Basic.2 Computational Design

This is a simple example of how compas_cadwork can be used in a computational design workflow, utilizing COMPAS’s pure Python geometry kernel.

Note

This example uses COMPAS’s digital timber extension COMPAS Timber.

The followingn are the required imports

from compas.datastructures import Mesh
from compas.geometry import Point, Line, Plane, Sphere, is_point_infrontof_plane
from compas.scene import Scene

from compas_timber.elements import Beam

First, we create a parametric sphere to use for our design, and then we create a mesh from the sphere. The meshe’s edges will become the beams.

SPHERE_RADIUS = 3000
SPHERE_CENTER = Point(0, 0, 0)
sphere = Sphere.from_point_and_radius(SPHERE_CENTER, SPHERE_RADIUS)

MESH_RESOLUTION = 16
mesh = Mesh.from_shape(sphere, u=MESH_RESOLUTION, v=MESH_RESOLUTION)

Next, we create a plane that will be used to filter out the beams that are not in front of the plane. We then iterate over the mesh’s edges, creating beams from the edges that are in front of the plane.

plane = Plane.worldXY()
plane.point.z -= 1

lines_and_normals = []
for edge in mesh.edges():
    v1, v2 = edge
    start = Point(**mesh.vertex[v1])
    end = Point(**mesh.vertex[v2])
    line = Line(start, end)

    if not is_point_infrontof_plane(line.midpoint, plane):
        continue

    z_vector = mesh.vertex_normal(v1)
    lines_and_normals.append((line, z_vector))

Finally, we create the beams from the lines and normals, and add them to a scene to visualize the design.

BEAM_WIDTH = 80
BEAM_HEIGHT = 140

beam_list = []
for line, z_vector in lines_and_normals:
    beam = Beam.from_centerline(line, BEAM_WIDTH, BEAM_HEIGHT, z_vector)
    beam_list.append(beam)

scene = Scene(context="cadwork")
for beam in beam_list:
    scene.add(beam)
scene.draw()