Match Cage Edit

MatchCageEdit.rvb

This is Part 1 of a three part exploration into Rhino's CageEdit and Cage commands.

In Rhino, I frequently use cage editing for sloppy massing control. However, it has the ability to become a powerful and accurate design tool if there was a bit more workflow control. Imagine if you were working on developing a two-piece composition with cage editing, and then you've decided that it really needed three pieces. How would you add another object to cage? What you would need to do is to start over with a new cage and slowly deforming the control points until it looks like the previous control/cage. Ugh!

The actual steps to rebuild a deformed cage is simple but tedious. That's why here is a script in the same vein as MatchProperties or MatchLayer:

MatchCageEdit.rvb (change .txt to .rvb)

Back to the example mentioned earlier, you already have a cage deformation for two objects:

But now your developed massing now looks like this:

To prepare for the script, you'll need to create a new cage about the new objects (rhino cage is really specific, if you had copied the cage over, you'll get craziness). Now, load the MatchCageEdit.rvb script:

1. New

2. Select the new cage you've just created

3. Select the new objects to cage

4. Select the cage you want to match to (unlike the first one, this one may be copied into location)

And you'll get:

And that's how you match your cages.

In Part 2, what happens when you combine this script with a grid of cages flown on surfaces

In Part 3, a look at how Spatial Deform works with grasshopper relative to CageEdit (more interactive and WAY more memory intensive).