > different lists, and then loft them periodically in the scripting
> > > > > component.  What is the best way to do this?  I've looked through the 
> > > > > sample
> > > > > code for SDKLoft but the different classes confused me and I wasn't 
> > > > > sure
> > > > > what was appropriate for this.
>
> > > > > Thanks,
> > > > > Adam

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