For this week's assignment we were charged with making something large, and I thought it would be a perfect opportunity to try out Millipede for Rhino/ Grasshopper. Millipede allows you to perform topological analysis and optimization of loading forces and resolves those forces in Michell trusses. I wanted to create a small table and test out different load-cases on that table. I figured I could optimize the table legs for loading and CNC fabricate it.

I started by creating a simple Millipede script, and used the Topostruct2D functions of Millipede to condition the space. I designated a force region, a load region, and a support region, and then gave it a couple of void regions to work around. Those regions are then fed into the Millipede engine and optimized over a number of iterations with penalization factored into the solution.

Here the solver works on optimizing forces and attempts to bring them to support regions.

Approaching Solution.

Starting to get somewhere.

This didn't turn out great. It was too wide and didn't look slick.... Garbage. Start over.

Preconditioning the area with a denser region in the center.

Converging....

Converging...

Finally. This is what I was looking for. I'll have to make some adjustments to optimize for material limitations, but so far, so good.

Side by side of the computed verse the adjusted compensating for thickness.

Here are the "A" and "B" parts side by side. They'll lock together and interlock with the top.

Finished sides. Now to render and fabricate.

Glamour Shot.