Grasshopper Primer - 090121

GRASSHOPPER
FOR RHINOCEROS 4.0 SR4

PRIMER
Introduction
Welcome to the wonderful new world of Grasshopper. This is the first printing of this
primer and it was originally put together as a handout for a workshop I was teaching at
the California College of the Arts. In compiling this manual, I found that there was a lot
of information and online tutorials out there based on the Grasshopper plugin, but there
wasn’t ONE definitive guide where someone who was just beginning their trek into the
unknown could get a good understanding on how to navigate this fantastic new tool.
I have to be honest. Some of the information and many of the tutorials were created by
other great designers, and I cite my sources as needed. Often, there are links at the end
of a tutorial to an online video that should be used as a complement to this manual. The
first 20 pages or so came straight from the RhinoWiki page, which is a wonderful
resource and should be consulted early and often in your search for more information
about the plugin. Another great source of information is the Grasshopper Forum. Here,
you’ll find a growing online community dedicated to furthering this tool by sharing their
questions, concerns, solutions, and definitions to help others out there just like you. I
would encourage each person who reads this primer to join the group and post your
questions online, as there is almost always someone willing to share a solution to your
problem. To learn more, visit http://www.grashopper.rhino3d.com
One of the greatest things about this software is that it is always evolving. The
developers often make changes and add new features, which may or may not conflict
with older definitions. It can make it frustrating and even difficult to keep up with the
speed at which things are moving. This primer was written to work with Grasshopper
version 0.5.0099, which was released in December 2008, and I have no doubt that in
even just a few short weeks it will be outdated. However, I will continue to try to keep
this primer as up to date as possible and add more tutorials as time allows.
It is my hope that this manual will help beginners get a better understanding of the
software, but I by no means expect it to become the Grasshopper Bible. There may very
well be some small errors, here or there, within the primer and I would ask that you bring
those to my attention should you see any inconsistencies in the material. It will only help
the manual become more robust and in turn help others out there as well. That’s about
it. I believe it’s time to jump into the material.
Thanks, and good luck!
Andy Payne
LIFT architects
www.liftarchitects.com
Copyright 2009 All Rights Reserved
Table of Contents
Introduction
Table of Contents
1 Getting Started 1
2 The Interface 2
3 Grasshopper Objects 8
4 Persistent Data Management 11
5 Volatile Data Inheritance 13
6 Data Stream Matching 17
7 Scalar Component Types 20
7.1 Operators 20
7.2 Range vs. Series vs. Interval 22
7.3 Functions & Booleans 24
7.4 Functions & Numeric Data 26
7.5 Trigonometric Curves 29
8 Lists & Data Management 32
8.1 Shifting Data 35
8.2 Exporting Data to Excel 37
9 Vector Basics 42
9.1 Point/Vector Manipulation 44
9.2 Using Vector/Scalar Mathematics with Point Attractors (Scaling Circles) 45
9.3 Using Vector/Scalar Mathematics with Point Attractors (Scaling Boxes) 49
10 Curve Types 55
10.1 Curve Analytics 60
11 Surface Types 62
11.1 Surface Connect 64
11.2 Paneling Tools 67
11.3 Surface Diagrid 71
1 Getting Started
Installing Grasshopper
To download the Grasshopper plug-in, visit http://grasshopper.rhino3d.com/. Click on
the Download link in the upper left hand corner of the page, and when prompted on the
next screen, enter your email address. Now, right click on the download link, and
choose Save Target As from the menu. Select a location on your hard drive (note: the
file cannot be loaded over a network connection, so the file must be saved locally to your
computer’s hard drive) and save the executable file to that address.
Select Run from the download dialogue box follow the installer instructions. (note: you
must have Rhino 4.0 with the SR4b patch already installed on your computer for the
plug-in to install properly)
For plugin version 0.5.0099 1

2 The Interface*
The Main Dialog
Once you have loaded the plug-in, type "Grasshopper" in the Rhino command prompt to
display the main Grasshopper window:
This interface contains a number of different elements, most of which will be very familiar
to Rhino users:
A. The Main Menu Bar

The menu is similar to typical Windows menus, except for the file-browser control on the
right B. You can quickly switch between different loaded files by selecting them through
this drop-down box. Be careful when using shortcuts since they are handled by the
active window. This could either be Rhino, the Grasshopper plug-in or any other window
inside Rhino. Since there is no undo available yet you should be cautious with the Ctrl-X,
Ctrl-S and Del shortcuts.
B. File Browser Control

As discussed in the previous section, this drop down menu can be used to switch
between different loaded files.
C. Component Panels
This area exposes all component categories. All components belong to a certain
category (such as "Params" for all primitive data types or "Curves" for all curve related
* Source: RhinoWiki
http://en.wiki.mcneel.com/default.aspx/McNeel/ExplicitHistoryPluginInterfaceExplained.html
2 For plugin version 0.5.0099

tools) and all categories are available as unique toolbar panels. The height and width of
the toolbars can be adjusted, allowing for more or fewer on-screen buttons per category.
The toolbar panels themselves contain all the components that belong to that category.
Since there are a potentially large number of these, it only shows the N most recently
used items. In order to see the entire collection, you have to click on the bar at the
bottom of the Panel:
This will pop up the category panel, which
provides access to all objects. You can
either click on the objects in the popup list,
or you can drag directly from the list onto
the canvas. Clicking on items in the
category panel will place them on the
toolbar for easy future reference. Clicking
on buttons will not add them to the
Canvas! You must drag them onto the
Canvas in order to add them:
You can also find components by name, by double-clicking anywhere on the canvas;
launching a pop-up search box. Type in the name of the component you are looking for
and you will see a list of parameters or components that match your request.
The Window Title Bar: D

The Editor Window title bar behaves different from most other dialogs in Microsoft
Windows. If the window is not minimized or maximized, double clicking the title bar will
fold or unfold the dialog. This is a great way to switch between the plug-in and Rhino
because it minimizes the Editor without moving it to the bottom of the screen or behind
other windows. Note that if you close the Editor, the Grasshopper geometry previews in
the viewports will disappear, but the files won't actually be closed. The next time you run

the _Grasshopper command, the window will come back in the same state with the
same files loaded.
The Canvas Toolbar: E

The canvas toolbar provides quick access to a number of frequently used features. All
the tools are available through the menu as well, and you can hide the toolbar if you like.
(It can be re-enabled from the View menu).
The canvas toolbar exposes the following tools (from left to right):
1. Definition properties editor

2. Sketch tool:
The sketch tool works like most pencil-type tools of Photoshop or Window's
Paint. Default controls of the sketch tools allow changes of line weight, line type,
and color. However, it can be quite difficult to draw straight lines or pre-defined
shapes. In order to solve this problem, draw out any sketch line onto the canvas.
Right click on the line, and select "Load from Rhino", and select any pre-defined
shape in your Rhino scene (This can be any 2d shape like a rectangle, circle,
star...etc). Once you have selected your referenced shape, hit Enter, and your
previously drawn sketch line will be reconfigured to your Rhino reference shape.
3. Zoom defaults
4. Zoom Extents (will adjust the zoom-factor if the definition is too large to fit on the
screen)
5. Focus corners (these 4 buttons will focus on the 4 corners of the definition)
6. Named views (exposes a menu to store and recall named views)
7. Rebuild solution (forces a complete rebuild of the history definition)
8. Rebuild events (by default, Grasshopper responds to changes in Rhino and on
the Canvas. You can disable these responses though this menu)
9. Cluster compactor (turn all selected objects into a Cluster object) Cluster
objects are not finished yet.
10. Cluster exploder (turn all selected clusters into loose objects) Cluster objects
are not finished yet.
11. Bake tool (turns all selected Explicit History geometry into actual Rhino objects)
12. Preview settings (Grasshopper geometry is previewed by default. You can
disable the preview on a per object basis, but you can also override the preview
for all objects. Switching off Shaded preview will vastly speed up some scenes
that have curved or trimmed surfaces
13. Hide button. This button hides the canvas toolbar, you can switch it back on
through the View menu

F: The Canvas
This is the actual editor where you define and edit the history network. The Canvas
hosts both the objects that make up the definition and some UI widgets G.
Objects on the canvas are usually color coded to provide feedback about their state:
A) Parameter. A parameter which contains warnings is displayed as an orange box.

Most parameters are orange when you drop them onto the canvas since the lack of data
is considered to be a warning.
B) Parameter. A parameter which contains neither warnings nor errors.
C) Component. A component is always a more involved object, since it contains input

and output parameters. This particular component has at least 1 warning associated with
it. You can find warning and errors through the context menu of objects.
D) Component. A component which contains neither warnings nor errors.
E) Component. A component which contains at least 1 error. The error can come either
from the component itself or from one of its input/output parameters. We will learn more
about Component Structures in the following chapters.
All selected objects are drawn with a green overlay (not shown).
G: UI Widgets
Currently, the only UI widget available is the Compass, shown in the bottom right corner
of the Canvas. The Compass widget gives a graphic navigation device to show where
your current viewport is in relation to the extents of the entire definition. The Widgets
can be enabled/disabled through the View menu.
H: The Status Bar

The status bar provides feedback on the selection set (not yet implemented) and the
major events that have occurred in the plug-in. You can see a list of all recent events by
right clicking on the ellipsis symbol in the status bar.
The square orange icon on the bottom left of the Status Bar is a recent addition to the
interface. By clicking on this icon, a list of the most recent threads, linked to the
Grasshopper user group website, will be displayed. Selecting any one of the threads,

will take you directly to the discussion posted by one of the user group members. You
can visit the Grasshopper user group website at: http://grasshopper.rhino3d.com/
The Remote Control Panel:

Since the Explicit History window is quite large, you may not want it on the screen all the
time. Of course you can minimize or collapse it, but then you can't tweak the values
anymore. If you want a minimal interface to the values inside the currently active
definition, you can enable the Remote Panel. This is a docking dialog that keeps track of
all sliders and boolean switches (and possibly other values as well in future releases):
The Remote panel also provides basic preview, event and file-switching controls. You
can enable the panel through the View menu of the Main window, or through the
_GrasshopperPanel command.
Viewport Preview Feedback:

A) Blue feedback geometry means you are currently picking it with the mouse.
B) Green geometry in the viewport belongs to a component which is currently selected.
C) Red geometry in the viewport belongs to a component which is currently unselected.
D) Point geometry is drawn as a cross rather than a rectangle to distinguish it from

Rhino point objects.

3 Grasshopper Objects*
Grasshopper Definition Objects
A Grasshopper definition can consist of many different kinds of objects, but in order to
get started you only need to familiarize yourself with two of them:
• Parameters
• Components
Parameters contain data, meaning that they store stuff. Components contain actions,
meaning that they do stuff. The following image shows some of the possible objects you
are likely to encounter in a Grasshopper definition:
A) A parameter which contains data. Since there is no wire coming out the left side of
the object, it does not inherit its data from elsewhere. Parameters which do not contain
errors or warnings are thin, black blocks with horizontal text.
B) A parameter which contains no data. Any object which fails to collect data is
considered suspect in an Explicit History Definition since it appears to be wasting
everyone's time and money. Therefore, all parameters (when freshly added) are orange,
to indicate they do not contain any data and have thus no functional effect on the
outcome of the History Solution. Once a parameter inherits or defines data, it will
become black.
C) A selected component. All selected objects have a green sheen to them.
D) A regular component.
E) A component containing warnings. Since a component is likely to contain a number of

input and output parameters, it is never clear which particular object generated the
warning by just looking at the component. There may even be multiple sources of
warnings. You'll have to use the context menu (see below) in order to track down the
problems. Note that warnings do not necessarily have to be fixed. They may be
completely legit.
* Source: RhinoWiki
http://en.wiki.mcneel.com/default.aspx/McNeel/ExplicitHistoryPluginObjectsExplained.html
F) A component containing errors. Similar to warnings, it is not possible to see where the
error was generated in a component. You'll need to use the context menu (see below).
Note that a component which contains both warnings and errors will appear red, the
error color takes precedence over the warning color.
G) A connection. Connections always appear between an output and an input

parameter. There is no limit to how many connections any particular parameter may
contain, but it is not allowed to create a setup with cyclical/recursive connections. Such a
recursion is detected and the entire Solution is short-circuited when it occurs, resulting in
an error message in the first component or parameter that was detected to be recursive.
For more information on connections, see chapter about Data Inheritance.
Component Parts
A component usually requires data in order to perform its actions, and it usually comes
up with a result. That is why most components have a set of nested parameters, referred
to as Input and Output parameters respectively. Input parameters are positioned along
the left side, output parameters along the right side:
A) The three input parameters of the Division component. By default, parameter names
are always extremely short. You can rename each parameter as you please.
B) The Division component area (usually contains the name of the component)
C) The three output parameters of the Division component.
When you hover your mouse over the individual parts of a Component object, you'll see
different tooltips that indicate the particular type of the (sub)object currently under the
mouse. Tooltips are quite informative since they tell you both the type and the data of
individual parameters:

Using Context Popup Menus
All objects on the Canvas have their own context menus that expose most of the
features for that particular component. Components are a bit trickier, since they also
expose (in a cascading style) all the menus of the sub-objects they contain. For
example, if a component turns orange it means that it, or some parameter affiliated with
the component, generated a warning. If you want to find out what went wrong, you need
to use the component context menu:
Here you see the main component menu, with the cascading menu for the "R" input
parameter. The menu usually starts with an editable text field that lists the name of the
object in question. You can change the name to something more descriptive, but by
default all names are extremely short to minimize screen-real-estate usage. The second
item in the menu (Preview flag) indicates whether or not the geometry produced/defined
by this object will be visible in the Rhino viewports. Switching off preview for components
that do not contain vital information will speed up both the Rhino viewport framerate and
the time taken for a History Solution (in case meshing is involved). If the preview for a
parameter or a component is disabled, it will be drawn with a faint white hatch. Not all
parameters/components can be drawn in viewports (numbers for example) and in these
cases the Preview item is usually missing.
The context menu for the "R" input parameter contains the orange warning icon, which in
turn contains a list (just 1 warning in this case) of all the warnings that were generated
by this parameter.

4 Persistent Data Management*
Types of Data
Parameters are only used to store information, but most parameters can store two
different kinds; Volatile and Persistent data. Volatile data is inherited from one or more
source parameters and is destroyed (i.e. recollected) whenever a new solution starts.
Persistent data is data which has been specifically set by the user. Whenever a
parameter is hooked up to a source object the persistent data is ignored, but not
destroyed.
(The exception here are output parameters which can neither store permanent records
nor define a set of sources. Output parameters are fully under the control of the
component that owns them.)
Persistent data is accessed through the menu, and depending on the kind of parameter
has a different manager. Vector parameters for example allow you to set both single and
multiple vectors through the menu.
But, let's back up a few steps and see how a default Vector parameter behaves. Once
you drag+drop it from the Params Panel onto the canvas, you will see the following:
The parameter is orange, indicating it generated a warning. It's nothing serious, the
warning is simply there to inform you that the parameter is empty (it contains no
persistent records and it failed to collect volatile data) and thus has no effect on the
outcome of a history solution. The context menu of the Parameter offers 2 ways of
setting persistent data: single and multiple:
* Source: RhinoWiki
http://en.wiki.mcneel.com/default.aspx/McNeel/ExplicitHistoryPersistentDataRecordManagement.html

Once you click on either of these menu items, the Explicit History window will disappear
and you will be asked to pick a vector in one of the Rhino viewports:
Once you have defined all the vectors you want, you can press Enter and they will
become part of the Parameters Persistent Data Record. This means the Parameter is
now no longer empty and it turns from orange to black:
At this point you can use this parameter to 'seed' as many objects as you like with
identical vectors.

5 Volatile Data Inheritance*
Data Inheritance
Data is stored in parameters (either in Volatile or Persistent form) and used in
components. When data is not stored in the permanent record set of a parameter, it
must be inherited from elsewhere. Every parameter (except output parameters) defines
where it gets its data from and most parameters are not very particular. You can plug a
double parameter into an integer source and it will take care of the conversion. The plug-
in defines many conversion schemes but if there is no translation procedure defined, the
parameter on the receiving end will generate a conversion error. For example, if you
supply a Surface when a Point is needed, the Point parameter will generate an error
message (accessible through the menu of the parameter in question) and turn red. If the
parameter belongs to a component, this state of red-ness will propagate up the hierarchy
and the component will become red too, even though it may not contain errors of itself.
Connection management
Since Parameters are in charge of their own data sources, you can get access to these
settings through the parameter in question. Let's assume we have a small definition
containing three components and two parameters:
At this stage, all the objects are unconnected and we need to start hooking them up. It
doesn't matter in what order we do this, but lets go from left to right. If you start dragging
near the little circle of a parameter (what us hip people call a "grip") a connecting wire
will be attached to the mouse:
Once the mouse (with the Left Button still firmly pressed) hovers over a potential target
Parameter, the wire will attach and become solid. This is not a permanent connection
until you release the mouse button:
* Source: RhinoWiki
http://en.wiki.mcneel.com/default.aspx/McNeel/ExplicitHistoryVolatileDataInheritance.html

We can do the same for the "Y" parameter of the PtGrid component and the "A" and "B"
parameters of the Line component: Click+Drag+Release...

Note that we can make connections both ways. But be careful, by default a new
connection will erase existing connections. Since we assumed that you will most often
only use single connections, you have to do something special in order to define multiple
sources. If you press Shift while dragging connection wires, the mouse pointer will
change to indicate addition behavior:
If the "ADD" cursor is active when you release the mouse button over a source
parameter, that parameter will be added to the source list. If you specify a source
parameter which is already defined as a source, nothing will happen. You cannot inherit
from the same source more than once.
By the same token, if you hold down Control the "REM" cursor will become visible, and
the targeted source will be removed from the source list. If the target isn't referenced,
nothing will happen.

You can also disconnect (but not connect) sources through the parameter menu:

6 Data Stream Matching*
Data matching
Data matching is a problem without a clean solution. It occurs when a component has
access to differently sized inputs. Imagine a component which creates line segments
between points. It will have two input parameters which both supply point coordinates
(Stream A and Stream B). It is irrelevant where these parameters collect their data from,
a component cannot "see" beyond its in- and output parameters:
As you can see there are different ways in which we can draw lines between these sets
of points. The Grasshopper plug-in currently supports three matching algorithms, but
many more are possible. The simplest way is to connect the inputs one-on-one until one
of the streams runs dry. This is called the "Shortest List" algorithm:
The "Longest List" algorithm keeps connecting inputs until all streams run dry. This is
the default behavior for components:
Finally, the "Cross Reference" method makes all possible connections:
This is potentially dangerous since the amount of output can be humongous. The
problem becomes more intricate as more input parameters are involved and when the
volatile data inheritance starts to multiply data, but the logic remains the same.
* Source: RhinoWiki
http://en.wiki.mcneel.com/default.aspx/McNeel/ExplicitHistoryDataStreamMatchingAlgorithms.html

Imagine we have a point component which inherits its x, y and z values from remote
parameters which contain the following data:
X coordinate: {0.0, 1.0, 2.0, 3.0, 4.0, 5.0, 6.0, 7.0, 8.0, 9.0}
Y coordinate: {0.0, 1.0, 2.0, 3.0, 4.0}
Z coordinate: {0.0, 1.0}
If we combine this data in the "Shortest List" fashion, we get only two points since the "Z
coordinate" contains only two values. Since this is the shortest list it defines the extent of
the solution:
The "Longest List" algorithm will create ten points, recycling the highest possible values
of the Y and Z streams:

"Cross Reference" will connect all values in X with all values in Y and Z, thus resulting in
10×5×2 = a hundred points:
Every component can be set to obey one of these rules (the setting is available in the
menu by right clicking the component icon).
Note the one big exception to this behavior. Some components EXPECT to get a list of
data in one or more of their input fields. The polyline component, for example, creates a
polyline curve through an array of input points. More points in the input parameter will
result in a longer polyline, not in more polylines. Input parameters which are expected to
yield more than one value are called List Parameters and they are ignored during data
matching.

7 Scalar Component Types
Scalar Component Types are typically used for various mathematical operations and
consist of:
A) Constants. Returns a constant value such as Pi, Golden Ratio, etc...
B) Expressions. Used to create single or multiple variable functions (algorithms).
C) Intervals. Used to divide two numeric extremes into interval parts.
D) Operators. Used in mathematical operations such as Add, Subtract, Multiply, etc…
E) Polynomials. Used to raise a numeric value by some power.
F) Trigonometry. Returns typical trigonometric values such as Sine, Cosine, and
Tangent, etc…
G) Utility (Analysis). Used to evaluate of two or more numerical values.
7.1 Operators
As was previously mentioned, Operators are a set of components that use algebraic
functions with two numeric input values, which result in one output value. To further
understand Operators, we will create a simple math definition to explore the different
Operator Component Types.
Note: To see the finished version of this definition, Open the file Scalar_operators.ghx
found in the Source Files folder that accompanies this document. Below is a screen
shot of the completed definition.
To create the definition from scratch:

• Params/Special/Numeric Slider – Drag and drop a numeric slider component
to the canvas
• Right click the slider to set:
o Lower limit: 0.0
o Upper limit: 100.0
o Value: 50.0 (note: this value is arbitrary and can be modified to any value
within the upper and lower limits)

• Select the slider and type Cntrl+C (copy) and Cntrl+V (paste) to create a
duplicate slider
• Params/Primitive/Integer – Drag and drop two Integer components onto the
canvas
• Connect slider 1 to the first Integer component
• Connect slider 2 to the second Integer component
The slider’s default value type is set to Floating Point (which results in a
decimal numeric value). By connecting the slider to the Integer
component, we can convert the floating point value to an Integer, or any
whole number. When we connect a Post-It panel (Params/Special/Panel)
to the output value of each Integer component, we can see the
conversion in real-time. Move the slider to the left and right and notice
the floating point value be converted to a whole number.
• Scalar/Operators/Add – Drag and drop an Add component to the canvas
• Connect the first Integer component to the Add-A input
• Connect the second Integer component to the Add-B input
• Params/Special/Panel – Drag and drop a Post-it panel to the canvas
• Connect the Add-R output to the Post-it panel input
You can now see the summation value of the two integers in the Post-it
panel.
• Drag and drop the other remaining Scalar Operators onto the Canvas:
o Subtraction
o Multiplication
o Division
o Modulus
o Power
• Connect the first Integer component to each of the Operator’s-A input value
• Connect the second Integer component to each of the Operator’s-B input
value
• Drag and drop a five more Post-it panels onto the canvas and connect one
panel to each Operator’s output value
The definition is complete, and now when you change each of the slider’s
values, you will see the result of each Operator’s action in the Post-it
panel area.

7.2 Range vs. Series vs. Interval
The Range, Series, and Interval components all create a set of values between two
numeric extremes; however the components operate in different ways.
Note: To see the finished version of the following examples, Open the file
Scalar_intervals.ghx found in the Source Files folder that accompanies this document.
The Range component creates a list of evenly spaced numbers between a low and a
high value called the domain of numeric range. In the example above, two numeric
sliders are connected to the input values of the Range component. The first slider
defines the numeric domain for the range of values. In this example, the domain has
been defined from zero to one, since the slider is set to 1. The second slider defines the
number of steps to divide the domain, which in this case has been set to 10. Thus, the
output is a list of 11 numbers evenly divided between 0 and 1. (note: The second slider,
set to 10, is defining the number of divisions between 0 and 1, which ultimately creates
11 numbers, not 10)
The Series component creates a set of discreet numbers based on a start value, step
size, and the number of values in the Series. The series example shows three numeric
sliders connected to the Series component. The first slider, when connected to the
Series-S input defines the starting point for the series of numbers. The second slider,
set to 10, defines the step value for the series. Since, the start value has been set to 1
and the step size has been set to 10, the next value in the series will be 11. Finally, the
third slider defines the number of values in the series. Since this value has also been

set to 10, the final output values defined in the series shows 10 numbers, that start at 1
and increase by 10 at each step.
The Interval component creates a range of all possible numbers between a low and high
number. The Interval component is similar to the numeric domain which we defined for
the Range component. The main difference is that the Range component creates a
defualt numeric domain between 0 and whatever input value has been defined. In the
Interval component, the low and the high value can be defined by the A and B input
values. In the example below, we have defined a range of all possible values between
10 and 20, set by the two numeric sliders. The output value for the Interval component
now shows 10.0 To 20.0 which reflects our new numeric domain. If we now connect the
Interval-I output to a Range-D input, we can create a range of numbers between the
Interval values. As was the case in the previous Range example, if we set the number
of steps for the Range to 10, we will now see 11 values evenly divided between the
lower Interval value of 10.0 and the upper Interval value of 20.0. (Note: There are
multiple ways to define an interval, and you can see several other methods listed under
the Scalar/Interval tab. We have merely defined a simple Interval component, but we
will discuss some of the other interval methods in the coming chapters)

7.3 Functions & Booleans
Almost every programming language has a method for evaluating conditional
statements. In most cases the programmer creates a piece of code to ask a simple
question of “what if?” What if the 9/11 terrorist attacks had never happened? What if
gas cost $10/gallon? These are important questions that represent a higher level of
abstract thought.
Computer programs also have the ability to analyze “what if?” questions, and take
actions depending on the answer to the question. Let’s take a look at a very simple
conditional statement that a program might interpret:
If the object is a curve, delete it.
The piece of code first looks at an object and determines a single boolean value for
whether or not it is a curve. There is no middle ground. The boolean value is True if the
object is a curve, or False if the object is not a curve. The second part of the statement
performs an action dependant on the outcome of the conditional statement, in this case,
if the object is a curve, then delete it. This conditional statement is called an If/Else
statement; If the object meets certain criteria, do something; else, do something else.
Grasshopper has the same ability to analyze conditional statements through the use of
Function components.
In the example above, we have connected a numeric slider to the x-input of a single
variable Function component (Scalar/Expressions/F1). Additionally, a conditional
statement has been linked to the F-input of the Function, defining the question, “Is x
greater than 5?” If the numeric slider is set above 5, then the r-output for the Function
shows a True boolean value. If the numeric slider drops below 5, then the r-output
changes to a False value.

Once we have determined the boolean value of the function, we can feed the True/False
pattern information into the Dispatch-P input component to perform a certain action. The
Dispatch component works by taking a list of information, in the example below, we have
connected the numeric slider information to the Dispatch-L input, and filters the
information based on the boolean pattern of the Dispatch-P input. If the pattern shows a
True value, the list information will be passed to the Dispatch-A output. If the pattern is
False, it passes the list information to the Dispatch-B output. For this example, we have
decided to create a circle ONLY if the x value is greater than 5. We have connected a
Circle component (Curve/Primitive/Circle) to the Dispatch-A output, so that a circle with a
radius specified by the numeric slider will be created only if the boolean value passed
into the Dispatch component is True. Since no component has been linked to the
Dispatch-B output; if the boolean value is False, then nothing happens and a circle will
not be created.
Note: To see the finished version of the circle boolean test example, Open the file
CircleBooleanTest.ghx found in the Source Files folder that accompanies this
document.

7.4 Functions & Numeric Data
The Function component is very flexible; that is to say that it can be used in a variety of
different applications. We have already discussed how we can use a Function
component to evaluate a conditional statement and deliver a boolean value output.
However, we can also use Function components to solve complex mathematical
algorithms and display the numeric data as the output.
In the following example, we will create a mathematical spiral similar to the example
David Rutten provided in his Rhinoscript 101 manual. For more information about
Rhinoscript or to download a copy of the manual, visit
http://en.wiki.mcneel.com/default.aspx/McNeel/RhinoScript101.html
Note: To see the finished version of the mathematical spiral example, Open the file
Function_spiral.ghx found in the Source Files folder that accompanies this document.
Below is a screen shot of the completed definition.

• Logic/Sets/Range - Drag and drop a Range component onto the canvas
• Params/Special/Slider - Drag and drop two numeric sliders onto the canvas
• Right-click each slider and set the slider type to Integers
• Right-click each slider and set the Lower Limit to 1, and the Upper Limit to
100
• Set the first slider value to 5
• Set the second slider value to 100
• Connect the first slider to the Range-D input
• Connect the second slider to the Range-N input
We have created a range of 101 numbers evenly spaced from 0.0 to
5.0, which we can feed into our Function components.
• Scalar/Expressions/F1 - Drag and drop a single variable Function component
onto the canvas
• Right-click the F-input of the Function component and open the Expression
Editor.
• In the Expression Editor dialogue box, type the following equation:
o x*sin(5*x)
o Click OK to accept the algorithm

• Select the Function component and type Cntrl+C (copy) and Cntrl+V (paste)
to create a duplicate Function
• Right-click the F-input of the duplicated Function component and open the
Expression Editor
• In the Expression Editor dialogue box, type the following equation:
o x*cos(5*x)
o Click OK to accept the algorithm
• Connect the Range-R output to the x-input to both Function components
We have now fed the 101 numbers created by the Range component into
the Function component, which solves a mathematical algorithm and
outputs a new list of numeric data.
• Vector/Point/Point XYZ - Drag and drop a Point XYZ component onto the
canvas
• Connect the first Function-r output to the X-input of the Point component
• Connect the second Function-r output to the Y-input of the Point component
• Connect the Range-R output to the Z-input of the Point component
Now, if you look at the Rhino viewport, you will see a set of points forming
a spiral. You can change the two numeric sliders at the beginning of the
definition to change the number of points on the spiral or the number of
rotations for each loop of the spiral.
• Curve/Spline/Curve - Drag and drop a Curve component onto the canvas
• Connect the Point-Pt output to the Curve-V input
We have created a single curve that passes through each point of the
spiral. We can right-click on the Curve-D input value to set the Curve
degree; a 1 degree curve will create straight line segments between each
point and will insure that the curve actually passes through each point. A
3 degree curve will create a smooth Bezier curve where the points of the
spiral will act as control points for the curve, however the actual line will
not actually pass through each point.

Note: To see a video tutorial of this example, please visit Zach Downey's blog at:
http://www.designalyze.com/2008/07/07/generating-a-spiral-in-rhinos-grasshopper-plugin/

7.5 Trigonometric Curves
We have already shown that we can use Function components to evaluate complex
formulas to create spirals and other mathematical curves, however Grasshopper also
has a set of trigonometric components built into the scalar component family.
Trigonometric functions, like sine, cosine, and tangent are important tools for
mathematicians, scientists, and engineers because they define a ratio between two
sides of a right triangle containing a specific angle, called Theta. These functions are
important in Vector analysis, which we will cover in later chapters. However, we can
also use these functions to define periodic phenomena, like sinusoidal wave functions
often found in nature in the form of ocean waves, sound waves, and light waves. In
1822, Joseph Fourier, a French mathematician, discovered that sinusoidal waves can be
used as simple building blocks to 'make up' and describe nearly any periodic waveform.
The process is called Fourier analysis.
In the following example, we will create a sinusoidal wave form, where the number of
points on the curve, the wavelength, and the frequency can be controlled by a set of
numeric sliders.
Note: To see the finished definition used to create the sine curve below, Open the file
Trigonometric_curves.ghx found in the Souce Files folder that accompanies this
document.

• Params/Special/Slider - Drag and drop 3 numeric sliders onto the canvas
• Select the first slider and set the following parameters:
o Name: Num Pts on Curve
o Slider Type: Integers
o Lower Limit: 1
o Upper Limit: 50
o Value: 40
• Select the second slider and set the following parameters:
o Name: Wave Length
o Lower Limit: 0
o Upper Limit: 30
o Value: 10
• Select the third slider and set the following parameters:
o Name: Frequency
o Lower Limit: 0

o Upper Limit: 30
o Value: 12
• Logic/Sets/Range - Drag and drop 2 Range components onto the canvas
• Connect the Wave Length slider to the first Range-D input
• Connect the Frequency slider to the second Range-D input
• Connect the Num Pts on Curve slider to both Range-N inputs
Your definition should look like the image above, where we have now created two lists of
data; the first is a range of evenly divided numbers from 0 to 10, and the second is a list
of evenly divided numbers ranging from 0 to 12.
• Scalar/Trigonometry/Sine - Drag and drop a Sine component onto the canvas

• Connect the second Range-R output to the x-input of the Sine component
• Vector/Point/Point XYZ - Drag and drop a Point XYZ component onto the
canvas
• Connect the first Range-R output to the X-input of the Point XYZ component
• Connect the y-output of the Sine component to the Y-input of the Point XYZ
component
If you look at the Rhino viewport, you should see a series of points in
the shape of a sine wave. Since the first Range output is being fed
directly into the X-input of the Point component, without first being fed into
a trigonometric function component, our x value of the points are constant
and evenly spaced. However, our sine component is being fed into the Y-
input of the Point component, so we see a change in the y value of our
points; which ultimately form a wave pattern. You can now change any of
the numeric sliders to change the shape of the wave pattern.
• Curve/Spline/Curve - Drag and drop a Curve component onto the canvas
• Connect the Point-Pt output to the Curve-V input
• Right-click on the D-input of the Curve component and set the integer to 1.0,
to make curve function as a one degree curve
• Vector/Point/Point XYZ - Drag and drop another Point XYZ component onto
the canvas
• Connect the first Range-R output to the X-input of the new Point XYZ
component
• Curve/Primitive/Line - Drag and drop a Line component onto the canvas
• Connect the first Point-Pt output to the Line-B input
• Connect the second Point-Pt output to the Line-A input
In the last part of definition, we have created a second set of evenly
spaced points along the X-axis, which correspond to the same x-

components of the sine curve. The Line component creates a line
segment between the first list of points, the ones that create the sine
curve, and the second list of points which define the X-axis. The new
lines give you a visual reference of the vertical displacement in the wave
form pattern. Your definition should look like the image below.
We have shown how to create a sine wave curve, however we can

generate other sinusoidal curves, like a Cosine wave forms, by replacing
the Sine component with a Cosine component found under the
Scalar/Trigonometry tab.
Note: To see a video tutorial of this example, please visit David Fano's blog at:
http://designreform.net/2008/06/01/rhino-3d-sine-curve-explicit-history/

8 Lists & Data Management
It's helpful to think of Grasshopper in terms of flow, since the graphical interface is
designed to have information flow into and out of specific types of components.
However, it is the DATA (such as lists of points, curves, surfaces, strings, booleans, and
numbers, etc.) that define the information flowing in and out of the components; such
that understanding how to manipulate list data is critical to understanding the
Grasshopper plug-in.
Below is an example of how to control a list of numeric data using a variety of list
components.
Note: To see the finished definition seen below, Open the file List Management.ghx
found in the Source Files folder that accompanies this document.

To start, we have created a Series component, with a starting value of 0.0, a step value
of 1.0, and a count of 10. Thus, the Post-it panel connected to the Series-S output
shows the following list of numbers: 0.0, 1.0, 2.0, 3.0, 4.0, 5.0, 6.0, 7.0, 8.0, and 9.0.
Note: The Post-it panel's default setting is to show the list index number before the
numeric data, so that each panel entry actually looks like:
These can be toggled on/off by right-clicking on the Post-it panel and changing the Entry
Numbers preview to either on or off. However, we will leave the Entry Numbers turned
on for this example, as it will allow us to see exactly what list index number is assigned
to each value.
A) The numeric data is then fed into a List Item component (Logic/List/List Item), which
is used to retrieve a specific entry within the list. When accessing individual items in a
list, one has to use an index value. The first item in any list is always stored at location
zero, the second item at location 1 and so on and so forth. Typically, if you start to
access a list at index -5, an error will occur since no such location exists. We have
connected the Series-S output into the List Item-L input. Additionally, we fed an integer
into the List Item-i input, which defines which list index number we would like to retrieve.
Since we have set this value to 5.0, the List Item output will show the numeric data
associated with the 5th entry number, which in this case is also 5.0.
B) The List Length component (Logic/List/List Length) essentially evaluates the

number of entries in the list and outputs the last entry number, or the length of the List.
In this example, we have connected the Series-S output to the List Length-L input,
showing that there are 10 values in the list.
C) We can invert the order of the list by using a Reverse List component
(Logic/List/Reverse List). We have input an ascending list of numbers into the Reverse
List component, whereby the output shows a descending list from 9.0 to 0.0.
D) The Shift component (Logic/List/Shift List) will either move the list up or down a
number of increments dependent on the value of the shift offset. We have connected
the Series-S output into the Shift-L input, while also connecting a numeric slider to the
Shift-S input. We have set the numeric slider type to integers so that the shift offset will
occur in whole numbers. If we set the slider to -1, all values of the list will move down by
one entry number. Likewise, if we change the slider value to +1, all values of the list will

move up by one entry number. We can also set the wrap value, or the Shift-W input, to
either True or False by right-clicking the input and choosing Set Boolean. In this
example, we have a shift offset value set to +1, so we have a decision to make on how
we would like to treat the first value. If we set the wrap value to True, the first entry will
be moved to the bottom of the list. However, if we set the wrap value to False, the first
entry will be shifted up and out of the list, essentially removing this value from the data
set.
E) The Cull Nth component (Logic/Sets/Cull Nth) will remove every Nth data entry from
the list, where N is defined by a numeric integer. In this example, we have connected a
numeric slider to the Cull Nth-N input. We have set our slider to 2.0, such that the Cull
Nth component will remove every other entry from the list. The Cull Nth-L output reveals
a new culled list where every odd entry has been deleted: 0.0, 2.0, 4.0, 6.0, and 8.0. If
we change the numeric slider to 3.0, the Cull Nth component will remove every third
number from the list so that the output would be: 0.0, 1.0, 3.0, 4.0, 6.0, 7.0, and 9.0.
F) The Cull Pattern component (Logic/Sets/Cull Pattern) is similar to the Cull Nth
component, in that it removes items from a list based on a defined value. However, in
this case, it uses a set of boolean values that form a pattern, instead of numeric values.
If the boolean value is set to True, the data entry will remain in the list; whereas a false
value will remove the data entry from the set. In this example, we have set the boolean
pattern to: True, True, False, False. Since there are only 4 boolean values and our list
has 10 entries, the pattern will be repeated until it reaches the end of the list. With this
pattern, the output list will look like: 0.0, 1.0, 4.0, 5.0, 8.0, and 9.0. The Cull Pattern
component kept the first two entries (0.0 and 1.0) and then removed the next two values
(2.0 and 3.0). The component continued this pattern until reaching the end of the list.

8.1 Shifting Data
We discussed in the previous section how we can use the Shift component to move all
values in a list up or down depending on a shift offset value. Below is an example,
created by David Rutten, to demonstrate how we can use the shift component on two
sets of point lists of a circle. You can find more information on his example here:
http://en.wiki.mcneel.com/default.aspx/McNeel/ExplicitHistoryShiftExample.html
Note: To see the finished definition of the following example, Open the file Shift
Circle.ghx found in the Source Files folder that accompanies this document. Below is a
look at the finished definition needed to generate the shifted circle example.

• Curve/Primitive/Circle CNR - Drag and drop a Circle CNR (Center, Normal,
and Radius) onto the canvas
• Right-click on the Circle-C input and click Set One Point
• In the Rhino dialogue box, type "0,0,0" and hit enter
• Right-click on the Circle-R input and Set Number to 10.0
• Vector/Constants/Unit Z - Drag and drop a Unit Z vector component onto the
canvas
• Right-click on the F input of the Unit Z component and Set Number to 10.0
• X Form/Euclidean/Move - Drag and drop a Move component onto the canvas
• Connect the Unit Z-V output to the Move-T input
• Connect the Circle-C output to the Move-G input
We have just created a circle whose center point is at 0,0,0 and has a
radius of 10.0 units. We then used the move component to copy this
circle and move the duplicated circle in the Z axis 10.0 units.
• Curve/Division/Divide Curve - Drag and drop two Divide Curve components
onto the canvas
• Connect the Circle-C output to the first Divide-C input
• Connect the Move-G output to the second Divide-C input
• Params/Special/Slider - Drag and drop a numeric slider onto the canvas
• Select the slider and set the following parameters:
o Lower Limit: 1.0
o Upper Limit: 30.0
o Value: 30.0
• Connect the numeric slider to both Divide Curve-N input components
You should now see 30 points evenly spaced along each circle
• Logic/List/Shift List - Drag and drop a Shift List component onto the canvas
• Connect the second Divide Curve-P output to the Shift List-L input
• Params/Special/Slider - Drag and drop a numeric slider onto the canvas
• Select the new slider and set the following parameters:
o Lower Limit: -10.0
o Upper Limit: 10.0
o Value: 10.0
• Connect the numeric slider output to the Shift List-S input
• Right-click the Shift List-W input and set the boolean value to True
We have shifted the points on the upper circle up the index list by 10
entries. By setting the wrap value to True, we have created a closed loop
of data entries.
• Connect the first Divide Curve-P output to the Line-A input
• Connect the Shift-L output to the Line-B input
We have created a series of line segments that connect the un-shifted list
of points to the shifted set of points. We can change the value of the
numeric slider that controls the Shift Offset to see the line segments
change between the un-shifted and shifted list of points.

8.2 Exporting Data to Excel
There are many instances where you may need to export data from Grasshopper in
order to import the information into another software package for further analysis.
Note: To see the finished definition of the following example, Open the file Stream
Contents_Excel.ghx found in the Source Files folder that accompanies this document.
To start, we have dropped a Range component (Logic/Sets/Range) onto the canvas,

and set the numeric domain from 0.0 to 10.0. By right-clicking on the Range-N input, we
have set the number of steps to 100, so that our output list will show 101 equally spaced
values between 0.0 and 10.0.
We then drag and drop a Graph Mapper component (Params/Special/Graph Mapper)

onto the canvas. Right-click on the Graph Mapper component and set the Graph Type
to Linear. Now connect the Range-R output to the Graph Mapper input. To finish the
definition, drag and drop a Post-it Panel component onto the canvas and connect the
Graph Mapper output to the Post-it Panel input.
Since the Graph Mapper type is set to Linear, the output list (shown in the Post-it Panel)
displays a set of numeric data that ascends from 0.0 to 10.0 in a linear fashion.
However, if we right-click on the Graph Mapper component and set the Graph Type to
Square Root, we should see a new list of data that represents a logarithmic function.

To export the list of data from the Post-it Panel, simply right-click on the panel and select
Stream Contents. When prompted, find a location on your hard drive to Save the file
with a unique file name. In our example, we will save the file to the following location:
C:/Tutorials/Exporting Data/Stream_Contents.csv. There are a variety of file types you
can use to save your data, including Text Files (.txt), Comma Separated Values (.csv),
and Data Files (.dat) to name a few. I tend to use the Comma Separated Values file
format because it was designed for storage of data structured in a table form, although
many of the file formats can be imported into Excel. Each line in the CSV file
corresponds to a row in the table. Within a line, fields are separated by commas, each
field belonging to one table column. Our example only has one value per line, so we will
not utilize the mutli-column aspect available with this file format, but it is possible to
create complex spreadsheets by exporting the data correctly.
We can now import the data into Microsoft Excel 2007. First launch the application and
select the Data tab. Select the Get External Data from Text under this tab and find the
Stream_Contents.csv file you saved on your hard drive. You will now be guided through
the Text Import Wizard where you will be asked a few questions on how you would like
to import the data. Make sure that the Delimited radial button is marked and select Next
to proceed to Step 2.

Step 2 of the Text Import Wizard allows you to set the which types of Delimiters will
define how your data is separated. A Delimiter is some character (such as a semi-colon,
comma, or space) stored in the CSV file that indicates where the data should be split
into another column. Since we only have numeric data stored in each line of the CSV
file, we do not need to select any the specific delimiter characters. Select Next to
proceed to Step 3.

Step 3 of the Text Import Wizard allows you to tell Excel how you would like to format
your data within Excel. General converts numeric data to numbers; Date converts all
values to Dates (Day/Month/Year); and all remaining values are formatted as Text data.
For our example, select General and hit Finish.
You will now be prompted as to which cell you would like to use to begin importing your
data. We will use the default cell value of A1. You will now see all 101 values in the A
column that correspond to the values within the Grasshopper Post-it Panel. The
Grasshopper definition is constantly streaming the data, so any change we make to the
list data will automatically update the CSV file. Go back to Grasshopper and change the
Graph Mapper type to Sine. Note the list data change in the Post-it Panel.

Switch back to Microsoft Excel and under the Data Tab, you will see another button that
says Refresh All. Select this button, and when prompted, select the CSV file that you
previously loaded into Excel. The list data in column A will now be updated.
Now select cells A1 through A101 (select A1, and while holding the shift button, select
A101) and click on the Insert Tab at the top. Choose the Line Chart type and select the
first 2D line chart icon.
You will see a Line Chart that reflects the

same shape shown in the Graph Mapper
component in Grasshopper. You can make as
many changes as you want within
Grasshopper, and after hitting Refresh All,
you will see the reflected changes in Excel.

9 Vector Basics
From physics, we know that a vector is a geometric object that has a magnitude (or
length), direction, and sense (or orientation along the given direction). A vector is
frequently represented by a line segment with a definite direction (often represented as
an arrow), connecting a base point A with a terminal point B. The magnitude of the
vector is the length of the segment and the direction characterizes the displacement of B
relative to A: how much one should move the point A to "carry" it to the point B.
In Rhino, vectors are indistinguishable from points. Both are represented as three
doubles, where each double (or numeric variable which can store numbers with
decimals) represents the X, Y, and Z coordinate in Cartesian space. The difference is
that points are treated as absolutes, whereas vectors are relative. When we treat and
array of three doubles as a point, it represents a certain coordinate in space. When we
treat the array as a vector, it represents a certain direction. Vectors are considered
relative because they only indicate the difference between the start and end points of the
arrow, i.e. vectors are not actual geometrical entities, they are only information.
This means that there is no visual indicator of the vector in Rhino, however we can use
the vector information to inform specific geometric actions like translation, rotation, and
orientation.

In the example above, we start by creating a point at the origin 0,0,0 using the Point XYZ
component (Vector/Point/Point XYZ). We then connect the Point-Pt output to a Move-G
input component to translate a copy of the point in some vector direction. To do this, we
drag and drop a Unit X, Unit Y, and Unit Z component onto the canvas
(Vector/Constants). These components specify a vector direction in one of the
Orthagonal directions of the X, Y, or Z axes. We can specify the magnitude of the vector
by connecting a numeric slider to the input of each Unit Vector component. By holding
down the Shift button while connecting the Unit Vector outputs to the Move-T input, we
are able to connect more than one component. Now if you look at the Rhino viewport,
you will see a point at the Origin point, and three new points that have been moved in
each of the X, Y, and Z axes. Feel free to change the value of any of the numeric sliders
to see the magnitude of each vector change. To get a visual indicator of the vector,
similarly to drawing an arrow, we can create a line segment from the Origin point to each
of the translated points. To do this, drag and drop a Line component
(Curve/Primitive/Line) onto the canvas. Connect the Move-G output to the Line-A input
and the Point-Pt output to the Line-B input. Below is a screen shot of the Unit Vector
definition.
Note: To see the finished definition of the example above, Open the file Unit
Vectors.ghx found in the Source Files folder that accompanies this document.

9.1 Point/Vector Manipulation
Grasshopper has an entire group of Point/Vector components which perform the basic
operations of 'vector mathematics'. Below is a table of the most commonly used
components and their functions.
Component Location Description Example
Compute the Distance between two points (A

Vector/Point/Distance
and B inputs)
Break down a point into its X, Y, and Z

Vector/Point/Decompose
components
Compute the angle between two vectors

Vector/Vector/Angle
Output computed in Radians
Vector/Vector/Length Compute the length (amplitude) of a vector
Vector/Vector/Decompose Break down a vector into its component parts
Add the components of vector 1(A input) to the

Vector/Vector/Summation
components of vector 2 (B input)
Vector/Vector/Vector2pt Creates a vector from two defined points
Negate all the components of a vector to invert

Vector/Vector/Reverse the direction. The length of the vector is
maintained
Divide all components by the inverse of the

length of the vector. The resulting vector has a
Vector/Vector/Unit Vector
length of 1.0 and is called the unit vector.
Sometimes referred to as ‘normalizing’
Multiply the components of the vector by a

Vector/Vector/Multiply
specified factor

9.2 Using Vector/Scalar Mathematics with Point Attractors (Scaling Circles)
Now that we know some of the basics behind Scalar and Vector mathematics, lets take
a look at an example that scales a grid of circles according to the distance from the
center of the circle to a point.
Note: To see the finished definition of this example, Open the file
Attractor_2pt_circles.ghx found in the Source Files folder that accompanies this
document. Above is a look at the finished definition needed to generate the series of
scaled circles below.

• Params/Special/Numeric Slider - Start by dragging and dropping three
numeric sliders onto the canvas
• Right-click on all three sliders to set the following:
o Lower Limit: 0.0
o Upper Limit: 10.0
o Value: 10.0
• Vector/Point/Grid Rectangular - Drag and drop a Rectangular Point Grid
component onto the canvas
• Connect the first slider to the Pt Grid-X input
• Connect the second slider to the Pt Grid-Y input
• Connect the third slider to the Pt Grid-S input
The Rectangular Point Grid component create a grid of points, where the
P-input is the origin of the grid (in our case we'll use 0,0,0). The Grid
component creates a number of points in both the X and Y direction
specified by the numeric sliders. However, notice that we have set both
of these to 10.0. If you actually count the number of rows and
columns, you'll find that there are 20 in each direction. This is
because it creates the grid from a center point, and offsets the number of
rows and column from this point. So, essentially you get double the
number of X and Y points. The S-input specifies the spacing between
each point.
• Params/Geometry/Point - Drag and drop two Point components onto the
canvas
This component is considered an implicit component because it uses
persistent data as its input value (See Chapter 4 for more information
about persistent data types). This component is different than the other
Point XYZ component that we have used before, in that it does not create
a point until you actually assign it a point from the scene. To do this, of
course, there must already be a point object in your Rhino scene. These
will be our attractor points.
• In the Rhino scene, type "Point" in the dialogue box and place two Point
objects anywhere in your scene. In our case, we'll place the points in the Top
viewport so that each point is in the XY plane.
Now that we have created two attractor point objects in the scene, we can
assign them to the Point component we just created inside Grasshopper.
• Right-click each Point component and select "Set One Point"
• When prompted, select one of the attractor point objects that you created in
the Rhino scene
• Repeat the previous two steps for the other Point component, making sure to
pick the other attractor point for the second component
We have now created a Grid of points and assigned 2 attractor point
objects from our scene as Grasshopper components. We can use a bit of
vector mathematics to determine the distance from each grid point to the
attractor points.
• Vector/Point/Distance - Drag and drop two Distance components onto the
canvas
• Connect the first attractor point output to the first Distance-A input
• Connect the rectangular Grid Point-G output to the first Distance-B input
• Connect the second attractor point output to the second Distance-B input

• Connect the rectangular Grid Point-G output to the second Distance-A input
The first step of our definition should look like the screenshot above. If
we hover our mouse over each Distance-D output, we will see a list of
numbers which correspond to how far each grid point is from the attractor
point. We will use these values to determine each circle's radius, but first
we must scale these numbers down to give us more appropriate radius
dimensions.
• Scalar/Operators/Division - Drag and drop two Division operators onto the

canvas
• Connect the first Distance-D output to the first Division-A input
• Connect the second Distance-D output to the second Division-A input
• Params/Special/Numeric Slider - Drag and drop two numeric sliders onto the
canvas
• Right-click on the first slider and set the following:
o Name: Pt1 Influence
o Slider Type: Floating Point
o Lower Limit: 0.0
o Upper Limit: 100.0
o Value: 25.0
• Right-click on the second slider and set the following:
o Name: Pt2 Influence
o Lower Limit: 0.0
o Value: 25.0
• Connect the Pt1 Influence slider to the first Division-B input
• Connect the Pt2 Influence slider to the second Division-B input
Since the distance values were quite large, we needed a scale factor to
bring the numbers down to a more manageable value. We have used the
numeric sliders as division factors to give us a new set of output values

that we can use for our circle radius. We could directly input these
values into a Circle component, but to make our definition a little more
robust, we can use some scalar math to determine a falloff distance.
What this means, is that we can determine a minimum number that we do
not want our circle radius to fall below.
• Scalar/Utility/Minimum - Drag and drop two Minimum components onto the
canvas
• Connect the first Division-R output to the first Minimum-A input
• Connect the second Division-R output to the second Minimum-A input
• Params/Special/Numeric Slider - Drag and drop a numeric slider onto the
canvas
• Right-click on the slider and set the following:
o Name: Falloff
o Lower Limit: 0.0
o Upper Limit: 30.0
o Value: 5.0
• Connect the Falloff slider to BOTH Minimum-B inputs
Now, all there is left to do is to add the two lists together to form one list
which will define the radius of each circle.
• Scalar/Operators/Addition - Drag and drop an Addition operator onto the
canvas
• Connect the first Minimum-R output to the Addition-A input
• Connect the second Minimum-R output to the Addition-B input
• Curve/Primitive/Circle CNR - Drag and drop a Circle CNR (Center, Normal,
and Radius) onto the canvas
We would like the center point of each circle to be located at one of the
grid points that we created at the beginning of the definition.
• Connect the Rectangular Point Grid-G output to the Circle-C input
• Also, connect the Addition-R output to the Circle-R input
• Right-click on the Rectangular Point Grid component and turn the Preview off
Note: To see a video tutorial of this example, please visit David Fano's blog at:
http://designreform.net/2008/07/08/grasshopper-patterning-with-2-attractor-points/

9.3 Using Vector/Scalar Mathematics with Point Attractors (Scaling Boxes)
We’ve already shown how we can use vector and scalar mathematics to determine a
circles radius based on distances away from other point objects, but we can also use the
same core components to scale objects and determine object coloring with
Grasshopper’s shader components. The following example definition has been used to
generate the screen shot below, but let’s start from the beginning and work through the
definition step by step.
Note: To see the finished definition of this example, Open the file Color Boxes.ghx
found in the Source Files folder that accompanies this document.

Step 1: Begin by creating a three dimensional point grid
• Params/Special/Numeric Slider – Drag and drop 2 sliders onto the canvas
o Lower Limit: 0.0
o Upper Limit: 10.0
o Value: 3.0
o Lower Limit: 0.0
o Upper Limit: 25.0
o Value: 25.0
• Vector/Point/Grid Rectangular – Drag and drop a rectangular Point Grid
• Connect the first slider to BOTH the Point Grid-X & Y input components
• Connect the second slider to the Point Grid-S input
You should see a grid of point in your scene, where the first slider
controls the number of points in both the X and Y axis (remember
because if offsets the points from a center point, there are always double
the amount of rows and columns as the numeric slider input). The point
spacing will be controlled by the second slider. We now need to copy this
point grid in the Z-axis to form a three dimensional volume.
• Logic/Sets/Series – Drag and drop a Series component onto the canvas
• Connect the second slider to the Series-N input
• Connect the first numeric slider to the Series-C input
Our Series component will count the number of copies of the point grid
we will make in the Z-direction; however you may have already noticed
we have a small error in our math. As was previously mentioned, our
point grid was created from a center point, so even though we have set
the number of points in both the X & Y axis to 3, we actually have 6 points
in each direction. Since we ultimately would like to have a three
dimensional cube of points, we need to create 6 copies in the Z axis to be
consistent. In order to keep the count uniform, we will need to write a
simple expression to double the Series Count.
• Right-click on the Series-C input and scroll down to the Expression Tab
• In the Expression editor, type in the following equation: C*2
We have now told the component to multiply Series-C input by a factor of
two. Since our original input was set to 3, our new Series Count will be
6.0
• Vector/Constants/Unit Z – Drag and drop a Unit Z vector component onto
the canvas
• Connect the Series-S output to the Unit Z-F input
If you hover your mouse over the Unit Z-V output you should see that we
have defined 6 locally defined values where the Z value of each entry
increases by 25.0, or the value of the second numeric slider. We will use
this vector value to define the distance we would like to space each copy
of our point grid.
• X Form/Euclidean/Move – Drag and drop a Move component onto the canvas
• Connect the Point Grid-G output to the Move-G input
• Connect the Unit Z-V output to the Move-T input

If you look at the Rhino scene, you will notice that our points don’t
necessarily look much like a three dimensional cube of points. If
anything, it looks like a ramp leading up to a plane of rectangular points.
This is because the default data matching algorithm is set to “Longest
List”. If you right-click on the component, you can change the algorithm
to “Cross Reference”. Now, when you look at your scene you should
see a three dimensional cube of points. (See Chapter 6 for more
information about Data Stream Matching).
• Surface/Primitive/Center Box – Drag and drop a Center Box component onto
the canvas
• Connect the Move-G output to the Center Box-B input
• Right-click on the Point Grid and the Move component and set the Preview to
off
Below is a screen shot of how our first step of the definition should be set-
up.
Step 2: Solve the Scalar and Vector Math

• Params/Geometry/Point – Drag and drop a Point component onto the canvas
• Right-click on the Point component and rename it to: “Attractor Pt”
Just like in the scaling circles example, we will need to assign the
Attractor Pt component to a point pre-defined in the Rhino scene. To do
this, we will first need to create a point.
• In the Rhino scene, type “Point” in the dialogue box and place a point
anywhere in your scene
• Go back into Grasshopper, and right-click on the Attractor Pt component and
select “Set One Point”
• When prompted, select the point that you just created in the Rhino scene
You should now see a small red X over the point indicating that the
Attractor Pt component has been assigned that point value in your scene.
If you move the point anywhere in your scene, the Grasshopper
component will automatically update its position.
• Vector/Point/Distance – Drag and drop a Distance component onto the
canvas
• Connect the Attractor Pt output to the Distance-A input
• Connect the Move-G output to the Distance-B input
If we were to hover our mouse over the Distance-D output, we would see
a list of numeric values indicating each points distance away from the
Attractor Pt. In order to use these values as a scale factor for our boxes,
we will need to divide them by some number to bring the values down to
the appropriate levels for our example.

• Scalar/Operators/Division – Drag and drop a Division component onto the
canvas
• Connect the Distance-D output to the Division-A input
• Params/Special/Numeric Slider – Drag and drop a slider onto the canvas
o Name: Scale Factor
o Lower Limit: 0.0
o Upper Limit: 25.0
o Value: 25.0
• Connect the Scale Factor slider to the Division-B input
• X Form/Affine/Scale – Drag and drop a Scale component onto the canvas
• Connect the Center Box-B output to the Scale-G input
• Connect the Division-R output to the Scale-F input
• Right-click the Center Box component and turn the Preview off
Below is a screen shot of how the definition has been set up so far. If you
look at the Rhino scene now, you should notice that all of your boxes
have been scaled according to their distance away from the attractor
point. We can take our definition one step further by adding color to our
boxes to give us a visual representation of the scale factor.
Step 3: Assigning a color value to each scaled box

• Logic/List/Sort List – Drag and drop a Sort List component onto the canvas
In order to assign a color value based on each box’s distance away from
the attractor point, we will need to know two numeric values; the closest
point and the point that is furthest away. To do this, we must sort our list
of distance value, and retrieve the first and last entry from the list.
• Logic/List/List Item – Drag and drop a List Item component onto the canvas
• Connect the Sort List-L output to the List Item-L input
• Right-click on the List Item-i input and Set the Integer value to 0.0
This will retrieve the first entry in our list which will be the smallest
distance value.
• Logic/List/List Length – Drag and drop a List Length component onto the
canvas
• Connect the Sort List-L output to the List Length-L input

The List Length component will tell us how many entries are in our list.
We can input this information into another List Item component to retrieve
the last value in the list.
• Logic/List/List Item- Drag and drop another List Item component onto the
canvas
• Connect the Sort List-L output to the second List Item-L input
• Connect the List Length-L output to the second List Item-i input
If you hover your mouse over the second List Item-E output, you will see
that the component has not retrieved the last value in the list. This is
because list data in Grasshopper always stores the first value as entry
number 0. So, if our list length is showing that there are 100 values in the
list and our first number starts at 0, our last entry number will actually be
number 99. We must add an expression to the second List Item-i input to
subtract 1 value from the list length to actually retrieve the last item.
• Right-click on the second List Item-i input and select the Expression Editor
• In the editor dialogue box, enter the following equation: i-1
Now, if you hover your mouse over the second List Item-E output you
should see a numeric value which corresponds to the distance value that
is farthest away from the attractor point.
• Params/Specia/Gradient – Drag and drop a Gradient component onto the
canvas
• Connect the first List Item-E output (the one associated with our closest
distance value) to the Gradient-L0 input
• Connect the second List Item-E output (the one associated with our farthest
distance value) to the Gradient-L1 input
• Connect the Division-R output to the Gradient-t input
The L0 input defines what numeric value will represent the left side of the
gradient, and in our example, the left side of the gradient will indicate the
closest box to the attractor point. The L1 input defines what numeric
value will represent the right side of the gradient, and we have set this to
represent the value of the point farthest away from the attractor point.
The t-input value for the Gradient component represents the list of values
you would like to chart along the gradient range. We have chosen to
input all of our scale factor values, so that the scale of each box will also
be associated with a color along the gradient range.
• Vector/Color/Create Shader – Drag and drop a Create Shader component
onto the canvas
• Connect the Gradient output to the Shader-Kd input
The Shader component has a number of inputs to help define how you
want your preview to look. Below is a brief description of how each input
effect the resultant shader.
Kd: Input defines the Diffuse Color of the shader. This will define
the primary color of each object. The diffuse color is defined by
three integer numbers that range from 0 – 255, and represent the
Red, Green, and Blue values of a color.
Ks: Input defines the color of the Specular Highlight and requires
an input of three integer values to define its RGB color.
Ke: Input defines the shader’s Emmissivity, or the shader’s self
illumination color.
T: Input defines a shader’s Transparency.

S: Input defines the Shininess of the shader; where a value of 0
means the shader has no shininess, and value of 100 has
maximum shininess.
We have connected the gradient slider to the Diffuse input of the Shader
component so that our box’s primary color will be represented by the
gradient pattern. You can change the colors of the gradient by selecting
one of the small white dots in the Gradient pattern and defining the Color
In and the Color Out values. You can also drag the dot up and down the
length of the gradient to control the location of where you would like the
color to change values. Additionally, there are a number of preset
gradient patterns loaded into the Gradient component, and you can set
them by right-clicking on the gradient pattern and choosing one of the four
preset patterns. Our example has the gradient pattern set to Spectrum.
• Params/Special/Custom Preview – Drag and drop a Custom Preview
• Connect the Scale-G output to the Custom Preview-G input
• Connect the Shader-S output to the Custom Preview-S input
• Right-click and turn the preview off for the Scale component
Below is a screen shot of how we have set up the third step of this
definition. If you move the attractor point around in your Rhino scene, the
scaled boxes and color information will automatically update.

10 Curve Types
Since curves are geometric objects, they possess a number of properties or
characteristics which can be used to describe or analyze them. For example, every
curve has a starting coordinate and every curve has an ending coordinate. When the
distance between these two coordinates is zero, the curve is closed. Also, every curve
has a number of control-points, if all these points are located in the same plane, the
curve as a whole is planar. Some properties apply to the curve as a whole, while others
only apply to specific points on the curve. For example, planarity is a global property
while tangent vectors are a local property. Also, some properties only apply to some
curve types. So far we've discussed some of Grasshopper’s Primitive Curve
Components such as: lines, circles, ellipses, and arcs.
Grasshopper also has a set of tools to express Rhino’s more advanced curve types like
nurbs curves and poly curves. Below, is an example that will walk us through some of
Grasshopper’s Spline Components but first we will need to create a set of points that
will define how our curves will act.
In the Source Files folder that

accompanies this manual, Open the
Curve Types.3dm file. In the scene, you
will find 6 points placed on the X-Y plane.
I have labeled them from left to right, like
the image on the right, as this will be the
order from which will pick them from
within Grasshopper.

Now in Grasshopper, Open
the file Curve Types.ghx
in the Source Files folder
that accompanies this
document. You will see a
Point component
connected to several Curve
components, each defining
a curve using a different
method. We will go
through each component
individually, but first we
must assign the points in
the Rhino scene to the
Point component within
Grasshopper. To do this,
right-click on the point component and select, Set Multiple Points. When prompted
select each of the 6 points making sure to select the points in the correct order, from left
to right. As you are selecting the points, an implied connection line will be drawn on the
screen in Blue to indicate your selections. When you’ve selected all 6 points, hit enter to
return to Grasshopper. All 6 points should now have a small Red X on top of them
indicating that this particular point has been assigned to the Grasshopper Point
component.
A) NURBS Curves (Curve/Spline/Curve)

Non-Uniform Rational Basic
Splines, or NURBS curves,
are one of many curve
definition types that are
available in Rhino. In addition to the
control points that help define the curves
location (these are the 6 points we just
selected in Rhino), NURBS curves also
have specific properties like degree, knot-
vectors, and weights. Entire books (or at
least very lengthy papers) have been
written about the mathematics behind
NURBS curves, and I will not cover that
here. However, if you would like a little
more information about this topic, please
visit: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NURBS.
The NURBS Curve-V input defines the curve control points, and these can be
described implicitly by selecting points from within the Rhino scene, or by inheriting
volatile data from other components. The NURBS Curve-D input sets the degree of the
curve. The degree of a curve is always a positive integer between and including 1 and
11. Basically, the degree of the curve determines the range of influence the control
points have on a curve; where the higher the degree, the larger the range. The table on
the following page is from David Rutten’s manual, Rhinoscript 101, and illustrates how
the varying degrees define a resultant NURBS curve.

In our example, we have connected a numeric slider to the Curve-D input to define the
degree of our NURBS curve. By dragging our slider to the left and right, we can visually
see the change in influence of each control point. The NURBS Curve-P input uses a
boolean value to define whether or not the curve should be periodic or not. A False
input will create an open NURBS curve, whereas a True value will create a closed
NURBS curve. The three output values for the NURBS Curve component are fairly self-
explanatory, where the C output defines the resultant curve, the L output provides a
numeric value for the length of the curve, and the D output defines the domain of the
curve (or the interval from 0 to the numeric value of the curve degree).
B) Interpolated Curves (Curve/Spline/Interpolate)

Interpolated curves behave slightly differently than NURBS curves, in that
the curve passes through the control points. You see, it is very difficult to
make NURBS curves go through specific coordinates. Even if we were to
tweak individual control points, it would be an incredibly arduous task to
make the curve pass through a specific point. Enter, Interpolated Curves. The V-input
is for the component is similar to the NURBS component, in that, it asks for a specific set
of points to create the curve. However, with the Interpolated Curve method, the

resultant curve will actually pass through
these points, regardless of the curve
degree. In the NURBS curve component,
we could only achieve this when the
curve degree was set to one. Also, like
the NURBS curve component, the D-
input defines the degree of the resultant
curve. However, with this method, it only
takes odd numbered values for the
degree input, so it is impossible to create
a two degree Interpolated curve. Again,
the P-input determines if the curve is
Periodic. You will begin to see a bit of a
pattern in the outputs for many of the
curve components, in that, the C, L, and
D outputs generally specify the resultant
curve, the length, and the curve domain
respectively.
C) Kinky Curves
(Curve/Spline/Kinky Curve)
Despite its risqué name, a
kinky curve is no more than
a glorified Interpolated
Curve. It has many of the attributes of
the Interpolated Curve method mentioned
in subsection B, with one small
difference. The kinky curve component
allows you the ability to control a specific
angle threshold where the curve will
transition from a kinked line, to a smooth
interpolated curve. We have connected a
numeric slider to the A-input of the Kinky
Curve component to see the threshold
change in real-time. It should be noted
that the A-input requires an input in
radians. In our example, there is an expression in the A-input to convert our numeric
slider, which specifies an angle in degrees, into radians.
D) Polyline Curves (Curve/Spline/Polyline)

A polyline just may be one of the most flexible curve types available in
Rhino. This is because a polyline curve can be made up of line segments,
polyline segments, degree=1 NURBS curves, or any combination of the
above. But, let’s start with the basics behind the polyline.
Essentially, a polyline is the same as a point array. The only difference is that we treat
the points of a polyline as a series, which enables us to draw a sequential line between
them. As was previously mentioned, a one degree NURBS curve, acts, for all intents
and purposes, identically to a polyline. Since a polyline is a collection of line segments
connecting two or more points, the resultant line will always pass through its control
points; making it similar in some respects to an Interpolated Curve. Like the curve types
mentioned above, the V-input of the Polyline component specifies a set of points that

will define the boundaries of each line
segment that make up the polyline. The
C-input of the component defines whether
or not the polyline is an open or closed
curve. If the first point location does not
coincide with the last point location, a line
segment will be created to close the loop.
The output for the Polyline component is
slightly different than that of the previous
examples, in that, the only resultant is the
curve itself. You would have to use one of
the other analytic curve components
within Grasshopper to determine the other
attributes of the curve.
E) Poly Arc (Curve/Spline/Poly Arc)

A poly-arc is almost
identical in nature to the
polyline, except that
instead of straight line segments, the poly-
arc uses a series of arcs connect each
point. The poly-arc is unique, in that, it
computes the required tangency at each
control point in order to create one fluid
curve where the transition between each
arc is continuous. There are no other
inputs, other than the initial point array,
and the only output is the resultant curve.

10.1 Curve Analytics
It would be quite difficult to create a tutorial that would utilize all of the analytic tools
available in Grasshopper, so I have included a table to explain many of the most
commonly used components.
Component Location Description Example
Find the center point and radius of arcs and

Curve/Analysis/Center
circles
Curve/Analysis/Closed Test if a curve is closed or periodic
Curve/Analysis/Closest Find the closest point on a curve to any sample

Point point in space
Curve/Analysis/End Points Extract the end points of a curve.
Curve/Analysis/Explode Decompose a curve into its component parts
Join as many curve segments together as

Curve/Utility/Join Curves
possible
Curve/Analysis/Length Measure the length of a curve
Curve/Division/Divide
Divide a curve into a equal length segments
Curve
Curve/Division/Divide Divide a curve with a preset distance between

Distance points
Curve/Division/Divide Divide a curve with a segments with a preset

Length length

Flip the direction of a curve using an optional
Curve/Utility/Flip
guide curve
Curve/Utility/Offset Offset a curve with a specified distance
Project a curve onto a Brep (a Brep is a set of

Curve/Utility/Project
joined surfaces like a polysurface in Rhino)
Curve/Utility/Split with
Split a curve with one or more Breps
Brep(s)
Trim a curve with one or more Breps. The Ci

Curve/Utility/Trim with (Curves Inside) and Co (Curves Outside)
Brep(s) outputs indicate the direction in which you
would like the trim to occur.
Trim a curve with one or more Regions. The Ci

Curve/Utility/Trim with (Curves Inside) and Co (Curves Outside)
Region(s) outputs indicate the direction in which you
would like the trim to occur.

11 Surface Types*
Apart from a few primitive surface types such as spheres, cones, planes and cylinders,
Rhino supports three kinds of freeform surface types, the most useful of which is the
NURBS surface. Similar to curves, all possible surface shapes can be represented by a
NURBS surface, and this is the default fall-back in Rhino. It is also by far the most useful
surface definition and the one we will be focusing on.
NURBS surfaces are very similar to NURBS

curves. The same algorithms are used to
calculate shape, normals, tangents, curvatures
and other properties, but there are some
distinct differences. For example, curves have
tangent vectors and normal planes, whereas
surfaces have normal vectors and tangent
planes. This means that curves lack orientation
while surfaces lack direction. This is of course
true for all curve and surface types and it is
something you'll have to learn to live with. Often
when writing code that involves curves or
surfaces you'll have to make assumptions about
direction and orientation and these assumptions
will sometimes be wrong.
In the case of NURBS surfaces there are in fact

two directions implied by the geometry, because NURBS surfaces are rectangular grids
of {u} and {v} curves. And even though these directions are often arbitrary, we end up
using them anyway because they make life so much easier for us.
Grasshopper handles NURBS surfaces similarly to the way that Rhino does because it is
built on the same core of operations needed to generate the surface. However, because
Grasshopper is displaying the surface on top of the Rhino viewport (which is why you
can’t really select any of the geometry created through Grasshopper in the viewport until
you bake the results into the scene) some of the mesh settings are slightly lower in order
to keep the speed of the Grasshopper results fairly high. You may notice some faceting
in your surface meshes, but this is to be expected and is only a result of Grasshopper’s
drawing settings. Any baked geometry will still use the higher mesh settings.
* Source: Rhinoscript 101 by David Rutten

http://en.wiki.mcneel.com/default.aspx/McNeel/RhinoScript101

Grasshopper chooses to handle surface in two ways. The first, as we have already
discussed, is through the use of NURBS surfaces. Generally, all of the Surface Analysis
components can be used on NURBS surfaces, like finding the area or surface curvature
of a particular surface. While there is a fair amount of complicated math involved, this
would still be fairly easy to solve because the computer doesn’t have to take into
account the third dimension of a volume, like depth or thickness. But how does
Grasshopper interpret three dimensional surfaces? Well, the developers at McNeel
decided to throw us a bone, and create a second method from which we can control
solid objects like we normally would in the Rhino interface. Enter… the Brep, or the
Boundary Representation.
The Brep can be thought of as a three dimensional solid or similarly to the polysurface in
Rhino. It is still made up of a collection of NURBS surface, however they are joined
together to create a solid object with thickness, whereas a single NURBS surface
theoretically has no thickness. Since Breps are essentially made up of surfaces that are
joined together, some of the standard NURBS surface analysis components will still
work on a Brep, while others will not. This happens because Grasshopper has a built in
translation logic which tries to convert objects into the desired input. If a component
wants a BRep for the input and you give it a surface, the surface will be converted into a
BRep on the fly. The same is true for Numbers and Integers, Colors and Vectors, Arcs
and Circles. There are even some fairly exotic translations defined, for example:
• Curve →
Number (gives the length of the curve)
• Curve →
Interval (gives the domain of the curve)
• Surface →
Interval2D (gives the uv domain of the surface)
• String →
Number (will evaluate the string, even if it's a complete
expression)
• Interval2D → Number (gives the area of the interval)
There are more auto-conversion translations and whenever more data types are added,
the list grows. That should be enough background on surface types to begin looking at a
few different examples.

11.1 Surface Connect
The following example, created by David Fano from Design Reform, is an excellent
tutorial that shows a range of surface manipulation techniques. In this example we'll
cover the Sweep2Rail, Surface Offset, and Surface Division components by creating the
model displayed below. To start, in Rhino Open the SurfaceConnect.3dm file found in
the Source Files folder that accompanies this manual. In this file, you'll find 3 curves (2
rails and a section curve) which will provide the framework needed for this example.
Note: To see the finished definition of this example, Open in Grasshopper the file
SurfaceConnect.ghx also found in the Source Files folder.

• Surface/Freeform/Sweep2Rail - Drag and drop a Sweep 2 Rails component
onto the canvas
• Right-click on the Sweep2Rail-R1 input and select "Set one Curve"
• When prompted, select the first rail curve in the scene (see image above)
• Right-click on the Sweep2Rail-R2 input and select "Set one Curve"
• When prompted, select the second rail curve in the scene (to state the
obvious, see the image above)
• Right-click on the Sweep2Rail-S input and select "Set one Curve"
• Again, when prompted, select the section curve in the scene (no need to
belabor the point here :)
If all curves were properly selected, you should now see a surface
spanning between each rail curve.
• Surface/Freeform/Offset - Drag and drop a Surface Offset component onto
the canvas
• Connect the Sweep2Rail-S output to the Offset-S input
• Params/Specia/Slider - Drag and drop a Numeric Slider onto the canvas
o Name: Surface Offset
o Lower Limit: 0.0
o Upper Limit: 10.0
o Value: 10.0
• Connect the slider to the Surface Offset-D input

You should now see a new surface that is offset 10 units (or whatever
value you have set for your Surface Offset slider) from the original
surface.
• Surface/Utility/Divide Surface - Drag and drop two Divide Surface
components onto the canvas
• Connect the Sweep2Rail-S output to the first Divide Surface-S input
You should immediately see a set of points show up on your first
Sweep2Rail surface. This is because the default U and V values for the
Divide Surface component is set to 10. Basically, the Divide Surface
component is creating 10 divisions in each direction on the surface,
ultimately creating a grid of points on your surface. If you were to connect
the points along each division line you would get the "isocurves" that form
the internal framework of the surface.
• Connect the Surface Offset-S output to the Divide Surface-S input
Again, a new set of grid points have been created on the offset surface.
• Right-click the first slider and set the following:
o Name: U Divisions
o Lower Limit: 0.0
o Value: 15.0
• Right-click the second slider and set the following:
o Name: V Divisions
o Lower Limit: 0.0
o Value: 25.0
• Connect the U Divisions slider to both Divide Surface-U inputs
• Connect the V Divisions slider to both Divide Surface-V inputs
The two sliders now control the number of divisions in each direction on
both surfaces. Since both surfaces have the exact same number of
points, and thus each point has the same index number, we will easily be
able to connect the inner surface to the outer surface with a simple line.
• Connect the first Divide Surface-P output to the Line-A input
• Connect the second Divide Surface-P output to the Line-B input
It's as easy as that. You should now see a series of lines connecting
each point of the inner surface to the corresponding point on the outer
surface. We can take the definition a step further by giving each line
some thickness.
• Surface/Freeform/Pipe - Drag and drop a Pipe component onto the canvas
• Connect the Line-L output to the Pipe-C input
• Params/Special/Slider - Drag and drop a Numeric Slider onto the canvas
• Right-click the slider and set the following:
o Name: Pipe Radius
o Lower Limit: 0.0
o Upper Limit: 2.0
o Value: 0.75
• Connect the Pipe Radius slider to the Pipe-R input

11.2 Paneling Tools
Mcneel recently released an excellent free plug-in for Rhino called Paneling Tools. The
plug-in, among other things, allows you the ability to propagate specific geometric
modules over a given surface. Grasshopper also has some components that can be
used to re-create the Paneling Tools method and in the following tutorial we’ll cover how
to subdivide a surface through the use of an Interval component, and we’ll cover some of
the new Morphing components included in GH version 0.5.0099.
To find out more about the Paneling Tools plug-in, please visit:
http://en.wiki.mcneel.com/default.aspx/McNeel/PanelingTools.html.
Below is a screen shot of the definition needed to copy a geometric pattern, such as a
window mullion system, across the surface of a high-rise tower.
Note: To see the finished definition of this example, in Grasshopper Open the file
Paneling Tool.ghx found in the Source Files folder that accompanies this document.

To create the definition from scratch, we’ll first need a set of curves in which to Loft the
tower surface. In Rhino, Open the file Panel Tool_base.3dm also found in the Source
Files folder. You should find 4 ellipses, which we will use to help us define our surface,
and some preset pattern geometry in the scene.
Let’s start the definition by creating a lofted surface:

• Params/Geometry/Curve – Drag and drop a Curve component onto the
canvas
• Right-click the curve component and select “Set Multiple Curves”
• When prompted, select the 4 ellipses in the scene, one by one, starting from
the bottom most curve and working your way up to the top
• Hit enter after you have selected the last ellipse
As we have done in some of our previous examples, we have now
implicitly defined some Rhino geometry within Grasshopper.
• Surface/Freeform/Loft – Drag and drop a Loft component onto the canvas
• Connect the Curve output to the Loft-S input
If you right-click on the Loft-O input, you will find the typical loft options
associated with the Rhino command. In our case, the default settings will
suffice, but there might be a time when these setting would need to be
adjusted to fit your particular need.
∗ Optional Step: It is almost impossible to tell whether or not your lofted
surface is facing the right way with Grasshopper graphic interface. However,
through trial and error in setting up this tutorial, I noticed that my default lofted
surface happened to face inward, thus causing all of my panels to face
inward as well. So, we can use the Flip component to reverse the normals of
our surface to face outward. We will put the component in our definition, but
if you find that when we get to the end of the definition that all of your panels
are facing the opposite direction than what you intended, all you will need to
do is delete the Flip component and reconnect the appropriate wires.
• Surface/Utility/Flip – Drag and drop a Flip component onto the canvas
• Connect the Loft-L output to the Flip-S input
• Params/Geometry/Surface – Drag and drop a Surface component onto the
canvas
• Connect the Flip-S output to the Surface component’s input
• Right-click on the Surface component and select the check box next to the
word Reparameterize
Currently, our surface has a
domain interval that ranges from
zero (at the base of the surface)
to some number representing
the top of the surface. We really
don’t know care what that upper
limit is, because we can
reparameterize the surface.
Meaning, we will reset the
domain of the surface to be an
interval from zero to one, where
zero represents the base of the
surface and one represents the
upper limit of the surface. This
is a crucial step, because our

surface will not subdivide correctly if it is not reparameterized into an
interval between zero and one.
• Scalar/Interval/Divide Interval2 – Drag and drop a Divide Two Dimensional
Interval (what a mouth full) component onto the canvas
We’ll first need to set up our interval range, before we subdivide our
surface.
• Params/Primitive/Integer – Drag and drop and Integer component onto the
canvas
• Right-click on the Integer component and set the value to 1.0
• Connect the Integer output to the Divide Two Dimensional Interval-I input
If you hover your mouse over the Divide Interval-I input, you will now see
that both our U and V base intervals range from zero to one, which also
corresponds to our reparameterized surface.
o Name: U Interval
o Lower Limit: 5.0
o Upper Limit: 30.0
o Value: 10.0
o Name: V Interval
o Lower Limit: 5.0
o Upper Limit: 30.0
o Value: 10.0
• Connect the U Interval slider to the Divide Interval-U input
• Connect the V Interval slider to the Divide Interval-V input
• Xform/Morph/Surface Box - Drag and drop a Surface Box component onto
the canvas
• Connect the Surface component output to the Surface Box-S input
• Connect the Divide Interval-S output to the Surface Box-D input
• Right-click on the Curve, Loft, and Surface components and turn their
'Preview' off
We have now subdivided our
surface into 100 areas based on
our U and V interval sliders.
What is happening is that, we
originally created an interval that
ranged from zero to one, which
did correspond to the same
interval value of our surface.
Then, we divided that interval 10
times in the U direction and 10
times in the V direction, which
ultimately created 100 unique
interval combinations. You can
change the U and V values on
the sliders to control the amount
of subdivision in each direction of your surface. Now, let's take a step
back and create a geometric pattern that we can propagate across each

new subdivision. In the scene, you will find some a window system
consisting of a spandrel panel, a window mullion, and a glazing panel.
We will use these three geometric instances to create a facade system on
our surface.
• Params/Geometry/Geometry - Drag and drop a Geometry component onto
the canvas
• Right-click on the Geometry component and select "Set Multiple Geometries"
• When prompted, select the spandrel panel, mullion, and the glazing panel
from the scene
• Hit enter after selecting all three Breps
• Surface/Primitive/Bounding Box - Drag and drop a Bounding Box component
onto the canvas
• Connect the Geometry component output to the Bounding Box-C input
We're using the Bounding Box component for two reasons. First, the
Bounding Box component will help us determine the height of our
geometric pattern. Since we have only used rectangular boxes as our
pattern, the height would be pretty easy to determine. However, if you
had chosen a more organic shape to copy across your surface, the height
would be much more difficult to resolve. We'll use this height information
as an input value for our Surface Box component. Secondly, we'll use
the Bounding Box as a reference Brep for the BoxMorph component
which we will discuss in a moment.
• Surface/Analysis/Box Components - Drag and drop a Box Components onto
the canvas
• Connect the Bounding Box-B output to the Box Components-B input
• Connect the Box Components-Z output to the Surface Box-H input
We're on the home stretch now.
• Xform/Morph/Box Morph - Drag and drop a Box Morph component onto the
canvas
• Connect the Pattern Geometry output to the Box Morph-G input
• Connect the Bounding Box-B output to the Box Morph-R input
• Connect the Surface Box-B output to the Box Morph-T input
• Right-click on the Surface Box component and turn the 'Preview' off
Phew. If your brain isn't about to explode, I'll try to explain the last part of
the definition. We've input the pattern geometry into the Morph Box
component, which replicates that pattern over each subdivision. We've
used the Bounding Box of our window system as our reference geometry,
and we input the 100 box subdivisions as our target boxes to replicate our
geometry. If you followed all of the steps correctly, you should be able to
change your base surface, pattern geometry, and the U and V
subdivisions to control any number of panels on a surface.

11.3 Surface Diagrid
We’ve already shown how we can use the Paneling Tools definition to create façade
elements on a surface, but the next example will really show how we can manipulate the
information flow to create a structural diamond grid, or diagrid on any surface. To begin,
let’s Open the Surface Diagrid.3dm file in Rhino. In the scene, you will find two
mirrored cosine curves which will be the boundaries of our lofted surface.
Note: To see the finished definition of this example, in Grasshopper Open the file
Surface Diagrid.ghx found in the Source Files folder that accompanies this document.

Let’s start the definition from scratch:
• Params/Geometry/Curve – Drag and drop two Curve components onto the
canvas
• Right-click the first Curve component and rename it to “Input Crv1”
• Right-click the Input Crv1 component and select “Set One Curve”
• When prompted, select one of the curves in the Rhino scene
• Right-click the second Curve component and rename it to “Input Crv2”
• Right-click the Input Crv2 component and select “Set One Curve”
• When prompted, select the other curve in the Rhino scene
• Surface/Freeform/Loft – Drag and drop a Loft component onto the canvas
• Connect the Input Crv1 component to the Loft-S input
• While holding the Shift key, connect the Input Crv2 component to the Loft-S
input
You should now see a lofted surface between the two input curves inside
your Rhino scene.
• Params/Geometry/Surface – Drag and drop a Surface component onto the
canvas
• Connect the Loft-L output to the Surface component input
• Scalar/Interval/ Divide Interval2 – Drag and drop a Divide Two Dimensional
Interval component onto the canvas
Just like in the last example, we are going to subdivide our surface into
smaller surfaces. To do this, we must create an interval in both the U and
V direction from which to subdivide our surface
• Connect the Surface component output to the Divide Interval-I input
• Params/Special/Numeric Slider – Drag and drop a slider onto the canvas
• Right-click the slider and set the following:
o Name: Surface Division Number
o Lower Limit: 0.0
o Upper Limit: 20.0
o Value: 12.0
• Connect the Slider to both the U and the V inputs of the Divide Interval
component
• Surface/Utility/Isotrim – Drag and drop an Isotrim component onto the canvas
• Connect the Surface component output to the Isotrim-S input
• Connect the Divide Interval-S output to the Isotrim-D input
• Right-click the Loft and Surface component and turn the ‘Preview’ off
You should now see a set of subdivided surface corresponding to the
subdivision value you set in the numeric slider. Because we have
connected only one slider to both of the U and V inputs for the interval,
you should see the subdivisions change equally as you move the number
slider to the right and left. You can add an additional slider here if you
would like to control the divisions separately.
• Surface/Analysis/Brep Components – Drag and drop a Brep Components
onto the canvas
This component will break down a series of Breps into their component
elements, such as Faces, Edges, and Vertices. In this case, we want to
know the positions of each corner point so that we can begin to make
diagonal connections between each subdivision.

Our definition, so far, should look like the image above. We have essentially subdivided
our surface into smaller sub-surfaces and exploded each sub-surface to get the position
of each surface corner point. In our next step, we will index the list of points in order
create a diagonal structural system.
• Logic/Lists/List Length – Drag and drop a List Length component onto the
canvas
• Connect the Brep Components-V output to the List Length component
• Logic/Sets/Series – Drag and drop four Series components onto the canvas
• Right-click on the first Series component and set the following:
o S-input: 0.0
o N-input: 4.0
• Right-click on the second Series component and set the following:
o S-input: 1.0
o N-input: 4.0
• Right-click on the third Series component and set the following:
o S-input: 2.0
o N-input: 4.0
• Right-click on the fourth Series component and set the following:
o S-input: 3.0
o N-input: 4.0
• Connect the List Length-L output to each of the four Series-C inputs
Those of you who often pay attention to the fine details probably noticed
that we have four components whose start value increases by one for
each new Series. There’s a specific reason for this, but let’s create a
simple hypothetical situation to explain what’s really going on. Let’s say
we have a surface where we have set the subdivisions to 2 in each
direction, so that there are actually 4 sub-surfaces created. Each sub-
surface will have 4 corner points, so we have a list of 16 points.
However, we need to know how those 16 points are arranged in the list in
order to make specific diagonal connections. Luckily for us, the Brep
Components creates the list in order… meaning, it starts at the first sub-
surface and evaluates the position of the four corner points first (let’s say
it goes in a clockwise direction) before moving to the second sub-surface
and doing the whole procedure all over again. So, if we wanted the lower
left hand point of each sub-surface, we would need to retrieve every
fourth point from the lists (index numbers: 0, 4, 8, and 12). Likewise,
since the Brep Components created the list going in a clockwise direction,
if we wanted the upper left point of each sub-surface, we would need to
retrieve every fourth point from the list but with a different start value
(index numbers: 1, 5, 9, and 13). The same process works for the entire
set of points. The four Series component we just created will create a list

of numbers that we can feed into a List Item component to retrieve each
corner point of all of our sub-surfaces.
• Logic/Lists/List Item – Drag and drop four List Item components onto the
canvas
• Connect the Brep Components-V output to each of the four List Item-L inputs
• Connect the first Series-S output to the first List Item-i input
• Connect the second Series-S output to the second List Item-i input
• Connect the third Series-S output to the third List Item-i input
• Connect the fourth Series-S output to the fourth List Item-i input
• Right-click on the Brep Component and turn the ‘Preview’ off
Now each List Item component will correspond to one of the corner points
of each sub-surface. You can test this by selecting one of the List Item
components and watching which points are highlighted in Green in the
Rhino scene. Now that we have four components that correspond to
each corner point, we can simply use the Line component to join
diagonally opposed points.
• Curve/Primitive/Line – Drag and drop a two Line components onto the screen
• Connect the first List Item-E output to the first Line-A input
• Connect the third List Item-E output to the first Line-B input
• Connect the second List Item-E output to the second Line-A input
• Connect the fourth List Item-E output to the second Line-B input
Depending on how your lists were generated, you may or may not see a
diagrid of line between your points. You may need to try a different
combination of connections between List Item components and the Line
components. In our Line components, we connected the first and the
third List Item components; whereas we connected the second and fourth
components to the second Line component. If you aren’t seeing a
diagrid, simply connect a different combination until you get the desired
results.
• Surface/Freeform/Pipe – Drag and drop a Pipe component onto the canvas
• Connect the first Line-L output to the Pipe-C input
• While holding the Shift key down, connect the second Line-L output to the
Pipe-C input
To create a variable structural thickness we will use a slider to control the
Pipe radius
• Params/Special/Number Slider – Drag and drop a numeric slider onto the
canvas
o Name: Pipe Radius
o Lower Limit: 0.0
o Upper Limit: 1.0
o Value: 0.05
• Connect the Pipe Radius slider to the Pipe-R input
Lastly, we will create a flat surface between each of the 4 corner points.
We are doing this, because the sub-surfaces we originally created are
curved and for this exercise we would like to create a faceted surface with
a diagrid structural system.
• Surface/Freeform/4Point Surface – Drag and drop a 4 Point Surface
• Connect the first List Item-E output to the 4 Point Surface-A input

• Connect the second List Item-E output to the 4 Point Surface-B input
• Connect the third List Item-E output to the 4 Point Surface-C input
• Connect the fourth List Item-E output to the 4 Point Surface-D input
The last part of your definition should look like the image above. This definition will work
on any type of single surface and you can replace the Loft part of the definition at the
beginning with more complicated surface generation methods.

Notes


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GRASSHOPPER

FOR RHINOCEROS 4.0 SR4

Thanks, and good luck!

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A. The Main Menu Bar

B. File Browser Control

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The Window Title Bar: D

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The Canvas Toolbar: E

1. Definition properties editor

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A) Parameter. A parameter which contains warnings is displayed as an orange box.

B) Parameter. A parameter which contains neither warnings nor errors.

C) Component. A component is always a more involved object, since it contains input

D) Component. A component which contains neither warnings nor errors.

H: The Status Bar

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The Remote Control Panel:

Viewport Preview Feedback:

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B) Green geometry in the viewport belongs to a component which is currently selected.

C) Red geometry in the viewport belongs to a component which is currently unselected.

D) Point geometry is drawn as a cross rather than a rectangle to distinguish it from

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C) A selected component. All selected objects have a green sheen to them.

E) A component containing warnings. Since a component is likely to contain a number of

G) A connection. Connections always appear between an output and an input

C) The three output parameters of the Division component.

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Finally, the "Cross Reference" method makes all possible connections:

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To create the definition from scratch:

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If the object is a curve, delete it.

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To create the definition from scratch:

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To create the definition from scratch:

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• Scalar/Trigonometry/Sine - Drag and drop a Sine component onto the canvas

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We have shown how to create a sine wave curve, however we can

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