Hi fellow xGen users! 

I have been developing some more conceptual assets to be used directly in architectural assemblies and generate 2D plans and elevations when needed.  Representing greenery along with other assets in city planning and various other digital twin applications is essential and I have been putting some effort in my spare time to develop such capabilities. CATIA Visual Scripting is an ideal application for such exercise due to its versatility and capability to employ established mathematical formulas and other laws governing assemblies and driving the geometry on the go.  

Representing natural elements like plants / animals / humans is challenging as our brains are wired to detect even minor discrepancies in scale, silhouettes, movement and overall harmony between sub-elements. Making a synthesised/conceptualised version rather than mimicking nature bluntly adds another layer of complexity. 

 To quote Pablo Picasso “It took me four years to paint like Raphael, but a lifetime to paint like a child.”  

I used a version of the beam deflection under gravity formula for the sag of the palm fronds and it worked well. And also loops were used for the trunk sections in order to vary their height along the length. The rest is pretty standard xGen logic 🙂 

There are a number of parameters exposed to control the various features of the tree models and I have generated a nice set of trees already. I plan to test a version in which I come up with more close to nature types of leaves without overcomplicating the overall geometry.

Here is short VIDEO from the xGen network for referenceconceptual 

 If any interest i am happy to share the 3Dxml file with the built in logic ! Also any feedback will be much appreciated. I would like to find a better way to drive 3D curves with typical polynomials with 2 variables similar to  the mesh generation tool where we can generate complex surfaces/volumes with more than one variable. 

CATIA xGenerative DesignCATIA Visual Scripting CATIA Champion