From Organic Shape to Fabrication
This live, two-day Grasshopper workshop with Lazar Djuric takes an organic table base from just 12 lines to parts that are ready for laser cutting. Inspired by Low Table PatDef by Laurent Delrieu, you'll build a definition of nearly 900 components step by step, relax a SubD shape with Kangaroo, cover it with a two-layer maze pattern, pin the layers together, and then unroll and nest all 240 parts on sheets.
Organic shapes are fun to design, but turning them into something you can actually cut and build is usually where things get difficult.
This two-day workshop is inspired by Low Table PatDef, a project by Laurent Delrieu, the creator of Nautilus, who also taught our Workshop #21. Starting from just 12 lines, we will build a large Grasshopper definition together, step by step, growing it into a complex parametric system with nearly 900 components. We will start with a simple SubD shape, relax it, and cover it with a maze-like pattern made of two layers. Then we will pin the layers together, unroll all 240 parts and nest them on sheets ready for laser cutting.
The goal is not just to get a nice-looking result. We want you to understand how each step prepares the geometry for the next one, and how to think about fabrication early in the design process, so the shape you design is also a shape you can build.
To follow along you will need Rhino 8, which already includes Grasshopper and Kangaroo, plus the Nautilus, Weaverbird, MeshEdit and Flexibility plugins. Our own UnrollMesh component, the Grasshopper definition and the Rhino file will be shared inside Premium. This workshop is best suited for intermediate and advanced Grasshopper users.
- Turning base lines into one smooth SubD body with MultiPipe
- Converting SubD to a quad mesh and relaxing it with Kangaroo, while the open edges stay fixed
- Remeshing into triangles and splitting the mesh into clusters grown from seed points
- Generating Kruskal maze lines, with one spanning tree inside every cluster
- Reading the line topology through the valence of every vertex (ends, paths and junctions)
- Offsetting lines in the tangent plane of the mesh and closing the open ends with arcs
- Constructing mesh strips and giving them a thickness with Weaverbird
- Adding a second layer with a different pattern, so the joints of the two layers never line up
- Placing connectors that pin both layers together
- Unrolling every segment flat, with an engraved number next to every hole
- Nesting the parts on sheets with cut lines and engraving
Day 1. From 12 Lines to a Maze Pattern
- One smooth SubD body from 12 base lines with MultiPipe
- A quad mesh relaxed with Kangaroo, with the open edges fixed
- Triangle remeshing and clusters grown from seed points
- Kruskal maze lines inside every cluster and their topology
- Offset strips with arc end caps and a real thickness
Day 2. From Two Layers to Laser-Ready Parts
- A second layer with a different pattern
- Connectors that pin both layers together
- Unrolling every segment flat with our UnrollMesh component
- An engraved number next to every hole
- Nesting all 240 parts on sheets with cut lines and engraving
Lazar Djuric
Co-founder of How to Rhino with deep expertise in Grasshopper, computational design, and parametric facade systems. Lazar leads the Grasshopper-heavy work in the How to Rhino curriculum and teaches plugin-driven workflows to a community of 90,200+ YouTube subscribers.
