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Home / Proceedings of IASS Annual Symposia, IASS 2023 Melbourne Symposium: Tension and membrane structures

Free Content FDMremote: Interactive inverse design of tensile structures with differentiable FDM

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Authors: BURKE, Adam 1 ; LEE, Keith 2 ; ECHELMAN, Janet 3 ; FELDMAN, David 3 ; MUELLER, Caitlin 2 ; 

Source: Proceedings of IASS Annual Symposia, IASS 2023 Melbourne Symposium: Tension and membrane structures, pp. 1-12(12)

Publisher: International Association for Shell and Spatial Structures (IASS)

We present FDMremote [1], an interactive inverse form-finding tool based on the force density method for the design of tensile networks by non-specialist users in the fields of art and architecture. We use gradient-based optimization to find force density distributions that best satisfy given objectives and automatic differentiation (AD) tools are deployed to provide exact gradients with respect to objective functions. This functionality is wrapped with a graphical interface built as a plugin for Grasshopper for real-time design and optimization of tensile structures. We review the functionality of our tool, demonstrate our workflow for optimization of a single objective and the composition of multiple design optimization objectives. We conclude with a case study demonstrating the use of FDMremote to develop a structure from design to fabrication during a short workshop.

Keywords: cable nets; force density method; form-finding; interactive design tools; inverse design; optimization; tensile structures

Document Type: Research Article

Affiliations: 1: Building Technology Program, Massachusetts Institute of Technology 77 Massachusetts Avenue, Room 5-418, Cambridge, MA, USA, Email: [email protected] 2: Building Technology Program, Massachusetts Institute of Technology 77 Massachusetts Avenue, Room 5-418, Cambridge, MA, USA 3: Studio Echelman

Publication date: October 1, 2023

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  • The Proceedings of IASS Annual Symposia include the articles presented at each symposium. They are grouped by thematic sessions. These limited-length conference papers are reviewed and selected by the Scientific or Technical Committee of each symposium, and generally only those actually presented orally at the conference are included. Although the metadata for the papers is available to the public, only members of the IASS can view the full papers, for which the author(s) hold the copyright. Further information about the projects or research should be sought from the author(s).
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