Parametric Modeling with Grasshopper
baharmon.github.io
baharmon.github.io
A quick example - you can use what are called gates and filters in Grasshopper, so you can do things like route faces that meet some criterion you've set through one set of operations and those which don't through another. Then you can use pattern matching or other operations to weave the data back together in the proper order...
https://github.com/ivanreese/visual-programming-codex
https://github.com/ivanreese/visual-programming-codex/blob/m...
Although I'm going to have to create a pull request because he doesn't have Flowgorithm on there, which is an excellent tool for teaching the very very first steps of learning to program...
Terrible name, wonderful tool.
Just this morning, a colleague showed me a web app for building option exploration that he had vibe coded on Replit that wrapped around existing core logic in a Grasshopper script hosted in RhinoCompute [1].
The combination of visual programming, the tree data structure and Rhino’s geometry engine has made this the de facto standard for parametric design in architecture (sorry, Dynamo…)
I've found that it opens computational design and programming more broadly up to a broader audience. It has found huge purchase in architecture specifically. I would say this is as much cultural as technical, as architects generally are less rigorously systematic and more global in their thought processes. As people who work largely in the visual domain we are also "visual learners" so to speak.
I first started dipping my toe into Grasshopper in about 2010, and feel that I was fairly expert by about 2015. SHAMELESS PLUG [0]. I've used it at a high level since, and taught it extensively.
Most users - almost all for a very long time - used it primarily as a tool to create, draw, and fabricate more crazier geometry easier. And it is certainly good for that. But in using it - and especially in teaching it - I also find that it is excellent to demystify the design process in ways that folks like programmers instinctively understand. That is you have to be able to break complex problems down to a series of atomically small operations, then build those back up to sophisticated outcomes.
Maybe the most valuable aspect of this - both in my practice and teaching - is understanding how to work both as procedurally and parametrically as possible (I'll put more about this under the comment to that end that's already been posted). Many, if not most, of our jewelry pieces are standalone grasshopper files which reference no outside data at all.
Anyway - I have much, much more I could say about: its use in architecture, design, and education; its relation to learning to think and create a rigorous and flexible design process; and more. But it's great to see it here!
[0] Since 2015 my partner and I have run jewelry company X Over Zero - https://xover0.com/ . All of our designs start as my mathematical and geometric explorations, coded in Grasshopper.
p.s. Incidentally I'm also based in the deep south like Mr. Harmon. And - although we must know people in common, sadly this is the first time he's hitting my radar. I'll be emailing him by the end of the night. Thank you OP for bringing him and his work to my attention!
Unity
https://game-ace.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/Bolt5.gif
Blender
https://blenderartists.org/uploads/default/original/4X/3/0/c...
Chemcad
https://img.informer.com/screenshots/3390/3390423_1.gif
Even KiCad if we stretch the analogy
Would be good to see this for general programs, or with modular AI agents, or for ODE compartment models.
Also of note: https://worrydream.com/ExplorableExplanations