Parametric Ellipsoid

I recently received a model in 3d max from some hotshot kid who took some spheres and squeezed and stretched them and placed glass panels between them because he thought it would be cool. and now i have to rationalize this form in revit. What a Conceptual M-asshole!

If you have ever tried to stitch 3 ellipses together on the X, Y & Z planes, you'll be familiar with this error:

then i remembered this post on Builz about creating pebbles...and then i thought about adaptive components and hosting points on intersections...and the bulb lit up. Awesome, here we go.

First setup my driving ellipses

Then i added a bunch of reference planes, and inserted reference points hosted at the intersections:

I created an adaptive ellipse family, where the ellipse dimensions are controlled by placement point distance from the origin. The actual ellipse model line is in a nested family to prevent the universe from collapsing in on itself:

I inserted one of these families on every reference plane, and linked the placement points to the earlier created reference points (you can see the glowing blue nodes). Tedious but I was starting to feel really good now.

After I selected the nested model lines and hit the CREATE FORM button, voila! Parameter Driven Ellipsoid!

Company property so no download.....but i am sure if you are reading this blog, you can figure out how to get it sorted.