Abstract

Leverage the use of Grasshopper, Rhino Compute and Javascript to build a product configuration online for rings.

Inspiration and design concept

The jewellery industry has been by parametric design in ways we haven’t seen before. With the advent of rich web interfaces and 3D manufacturing, online web configurators based on parametric design are becoming more prevalent. It’s the future of the industry.

One specific piece of jewellery that has the potential to be customized by parametric inputs is ring design. Rings have always had a special place in the lives of people. They commemorate special occasions like weddings, engagements, academic achievements, etc. 

Crafting a personalized ring for a special occasion has always been a privilege for many people.

Grasshopper and Jewelry

Grasshopper has been the main engine that has powered parametric design under the Rhino umbrella. It has been applied to Jewelry before in packages that use the power of grasshopper to design specific jewellery designs. I.e. we have a plugin called Gold in Food4Rhino (

).

However, we have very few solutions that allow the typical client to configure a piece of Jewelry with a grasshopper in the background or without having a Rhino license. 

Rhino Compute and Javascript

That is where Rhino Compute comes in. Rhino Compute allows grasshopper scripts to run on the web without having either a Rhino license or a rhino compute instance running locally. As a result, Rhino Compute is becoming a programming language accessible by many applications on the web.

This powerful tool, combined with Javascript, can create rich 3D interfaces that anyone can easily use and navigate, powered by Grasshopper and Rhino Compute.

The App

We have created an app based on a grasshopper script that runs under rhino compute and is rendered with Three.JS, all hosted in Heroku. 

The app enables the user to use three different templates for a ring. In addition, it introduces variables of girth, many rings, twisting geometry, etc., that enable the user to create unique pieces of Jewelry. The idea is that once the user is happy with the design option, it can be downloaded for further fabrication.

The app can be seen here:

Conclusion

Although the app is in early development, it showcases the beautiful rendering properties of THREE.JS and the power of Rhino Compute. The possibilities are endless. This technology’s future is very bright, with applications in many fields, not just Jewelry. It’s a fascinating time. 

Credits

Yours – the ring app is a project of IAAC, Institute for Advanced Architecture of Catalonia, developed at Master in Advanced Computation for Architecture & Design in 2021/22 by:

Students: Bruno Martorelli

Lead faculty: David Andres Leon 

Faculty assistant: Hesham Shawqy