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Ligno3D Designer Makes It Easy
You can design many kinds of geodesic
domes in Ligno3D Designer. The process generally starts by
selecting a geodesic sphere from the Object Menu. However, you can
also start with other polyhedra, such as a cube, and subdivide faces into
smaller triangular faces using the 'Quadrate' and 'Star Maker' commands.
The Star Maker command is used on faces that have more than three
edges.
These instructions are for
designing a geodesic dome of frequency 3, á
la Buckminster Fuller.
The program automatically generates the v3 geosphere from an
icosahedron. It subdivides all icosahedral faces into 9
smaller triangles and projects vertices onto the enveloping sphere.
The 'frequency' is the number of small triangles that fit along
each edge of the original icosahedron.
Click 'New' button (Standard Toolbar) to clear
the screen for a new project.
Select a 'Geosphere' from the Object Menu.
In the resulting dialog box, select a geosphere
of frequency of 3. Leave the diameter as is.
Now click 'Do It!' to create a v3 geosphere.
Rotate the 3D View so you are now looking
straight down the Z axis.
Click the Select Mode button (Select Toolbar)
to obtain the rectangular 'Select Cursor'.
Drag a selection rectangle to select all faces
that lie on or below the ground plane.
Delete all selected faces with the Delete Key.
Click the 'Clean-Up' button (3D Edit Toolbar) to
remove all isolated vertices.
Now click the 'Center on Ground Plane' button
(Boxatrix Toolbar) to ground the dome.
If you like, you can now click on the 'Create
Frame' button (Boxatrix Toolbar) to make a
rectangular framework , as illustrated below.
Even-frequency geospheres can be split exactly in
half to form even-frequency geodesic domes. Odd-frequency
domes, like the V3 dome here, can't be made by splitting geospheres exactly in half. You have to choose somewhat less
or more than half the faces. A consequence of this is that the basal
vertices of odd-frequency domes don't all sit snugly on the ground
plane. Some of their basal vertices lie slightly above the
ground plane. Each vertex can be selected, though, and its Y
value set to zero using the 'Add or Edit Vertex' command.
This is the starting point for many things.
Domes can be squashed, elongated. or made egg-shaped via the 'Stretch in XYZ' command.
You can add
doors, windows and
connecting tunnels to adjacent domes. Individual vertices can
be tweaked for effect — e.g., select the top vertex and raise it
with the upwards-arrow key to form a steeple.
See also Workshop and
Geodesic Frameworks.
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