In this thesis, the generation of initial ground structures for generic domains in two and three dimensions are discussed. Two methods of discretization are compared: Voronoi-based discretizations and structured quadrilateral discretizations. In addition, a simple and effective member generation approach is proposed: the Macro-element approach; which can be implemented with both types of discretization. The features of the approach are discussed: efficient generation of initial ground structures; reduction in matrix bandwidth for global stiffness matrix; finer control of bar connectivity; and reduction of overlapped bars. Numerical examples are presented which display the features of the proposed approach, and highlight the comparison with literature results and traditional ground structure generation methods.