Virtual Prototyping of Scherk-Collins Saddle Rings

The author discusses a computer program that he developed to visualize different configurations of saddle ring surfaces with different numbers of holes and different amounts of twist. Users can experiment with different parameter values at interactive speeds. Such virtual prototyping can save weeks of labor needed to build physical prototypes and may result in new and more optimized configurations that one would not be likely to find if all prototypes had to be built manually from physical matter. The author's program design was inspired by some of sculptor Brent Collins's recent works (described in the companion article, "Evolving an Aesthetic of Surface Economy in Sculpture"), which can be understood geometrically as rings of saddle surfaces resulting from a toroidal warping of a truncated Scherk minimal surface.