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Monday, January 31, 2011
E8 reorders are on their way...
Just talked to the printers today. I should be shipping out all back orders by the beginning of next week.
IAP in Pictures
Howdy! Finally compiles a digital copy of most of my work during studio this semester. I unfortunately lost a lot of my renderings that I made on the school comps, but I still had print outs which is better than nothing. Take a look HERE. NOTE: The file is 12 MB.
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Saturday, January 22, 2011
Broken Glasses
Thursday, January 20, 2011
Publicity
Tuesday, January 18, 2011
First RhinoScript!!!
I'm currently in studio working on an exercise due tomorrow. In our prior assignment we created a drafting instruction set, that our studio mates executed.
Now we have to interpret the drawing and create 3D shapes. In the process of doing so, I discovered that it was vital that I learn RhinoScript. Turns out it has little to no syntax and you don't have to declare the type of your variables. Gotta admit, I still keep putting ";"s at the end of lines. C++ habits die hard.
Anyway, here's my little script that turns the lines on the page into boxes, conserving a constant perimeter from box to box. It needs some tweaking to become architecturally fluent, but hey a first script is a first script.
Now we have to interpret the drawing and create 3D shapes. In the process of doing so, I discovered that it was vital that I learn RhinoScript. Turns out it has little to no syntax and you don't have to declare the type of your variables. Gotta admit, I still keep putting ";"s at the end of lines. C++ habits die hard.
Anyway, here's my little script that turns the lines on the page into boxes, conserving a constant perimeter from box to box. It needs some tweaking to become architecturally fluent, but hey a first script is a first script.
Option Explicit
'Script written by blondegeek
'Script version Tuesday, January 18, 2011 9:37:11 AM
Call Main()
Sub Main()
Dim arrObjLines, strObjLines
Dim dblPerimeter, dblOffset
Dim dblLength, dblHeight
Dim arrObjStart, arrObjEnd
Dim strObjRectangle
Dim arrObjNewStart, arrObjNewEnd
Dim arrPlanarPoints,arrParam
Dim PlanarFace
Dim normalvec, normalvecnorm
Dim modifier
Dim X,Y,Z
Dim PathLine
arrObjLines = Rhino.GetObjects("Select Lines to apply rule to.",4,True,True,True)
dblPerimeter = Rhino.GetReal("Set limit perimeter")
dblOffset = Rhino.GetReal("Enter Offset.")
For Each strObjLines In arrObjLines
dblLength = Rhino.CurveLength(strObjLines)
dblHeight = (dblPerimeter-2*dblLength)/2
arrObjStart = Rhino.CurveStartPoint(strObjLines)
arrObjEnd = Rhino.CurveEndPoint(strObjLines)
arrObjNewStart = arrObjStart
arrObjNewStart(2) = arrObjNewStart(2) + dblHeight
arrObjNewEnd = arrObjEnd
arrObjNewEnd(2) = arrObjNewEnd(2) + dblHeight
arrPlanarPoints = array(arrObjStart, arrObjEnd, arrObjNewEnd, arrObjNewStart)
PlanarFace = Rhino.AddSrfPt(arrPlanarPoints)
arrParam = Rhino.SurfaceClosestPoint(PlanarFace, arrObjStart)
normalvec = Rhino.SurfaceNormal(PlanarFace,arrParam)
X = normalvec(0)
Y = normalvec(1)
Z = normalvec(2)
modifier = dblOffset/(X^2+Y^2+Z^2)^(1/2)
normalvecnorm = normalvec
normalvecnorm(0) = normalvecnorm(0)*modifier+arrObjStart(0)
normalvecnorm(1) = normalvecnorm(1)*modifier+arrObjStart(1)
normalvecnorm(2) = normalvecnorm(2)*modifier+arrObjStart(2)
PathLine = Rhino.AddLine(arrObjStart,normalvecnorm)
Rhino.ExtrudeSurface PlanarFace, PathLine
Next
End Sub
Monday, January 17, 2011
Pummelo-ed
This post is dedicated to Anonymous of the previous post and the Pummelo I am currently trying to demolish. 1/2 of the pummelo has been conquered and the other 1/2 is glaring at me with hostility.
Pummelos are by far the most unruly of citrus. In taste, they are everything I wish a grapefruit would be, but they are a real hassle to peel. Apologies to grapefruit enthusiasts - the bitterness gets to me. But my eating of grapefruit provides ample amusement for others since the bitterness causes me to make twisted sour faces.
Like celery, pummelos must have the "negative calories" deal going for them, just because it takes that much effort for me to get them open. Then again, I have a history of having trouble with peeling things. A great example of this was when I tried to unshell a hard-boiled egg by making the holes on the top and bottom of the egg and blowing through one of the holes. In case you've never seen this done, I refer you to here. Needless to say, it didn't work too well for me. Problem 1, didn't use baking soda. Problem 2, it was a soft boiled egg. Messy.
Thankfully, I have been more successful in other efforts of mine. I've been back from break for two weeks now doing some classwork and working on a healthy amount of outside projects. Semester hasn't actually started yet so it's a more relaxed atmosphere on campus. MIT has winter break for two weeks and then an optional 4-week Independent Activities Period (IAP). We're currently on at the beginning of week 3 of IAP.
IAP has been often compared to rehab since during IAP students can take classes that they wouldn't normally get a chance to take during semester (Ex: Build Your Own Electric Guitar, Make Your Own Decorative Paste Paper, Play StarCraft 2...more here).
I'm currently taking architecture classes for credit, which has been quite a bit of work so far, but plenty of fun. I'm taking an intensive version of the 2nd undergraduate studio course and a free-hand drawing class for architects. Those of you who have taken studio probably think the term "intensive" is redundant.
Besides classes, I've been working on an art installation project with a few friends and plotting schemes of modifying old blondegeek code. I keep mentioning the art project in posts, but I won't say more about it as to not ruin the surprise. :)
I haven't been working on physics since semester ended, but the research group I work with just published a paper! Check it out on arXiv. The paper addresses to how to extend physicists' ability to detect light in detectors (specifically Liquid Argon Time Projection Chambers) that utilize strong electric fields. The issue is our light detectors (photomultiplier tubes - PMTs) cannot be used in a strong electric field, since PMTs use their own electric fields to create a signal cascade which creates a signal of approximately 10^10 electrons for every photon detected. Our solution is to use an acrylic lightguide which guides the light through internal reflection from an area in a detector where a strong electric field exists to where the PMTs sit, where there is no external field. The acrylic lightguides are coated with a chemical, TPB, which serves the purpose of shifting the wavelength of signal photons from UV, which our PMTs are horrible at seeing, to blue.
Back to pummeling the pummelo. I'll be sure to post some pics of my architecture projects soon.
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Pummelos are by far the most unruly of citrus. In taste, they are everything I wish a grapefruit would be, but they are a real hassle to peel. Apologies to grapefruit enthusiasts - the bitterness gets to me. But my eating of grapefruit provides ample amusement for others since the bitterness causes me to make twisted sour faces.
Like celery, pummelos must have the "negative calories" deal going for them, just because it takes that much effort for me to get them open. Then again, I have a history of having trouble with peeling things. A great example of this was when I tried to unshell a hard-boiled egg by making the holes on the top and bottom of the egg and blowing through one of the holes. In case you've never seen this done, I refer you to here. Needless to say, it didn't work too well for me. Problem 1, didn't use baking soda. Problem 2, it was a soft boiled egg. Messy.
Thankfully, I have been more successful in other efforts of mine. I've been back from break for two weeks now doing some classwork and working on a healthy amount of outside projects. Semester hasn't actually started yet so it's a more relaxed atmosphere on campus. MIT has winter break for two weeks and then an optional 4-week Independent Activities Period (IAP). We're currently on at the beginning of week 3 of IAP.
IAP has been often compared to rehab since during IAP students can take classes that they wouldn't normally get a chance to take during semester (Ex: Build Your Own Electric Guitar, Make Your Own Decorative Paste Paper, Play StarCraft 2...more here).
I'm currently taking architecture classes for credit, which has been quite a bit of work so far, but plenty of fun. I'm taking an intensive version of the 2nd undergraduate studio course and a free-hand drawing class for architects. Those of you who have taken studio probably think the term "intensive" is redundant.
Besides classes, I've been working on an art installation project with a few friends and plotting schemes of modifying old blondegeek code. I keep mentioning the art project in posts, but I won't say more about it as to not ruin the surprise. :)
I haven't been working on physics since semester ended, but the research group I work with just published a paper! Check it out on arXiv. The paper addresses to how to extend physicists' ability to detect light in detectors (specifically Liquid Argon Time Projection Chambers) that utilize strong electric fields. The issue is our light detectors (photomultiplier tubes - PMTs) cannot be used in a strong electric field, since PMTs use their own electric fields to create a signal cascade which creates a signal of approximately 10^10 electrons for every photon detected. Our solution is to use an acrylic lightguide which guides the light through internal reflection from an area in a detector where a strong electric field exists to where the PMTs sit, where there is no external field. The acrylic lightguides are coated with a chemical, TPB, which serves the purpose of shifting the wavelength of signal photons from UV, which our PMTs are horrible at seeing, to blue.
Back to pummeling the pummelo. I'll be sure to post some pics of my architecture projects soon.
Labels: architecture, IAP, MIT, physics, procrastination of homework, projects, pummelo
Posted by Tess | 2 Comments
