An experimental Computer Aided Design (CAD) system that uses flocking particles which draw meshes behind them as they interact. Attraction and repulsion variables can be changed on the fly as the program runs. This work explores chance and algorithm as drivers of the final form. The forms can be saved and exported as OBJ or DXF files for 3D printing or CNC milling.
Overview
Algorithmic Techtonics II extends the generative design explorations of the first series by shifting the focus from static mesh wrapping to trail-based geometry. Here, the flocking particles do not simply occupy positions in space — they leave traces. As each particle moves under the influence of its neighbors' attraction and repulsion fields, it deposits a mesh surface behind it, like an insect spinning silk. The accumulated trails of dozens or hundreds of particles interweave to create dense, fibrous structures that record the entire history of the system's motion.
Process
The system runs as an interactive application in which the designer sets initial conditions — number of particles, field strengths, mesh density — and then watches the form evolve. At any point, the attraction and repulsion variables can be adjusted, causing the flock to expand, contract, tighten into knots, or spread into broad sheets. These interventions are recorded in the geometry itself: a sudden increase in repulsion produces a visible burst outward in the mesh; a tightening of attraction creates dense, knotted cores.
Because the forms capture the temporal dynamics of the particle system, they contain information that a single snapshot never could. Viewing a finished form, one can read the history of the forces that shaped it — periods of stability visible as smooth, parallel fibers; moments of turbulence encoded as tangled, chaotic regions.
The exported OBJ and DXF files can be sent directly to 3D printers or CNC mills, translating the digital generative process into physical objects. The transition from screen to material introduces its own constraints — minimum wall thickness, support structures, tool paths — that further shape the final artifact.