10 Online Grasshopper Resources

Tags: Grasshopper, Rhino 3d

Hi all. This is Kendall, the intern at CASE Design, Inc. I’ll be publishing various posts and videos throughout the summer, so be on the look out. My first post is going to be all about Grasshopper and the online resources that I’ve found very useful at both the academic and professional levels.

So, for those of you looking for additional information on Grasshopper, here’s a compilation of a few great websites that provide design examples, tutorials, definitions, and links to other noteworthy resources.

• Grasshopper Community

Description: The Grasshopper Community was recently created to replace the existing Grasshopper forum on Google Groups. This social networking site allows users to share and exchange questions and information pertaining to work in Grasshopper. In addition to the peer-to-peer information exchange, this site provides a vast amount of resources to further users’ knowledge of the program like the Grasshopper primers and tutorials.

• McNeel Wiki: Grasshopper

Description: The McNeel website contains a lot of information about Grasshopper that is applicable to all users, particularly beginners who are looking for a thorough introduction to the program. It gives a great breakdown of the interface, objects and data management. Also, they post quite a few interesting tutorials and definitions that will benefit beginner, intermediate and advanced users.

• atelier nGai

Description: Ted Ngai’s website,  ”p i n u p s p a c e,” is an excellent resource for examples of what Grasshopper is capable of producing. Ted provides examples of complex geometries that can be created using Grasshopper as well as analytical environments that can generate and display information about your 3d model. This allows the user to create a feedback loop and assist in making informed design decisions. All of Ted’s experiments contain a Grasshopper definition that you can download and use.

• Designalyze

Description: This site, created by Zach Downey, is a great place to view recent news about Grasshopper, watch tutorials and download example definitions.

• LIFT Architects

Description: This site, created by Andrew Payne, contains great examples of parametric models at both the digital and constructed phases. Not only are there many examples of designs that can be produced with the assistance of Grasshopper, but there are many tutorials to view and definitions to download. Andrew is also the writer of the Grasshopper Primer which is a must read for all Grasshopper users, especially beginners.

• LaN / Live Architecture Network

Description: The LaN / Live Architecture Network provides great resources for parametric modeling research, workshops and code examples. Here you can view a few of their projects, download and experiment with Grasshopper definitions, and get information on their upcoming workshops.

• MODE

Description: Studio Mode is a design office whose site showcases their research in parametric design. They display beautiful imagery of their work and provide links to other valued source websites.

• Rhino 3D Blog

Description: This is a great site for information about all things related to Rhino. Here you’ll find news updates, project examples, tutorials, and links to valuable sources containing information regarding Rhino and its many plug-ins, especially Grasshopper.

• Algorithmic Modeling with Grasshopper

Description: This online booklet, written by Mohamad Khabazi, is a compilation of his design experiments in architecture, specifically algorithmic modeling. This is a valuable resource, not only for design examples, but also as a detailed guide on how to create complex models in Grasshopper.

• RhinoScripting Resources

Description: This blog is an excellent linking source to various websites that contain project examples using such programs as Grasshopper and RhinoScript. There are many links to sift through, but the quantity of information allows for a great variety of resources.

Here are some additional sites that post a lot of interesting design work using various parametric modeling programs:

• scriptedbypurpose, [n]Codon, THEVERYMANY, GENERATOR.X., ecoLogicStudio, free.form.fever, Space Symmetry Structure, MADEinCALIFORNIA

These websites are just a few of the resources available containing valuable information about Grasshopper. If you have any suggestions about other websites that you find insightful, please share them with us by commenting below!