Food4Rhino

Termite is a modular slicing tool for Grasshopper especially designed for LDM 3D Printers such as the Delta WASP 40100 and 2040 Clay. The plugin contains a set of 16 components in the sub-categories Main, Create, Sort and Display allowing for a most unrestrained workflow. Termite allows the user to design printing paths via Rhinoceros, Grasshopper or Termite components while exporting all necessary data as G-code in real-time ready to be executed.

Furthermore, various features are included such as organizing printing parameters by Rhino layers, safe starting printing paths with lower inrun speeds, flattening extrusion when finishing printing paths, defining dedicated travel paths, nesting algorithms for travel path optimization, estimating time and material consumption, simulating the printing process, etc.. Termite may be used for other machines capable of interpreting .gcode files as well. No warranty regarding functionality or safety is being provided.

For a detailed description of the plugin, refer to the readme file in the downloadable zip folder, or explore Chapter 4, titled "Termite Plugin," in the author's doctoral thesis titled "Advancing 3D Printing of Clay in Architecture," available at the following link.

Requirements:

• Rhinoceros 6.0 or later

How To Install:

• Windows: Download and launch Termite Setup
• Mac: Drag & Drop the 15 components into the Grasshopper canvas

Components:

• Termite Main G-code Generator
• Termite Create Base
• Termite Create Contours from Surface
• Termite Create Extended Paths
• Termite Create Random Seams
• Termite Create Sling Contours
• Termite Create Spiral from Curve
• Termite Create Spiral from Surface
• Termite Create Wall
• Termite Sort Along Axis
• Termite Sort by Distance
• Termite Sort by Length
• Termite Sort by Travel Path
• Termite Sort Out by Length
• Termite Display G-code
• Termite Display Simulation

Acknowledgment:

This work was supported by the Austrian Science Fund (FWF), project no. F77 (SFB "Advanced Computational Design"), subproject SP9 (Material- and Structurally Informed Freeform Structures). The Software is still being developed. It is the authors’ aim that the Software is used and tested for further evaluation and improvement. Version 1.0 © Julian Jauk, Institute of Architecture and Media, Graz University of Technology.

-Julian Jauk