# Dendro courses

> **PAACADEMY provides online courses on the Dendro plugin for Grasshopper, teaching computational designers how to generate complex organic forms and smooth booleans using voxel-based volumetric modeling.**

Dendro is a Grasshopper plugin that brings voxel-based volumetric modeling to the parametric design environment, using the OpenVDB data format to represent 3D geometry as volumetric fields rather than surfaces. This allows designers to create forms through volumetric operations: growing, blending, subtracting, and morphing 3D volumes in ways that NURBS or mesh surface modeling cannot replicate efficiently.

At PAACADEMY, Dendro is utilized to overcome the traditional limitations of mesh intersections, specifically focusing on:

- **Organic Blending:** Creating perfectly smooth, continuous blends between intersecting tubes, lattices or architectural members without the geometry failing or "breaking."
- **Volumetric Booleans:** Executing complex addition and subtraction operations on highly organic shapes instantly.
- **3D Printing Workflows:** Converting complex line networks into solid, watertight volumetric meshes that are guaranteed to be 3D-printable without non-manifold edge errors.

## At a glance

- Software hub: Dendro
- Courses listed: 8
- Canonical: https://paacademy.com/software/dendro

## Courses

- [Dynamic Wearables for Fashion Design 2.0](https://paacademy.com/course/dynamic-wearables-for-fashion-design-2-0)
- [AI City Urban Design in Grasshopper & ComfyUI](https://paacademy.com/course/ai-city-urban-design-in-grasshopper-comfyui)
- [Dynamic Wearables for Fashion Design](https://paacademy.com/course/dynamic-wearables-for-fashion-design)
- [Advanced Grasshopper 3.0](https://paacademy.com/course/advanced-grasshopper-3-0-nurbs-mesh-volumetric-design-systems)
- [BIM & Rhino.Inside  for Advanced Tower Design](https://paacademy.com/course/bim-rhinoinside-for-advanced-tower-design)
- [BIM & Rhino.Inside for Advanced Modular Design](https://paacademy.com/course/bim-rhinoinside-for-advanced-modular-design)
- [Advanced Grasshopper 2.0: Integrating Voxel and Mesh Modelling Approaches](https://paacademy.com/course/advanced-grasshopper-2-0)
- [Computational Thinking](https://paacademy.com/course/computational-thinking)

## FAQ

### What is Dendro and what does it do in Grasshopper?

Dendro is a Grasshopper plugin for voxel-based volumetric modeling using the OpenVDB format. It allows designers to create and manipulate 3D volumes through growing, blending, subtracting and morphing operations that standard NURBS or mesh modeling cannot handle efficiently. Dendro is used for organic lattice structures, smooth boolean operations between complex forms and volumetric mesh generation in both architectural and product design workflows.

### What course at PAACADEMY teaches Dendro?

Dendro is taught at PAACADEMY in _Dynamic Wearables for Fashion Design 2.0_ by RJ Weaver, covering parametric jewelry and wearable system design using Dendro alongside Kangaroo, Anemone, Rhino and Grasshopper. The course teaches parametric module creation, adjustable workflow design and modular distribution across 8 hours at the beginner level. Dendro is also used across other computational design courses on the platform.

### What kinds of architectural forms benefit from Dendro's voxel approach?

Dendro is well-suited to organic lattice structures, volumetric surface blending, branching structural systems and complex three-dimensional patterns that require extensive manual work in surface-based modeling. Designers working on biomorphic architecture, porous facade systems or algorithmically generated structural forms will find Dendro's volumetric approach more efficient than NURBS or polygon alternatives for these specific form types.