Emad Al-Qattan Digital Technologies

This post is another attempt to solve and create a powercopy (smart cell). The first post on powercopies  was posted on the 18th of October (http://dtbyemad.blogspot.com/2013/10/powercopy.html). After continuos struggle with the cell's geometry and the software's logic the powercopy finally started working. At the start the cell did not respond to any of the given parameters or constrains, and did not duplicate. The problem that was causing these issues were related to the cell's geometry; it required additional information to perform. After this problem was resolved, the powercopy started taking its place on the framework, but the parameters that controlled it's hight and other geometrical configuration did not work. So, I had to revisit the sketches and trace the problem. Nothing obvious appeared  to be causing any the problem, the only guess will be the parameters. The parameters were not copied during the duplication of the cells, that was one of the reaso

The project presented in this post focuses on some folding skills. The folding process requires in the digital environment  a clear understanding of what are the forces that derives a form to illustrate the motion of folding and unfolding under its given limits. The project was to create a paper thin object (surface) to demonstrate motion and folding. What challenges the creation of this digital object is that, the characteristics of its motion are controlled by the digital environment, unlike the physical paper which can, for example, warp. So, some analysis of the constrains and parameters were established to create this movement and the outcomes are illustrated below. The project was inspired by one of the paper models shown in Paul Jacksons book Folding Techniques For Designers From Sheet To Form (image 1 below). Image 1 The following step was to recreate this form in Digital Project. The form must be first analyzed to establish its constraints and parameters for a si

The 'attractor point', is a method that also uses powercopies, in addition to the influence of an attractor. In other words, the attractor is the element that controls the behavior of the powercopy within a set of relationships. The relationship between both (the powercopy and the attractor point) are established in two levels (not including the local level; the parameters of the powercopy). The first set of relationships are established on a global level; parameter that controls the the relationship between the powercopy and the attractor point. The second set of relationships are the rules. The second guid (rule) is a method that further controls the behavior of the overall form through its parameters. Each parameter has a value that establishes the relationship between the design elements - on a local scale; within the powercopy unite -  and a global scale - between the powercopy and the attractor point. The benefit of the rule is to help in predecting and defining the

Powercopy is a methode of creating a smart cell, a geometrical unit that has a number of constraints and parameters. Once this cell is created then it could be applied on any framework while retaining its parametric relationship. The objective of creating such a cell, is to establish an overall from that is generative in nature through advanced replication, which gives the designer a higher level of control, and the ability to achieve the acquired level of complexity.  Through the process of creating the powercopy which will be illustrated below, some geometrical issues emerged. In the first several attempts and after creating the powercopy, when starting the duplication process, the geometry flattened (the duplicated cell). So, one of the conclusions was, that the geometry of the cell - within the sketch - was over constrained. Another is that, the geometry was complex in nature and was being duplicated over another complex geometry - the surface's projected point. Bas

As mentioned in the earlier attempt of this assignment (http://dtbyemad.blogspot.com/2013/09/the-interactive-skin.html), that this is a step further in developing forms in the 3D environment of 'Digital Project'. In this second attempt in creating an intelligent surface what can be noticed is that additional control over the overall form and its driving factors (parameters) are established. The Surface is created through the conventional loft (multi-sectional surface), but the splines that guide the surface are controlled through additional points. The points that are used as the scaffold for the surface are broken down into three categories: sketch based points, geometry based points, and measurement based points. Each set is controlled in the three dimensional plane (X,Y,Z) with a set of parameters (Sub parameters). Each of theses parameters create the basic control over the different elements within each set. Then the individual parameters are controlled with a singl

Botanic Architecture, is an assignment that takes modeling in Digital Project a step further into 3D modeling, a step into assembling a generative form. In this "Product Assembly" - which will be shown in the following images - that was inspired by the tree branch, its intentions was to conjunct the assignments of both Virtual and Material engagement classes. In Materials Engagement, the assignment was to cast ten alterations of a single object. As for Virtual engagement, the project was to design an assembly from a single unite (part), and then the overall configuration can be altered. So, I though the best approach for both assignment is to use a natural element that is generative by nature. In addition, importing this natural element (branch) in a virtual environment helped in exploring the different compositional alterations that this single part can produce - rather than having only ten, I had 36 different alturations.  Image1: The physical object (branch