Diver’s Log

Welcome!

ShapeDiver is a web service for publishing parametric 3D data. It is run by ShapeDiver GmbH, a limited liability company registered in Vienna, Austria. Alexander Schiftner, Mathias Höbinger and Mathieu Huard founded it in 2015.

Our motivation is to bring parametric modelling to the web, and to make it a smooth, convenient and exciting experience for both designers and viewers. We want to offer the flexibility of mass customization to every company, big or small, in a simple web browser. Read more about our mission.

Our responsibility is to do it in a way that respects every...

Few topics in human history have such deep, meaningful roots as tattoos. For this reason I decided to give it a fresh approach! Join me while we explore the possibility of complementing this thousand-year old practice with modern technology!

The oldest tattoo on record belongs to Ötzi*, a man who lived over 5000 years ago in the Italian Alps. His mummified body has at least 57 tattoos consisting of stripes, crosses and dots. Without a doubt, the art of tattoos has "marked" human history while evolving in amazing ways.

As mentioned in my previous blog post, Parametric Design...

We are excited to introduce the "ShapeDiver - Shapeways Bridge": an integration of the world-famous 3D printing marketplace into our platform. In a few clicks, users will be able to configure 3D models on a ShapeDiver viewer, either directly on our website or while embedded in any other, and seamlessly order the finished product as 3D-printed objects via Shapeways. This is a bridge between your parametric designs and the whole world.

What is Shapeways?

Shapeways is the platform that defined the 3D Printing industry.  In here designers can upload their 3D models for other...

Welcome!

ShapeDiver is a web service for publishing parametric 3D data. It is run by ShapeDiver GmbH, a limited liability company registered in Vienna, Austria. Alexander Schiftner, Mathias Höbinger and Mathieu Huard founded it in 2015.

Our motivation is to bring parametric modelling to the web, and to make it a smooth, convenient and exciting experience for both designers and viewers. We want to offer the flexibility of mass customization to every company, big or small, in a simple web browser. Read more about our mission.

Our responsibility is to do it in a way that respects every...

The Reason

There are two types of people in this world: those who notice car rims, and those who don't. I used to be the latter, until I started noticing them... then I just couldn't stop.

It all started with my first car ever, a Seat Ibiza 2004. Finally, no more riding along in other people's cars. I finally had my own. While extremely grateful, I couldn't stop but noticing that every other Seat Ibiza looked practically the same as mine.

See, when you buy a normal car, it's produced with economies of scale in mind. This meant that my Ibiza shared parts with many other VWs...

Hi! 

Welcome to ShapeDiver! Is this the first time you visit us? Check out what we do, take the time to look around, why don't you even sign up and try to upload a model yourself? 

The reason I'm asking is that we are looking for a new member in our team, and if we could only require one thing from you, this is what it would be: to believe in what we do. If you do, it means you love working at ShapeDiver. It means you bring new ideas to the table and help us realize our full potential. It also means that if we take the wrong path, if we need to change the way we think and the choices we...

FabTools is a Grasshopper plugin proposing a set of tools for fabrication purposes. FabTools is meant to improve your fabrication workflow, from design to production.

FabTools is packed with features that make it easier to prepare complex Rhino and Grasshopper models for production. Processing and organizing big amounts of geometry, unrolling and arranging production data, creating technical annotations... Those are a few of the possibilities that are already unlocked for ShapeDiver users, or will be in the near future.

The highlight: unrolling production data

Our primary...

A little background

There are different schools of thought when it comes to defining parametric design. By schools of thought, I mean ferocious armies fighting to death on a desolate battlefield. At this point, the only safe move in attempting a definition would be to go for the most conceptual one. Fortunately, it might also be a good vantage point for developing a healthy discussion on the topic.

Greg Lynn provides a satisfying answer in that regard: The processional model of the subject as either the animating force or as the occupant of privileged points of view assumes that architecture...

There's a belief that good design, especially in 3D, can only be achieved after months (or years) of constant practice. That anyone wanting to showcase their talent needs to go through a specific training and have (buy) the latest equipment and software. I believe that in 2017 this is not the case anymore, at least partially.

I created this Grasshopper definition embedded below to demonstrate that Parametric Design is the shortest bridge between design and users that have never experienced any type of design software. 

Without a doubt, this opens new possibilities for both...

Hi Grasshopper designers,

in this blog post we provide you with an overview of the controls recognized by ShapeDiver in Grasshopper models. In case you can’t wait and want to give it a try right away, go ahead: download and experiment using one of our example models, or have a look at our demonstrator model, which makes use of all supported types of controls and outputs.

Sliders

The most common type of input parameter. ShapeDiver supports all sliders settings, like minimum and maximum value, real or natural number, number of digits, etc. The sliders’ name is used to present the...

Hi Grasshopper designers,

in this blog post we provide you with an overview of the material settings recognized by ShapeDiver in Grasshopper models. In case you can’t wait and want to give it a try right away, go ahead: download and experiment using one of our example models. 

There are two ways to assign materials to the outputs of your Grasshopper definitions. If you are an experienced user, you might already be familiar with the combined use of the Material component with the Custom Preview component. We will start by giving a little reminder for this method. We will then mention our...

Designers Corner is the place where ShapeDiver designers talk about their work. There is a story behind every model, and who better to tell the story than the designer himself? 

In our third episode we interview Javier M Gaxiola founder of DimensionN, a Computational Design studio that specializes in the development of large scaled projects involving Parametric Design, Digital Manufacturing, 3D Printing, 3D Scanning, CNC Production among others.

His studio is based in Mexico, a country that in recent years has been steadily developing a great interest in everything related to...

Designers Corner is the place where ShapeDiver designers talk about their work. There is a story behind every model, and who better to tell the story than the designer herself? Introducing the series is Elissa Ross, a mathematician fascinated by the tight relationship between science and art.

The Designer

I'm a geometer working as a consultant in the digital design industry. MESH Consultants is a small team of mathematicians, who work on all kinds of projects that involve both challenging geometry and computation. We love to work on architecture projects, but we also do a lot...

Peacock is a Grasshopper plugin that significantly lowers the bar for designers to create original jewelry designs. By supporting Peacock, ShapeDiver makes a big step towards the jewelry industry.

Peacock is both simple and exhaustive. It includes all the standard gems and cabochons, pre-designed and ready to be integrated in original models. In the same spirit, Peacock gets you started with several ring templates. Customize them in a few clicks with standard parameters, by using an original profile curve or unleash your craziest ideas and define the shape with completely...

Hi Grasshopper designers,

in this blog post we provide you with an overview of the Grasshopper outputs supported by ShapeDiver. In case you can’t wait and want to give it a try right away, go ahead: download and experiment using one of our example models, or have a look at our demonstrator model, which makes use of all supported types of controls and outputs.

Which outputs get displayed by our viewer

ShapeDiver will display everything that’s visible in your Grasshopper definition’s preview. That means you should deactivate the preview option on all components except the ones you...

The ability to provide a scalable sales platform for custom products is called mass customization, and it essentially comes with two necessary elements: on the one hand, a...

Designers Corner is the place where ShapeDiver designers talk about their work. There is a story behind every model, and who better to tell the story than the designer himself? Our second episode introduces Dani Abalde, a jewelry designer working with bio-inspired algorithms.

The Designer

Daniel Abalde is an artisan jeweler in training at the Escuela Atlantico in Vigo, Spain. But Daniel really considers himself an algorithmic designer. He is one of the few creators who both develop computational tools and later use these tools to create a design and eventually a product.

When...

A 3D product configurator is a great upgrade for an eCommerce platform, but to make sure it generates more customer conversions, there are some marketing questions that need to be addressed early. Here are a few tips to make sure your configurator is used in the optimal way.

The Two First "Moments of Truth":

In traditional marketing, the First Moment of Truth refers to the first few seconds after a shopper encounters a product, on a store shelf or in a WebShop. It is the moment when a company has the best chance to convert shoppers into buyers by appealing to their senses and...

The logic of your models can only be defined within Grasshopper before you upload them to ShapeDiver, and through material settings within your Grasshopper definition you can also influence the way they look here on ShapeDiver.

For even more options such as the background color, initial view angle or the order of parameters in the control menu, you will be brought to the ShapeDiver Model Edit Page after you have uploaded a new model. If you want to adjust your settings later, you can access it from two places:

• by clicking “Edit” on the regular model view page for one of your own models

Grasshopper designers, 

we are happy to announce a long-awaited new feature to you – support for textures. The ShapeDiver plug-in for Grasshopper has been extended with components enabling you to specify texture images to be displayed in ShapeDiver's viewer. In the following we explain how to make use of this feature. 

Principle

Texture images are specified by means of publicly accessible URLs. You are not required to embed the images into your Grasshopper model – simply make your texture image available for download at a publicly accessible URL. ShapeDiver's material component in Grasshopper...