Octopus

Octopus is a plug-in for applying evolutionary principles to parametric design and problem solving. It allows the search for many goals at once, producing a range of optimized trade-off solutions between the extremes of each goal.

Also see octopus.E for custom evolutionary algorithms.

 

Download the latest version on food4rhino

It is part of a range of tools developed at the University of Applied Arts Vienna, and Bollinger+Grohmann Engineers.

 

  • search for single goal + diversity of solutions
  • search for best trade offs between 2 to X goals
  • improve solutions by similarity-goals
  • choose preferred solutions during a search
  • change objectives during a search
  • solutions' 3d models for visual feedback
  • recorded history
  • save all search data within the Grasshopper document
  • save a solution as a Grasshopper State
  • export to text or text files


Octopus introduces multiple fitness values to the optimization. The best trade-offs between those objectives are searched, producing a set of possible optimum solutions that ideally reach from one extreme trade-off to the other.

Based on SPEA-2 and HypE from ETH Zürich and David Rutten's Galapagos User Interface. Developed by Robert Vierlinger in cooperation with Christoph Zimmel, karamba3d.com and Bollinger+Grohmann Engineers.

 

To install:

  • Copy the .gha and .dll file into the Grasshopper components folder 
  • Right-click the file > Properties > make sure there is no "blocked" text
  • Restart Rhino and Grasshopper

 

Some examples are provided here

New commented examples and a brief manual are provided in the download of octopus on food4rhino.

Load Previous Comments
  • Max Marschall

    Hi Robert, is there a way to set the solution parameters and trigger the solver from within a definition (as opposed to opening the Octopus interface)?

  • RENhui

    Hi, guys. I am using the Octopus to operate the optimization of the performance of building. However, during the optimization process, the octopus show the black interface like the following and I restart the Octopus still cannot solve the problem. I wonder if anyone could give me the suggestions... Need U help.

  • abner

    Hi all,I want to know how to use Octopus to solve my problems, how can I get some related cases or tutorials? 

    thank you