Ivy Progress in Developing Practical Applications for a Weighted-Mesh Representation for Use in Generative Architectural Design
This paper presents progress in the development of practical applications for graph representations of meshes for a variety of problems relevant to generative architectural design (GAD). In previous work (Nejur and Steinfeld 2016), the authors demonstrated that while approaches to marrying mesh and graph representations drawn from computer graphics (CG) can be effective within the domains of applications for which they have been developed, they have not adequately addressed wider classes of problems in GAD. There, the authors asserted that a generalized framework for working with graph representations of meshes can effectively bring recent advances in mesh
segmentation to bear on GAD problems, a utility demonstrated through the development of a plug-in for the visual programming environment Grasshopper. Here, we describe a number of implemented solutions to mesh segmentation and transformation problems, articulated as a series of additional features developed as a part of this same software. Included are problems of mesh segmentation approached through the creation of acyclic connected graphs (trees); problems of mesh transformations, such as those that unfold a segmented mesh in anticipation of fabrication; and problems of geometry generation in relation to a segmented mesh, as demonstrated through a generalized approach to mesh weaving. We present these features in the context of their potential applications in GAD and provide a limited set of examples for their use.