graphemes

graphemes

Graphemes is an experimental design program based on graph theory and a dynamic spring force model. It has two main functions. First the design of 2 and 3 dimensional structu

res th

rough the use of topological operations where the emphasis of the interface design is o

n conn ectivity of nodes. The real time spring model simulation will regularize the structure au

tomatic

ally. The second function of the program is to try and develop the structural intuition of t

he user by

providing fast structural analysis of the design system. Hence one can observe in near

real time ho

w changes in connectivity in a space frame affect its structural behaviour.

Developed by Panagiotis Michalatos and Sawako Kaijimawww.sawapan.eu

sawapandesign@gmail.com

graphemes

User Interface

close

maximize/restore

minimize

selected object properties

toolbox

main panel

hide/show

centre view

topbottom

front

backleftright

toggle perspective

for time consuming processes a progress bar will appear. If it takes too long click on the skull icon to terminate the process without killing the programm.

main tabs

label

buttoncheck button - unchecked

check button - checked

number inputdrop down lists

toggle visibility button

scrollbar

scrollbar minscrollbar value [editable]scrollbar max

control group

viewingMiddle mouse click and drag to zoom Right mouse click and drag to rotate viewSelect a node to automatically centre the view on it

Moving and selecting nodesClicking once on a node will select itLeft clicking and dragging a node will move it. If the view is more aligned to the horizontal plane then the node will move within the horizontal plane that passes through its z coordinate. If the viewing direction is more perpendicualr than paral-lel to the scene’s z axis then the node will be constrained to move on a vertical plane aligned to the view.Right clicking and dragging a node will move the node along a vertical axis with-out affecting its x and y coordinates.

Node propertiesAfter selecting a node its properties will appear in this dialogue box

node ID, not editable

Node applied force components

fix node displacements

fix node rotations [only used by the analysis module]Delete selected node

tool buttons

description

active tool options

graphemes

toolbox

select / modify toolThis is the deafult behaviour when no tool is activated.

When the mouse is over a node :

Left click once to select node

Left click and drag to move

Right click and drag to move along z axis

Middle click and drag to an-other node to connect them

Middle click and drag to empty space to connect to a newly created node

When the mouse is over a link:

Left click to add node in the middle

Right click to break link

Middle click to collapse link by merging its two end nodes

Add NodeClick anywhere to add a new node.

Delete NodeClick on a node to delete it.

Duplicate NodeClick on a node to duplicate it. The new node will be connected to the same nodes as the original one.

Delete Orphan NodesDelete all nodes not connected to any graph.

Link NodesClick two nodes to link them.

Break LinkClick on a link to delete it.

Collapse linkClick on a link to merge its end nodes.

Divide LinkClick on a link to add a middle node.

Merge NodesClick on nodes to merge them.

if checked the new link will always start from the last node clicked1

2

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23

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z z

graphemes

Duplicate ComponentClick on a node to duplicate it along with all the nodes and links that are directly or indirectly connected to it.

Delete ComponentClick on a node to delete it along with all the nodes and links that are directly or indirectly connected to it.

toolbox

Polymerize ComponentClick on two nodes that belong to the same graph to create a chain of copies of this graph where each copy will be connected to the previous and next copy by the two selected nodes

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cyclical on

Merge links on

cyclical off

Merge links off

cyclical off

Merge links on

number of copies in polymereclosed chainremove segments between copies

Subdivide All LinksA middle node is inserted in all the links in the current scene

Remove valence 2 nodesRemove all nodes that are connected to only two segments to simplify graph.

Grow BranchesFor each node in the graph add a number of nodes and connect them to it.

brunches = 1

Only Terminal Nodes off

brunches = 2

Only Terminal Nodes on

Delete Terminal NodesDelete all nodes that are connected by only one link.

Extrude GraphDuplicate all nodes in the graph and con-nect the new nodes to the corresponding existing nodes.

Create TreeClick on a node to use as root of a tree graph

number of itera-tions for branching

number of branches per level

Create GridCreates grids of nodes.

grid resolution

click to create grid

Create TorusCreates a torus graph

Create CycleCreates a cyclical graph

Create TubeCreates a tubular graph

graphemes dynamic system

Delete all nodes

Switch between 3d and 2d system

Update system in real time. When this switch is on node positions are readjusted at every frame. The calculations can become time consuming for complex scenes. If this happens turn this switch off. In this case you can ask for an explicit recalculation of node po-sitions whenever you change some-thing by pressing the “step” button below.

Do a number of iterations [desig-nated in the fild below] to readjust node positions.

Number of iterations in adjusting node positions.

Spring constant. Affects stiffness of node links

Link Scaling. Determines the scaling of the target legth for all links.

Strength of spreading force that acts between nodes that are not linked

All graphs tend to clamp around a spherical region.

Spring dumping. The larger the value the more the sys-tem will vibrate after each modification

visualization mode for links

extension distance for links when rendered using the cyl-inder visualization

when on links are col-our coded according to the amount of divergence between their actual length and tar-get length.

graphemes analysis

Run structural analysis on current system

Automatically rerun struc-tural analysis everytime the graph is modified. It might get slow for graphs with many nodes

Hide/Show Analysis results

Maximum deflection. Every time you reanalyze the system this value is up-dated. It can be used as an indicator of the system’s stiffness. The smaller it gets the better for your strucutre.

Scaling of actual deflec-tions for animated render-ing.

Radius and thickness of hollow tube crosssection applied to all beams.

Desired size of finite ele-ment beams when using the “Analyze” command.

Deadload factor. Th ac-tual weight of each beam is multiplied by this factor. Turn to 0 if you want to check behaviour with only applied loads