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The Grasshopper Primer Third Edition

1.3.2. Working with Attractors

Attractors are points that act like virtual magnets - either attracting or repelling other objects. In Grasshopper, any geometry referenced from Rhino or created withinGrasshopper can be used as an attractor. Attractors can influence any number of parameters of surrounding objects including scale, rotation, color, and position. These parameters are changed based on their relationship to the attractor geometry.

Overview

  1. Attractor point
  2. Vectors
  3. Circles orient towards attractor based on their normals

In the image above, vectors are drawn between an attractor point and the center point of each circle. These vectors are used to define the orientation of the circles so they are always facing the attractor point. This same attractor could be used to change other parameters of the circles. For example, circles that are closest to the attractor could be scaled larger by using the length of each vector to scale the radius of each circle.

Examples

1.3.2.1. ATTRACTOR DEFINITION

Example files that accompany this section: http://grasshopperprimer.com/appendix/A-2/1_gh-files.html

In this example, we will use an attractor point to orient a grid of circles, based on the vectors between the center points of the circles and the attractor point. Each circle will orient such that it is normal to (facing) the attractor point.
01. Type Ctrl+N in Grasshopper to start a new definition
02. Vector/Grid/Hexagonal - Drag and drop the Hexagonal Grid component onto the canvas IMAGE
03. Params/Input/Slider - Drag and drop two Numeric Sliders on the canvas
04. Double-click on the first Numeric Sliders and set the following:
    Name: Cell Radius
    Rounding: Floating Point
    Lower Limit: 0.000
    Upper Limit: 1.000
    Value: 0.500
05. Double-click on the second Numeric Sliders and set the following:
    Name: # of Cells
    Rounding: Integers
    Lower Limit: 0
    Upper Limit: 10
    Value: 10
06. Connect the Number Slider (Cell Radius) to the Size (S) input of the Hexagon Grid component
07. Connect the Number Slider (# of Cells) to the Extent X (Ex) input and the Extent Y (Ey) input of the Hexagon Grid component

08. Curve/Primitive/Circle CNR - Drag and drop a Circle CNR component onto the canvas
09. Connect the Points (P) output of the Hexagon Grid to the Center (C) input of the Circle CNR component
10. Connect the Number Slider (Cell Radius) to the Radius (R) input of the Circle CNR component.
11. Vector/Vector/Vector 2Pt - Drag and Drop the Vector 2Pt component onto the canvas IMAGE
12. Connect the Points output (P) of the Hexagonal Grid component to the Base Point (A) input of the Vector 2Pt component.
13. Params/Geometry/Point – Drag and Drop the Point component onto the canvas IMAGE
14. Right-Click the Point component and select set one point. In the model space select where you would like the attractor point to be
15. Connect the Point component to the Tip Point (B) input of the Vector 2Pt component
16. Connect the Vector (V) output of the Vector 2Pt to the Normal (N) input of the Circle CNR component.

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17. Curve/Util/Offset – Drag and Drop the Offset Component onto the canvas. IMAGE
18. Params/Input/Slider - Drag and drop a Numeric Slider on the canvas
19. Double-click on the Number Slider and set the following:
    Name: Offset Distance
    Rounding: Floating Point
    Lower Limit: - 0.500
    Upper Limit: 0.500
    Value: -0.250
20. Connect the Number Slider (Offset Distance) to the Distance (D) input of the Offset component

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21. Surface/Freeform/Boundary Surfaces – Drag and drop Boundary Surfaces on to the canvas IMAGE
22. Connect the Curves (C) output of the Offset component to the Edges (E) input of the Boundary Surfaces

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