WF 04
Rhino Landform Modeling
Rhino + Grasshopper → Contour Plan
Weeks7 – 8
Scale1" = 20'
Sheet11" × 17"
AssignmentA landform composition for the 180×300 ft site — three spatial conditions, each interacting with water differently — modeled in Rhino + Grasshopper as Patch and Loft surfaces: contour plan PDF at 1"=20' and an isometric view.
Submit to Miro board
Rhino
→
Grasshopper
→
Bake
→
Make2D
→
Contour Plan PDF
Week 7 — Site Setup + First Landform
00–01 File Setup + Base Slope Rhino
File setup — DocumentProperties → Units → Feet. Save as wf04-landform.3dm.
Build the base slope — Rectangle → 0,0 to 300,180. PlanarSrf from the rectangle. Press F10 to show control points. Ctrl+Shift+click one short edge to sub-object select it. Gumball Z → type 10 → Enter. F11 to hide points.
Sub-object selection (Ctrl+Shift+click) selects faces, edges, or vertices without exploding the object. Use it whenever you need to move part of a surface.
02 Reference Surface + Contour Preview Grasshopper
Open Grasshopper (Grasshopper command). Wire up a live contour preview of your base slope:
  • Surface param → Set One Surface → click the base slope
  • Contour component → wire Surface → S
  • Number Slider (0.5–5) → wire → N (contour interval)
Parallel evenly-spaced contours confirm the slope is reading correctly. This is your base terrain.
03 Draw a Plan Footprint Rhino
In the Top viewport, draw a closed curve — InterpCrv, Ellipse, or freehand. Draw flat at Z = 0.
This curve is the breakline: where the landform begins and the base field ends. Its shape, size, and placement directly determine how the landform reads in section and how water moves across the site.
04 Project → Trim → Patch → Join Grasshopper
Project the footprint onto the base slope:
  • Curve param → Set One Curve → footprint curve
  • Project component → Curve, Surface, Direction (Unit Z vector)
Trim the base surface:
  • Trim (or Brep | Curve) → base surface + projected curve → surface with hole
Patch the landform surface:
  • Patch component → projected curve as boundary
  • Add a Point param → set a point inside the footprint → controls peak or valley
  • Number Slider (−10 to +10) → move point Z → positive = mound, negative = bowl/swale
  • Patch Flexibility input: try 3–5 for organic forms
Join:
  • Join Breps → trimmed base + Patch surface. Edges are coincident — Join succeeds cleanly.
  • Wire joined surface to Contour → contours read across the full site
End of Week 7. Before next session: sketch two more landform operations on paper. Think about where water flows and where a hard edge is needed.
Week 8 — Full Site + Deliverable
05 Add More Smooth Landforms Grasshopper
Repeat the Step 03–04 loop for each additional Patch landform. Each is a separate GH branch.
  • Right-click the canvas → Group each branch and label it
  • Collect all joined surfaces into a final Join Breps
06 Build a Hard Edge Condition Grasshopper
In Rhino Top viewport, draw two curves: the top edge and bottom edge of the retaining wall. In Grasshopper:
  • Reference both curves
  • Move each to its correct elevation (top grade / bottom grade)
  • Loft → top curve + bottom curve → wall face surface
  • Trim grade surfaces to meet the wall edges → Join all
In the contour plan, contours overlap at the wall face — the same elevation appears on both the upper and lower grade. That overlap is how a retaining wall reads in a contour drawing.
07 Read the Contours Grasshopper
Before baking, read the contour output as a design drawing:
  • Contours that V upstream → valley or drainage path
  • Contours that V downstream → ridge
  • Are landform transitions reading as a continuous field or unintended hard edges?
  • Is the retaining wall placed where the grade change is legible and intentional?
Adjust footprint curves and height sliders until the plan reads as a coherent designed landscape.
08 Bake + Produce the Contour Plan Rhino
Bake the finished geometry and produce a print-ready layout:
  • Right-click Contour output → Bake → layer CONTOURS-DESIGN
  • Make2D → Top viewport → flat linework
  • Layout → 1" = 20' (1:240) on 11 × 17
  • Add: north arrow, scale bar, contour interval note, title block
  • Plot to PDF
09 Capture the Isometric View Rhino
Set up a standard isometric view and save it directly from Rhino:
  • In any viewport title, right-click → Set View → Isometric → choose SW, SE, NE, or NW — pick whichever shows the landform most clearly
  • Type PrintDisplay → On, to show lineweights in the viewport
  • Type PrintScreen → File → save as PNG or JPEG
PrintScreen to File captures exactly what you see in the viewport at screen resolution — no layout or PDF needed for this view.
Two Kinds of Surfaces
Smooth field — continuous transition across the ground. Footprint curve → Patch. Reads in plan as flowing, spaced contours.
Hard edge — abrupt grade change. Two edge curves → Loft. Reads in plan as overlapping contours at the wall face.
The plan curve is always the breakline. Drawing a footprint in Top view is a design decision — the shape, size, and placement of that curve determines how the landform reads in section and how water moves across the site.
LAAR 61400 — Representation & Computation IWorkflow 04 of 07