Spatial Slur is an open source library of geometric data structures and algorithms intended to facilitate the development of novel computational design methods. It is written in C# and compiled against .NET 4.6.
Below is a brief outline of the library by namespace. For further detail, take a look at the latest reference documentation or just dive into the source files and poke around. If you have any questions, comments, or suggestions, feel free to get in touch.
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SpatialSlur contains primitive data types and algorithms for geometry processing in 2 and 3 dimensions.
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SpatialSlur.Collections contains generic data structures for spatial queries and related algorithms. Also contains various general-purpose extension methods for .NET collection types.
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SpatialSlur.Dynamics contains a projection based constraint solver and various constraint types for geometry optimization and shape exploration. This is based on methods described in (1) and follows many of the implementation details given in (2).
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SpatialSlur.Fields contains generic data structures for discrete and continuous field representations (scalar, vector, and tensor) along with various algorithms for processing, compositing, and visualization.
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SpatialSlur.Meshes contains generic half-edge data structures for discrete representations of networks, surfaces, and volumes (coming soon) along with various algorithms for geometry processing, graph processing, segmentation, and subdivision.
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SpatialSlur.Tools contains more specific tools and applications that utilize functionality offered by the rest of library such as dynamic remeshing and Steiner tree relaxation.
Additionally, the following namespaces contain classes and convenience methods for interfacing with .NET APIs of their respective applications.
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SpatialSlur.Rhino
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SpaitalSlur.Unity
To get started, download the precompiled binaries from the latest release. Depending on your operating system, the downloaded files may be blocked by default so follow these instructions to make sure they're unblocked before referencing them within your own project(s).
To use within Grasshopper, start by moving the contents of the Binaries > Rhino folder to your Grasshopper components folder (File > Special Folders > Components Folder).
Once done, restart Rhino, launch Grasshopper, and drop a C#/VB Script component on the canvas. Right click on the component icon/name, and go to Manage Assemblies. Add SpatialSlur.dll from your Grasshopper components folder to the list of referenced assemblies and click OK to confirm. SpatialSlur types will now be accessible from code written within this component.
Before using within Unity, the editor must to be configured to target .NET 4.6 (available in Unity 2017.1 or later). To do so, go to Edit > Project Settings > Player and expand the Other Settings dropdown. Under Configruation, set the Scripting Runtime Version to Experimental (.Net 4.6 Equivalent).
Once this has been set, import SpatialSlur.unitypackage into your current project (Assets > Import Package > Custom Package...). SpatialSlur types will now be accessible from any C# script in this project.
If you're interested in keeping up with the latest developments between releases, you'll need to make a clone and compile the binaries on your own machine. The following goes over a few important build-related details to be aware of while doing so.
While all projects in the solution currently target .NET 4.6, they do make use of some backwards compatible C# 7 features so you'll likely run into problems with older IDEs. For Windows users, Visual Studio 2017 or later is recommended.
The solution file contains different build configurations for different use cases - each of which has a unique set of dependencies as detailed below.
Default has no dependencies beyond the .NET Framework
Rhino has the following additional dependencies:
- RhinoCommon.dll
- Grasshopper.dll
- GH_IO.dll
Unity has the following additional dependencies:
- UnityEngine.dll
- UnityEditor.dll
See below for links to reference documentation by version number. For earlier versions please refer to the corresponding release.