I am pleased to announce version 0.06 of the Kangaroo physics plugin for Grasshopper.
Download it free from http://www.food4rhino.com/project/kangaroo
This version contains bug fixes and many new features – wind, planarization, vortex, shear, alignment, anchorsprings, constrain to curves… see my video page for some examples
I am also starting to upload an updated collection of example definitions showing how to use each of these new forces here:
http://www.grasshopper3d.com/group/kangaroo/page/example-files
Space Symmetry Structure 
August 10, 2011 at 12:24 am
Hi Daniel,
This is so cool–I’m really excited to start playing around with kangaroo. I’m having some problems with installation though–I’m running the latest release of Rhino 4 (SR9) and I currently have Grasshopper Build 0.7.0057. Kangaroo seems to install fine, except that I cannot find the “extra” tab to access the kangaroo components anywhere. Am I using the wrong version of rhino or grasshopper or both? I know this question is sort of beneath you, but I can’t seem to find the information I need anywhere online and I figure you know the answer. Thanks in advance and thanks for all the work you do–it’s really incredible.
-haila
August 10, 2011 at 11:05 am
Hi Haila,
Try installing the latest version of Grasshopper (0.8.0050 from here: http://www.grasshopper3d.com/forum/topics/grasshopper-0-8-0050-available)
Also, see the instructions on Food4Rhino (http://www.food4rhino.com/project/kangaroo) about unblocking the file, and make sure you only have one version of Kangaroo installed (in the ‘Special Folders>Components Folder’ accessed from the Grasshopper File menu, and no other copies installed in other places on your hard disk). Then restart Rhino and Grasshopper, and you should see a new ‘Kangaroo’ tab (it’s no longer under ‘Extra’). Hope that helps
August 15, 2011 at 4:30 pm
Fantastic stuff! Disappointed to see that evolute are on your case. I was always under the impression that software patents weren’t possible in europe and certainly not in such broad terms! Their group have done amazing work, but based on their public papers and their book you could really attempt your own solution to their proposals, but are they seriously hoping to block anyone who uses such techniques in architecture?
Anyway this aside I was wondering if your developablize component is working yet? I can’t quite get my head round the “vertex neighbours” component, it doesn’t seem to extract valid vertices?
congrats once again
August 15, 2011 at 5:30 pm
Hi Brian,
Thanks for the comments. I’ll try and write something addressing this patent issue more thoroughly soon, and invite an open discussion. I do think it is not completely clear exactly how broadly these things can be applied in reality, and I see it as a very important and potentially problematic precedent for design if it is in fact possible to actually patent geometry.
-and just to clarify – the techniques I am using are different from those employed by Evolute, but as I understand it the patent is intended to cover the geometrical result, regardless of how you get there.
As for the developablize component – no, sorry it doesn’t seem to be working properly yet, I’m going to have another go at fixing it soon. I do have a nice new folding and unfolding force ready though :)
Vertex Neighbours outputs a list of points, but it needs as input the index (as an integer) of the vertex to get neighbours for. So for example to get lists of neighbours for all vertices, you must input (0,1,2,3,4…n) to the V input (where n is the number of vertices in your mesh).
August 15, 2011 at 8:01 pm
Yeah, this is the thing, the results they describe could be reached using a variety of optimisation techniques, but to attempt to close off the result itself, which as you say is purely geometrical. Well, let’s see what it really turns out to be in the end, but patenting conical meshes seems a bit outlandish…!
On the vertex neighbours thing I couldn’t get it to work and I was using it as you described, don’t know what happened. I tested it even with a single integer to see what result i would get and it was an error. I then put together a spaghetti junction of components that bizarrely actually managed to do the same job, I probably should’ve just written a vb component, but for some reason I thought that would take longer – more haste less speed I suppose.
I’ll maybe experiment with your equalising force to create a circular mesh for the moment, just to try it out on some surfaces I’m messing about with at the moment.
Very interested to see what the folding/unfolding component brings!
cheers
Brian
August 31, 2011 at 1:34 pm
Brian,
I hope your disappointment will fade soon. Our POV might be worth a read. Daniel, I hope you don’t mind me posting this here, I enjoy and applaud your work: http://blog.evolute.at/?p=112
May 25, 2013 at 12:39 am
Kangaroo looks really interesting. Just wish I could work with it a bit better.
January 4, 2022 at 11:21 am
Hello. Do you know the difference between the two
stiffness and bend strengh ? in kangarooo