Parametric modeling, anyone?

tkluysk · 18 Jun 2014, 12:24

Hi all,

we're exploring the possibility of adapting MatterMachine for use in SketchUp, and would like to get some opinions about that from this community.

MatterMachine is a flow-based parametric modeling engine. Think Grasshopper, or SideFX Houdini. It currently runs in the browser, using Unity3D.

It's akin to Dynamic Components, but it uses a graph, is more modular, and packs quite a bit more power in general.

Here are a couple of examples of what that power gives you:
An intro showing a table configurator and how to model a parametric classic: a shell.
Modeling a Spiral Staircase

Below are a few live examples. It's currently best to use Chrome. And you'll be asked to install the Unity3D plugin.
The /editor links will show the graph.

Staircases:
http://mattermachine.com/app#machine/AHnb3ZkNNQcuJst2Z8nVqT/spiral-staircase
http://mattermachine.com/app#machine/AHnb3ZkNNQcuJst2Z8nVqT/spiral-staircase/editor

http://mattermachine.com/app#machine/ykreci4Y59ktGWkanTY9oh/stair-string
http://mattermachine.com/app#machine/ykreci4Y59ktGWkanTY9oh/stair-string/editor

Window & Door:
http://mattermachine.com/app#machine/AHnb3ZkNNQcuJst2Z8nVqT/multipanel-window
http://mattermachine.com/app#machine/AHnb3ZkNNQcuJst2Z8nVqT/multipanel-window/editor

http://mattermachine.com/app#machine/ykreci4Y59ktGWkanTY9oh/door-and-doorframe
http://mattermachine.com/app#machine/ykreci4Y59ktGWkanTY9oh/door-and-doorframe/editor

Draw people & trees:
http://mattermachine.com/app#machine/AHnb3ZkNNQcuJst2Z8nVqT/place-trees-people
http://mattermachine.com/app#machine/AHnb3ZkNNQcuJst2Z8nVqT/place-trees-people/editor

We think we can lower the threshold for developing dynamic assets, as well as provide a visual programming alternative to Ruby extensions.

Let us know if you think it's worth a shot (or not!).

Tom

Mike Lucey · 23 Jun 2014, 14:58

Watched the videos, quite interesting. I think there could be potential.

Mike

jiminy-billy-bob · 23 Jun 2014, 15:47

Jolran is onto something

JQL · 23 Jun 2014, 19:34

Nice!

DOD3R · 24 Jun 2014, 00:50

nice indeed

jolran · 24 Jun 2014, 07:42

Hah, Thanks Jiminy. That one is following around, I see..

@tkluysk

It IS an interesting topic.

I will post a more interesting GIF later so you can see where I'm at using D3.js inside a Webdialog in Sketchup.

I think it is relevant to the topic. And might be of interest.

Isent MatterMachine dependent of Crome ? And how can one implement Crome in Sketchup ?

jolran · 24 Jun 2014, 09:10

Hello.

Yes, I'm very active working on it. I have spent many month on building the GUI, and now I'm in Sketchup building Node-methods and experimenting..

Eric Cheung's work look pretty impressive. Although never saw the GUI, which play a HUGE role in a modeler like this.

It get's easily daunting connecting nodes together.
So I have spent quite a lot of time on polishing the GUI, with context menus, icon-management, tooltips etc. All which are easily overlooked starting a project like this.

Regarding teamwork:

It really depends on if I go commersial or not. (I haven't made up my mind on that matter yet.) It depends on the progress. The plugin is not release ready.

If I do go commersial, then as you understand Teamwork will be difficult.

Was thinking of having 2 versions. 1free and 1 Pro(advanced)

But let's keep the topic open, if you wanna PM me or discuss things in the open, be my guest.

I'll probably be banned(can't compress the GIF further) but I post a demo showing an attractor point stearing the scale for some parametric cones. The scaling is dependent on distance from the point by a division. The Cones are originaly spaced out on a Polargrid.

Pixero · 24 Jun 2014, 09:40

Wonderful. Simply wonderful.
Can't wait to try it out...

pilou · 24 Jun 2014, 10:09

GrassHopper for Sketchup
It will be a plugin or a standalone ?

Pixero · 24 Jun 2014, 10:15

A plugin.

jolran · 24 Jun 2014, 11:07

@unknownuser said:

It will be a plugin or a standalone ?

Yes, as Pixero said. However, Pilou you would have to update your specs to at least IE9 for SVG

@tkluysk

I thought at first you where an individual seeking to connect Sketchup with another program.

I have now looked through some tutorials at your homepage and see that the GUI and the program are quite impressive. It is more a standalone program, whereas I make use of The Sketchup API.

So I gather your first ambition simply is to export geometry to Sketchup after having created it in your program ?

For hooking it up into a webdialog I see a problem if dependent on Web_GL, as I said. Since Sketchup uses default browser. IE on windows, and there is not much to be done about that, as far as I know.

So using as an external program means you will have Sketchup send information to update WEB_GL and then back again to update Sketchup ?

Or maybe have you found another backdoor solution

Best regards/
Joel

tkluysk · 24 Jun 2014, 11:24

Hi Jolran,

We're currently using Unity3D as our viewer, and a C# codebase for our parametric engine + operators - which delivers quite good performance in the browser. We're not strictly married to Unity3D, so SketchUp is a really interesting option for us.

Too early to say where we will draw the line between SketchUp and our application. There are a few options, from a really tenuous connection, to deep integration.

We're using SVG for our graph. AFAIK SketchUp uses WebKit on Mac and IE on PC. MatterMachine should run on both.

But we expect some hurdles Would be great if you could help us with those, but totally understand you're invested. Respect for what you've done! I kinda know how much work it is

I'll PM you!

jolran · 24 Jun 2014, 12:40

Ah .net, I see. That's a different thing then..

So if I may ask, have you made any efforts whatsoever getting into Sketchup ?

Ok I wait for the PM.

majid · 25 Jun 2014, 03:42

Woooow, cant waiting for this.... an huge step forward

tkluysk · 25 Jun 2014, 12:31

Jolran, your work looks great. And for a big part, complementary. Are you still actively working on it?

For the sake of completeness, I compiled a little list of relevant threads and projects. Please add if you know of any other ones. We might be able to help eachother out and make this happen.

This April fool's led to some intense discussion on the topic:
http://sketchucation.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=323%26amp;t=51564

More...
http://sketchucation.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=323%26amp;t=51698
http://sketchucation.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=22713
http://sketchucation.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=179%26amp;t=11074
http://sketchucation.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=180%26amp;t=52388

Other users of this forum that had a stab at this:

Jolran's solution seems most mature. No links yet Jolran?
tbd with SME
Eric Cheung with his Script Sequencer :

https://vimeo.com/22764739
https://vimeo.com/22764739

tkluysk · 25 Jun 2014, 12:51

@jolran
Yes, we've done basic work trying to get a C# <-> Ruby socket working, but we hit a first wall with threads in Ruby.

We're starting a more serious attempt soon.

The SketchUp team has been really supportive sofar, and the community is vibrant, with several relevant and similar projects undertaken by its members, so with everybody's help, we feel confident we can pull it off.

JQL · 25 Jun 2014, 15:43

I really feel you guys should PM a lot to each other and talk to the SU team a lot. I feel it's a bit of a waste to not mix both your efforts and you can be sure you'll get a lot of us asking for more!!!

Best of luck to both!

João

DOD3R · 26 Jun 2014, 06:27

+1
on Joãos comment

tkluysk · 26 Jun 2014, 11:30

Our first phase effort will involve building a working socket to pass data between C# and Ruby/SU. We have a socket going, but there are some issues passing data between the socket thread and main thread in Ruby.

Second issue we're tackling is efficiently pass (or at least display) large amounts of triangles and line segments between MatterMachine and SU. Building 20000 triangles using Ruby takes about a second. That is too slow!

JQL · 26 Jun 2014, 13:00

@tkluysk said:

Building 20000 triangles using Ruby takes about a second. That is too slow!

I've just crossed my eyes on the "Cricket for sketchup" thread, (Pixero's fault on Thea Render Forum ) where Thomthom talks about a way to visualize geometric operations before commiting them to actual geometry. This is supposedly faster than that sec you talk about, but I can't understand half of what is being discussed...

Jolran is there discussing it too so you should PM each other even more!

http://sketchucation.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=323%26amp;t=51564#p465815

Cheers,

João