s levels of detail by subdividing a 6 sided cube mesh and projecting its vertices according to a referenced height map. This is one of the standard conventions for building full sizes planets. At the lowest level (0) the mesh planet is made of 6 pieces(each 32x32 resolution). The next level down (1) is made of 24 pieces... 6 divided by 4 = 24. Level (2) is 96 quads etc etc. The script will generate each quad at its sub-division level and compare edge vertices to neighboring quads. It will then make sure any shared vertices are in fact at the same projected vector. This ensures a planet quad with edge vertices that match.
The problems comes in texturing each quad.
If I build the quad as a nurb surface from points I can place the texture easily because each surface UV maps squarely to my texture map (which is also square).
If I build the quad as a mesh I cannot just apply the square texture to the mesh UVs. This is because when you unwrap the UVs from a mesh they will not unwrap like a nurb surface's UVs. Therefore to get the correct mapping I would have to manipulate each UV back to an evenly aligned array (which is 1024 points in a 32x32 resolution UV). Maya and blender have 'relax uv' and 'align UV' functions but they don't do the trick and manual corrections are out of the question. So why not skip the mesh method and use the nurb method?
I did this and there is a trade off. The nurb will accept the material texture I want with no other work on my end but when I export the object as an .obj rhino creates its own mesh to describe the nurb(with various unsatisfactory setting options). This works great up to a point because at some level the interpreted mesh will have vertices that do no match at the edges, ie .. creating visible seams in the mesh. The picture below is the nearly seamless planet at LOD(1) made of 24 quads, each with 32x32 vertice resolution and a 512x512 jpg texture running in Unity3d 5. It works but at close level there are seams. This will be resolved simply by having the next LOD(x) instantiate before getting close enough to see the seam but at core nerd level I want the seamless mesh.
So, I can make the seamless mesh but I can not realistically texture map it. I can also make the nurb surface from points and texture it at the expense of the edge vertices matching. I am at the split in the road but I want to have my cake and eat it too. Thoughts, comments, trolls...?
Thanks for reading =)
Footnote: For you pros I am not using seamless noise across the map I am using grasshopper to sew up my otherwise non perfect edges.
Other programs in the pipeline:
-WorldMachine 2
-Wilbur
-Photoshop
-Unity3d…
o Common - just like C#. But Rhino Python has a "Scripting Language Wrapper" which breaks commonly used taks down to simpler functions.
Here's a general Example:
Take a look at the code on this website http://wiki.mcneel.com/developer/rhinocommonsamples/addline). Generally it's Rhino Common code in three language to create a line. They look equally difficult.
But if you use Rhino Python Scripting you can use an simplified syntax to get the same result. It's very similar to Rhino Script.
The code would be:
import rhinoscriptsyntax as rsstart_point = rs.GetPoint("Get start point")end_point = rs.GetPoint("Get end point")line_id = rs.AddLine(start_point, end_point)
OK - No Error Tracking here, but still you can see that the syntax is much simpler. (And in the end you just have less lines of code you have to debug.
And the good thing about Rhino Python is, that you can mix these approaches. Once you reach a level where Rhino Python Script doesn't get you there, which by the way happens very rarely, you can still use the Rhino Common methods.
Also, in Python Sycripting 99% of what you probably would like to do is available as a "wrapped" script function.
Rhino Python Script is currently also better documented than Rhino Common for C# and VB.Net. If you have used Rhino VB Script before, these functions will be very familar to you.
I'm not sure, why it's currently a separate plug-in. I belive the reason is that Rhino 4 (which is supported by GH) doesn't support Rhino Python. Also it's currently WIP, so it needed to be updated more frequently than GH itself. In the long run (I believe) it might be integrated into GH as a general component
- Martin
P.S.: To use Rhino Python within GH is a little more tricky than my example - but nothing compared to developing C#
P.S.2 Here's the code with Error Tracking:
import rhinoscriptsyntax as rsdef AddLine(): start_point = rs.GetPoint("Get start point") if start_point is None: print "No start point was selected" return end_point = rs.GetPoint("Get end point") if end_point is None: print "No end point was selected" return line_id = rs.AddLine(start_point, end_point) return line_idAddLine()
…
ive collaborative environment.
TYPE : Course module and Workshop
The event is open for anybody interested from all the fields of design, including: architecture, interior design, furniture design, product design, fashion design, scenography, and engineering.
1. COURSE MODULE (20-23 April 2014) - optional
+ type: 3 days intensive course regarding basic knowledge in parametric design (LEVEL 1)
+ software: Rhinoceros & Grasshopper
+ plugins: Kangaroo, Weaver Bird, Lunch box, Ghowl, Geco
+ achievements:
- acquainting to the components & the concept of Generative Design
- understanding the strategies in Algorithmic Design
- how to easily insert simple mathematical equation into the project to gain more control
- how to utilize proper plugins with respect to their nature of the project
- interacting with different analysis platforms such as Ecotect & remote controller
- solving several exercises with different scales( 2D- 3D ) during each phase of the workshop
2. WORKSHOP (23-27 April 2014)
A 5 day Design-Based Research Workshop exploring new techniques in Digital Architecture/Fabrication, with a specific focus on the use of generative systems and parametric modeling as tools for creative expression.
Our ultimate goal is to increasing the efficiency of utilizing digital tools in parallel with geometric performance of the primitive design agent.
+ + CONCEPT
Fashion and Architecture are both based on basic life necessities – clothing and shelter.
However, they are also forms of self-expression – for both creators and consumers.
Both fashion and architecture affect our emotional being in many ways.
The agenda of this workshop is to investigate on the overlap between these two areas of design, art & fashion.
Fashion and architecture express ideas of personal, social and cultural identity, reflecting the concerns of the user and the ambition of the age. Their relationship is a symbiotic one and throughout history, clothing and buildings have echoed each other in form and appearance. This only seems natural as they not only share the primary function of providing shelter and protection for the body, but also because they both create space and volume out of flat, two-dimensional materials.
While they have much in common, they are also intrinsically different – address the human scale, but the proportions, sizes and shapes differ enormously.
+ + + OBJECTIVES
So far, Architects have been using techniques such as folding, bending etc. to create space, structural roofs or different other structural shapes.
The agenda of this workshop goes further with the investigation of algorithmic thinking through generative tools Integrated in design.
The challenge is creating a bridge that connects these two areas of design, architecture and fashion that perform at two opposite scales.
+ + + + TECHNICAL BRIEF
In the early stages physical models and low-tech strategies will be used, allowing the participants to gain a greater understanding of materials, fabrication and assembly methods as well as simple, yet pragmatic structural solutions.
Later in the workshop these strategies will be digitalized and elaborated using software visualizing tools such as Rhinoceros and the algorithmic plug-in Grasshopper.…
edit 29/04/14 - Here is a new collection of more than 80 example files, organized by category:
KangarooExamples.zip
This zip is the most up to date collection of examples at the moment, and collects t
ers and researchers, programmers and artists, professionals and academics who come together for 4 days of intense collaboration, development, and design.
The sg2012 Workshop will be organised around Clusters. Clusters are hubs of expertise. They comprise of people, knowledge, tools, materials and machines. The Clusters provide a focus for workshop participants working together within a common framework.
Clusters provide a forum for the exchange of ideas, processes and techniques and act as a catalyst for design resolution. The Workshop is made up of ten Clusters that respond in diverse ways to the sg2012 Challenge Material Intensities.
Applicants to the sg2012 Workshop will select their preferred cluster from the following:
Beyond Mechanics
Micro Synergetics
Composite Territories
Ceramics 2.0
Material Conflicts
Transgranular Perspiration
Reactive Acoustic Environments
Form Follows Flow
Bioresponsive Building Envelopes
Gridshell Digital Tectonics
More information about the Workshop and Clusters can be found here:
http://smartgeometry.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=116&Itemid=131
The application process will close on January 15th, 2012.
Full Fee $1500
Reduced Fee $750
Scholarship Fee $350
Fees include attendance to both the workshop and conference from March 19th-24th.
Reduced Fee and Scholarships are available only for Academics, Students and Young Practitioners, and are awarded during a competitive peer review process.
sg2012 takes place from 19-24 March 2012 at EMPAC (http://empac.rpi.edu/) and is hosted by Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, upstate New York USA. The Workshop and Conference will be a gathering of the global community of innovators and pioneers in the fields of architecture, design and engineering.
The event will be in two parts: a four day Workshop 19-22 March, and a public conference beginning with Talkshop 23 March, followed by a Symposium 24 March. The event follows the format of the highly successful preceding events sg2010 Barcelona and sg2011 Copenhagen.
sg2012 Challenge Material Intensities
Simulation, Energy, Environment
Imagine the design space of architecture was no longer at the scale of rooms, walls and atria, but that of cells, grains and vapour droplets. Rather than the flow of people, services, or construction schedules, the focus becomes the flow of light, vapour, molecular vibrations and growth schedules: design from the inside out.
The sg2012 challenge, Material Intensities, is intended to dissolve our notion of the built environment as inert constructions enclosing physically sealed spaces. Spaces and boundaries are abundant with vibration, fluctuating intensities, shifting gradients and flows. The materials that define them are in a continual state of becoming: a dance of energy and information. Material potential is defined by multiple properties: acoustical, chemical, electrical, environmental, magnetic, manufacturing, mechanical, optical, radiological, sensorial, and thermal. The challenge for sg2012 Material Intensities is to consider material economy when creating environments, micro-climates and contexts congenial for social interaction, activities and organisation. This challenge calls for design innovation and dialogue between disciplines and responsibilities. sg2010 Working Prototypes strove to emancipate digital design from the hard drive by moving from the virtual to the actual in wrestling with the tangible world of physical fabrication. sg2011 Building the Invisible focused on informing digital design with real world data. sg2012 Material Intensities strives to energise our digital prototypes and infuse them with material behaviour. They have the potential to become rich simulations informed by the material dynamics, chemical composition, energy flows, force fields and environmental conditions that feed back into the design process.
More information can be found at http://www.smartgeometry.org
Follow us on Twitter at http://twitter.com/smartgeometry…
Added by Shane Burger at 12:29pm on December 13, 2011
o está dirigido a estudiantes de arquitectura y diseño de interiores, recién titulados y profesionales interesados en el software o que necesiten conocer las herramientas básicas de las que dispone el programa en los diferentes ámbitos y cómo enfocarlas a arquitectura.
Descripción:El contenido del curso enseñará a utilizar el programa de diseño Rhinoceros 3D aplicando su metodología de trabajo en el campo de la arquitectura, básandose además de la creación de pequeños elementos paramétricos para controlar el diseño y acabar renderizando las geometrías 3d con V-Ray para Rhino.
El curso consta de 3 módulos de 12h de duración cada uno (que pueden realizarse juntos o por separado) en los cuales se profundizará en herramientas de Rhino, Grasshopper y V-Ray a medida que se realizan casos prácticos sobre proyectos arquitectónicos.Se pretende establecer un sistema de trabajo eficiente desde el inicio del modelado hasta la posterior creación de imágenes para documentación del proyecto.
Módulo Rhinoceros Arquitectura:• Conceptos básicos e interfaz de usuario Rhino• Introducción al sistema cartesiano en Rhino• Clases de complejidad de geometría• Importación/exportación de archivos compatibles• Topología NURBS• Trabajo con Sólidos• Estrategias básicas de Superficies• Introducción a Superficies Avanzadas
Módulo Grasshopper:• Conceptos básicos e interfaz de usuario Grasshopper• Introducción a parámetros base y componentes• Matemáticas y trigonometría como herramientas de diseño• Matemáticas aplicadas a creación de Geometría• Introducción a listas simples• Análisis de Superficies y Curvas• Dominios de Superficies y Curvas• Panelado de superficies• Manejo de listas y componentes relacionados• Modificación de panelados en función de atractores• Exportación/Importación de información a Grasshopper
Módulo V-Ray para Rhinoceros:• Conceptos básicos e interfaz de usuario V-Ray• Vistas guardadas• Materiales V-Ray• Materiales, creación y edición• Iluminación (Global Illumination, Sunlight, Lights)• Cámara Física vs Cámara default• Canales de Render• Postprocesado básico de canales
Detalles:Instructores: Alba Armengol Gasull y Oriol Carrasco (SMD Arquitectes)Idioma: CastellanoHorario: 22 JULIO al 26 JULIO 2013 // 10.00 – 14.00 / 16.00 – 20.00Organizadores: SMDLugar: SMD lab, c/Lepant 242 Local 11, 08013 Barcelona (map)
Software:Rhinoceros 5Grasshopper 0.9.00.56V-Ray 1.5 for RhinoAdobe Photoshop CS5Links de versiones de evaluación de los Softwares serán facilitadas a todos los asistentes. Se usará unica y exclusivamente la versión de Rhino para PC. Se ruega a los participantes traer su propio ordenador portátil.
Registro:Modalidad de precio reducido por tres módulos 275€Posibilidad de realizar módulos por separado 99€…
h, and using the BScale and BDistance are creating havoc somehow too. I've simplified first, and used the Kangaroo Frames component along with setting internal iterations, to make MeshMachine act like a normal component, along with releasing the FixC and FixV. The FixV didn't make any sense anyway. I've also set Pull to 0 to speed it up during testing, since much less calculation is involved to just let the meshes collapse, prevented from disappearing altogether by using a mere 15 iterations.
Also, your breps are open so that allows much more chaos and then collapse, though they did manage to close themselves too at times. Here is closed breps with a full 45 iterations:
So now that it's working, lets re-Fix the curves, and the problem arises that there is an extra seam line that is getting fixed too, running along the cylinder, stopping the mesh from pulling tight under tension wherever a vertex happens to be near that line:
So lets grab only the naked edge curves instead:
And what happens if we lose the end caps, now that we don't have an extra line skewing the result?:
There is no real curvature differences since it's not a curvy brep so the Adapt at full 1 setting has little to do. Now what does the BScale and BDist do? Nothing! Why? Your scale is out of whack, 99 mm high cylinders but only a falloff maximum of about 5, so let's make the falloff be 25 instead, but I must restore the end caps or the meshes collapse away for some reason and freezes Rhino for a minute or so the first time I try it:
It's a start.
If I intersect the cylinders, nothing changes, since they are being treated as separate runs. MeshMachine outputs a sequence of two outputs though, due to Frames being set to a bare minimum of 2 needed to get it to work, so I filter out the original run, which is just the unmodified initial mesh it creates.
The lesson so far is that closed meshes are much less prone to collapse and glitches leading to screw ups.
A Boolean union of the cylinders is when it gets funner, here show with and without the fixed curves that seem to define boundaries too where really there are just polysurface edges:
…
Introduction to Grasshopper Videos by David Rutten.
Wondering how to get started with Grasshopper? Look no further. Spend an some time with the creator of Grasshopper, David Rutten, to learn the
mplex the models are. If we are running multi-room E+ studies, that will take far longer to calculate.
Rhino/Grasshopper = <1%
Generating Radiance .ill files = 88%
Processing .ill files into DA, etc. = ~2%
E+ = 10%
Parallelizing Grasshopper:
My first instinct is to avoid this problem by running GH on one computer only. Creating the batch files is very fast. The trick will be sending the radiance and E+ batch files to multiple computers. Perhaps a “round-robin” approach could send each iteration to another node on the network until all iterations are assigned. I have no idea how to do that but hope that it is something that can be executed within grasshopper, perhaps a custom code module. I think GH can set a directory for Radiance and E+ to save all final files to. We can set this to a local server location so all runs output to the same location. It will likely run slower than it would on the C:drive, but those losses are acceptable if we can get parallelization to work.
I’m concerned about post-processing of the Radiance/E+ runs. For starters, Honeybee calculates DA after it runs the .ill files. This doesn’t take very long, but it is a separate process that is not included in the original Radiance batch file. Any other data manipulation we intend to automatically run in GH will be left out of the batch file as well. Consolidating the results into a format that Design Explorer or Pollination can read also takes a bit of post-processing. So, it seems to me that we may want to split up the GH automation as follows:
Initiate
Parametrically generate geometry
Assign input values, material, etc.
Generate radiance/ E+ batch files for all iterations
Calculate
Calc separate runs of Radiance/E+ in parallel via network clusters. Each run will be a unique iteration.
Save all temp files to single server location on server
Post Processing
Run a GH script from a single computer. Translate .ill files or .idf files into custom metrics or graphics (DA, ASE, %shade down, net solar gain, etc.)
Collect final data in single location (excel document) to be read by Design Explorer or Pollination.
The above workflow avoids having to parallelize GH. The consequence is that we can’t parallelize any post-processing routines. This may be easier to implement in the short term, but long term we should try to parallelize everything.
Parallelizing EnergyPlus/Radiance:
I agree that the best way to enable large numbers of iterations is to set up multiple unique runs of radiance and E+ on separate computers. I don’t see the incentive to split individual runs between multiple processors because the modular nature of the iterative parametric models does this for us. Multiple unique runs will simplify the post-processing as well.
It seems that the advantages of optimizing matrix based calculations (3-5 phase methods) are most beneficial when iterations are run in series. Is it possible for multiple iterations running on different CPUs to reference the same matrices stored in a common location? Will that enable parallel computation to also benefit from reusing pre-calculated information?
Clustering computers and GPU based calculations:
Clustering unused computers seems like a natural next step for us. Our IT guru told me that we need come kind of software to make this happen, but that he didn’t know what that would be. Do you know what Penn State uses? You mentioned it is a text-only Linux based system. Can you please elaborate so I can explain to our IT department?
Accelerad is a very exciting development, especially for rpict and annual glare analysis. I’m concerned that the high quality GPU’s required might limit our ability to implement it on a large scale within our office. Does it still work well on standard GPU’s? The computer cluster method can tap into resources we already have, which is a big advantage. Our current workflow uses image-based calcs sparingly, because grid-based simulations gather the critical information much faster. The major exception is glare. Accelerad would enable luminance-based glare metrics, especially annual glare metrics, to be more feasible within fast-paced projects. All of that is a good thing.
So, both clusters and GPU-based calcs are great steps forward. Combining both methods would be amazing, especially if it is further optimized by the computational methods you are working on.
Moving forward, I think I need to explore if/how GH can send iterations across a cluster network of some kind and see what it will take to implement Accelerad. I assume some custom scripting will be necessary.…
he example file to this file so you can give it a try with any version of Honeybee that you're already using. The only requirement is to have OpenStudio installed as the component is using OpenStudio libraries to parse gbXML files. If you're using the latest version available on github the component is also available under WIP tab.
Why?
The main purpose of developing this component is to save time and effort for importing Revit models for energy and daylight analysis. It bothers me to see a lot of smart people spend a lot of time to just come up with solutions just to get the geometry from Revit to Honeybee for analysis. This component is not solving all the issue but is a first step forward. In an ideal world, the future version of Honeybee, which works both under DynamoBIM and Grasshopper should address this issue but that can take some time to be fully ready!
How?
To use this component you need to Export your Revit model as gbXML and then use the file path to load the file into Grasshopper. There are several resources available online on how to prepare the analytical model in Revit and export the gbXML file. Here is an image for importing the Revit 2017 sample model using the default settings. As you can see the model will be just as good as what your original gbXML file from Revit is.
What can be improved?
Well, there are several items that can be improved and they are mostly not on us. To get it started I add what I think are the 3 main shortcomings and my thoughts on how they can be addressed in the future. Feel free to add what you think needs to be added to this list in the comments section.
1. Revit analytical models and as the results gbXML files, by design, are not intended to be clean. Watch this presentation from the Autodesk University to see the logic behind this approach which in short is it doesn't matter for a large scale early stage energy model. Well, This will be quite a problem for studies that you can do with Honeybee. Included but not limited to daylight and comfort analysis.
The best solution that I can think of, until Autodesk fixes their exporter, is to use Revit Rooms and Spaces and generate a clean model from the scratch. We have already tried this approach in Revit but since the Revit API doesn't provide access to Room openings we had a very hard time to get it to work.
That's why that I opened an idea on Revit ideas to get over this issue. With your support we already have 81 votes, but it hasn't been enough to make them to consider the idea for an official review. If you haven't voted already and you think this will be a helpful feature take a moment and vote so we can have it implemented at some point in the future.
2. There is no way (that I know) to export only part of the model. The way export gbXML is set up in Revit is to export the whole model once together. As a result, if you have a huge model with 100 rooms and you want to get one of the rooms into Honeybee using this component you have to export the whole model, which can take some time, and then import them all back into Grasshopper. To partially address this issue I added an input to the component that allows you input a list of names for rooms that you're interested to be loaded into Grasshopper. You can use the name of the room/space in Revit as an input for the component.
3. The component doesn't import adjacencies, loads, schedules and HVAC systems. I wasn't able to export a gbXML file from Revit with any of this data except for the adjacency, but even if you can do that, the component currently can only import geometries and constructions. I hope we get access to 1 and so we don't have to use the xml file approach at all, but if that takes a very long time then we will add these features to the component.
Happy 2017!
Mostapha…