Pachyderm Acoustic

Pachyderm is a plugin largely used by Designers and Scientists alike to simulate acoustics in buildings, rooms, cities, and other settings.

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  • Antonio Treglia

    Hi Arthur,

    I'm still working on the model of the stadium, with acceptable results. I would like to know if with Pachyderm I can get graphs of the analyzed parameters (T30, EDT, SPL...)  or I can see just the energy/pressure curves and the values of the other parameters.

    Then, Pachyderm for GH is linked to the Rhino analysis? Or are they indipendent? I don't understand how to use the plug-in in Grasshopper...
    Thanks for the availability.

    Antonio

  • Arthur van der Harten

    Hi Antonio,
    Try the Pachyderm_Mapping command. If you execute the stimulation in there, you can get an area map of the parameters.

    The grasshopper component communicates with the Rhinoceros plugin. You did have received an example file with the grasshopper component.

    Arthur
  • Yasser Hafizs

    Hi Arthur,

    Could I get the example file for Pachyderm? Because your website is down and the dropbox link is dead. Thanks before

  • Daniele Rizza

    Hi Arthur,

    I'm working on a model of multifunctional room but I have a problem with Pachyderm. 

    I have modelling the room and assign the acoustical proprieties of the materials in "Pachyderm Hybrid Models" but when i try to start the "calculation solution" Pachyderm stop working and Rhinoceros shuts off.
    Can you help me please?

    Daniele

  • Arthur van der Harten

    Hi Daniele,

    That sounds like you are either using a very old version, or libraries are blocked.

    First make sure you have the latest:

    https://www.dropbox.com/s/ljaz5ky9qc0659p/Pachyderm2.0RC_13f_Instal...

    Let me know if this solves your issue.

    Arthur

  • Jose Giraldo

    Hi Arthur, Do you have an installer for a 32-bit version? I've the same issue of Daniele.

    Thank's

  • Arthur van der Harten

    Hi Jose,

    I don't recommend using the software in 32-bit. There are too many features for which the memory limitation would make it impossible to complete a simulation...

    It is very unusual to need that these days though. Why do you need 32-bit?

    Arthur

  • Daniele Rizza

    Hi Arthur,
    I have the last version of Rhinoceros and Pachyderm so this is not the problem. Maybe my libraries are blocked but I don't know how I can unlock it.
    This evening I tried to start the analysis in a simple cubic room and the "calculation solution" started. Maybe my last model was too complicated. It is possibile? 
    I'll write you as soon as try to remodel the new room.
    Thank you

    Daniele

  • Daniele Rizza

    Hi Arthur,

    Do you have any GH acoustics file that I can study to learn to use parametric pachyderm?
    Thank you

    Daniele

  • daviduburke

    Arthur, 

    I made it through my Thesis project. Thank you for all your help and for creating this tool! You are saving the world...

  • Sean L

    Hi Arthur,

    is there a way to export analyses from simulations in a spreadsheet-friendly (or otherwise parseable) format? 

  • Stracus

    Hi Arthur,

    I am using your software for an acoustic simulation. Everything looks working in the grasshopper system but I have two questions. 

    1. How many surfaces can Pachyderm control in Grasshopper? For now my project is not less then 3800 surfaces and everything is crashing when I am setting a polygon scene.

    2. The parameter ED is always overload for the matrix. Is there any secret to solve this problem?

    Many thanks

    RM

  • Arthur van der Harten

    Hi,

    There is no limit on the number of surfaces which can be handled, but if any of them cannot generate a render mesh, it may crash.

    You will have to trouble shoot your model in order to make sure that none of the geometry is bad.

    I don't understand your second question. Could you please explain?

    Arthur
  • Daniele Rizza

    Hi Arthur,

    Like Stracus, when I launch my analysis, appears an error that says "Index beyond the matrix limits".
    Where is it possible change these limits?

    Daniele

  • Arthur van der Harten

    Hi Danielle,

    There are no limits, and your problem seems very different from Stracus's problem. His originated in the Scene class, and most likely had to do with his model. Yours, from your picture, occurs after running a simulation, and has to do with composing the Impulse Response.

    I can't tell what is wrong with it from your picture. Please email me your files and I can have a look.

    kind regards,

    Arthur

  • Daniele Rizza

    Can you send me your email to send you the project?
    Or write it at rizza.d@hotmail.it
    Thank you

    Kind regards,

    Daniele 

  • Arthur van der Harten

    Hi all,

    Daniele and I have worked through the issue. It seems to me that this is not terribly clear in the website documentation, so I will say it here. Your model must be in meters for it to work correctly in Pachyderm. Maybe someday I will fix this, but for now, in order to prevent  an onslaught of bugs, please work in meters.

    Rhino makes it pretty easy to fix this. I can be a little trickier in Grasshopper, but still not overly complicated.

    kind regards,

    Arthur

  • Han Deng

    Hi,I want to figure out how to use it in grasshopper, could you sent me the example file of grasshopper to my email?

    hdeng@iastate.edu

    Thanks very much!

  • Abdulaziz Albasseet

    Where can i download?

  • oneiric

    Hi Authur,

    Thanks for your creation of this plug-in. 

    I have read all the tutorial on the website and the comments & discussions here. I do not see how gh and rhino plugin could work together. Is there any example for me to learn more about it ?

    Or may I know for NURBS Scene component, what should be plugged into GL? What is the integer id of the layer in the description?

    Thank you!

  • Arthur van der Harten

    Hi Oneiric,

    GL wants one integer for each piece of geometry you put into GG. This integer will be the zero-based position of the layer in the Rhino layer dialog. The layer titled 'default' generally appears first in a new document. That would be layer 0. The next layer you add would be directly below 'default' and would be layer 1, and so on.

    What the scene component is looking to do is get the materials you have assigned to that layer in Pachyderm for Rhino. This is the most obvious way, perhaps that Pachyderm for Rhino and Pachyderm for Grasshopper work together. They share resources like materials.

    The connection will be deepened in the future, as I develop certain other tools. Stay tuned.

    Arthur

  • oneiric

    Hi Authur,

    Thanks so much for your reply.

    Now I have already know how to save the data and read the data in gh and had no prob with NURBS scene

    I would like to know what is the data to be connected to Room in Visualize Pachyderm Rays component? From the hint when I tried to connect brep to Room, I connected NURBS scene to it. It gives me the error saying 'Object reference not set to an instance of object'

    Sorry for the trouble to have to explain to me step by step...

    Thanks!!!

  • Sang Bum Park

    Hi Arthur,

    Thank you very much sharing Pachyderm Acoustic plugin! I am looking forward to digging it, although I have not used it yet due to Rhino version issue, I guess. Does Pachyderm work with Rhino 6 as well? I have tried to install it but the error message says that it seems not compatible with Rhino 6. I could see them in Grasshopper though. Any idea?

    Thanks,

    Sang

  • Arthur van der Harten

    Hi Sang,

    No worries. The software is not yet ready for Rhino 6... as a matter of fact, I haven't even ordered my copy of 6 yet. I will port it within the next few months if I am able to muster the time to do so.

    Arthur

  • David Probst

    Hi Arthur and Pachyderm Community,

    first of all I want to say thank you for providing us with free and open-source acoustic-simulation software. I am a student from Munich currently examining the acoustical effects of more complex, parametrical shapes; Without Pachyderm that would be very, very hard. However, I am running into a few problems and it would be awesome if you could find a few minutes to help me.

    I am mainly using Pachyderm to try to find out the Alpha-Values and the Scattering-Coefficient of certain structures. Talking about the scattering analysis, I know that the feature is experimental, but I still think you might be able to clear a few things up. Generally, I understand the "Calculate up to"-Property as a frequency-treshold up to which the programm will calculate the correlation-coefficient. However, when I perform the calculations, Pachyderm does not respect these thresholds.

    500hz: Pachyderm calculates 0 - ~7000hz

    1000hz: Pachyderm calculates 0 - ~12000hz

    2000hz: Pachyderm calculates 0 - ~30000hz

    4000hz: Pachyderm calculates 0 - ~55000hz

    To add to the confusion the values of the scattering coefficient will also change dependent on the threshold. I will attach all the files, the results and so on for these tests. I tried this with various structures, always had only one object with an assigned material in the center and the box did completely surround the object. Also just on a side note, the program crashes for me, whenever I am performing the analysis with a Mesh (Windows 10, Rhino5).

    Furthermore, I could not find a common definition of the scattering coefficient. To me the definition "percentage of rays that is not reflected geometrically (+/- 10°)" makes a lot of sense; Does Pachyderm follow a similiar definition?

    Since I am pretty new to CAD in general and definetly not an expert at all in neither acoustics nor simulation I have attached all the files that I used. Even though I have been testing around quite a bit, it might just be a really stupid mistake. I also did the tests with more complex surfaces (which I am actually interested in), but since the problems do already show for this simple rotated surface it might be a good place to start. I know this is a really long text, but I already tried to shorten it as much as I can, leaving a lot of other questions open. Thank you for any help!

    ScatteringTests

    All the best,

    David

  • Arthur van der Harten

    Hi David,

    Thanks for starting the conversation.

    Scattering has a definition in an iso standard. You should probably look up ISO 17497. For the purposes of geometrical simulation, the definition you are using is correct. The problem is that sound doesn't actually travel in rays. It's a simplification of sound propagation.

    The threshold you set assigns the density of the mesh used. You may still get data above that threshold, but you shouldn't trust it.

    There are several reasons why it is marked experimental.

    1 I used the correlation scattering coefficient, which is not standardized, but I suspect may give a more applicable result for geometrical modeling. (Suspect only... I'm not actually certain)

    2 in some cases, it gives very plausible results, but it is very sensitive to a) sample placement and model measurement space alignment b) the scale of the mesh (which was very alarming).

    I will look at it again sometime. In the meantime, if you feel inclined, give it a look yourself. Maybe you will see something I missed.
  • Arthur van der Harten

    On meshes- pachyderm won't read them. Use surfaces only. Pachyderm will make the mesh as it needs it based on the surface model.

    It shouldn't crash the main simulation... Just exit out before running, but it might crash the FVM models. I'm not sure.

    Arthur
  • ZAQI FATHIS

    Hi Arthur, 

    I have installed the latest Pachyderm v.02. I tried to use Pachyderm mapping method option, but it always makes my rhino crash. Do you know why is that happen?

    Cheers!

  • Arthur van der Harten

    Hi Zaqi,

    I can help, But I would need to know exactly what you did.

    Before that, though... Is there anything unusual about your computer? Is it an apple?

    Arthur
  • ZAQI FATHIS

    Hi Arthur,

    Ok, right now I just want to follow this tutorial (https://vimeo.com/247022069). 

    So my computer is windows x64, with the latest Rhino 5 SR 14 and Grasshopper.  Another tab works fine for me.



  • Rowan Browan

    Hi Arthur

    I seem to be having the same issue at Zaqi below

    I recently installed Pachyderm and have an issue using the Pachyderm Mapping Method.

    Every time that I try to open the Mapping Method tab it immediately closes my rhino, and offers to send an error report, as though rhino had just crashed. I am running it on a new Dell XPS 13, so I don't think hardware should be the issue?

    I have uninstalled then reinstalled Pachyderm, but the error persists.

    Can you please let me know if you've had issues like this before/know any possible solutions?

  • David Probst

    Hi Arthur,

    thank you for your detailed answer and sorry for not answering for such a long time, I was just trying to make sure that I did understand everything before I answer back.

    Now I do actually get quite reliably the same results and I have no issues with any crashes anymore. The only problem is that my intuition would sometimes suggest really different values. The main surface I am working with(see image) for example only delivers a scattering coefficient below 0.1 , while I would assume that it should be really high. Do you think that these calculations are right or do you have any idea what I might be doing wrong?

    Also I was trying to assess the alpha-coefficient for the same pattern with holes and mineral wool behind, but decided to simplify things and just use the absorbtion designer. Do you think that the pattern itself could have a big influence on the absorbtion or is such a simplification probably all right? I was already building some manual tests to integrate its effect but it is a lot more work.
    When using the Absorbtion Designer I did not find a value for the perecentage the holes take up, even though I thought, that this should be the most important value? So far I have just been playing around with the diameter of the holes and studying the results.

    Thank you!

  • Arthur van der Harten

    Hi David P,

    I have been playing with it a bit more also. One thing I found is that if you make the radius too small, then your result will be poor. Another thing I have found is that the farther away from the sample your sphere is, the lower the magnitude of the scattering will be. This seems to suggest that maybe the base of the hemisphere should always be right at the bottom of the scattering panel.

    Regarding whether or not your result is accurate or not, I can't really say. You could send me a copy of your model, though, and I could try it and give you my opinion...

    Also, you made the right choice by doing the perforations in the absorption designer, rather than the scattering tool. At present, absorption can't be assigned to the boundaries of the FVM tool. One day I will figure it out, but I will need a lot of time to dedicate to it at once, and family life doesn't allow for that right now... My intuition says that the scattering probably doesn't affect the absorption much, other then that the depth of the perforations will vary with the depth of the panel, and that if you have portions of the panel that are not perforated, the final absorption of the panel will be an area-weighted average of all conditions. (I can't say for sure without studying your design in more detail, though.)

    Thanks for giving this experimental tool a shot. I will help in any way I can, within the limits of the many roles I hold.

    kind regards,

    Arthur

  • David Probst

    Hi Arthur,

    thanks for the answer, it helped me a lot to be more confident with my work. Also, please don't feel pushed by my questions, I really appreciate all the help you have given me already.

    The only thing I don't understand comletely yet is your answer regarding the absorption-coefficient. I do understand the part about why the absorption designer is the right choice and whether or not the surface-structure would matter, but I am still struggling with the impact of the distances beetween each individual hole to the next hole.

    I think I had phrased my question a little bit ambigious in the last post. Actually, the whole plate is perforated, but I am talking about the "frequency" of holes along the plate. By that I mean a 1m² plate could have 1000 or 100 or only 5 holes.  I know for example that 1.4 percent of the plate are holes and the rest is massive. With which setting could I compensate for this frequency of holes? Or is there a fundamental flaw in my thought process?

    I would love to send you the model and hear your opinion about it, but would prefer to keep that private, since it is not my own creation and I am just testing around with it. Can you accept my friend request here, so I can send you a private message?

    Thank you in advance!

  • David Probst

    Hi,

    I know understood that it is actually the hole pitch that defines the distances beetween the individual holes, I could calculate that from the percentage of the holes and therefore that works for me now. Sorry for my misunderstanding and thank you so much for your help!

    Besides that, I would still love to hear your opinion on the calculations, if I can send you those privately.

    All the best

    David

  • Alex Cligman

    Hi Arthur,

    Is there any you'd be able to at an issue myself and others have encountered with the ITDG component? At present in all simualtions it outputs a value of '0.0' despite other components successfully computing their respective paramters,

    Many thanks,

  • Sandrine Heroux

    Hi,

    I see that Zaqi Fathis and Rowan Browan have the same issue as me. Every time I open the Pachyderm Mapping Method tab, Rhino 5 crashes instantly, even though the file was empty. All the other tabs open without any problem. I'm on windows 10 on Parallels with a Mac. 

    Did anyone find out what causes the bug and how to fix it?

  • Arthur van der Harten

    Hi,

    It isn't clear to me what is causing the issue, but Rhino has always had trouble on Mac with Parallels. Since I am unable to reproduce the issue of the mapping tab crashing rhino, I can't really comment on it.

    Arthur

  • Alex Cligman

    I have a similar issue with the mapping function running Rhino 5 on Windows 10, the pachyder_mapping command does nothing when it is executed and when you try to open it up in a Rhino tab it just crashes. Does anyone have any insights or remdies of this problem?

    Many thanks,

    Alex

  • Arthur van der Harten

    Hi Alex,

    I have witnessed that one with one other user, but I have not been able to reproduce it on my machine... ergo, I have no idea what causes it.

    Answer me this - could you please provide a list of which plugins you have installed in Rhino? I wonder if it is a GUID conflict...

    Arthur

  • Arthur van der Harten

    Some semi good news - I finally have access to a computer which manifests the problem with the Mapping Interface. (Remember that it doesn't happen on my development machines).

    I will try and work it out within the next week or so.

    Arthur

  • Alex Cligman

    Hi Arthur,

    For for further info, I removed all other Rhino components yet still faced the same problem after testing on two machines:

    Bootcamped iMac running windows 10 and a machine running windows 8, experienced same problem with both. Let me know if you would like me to test any further configurations to help de-bug!

    Best regards,

    Alex

     

  • Arthur van der Harten

    I figured out what is wrong. One of the components seems to be initializing with a width of zero, which results in exception. This only happens on some computers, and the reason is still mysterious.

    I have changed the code so that this is no longer an issue. I will try and release it later this week, along with fixes for some of the other issues that have been brought up recently.

    Thanks for reporting!

    Arthur

  • Andrei

    Hello,

    Is Pachyderm working in Rhino 6?

    Thank you!

    Andrei

  • Arthur van der Harten

    Hi. I'm working on it. I have 3 running issues with rhino 6 on the Serengeti forum. When I have everything settled, I'll post the new version.

    Arthur

  • Camila Calegari Marques

    Hi Arthur,

    I have the same issue with Pachyderm Mapping Method tab. My Rhino crashes instantly when I try to open it. It is installed in Windows 10. I noticed you figured this issue. Is it possible to share this new code, please?

    Thank you very much.

  • Sandrine Heroux

    Hi Arthur, I just downloaded the latest version of Pachyderm. The «apply material» button seems to have disappeared. Is there a new way to apply them or might it be just a problem with my Parallel again? If it's the case, is there any way to get the previous versions?

    Thank you for all your hard work!


  • Arthur van der Harten

    Hi Sandrine,
    To apply the materials as before, just click it in the library. It sets automatically.

    Just responding to some feedback.

    Camila, your issue should be resolved now as well.

    Arthur
  • Hosniye

    Where to download this plugin

  • David Maimone

    Hi Arthur,

    I am trying apply material and I am having the same problem of Sandrine. If I click on the library, I can't choose apply, the button is not there like the tutorial. I am also curious to know how to apply material throug grasshopper canvas. And Finally, to be sure about the applied material, how can I check its application to a surface?

    Thanks in advance

    David