# Shortest Walk courses

> **PAACADEMY provides online courses on the Shortest Walk Grasshopper plugin, teaching architects how to generate biomimetic structural networks and complex circulation paths across organic surfaces.**

Shortest Walk is a Grasshopper plugin for finding shortest path networks across mesh geometry. Given a mesh and a set of start and end points, Shortest Walk calculates the shortest traversal paths across the mesh surface, producing curve networks that follow the topology and curvature of the underlying geometry. In architectural design, this capability is heavily used for generating circulation paths across complex terrain or mapping structural networks.

At PAACADEMY, Shortest Walk is explored conceptually in _Computational Thinking_ by Ignacio Revenga, connecting math to natural systems:

- **Biomimetic Generation:** Replicating the efficiency of leaf venation, mycelium, and vascular networks on architectural surfaces.
- **Circulation Logic:** Automatically finding the most efficient pedestrian pathways across undulating, multi-level landscape meshes.
- **Structural Tracery:** Generating rib-like structural systems on doubly-curved surfaces by tracing the shortest routes between anchor points.

## At a glance

- Software hub: Shortest Walk
- Courses listed: 1
- Canonical: https://paacademy.com/software/shortest-walk

## Courses

- [Computational Thinking](https://paacademy.com/course/computational-thinking)

## FAQ

### What is Shortest Walk and how does it work in Grasshopper?

Shortest Walk is a Grasshopper plugin for finding shortest path networks across mesh surfaces. Given a mesh and connection points, it calculates efficient traversal paths following mesh topology and curvature. In architectural design, it generates biomimicry-inspired vascular or branching networks, circulation paths on curved surfaces and structural networks. At PAACADEMY, it is taught in _Computational Thinking_ by Ignacio Revenga.

### What does Computational Thinking by Ignacio Revenga cover at PAACADEMY?

_Computational Thinking_ by Ignacio Revenga is an 8-hour beginner course across 7 lessons covering: understanding how computational thinking reshapes design processes and architectural concepts; applying biomimicry principles to create complex geometries inspired by natural forms; and developing basic geometry using Voronoi distributions and custom mesh subdivisions for biomimicry-inspired computational design.

### How does Shortest Walk's pathfinding relate to biomimicry in architectural design?

Natural systems including leaf venation, bone trabeculae and mycelium networks distribute paths across surfaces according to connection efficiency principles. Shortest Walk's algorithm approximates these natural distribution strategies parametrically in Grasshopper, making it a tool for generating biomimicry-inspired structural and circulation networks on complex architectural surfaces. At PAACADEMY, _Computational Thinking_ applies it within a broader biomimicry curriculum.