Stage 1, Part 1 - Rise and Shine

This stage went smoothly, and my main challenge was tinkering with various matrix manipulations to ensure that the image printed properly. This method included using test print images that made it convenient to determine how an image might have been skewed/manipulated incorrectly.

Per the assignment description, users may edit the arc’s length by the start and end angles defining the wall.

Stage 1, Part 2 - Rise and Shine

Part 2 was fairly smooth, but one error that I almost missed was the panel height association with a pre-transposed version of my color list. The incorrect version would produce noticeably different panel heights for neighboring panels of similar patters, thereby giving away the mistake.

This model allows the user to edit wave amplitude, wave count, wall height, wall length, wall divisions, and minimum + maximum panel heights (thereby determining their protrusion).

BONUS: “META”

As I initially did some fidgeting to get my original image displayed properly, I thought it would be a cool feature to allow the user to reorient the uploaded image such that it can be flipped vertically and/or horizontally. This presented some challenges and forced me to get acquainted with when and how a list is being manipulated pre- and post-flattening. I went ahead and titled this piece “META” because the uploaded photo is my Dynamo workflow.

Stage 2 - Gonna Need Shades

This stage brought much hardship. I spent a good amount of this stage trying to determine how to get Rotation Options #2 and #4 to display the panels with rotations about a consistent relative z-axis. Upon realizing that the custom QuadPoints_Rotate node effectively rotates the nodes defining the uv panel, I paused my progression. I left the angle (derived from a uv panel’s relationship to the sun) to directly feed into the parameter overwrite node for panel angle.

Another troubleshooting error I encountered was forgetting to flatten a list of surfaces after passing it through the Quad function. I went back and forth throughout my logic to find this error, and I found different failure points along the way, which included the following:

• only the first “item” of a list being passed through the angle comparison function
• sections of panels being irresponsive to changes in sun location
• required remapping of the Directness function in order to correspond with Dynamo’s expected units

The end product allows the user to edit the heights and area dimensions of both stories, the colors selected to represent sun directness, the number of uv panels on a given wall, and the shades’ height + width.

Stage 3 - Shield Your Eyes

This stage came almost as a relief to the previous troubles of Stage 2. Because I was able to build off of the pre-existing node relationships with the sun and the uv panels, this stage presented few troubleshooting challenges. I spent more energy optimizing the node connections defining the geometry and ensuring my lists were being flattened appropriately.

Per the assignment description, full height, mid-height, all radii, polygon sides, and the number of panels on a given side could all be manipulated by the user.

BONUS

A mini bonus feature added to this stage was the ability for the user to decide between setting the “mid-height” of the tower directly at the middle or anywhere else along the building height (not to exceed the height itself). Notably, the blue ring (indicating the “mid-height”) toward the top does not actually capture the largest radius of the structure, so utilization of node functions like the “polycurve” should consider this deviation from a possible expected structures.