graphem

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graphem
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Graphemes is an experimental design program based on graph theory and a dyna m
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f o r c e m o d e l . I t h a s t w o m a i n f u n c t i o n s . F i r s t t h e d e s i g n o f 2 a n d 3 d i m e n s i o n a l s t r u c t u
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rough the use of topological operations where the emphasis of the interface design is o
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e c t i v i t y o f n o d e s . T h e r e a l t i m e s p r i n g m o d e l s i m u l a t i o n w i l l r e g u l a r i z e t h e s t r u c t u r e a u
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ally. The second function of the program is to try and develop the structural intuition of t
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p r o v i d i n g f a s t s t r u c t u r a l a n a l y s i s o f t h e d e s i g n s y s t e m . H e n c e o n e c a n o b s e r v e i n n e a r
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w changes in connectivity in a space frame affect its structural behaviour.
Developed by Panagiotis Michalatos and Sawako Kaijima
www.sawapan.eu
sawapandesign@gmail.com
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User Interface
close
maximize/restore
minimize
selected object
properties
toolbox
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for time consuming processes a progress bar
will appear. If it takes too long click on the
skull icon to terminate the process without
killing the programm.
main tabs
label
button
check button - unchecked
check button - checked
number input
drop down lists
toggle visibility button
scrollbar
scrollbar min
scrollbar value [editable]
scrollbar max
control group
viewing
Middle mouse click and drag to zoom
Right mouse click and drag to rotate view
Select a node to automatically centre the
view on it
Moving and selecting nodes
Clicking once on a node will select it
Left clicking and dragging a node will
move it. If the view is more aligned to the
horizontal plane then the node will move
within the horizontal plane that passes
through its z coordinate. If the viewing
direction is more perpendicualr than paral-
lel to the scenes z axis then the node will
be constrained to move on a vertical plane
aligned to the view.
Right clicking and dragging a node will
move the node along a vertical axis with-
out affecting its x and y coordinates.
Node properties
After selecting a node its
properties will appear in
this dialogue box
node ID, not editable
Node applied force components
x node displacements
x node rotations [only used
by the analysis module]
Delete selected node
tool buttons
description
active tool
options
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toolbox
select / modify tool
This is the deafult behaviour
when no tool is activated.
When the mouse is over a
node :
Left click once to select node

Left click and drag to move

Right click and drag to move
along z axis

Middle click and drag to an-
other node to connect them
Middle click and drag to empty
space to connect to a newly
created node
When the mouse is over a
link:
Left click to add node in the
middle
Right click to break link
Middle click to collapse link by
merging its two end nodes
Add Node
Click anywhere to add a new node.
Delete Node
Click on a node to delete it.
Duplicate Node
Click on a node to duplicate it. The new
node will be connected to the same nodes
as the original one.
Delete Orphan Nodes
Delete all nodes not connected to any
graph.
Link Nodes
Click two nodes to link them.
Break Link
Click on a link to delete it.
Collapse link
Click on a link to merge its end nodes.
Divide Link
Click on a link to add a middle node.
Merge Nodes
Click on nodes to merge them.
if checked the new link
will always start from the
last node clicked
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...
z z
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Duplicate Component
Click on a node to duplicate it along with
all the nodes and links that are directly or
indirectly connected to it.
Delete Component
Click on a node to delete it along with all
the nodes and links that are directly or
indirectly connected to it.
toolbox
Polymerize Component
Click on two nodes that belong to the same
graph to create a chain of copies of this
graph where each copy will be connected
to the previous and next copy by the two
selected nodes
2
1
2
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cyclical on
Merge links on
cyclical off
Merge links off
cyclical off
Merge links on
number of copies in polymere
closed chain
remove segments between copies
Subdivide All Links
A middle node is inserted in all the links in
the current scene
Remove valence 2 nodes
Remove all nodes that are connected to
only two segments to simplify graph.
Grow Branches
For each node in the graph add a number
of nodes and connect them to it.
brunches = 1
Only Terminal
Nodes off
brunches = 2
Only Terminal
Nodes on
Delete Terminal Nodes
Delete all nodes that are connected by
only one link.
Extrude Graph
Duplicate all nodes in the graph and con-
nect the new nodes to the corresponding
existing nodes.
Create Tree
Click on a node to use as root of a tree
graph
number of itera-
tions for branching
number of branches
per level
Create Grid
Creates grids of nodes.
grid resolution
click to create
grid
Create Torus
Creates a torus graph
Create Cycle
Creates a cyclical graph
Create Tube
Creates a tubular graph
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dynamic system
Delete all nodes
Switch between 3d and 2d system
Update system in real time. When
this switch is on node positions
are readjusted at every frame.
The calculations can become time
consuming for complex scenes. If
this happens turn this switch off.
In this case you can ask for an
explicit recalculation of node po-
sitions whenever you change some-
thing by pressing the step button
below.
Do a number of iterations [desig-
nated in the ld below] to readjust
node positions.
Number of iterations in adjusting
node positions.
Spring constant. Affects
stiffness of node links
Link Scaling. Determines the
scaling of the target legth
for all links.
Strength of spreading force
that acts between nodes that
are not linked
All graphs tend to clamp
around a spherical region.
Spring dumping. The larger
the value the more the sys-
tem will vibrate after each
modication
visualization mode for links
extension distance for links
when rendered using the cyl-
inder visualization
when on links are col-
our coded according to the
amount of divergence between
their actual length and tar-
get length.
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analysis
Run structural analysis on
current system
Automatically rerun struc-
tural analysis everytime
the graph is modied. It
might get slow for graphs
with many nodes
Hide/Show Analysis results
Maximum deection. Every
time you reanalyze the
system this value is up-
dated. It can be used as an
indicator of the systems
stiffness. The smaller it
gets the better for your
strucutre.
Scaling of actual deec-
tions for animated render-
ing.
Radius and thickness of
hollow tube crosssection
applied to all beams.
Desired size of nite ele-
ment beams when using the
Analyze command.
Deadload factor. Th ac-
tual weight of each beam is
multiplied by this factor.
Turn to 0 if you want to
check behaviour with only
applied loads