Finding Form: Parametric Maze

For this assignment I struggled for a while on what to make. The power offered in parametric programs like Fusion 360 or Rhino5 and Grasshopper is incredible and to be honest, I was a bit daunted by it. After some google image searching and scouring for tutorials on YouTube I landed on making a maze like design.

The tutorial I found (video below) had no sound and no explanation of what they were doing at all, it was purely visual so there was a lot of pausing and backing up to catch every step. Additionally, they were using a different version of Grasshopper and used a command that I did not have. This required some work arounds.

Despite these limitations, the tutorial was very helpful and I learned a lot, especially around the workflow in Grasshopper.

MidPoint Command

I did not capture the actual construction of the maze as it took me a very long time so I will just go over the small part I had to work around.

This is the command I did not have. You input a curve and it exports that curve’s midpoint.

After some searching, I found a forum that offered a work-around.

Basically, I used the Evaluate Curve command and used a panel to feed .5 to the t value on the Evaluate Curve which tells it to look at the middle of the curve and report back that point. This worked perfectly.

Here is a zoomed out image of the final Grasshopper file.

Final Output

The final output in Rhino turned out very well and I was able to modify the sliders enough to get three different versions.

Finding Form - Parametric Maze from Jim Murphy on Vimeo.

Next Steps

• Add supports
• Print design