try now to integrate Geco in an interdisciplinary architectural engineering studio: hoping we can show you some nice applications of your tool, I'll keep you update and sending now details by e-mail. Here the file (very welcome to be shared). It most probably contais trivial errors by me, thanks for helping and giving some tip! Gr. Michela
FILE:
Ok, right, I see the outputs update correctly. Origin of problems must be in some different mistake I do:
- Incident radiation: I am not sure I understand what is going on: why I get so many 'not a number' ? (The Galapagos report is full of NaNs).
Bio-Diversity: 0.887 Genome[0], Fitness=NaN, Genes [89% · 44%] { Record: Too many fitness values supplied } ...
Genome[7], Fitness=NaN, Genes [74%] { Record: No fitness value was supplied } ....
Genome[9], Fitness=NaN, Genes [37% · 11%] { Record: Genome was mutated to avoid collision Record: Too many fitness values supplied }
- Daylight calculations: the geometry accumulates withouth deleting the previous models. As a consequance, results almost do not change after few varations (so, outputs get updated but do not vary). In current daylight definition: the first object being imported is the one where the grid has to fit; its setting makes it cancelling all the other objects during import. All the others, do not delete anything when imported. When running loops (manual or GA) that vary parameters, the entire geometry do not get cancelled - so I guess the loop does not pass back by the cancelling step, but imports only the geometry which has been varied by the parameters using the setting of that import component only? I will then try again by changing the order of the operations, but if you have specfic tips, let me know.
THANKS!
…
next level.
This Parametric Design course will provide the participants with the necessary knowledge and ability to use Grasshopper, a free visual programming plugin in Rhinoceros; you will be guided through a series of hands-on exercises that highlight NURBS modeling and its concepts. We will introduce Grasshopper as a graphical algorithm editor tightly integrated with Rhino’s 3D modeling tools. You will also learn how Rhino is used to render models for visualization, translate 3D models for prototyping, and export 3D models into 2D CAD or graphics programs.
English is the course main language.
Location: Düsseldorf city center
Registration and buying Tickets
www.digitalparametrics.eventbrite.de
Course Calendar:
4 Days 6 hours each
Total duration 24h
2 weekends
Date:
Sat. 17 - Sun. 18 June
Sat. 24 - Sun. 25 June
10:00 - 17:00
Getting Started in Rhino. 2 days (17 - 18 June)
Getting Started in Grasshopper. 2 days (24 - 25 June)
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Participants will be given a certificate of participation at the end of the course.
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Course fees:
Professionals: 600€ (excl. MwSt.) Students: 500€ (excl. MwSt.) Students need to provide: Copy of current student ID or proof of student enrollment at University/School.
Group discounts:
Group of 3 professionals: 3x500 = 1500€ (excl. MwSt.)
Group of 3 Students: 3x400 = 1200€ (excl. MwSt.)
Participants are kindly asked to bring their own laptops and have pre-installed Rhino + Grasshopper.
Useful Resources:
Rhinoceros Installation (90 days full version trial available): http://www.rhino3d.com/download
Rhinoceros for Mac (includes Grasshopper) http://www.rhino3d.com/download/rhino-for-mac/5/wip
Grasshopper Free Installation: http://www.grasshopper3d.com/page/download-1
Grasshopper Free Plugins: http://www.food4rhino.com/app/lunchbox http://www.giuliopiacentino.com/weaverbird
Main Tutor:
Rihan
M.A. Dipl.Ing. Architect
Architect at RKW Architektur + Düsseldorf
For any questions about the course, please email: info@immersive-studio.com…
ll geometry.
The difference with programs like Inventor is that they are made for production, regardless of the fabrication method. I won't go into detail about that, and instead focus on the modeling process.
In this little model, the starting point actually is a bit obvious, the foundation.
The only contents in the 3dm file are 27 lines. These indicate the location of each footing, and the direction of the tilt of each column. Everything else is defined in GH with the use of numbers as input parameters.
Needless to say, instead of those lines you could obviously generate lines and control the number of columns and panels, hence establish their layout, with any algorithmic or non-algorithmic criteria you please. That marks a major difference between GH and Inventor.
You can generate geometry with Inventor via scripting/customization (beyond iLogic), with transient graphics for visual feedback similar to GH's red-default previews. However Inventor's modeling functions are not set to input and output data trees. I won't go into detail on that, but suffice to say that the data tree associativity of GH was for me the first major difference I noticed. I've used other apps with node diagram interfaces like digital fusion for non-linear video editing since the late 90's, so the canvas did not call my attention when I first started using GH.
Anyways, here's a screen capture of the foundational lines:
In the first group of components, the centerlines of the rear columns are modeled:
And the locations in elevation for connection points are set. Those elevations were just numbers I copied from Excel, but you can obviously control that any way you please. I was just trying to model this quickly.
The same was done for the rear columns:
The above, believe it or not, took me the first 5 hours to get.
Here's a screen capture of what the model and definition looked like after 4 hours, not much:
If you're interested, next post I can get into the sketching part you mentioned, which is a bit cumbersome with GH, but not really.
I wouldn't say that using GH to do this little model was cumbersome, it just needed some thinking at the beginning. You do similar initial thinking when working with a feature-based modeler.…
Added by Santiago Diaz at 12:44am on February 24, 2011
akes the linear regression of the Schroeder integral over 30 dB worth of decay. Whether it is T-15 or T-30, they all seek to estimate the RT, which is always always the time it takes for sound to decay 60 decibels.
The website has benchmarks, for your reference. You can find them under the 'Pachyderm' drop down menu, under 'Benchmarks'.
Your model may well require millions of rays to be accurate. It sounds like a very large space. I'm sorry if that is an unpleasant answer. Sometimes it does help to have a computer with more cores to help with this. I have gotten up to 90% processor usage on a 12 core machine before.
Arthur…
hat differ in shapes, sizes and height the facade would be a mess. Some spaces need some light while other can't have any. I would like to have full freedom of creation inside the building, to make it as functional as possible. Thats why i decided the parametric "skin" solution would be best. Since the location has industrial past (factories made of brick) i decided that brick would give interesting result.
I tried creating the definition on my own but since i lack skill in GH i got some problems (especially multiplication of bricks and the diffrence between each "level" (half a brick on y axis) caused problems for me.
I post my simple sketch explaining the idea of definition i would like to create (sorry about quality):
1 - Brep - I would like to use 25x12x6cm (classic brick) but as well experiment with diffrent shapes - like the one on the right with hole inside - that would give more light. Thats why i think the best solution would be using brep for this definition.
2- Multiplication - biggest problem for me - I don't know how tall the wall would be, what will be the final shape of Brep (brick) and that's why i would like to manipulate this with sliders as well. All the walls are flat (maybe it would be easier to use surface?). As i managed to multiply the bricks easy way i don't know how to gain control over height of the wall - for example that it is 30 bricks high, but has each second row moved on x axis by the distance of 1/2 brick. I tried using Series but with no success. Could you help me with that please?
3 - Rotation - i would like to use image sampler for that so i can "paint" where i want more sun and where i dont need it at all (black and white). The rotation has to be limited to 180 degrees as well. Obviously i didn't get here yet, but i never used image sampler so if you could give me some advice how to use component and how to create such images i would be really grateful.
4 - More of a concept thing - since the connection angles differ from 90 degrees i will have to figure out how to connect the parts of the wall at sides ;).
I would like to ask you for help with the defintion, since i am totally stuck at step 2. I post what i came up with so far. Thank you for your time and help!
PS. I post an image that is pretty similar to one of options i would like to check for my building.
…
m
-Area of blue line: min. 80% of the rectangel a x b
-Max. hight h of the top point: h,max = a
-Min. Volume between rectangel a x b and membrane: 500 m3
Can anyone help me?…
es has guided me in a - what I once thought - specific path within architecture, but recent discoveries (like the Grasshopper-community etc.) have learned me that the field of digital and parametric architecture is so-to-speak alive and kicking. This is also the main subject I would like to write my thesis about. It is however mainly the subject and defining its boundaries – what do I really want to explore and research? – which is the most difficult factor at this time.
A concrete idea is non-existant, and my current visions will probably be redirected when I have a first meeting with the promotors in February. Moreover there is the knowledge that it is impossible to make a thesis at the institute in Antwerp on no matter what subject in the world of digital architecture. Understandably too, it’s a small world and does not always result in realised projects, but in impressive imagery. At this moment however, I am thinking of two possible research fields to focus on.
In a first option the focus might lie on how digital design tools can be used to bring a certain aspect of interactivity to building facades. Such interactivity can occur both in the design phase and throughout the use of the building. The first scenario, in which the interactivity occurs when designing, I would focus on how the designer can shape a building’s outer perspective in function of environmental parameters: obstacles, elements that block sunlight from entering the building, visually important landmarks, etc. It should be noted however that focus will mostly lie on the design element, and less on the energy-efficiency and sustainability. Tools that will be researched would include Grasshopper, Rhino Scripting, Processing and ParaCloud.
A second possible approach could be categorized under both Swarm Intelligence and Generative Design and might study how the aforementioned digital techniques might be implemented in the new urbanism. We notably see more (innovative) interventions in which the design and planning is heavily influenced by movement patterns and morphogenetic parameters and functions. Based on the outcome of these scripted techniques, designers tend to work towards a proposal which answers a certain urbanistic issue.
All additional insights, guidelines, tips, comments are more than welcome in order to help me define the scope of my thesis subject. I must admit I am pretty new to this digital design world (it is not actively promoted at my home university, but it is promoted at the university where I am studying for one year now) and thus have limited experience at the time of writing.
Please also feel free to check out the blog post concerning this topic, which is a little more elaborate: http://nielswouters.be/thesis-digital-design-english/
Thanks for all your help!
…
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.…
what they really mean by that, as in what buttons to push, so I assume it's a Windows Path entry?
2.) Modify PATH
Add the install location on the path, this is usually: C:\Program File\IronPython 2.7
But on 64-bit Windows systems it is: C:\Program File (x86)\IronPython 2.7
As a check, open a Windows command prompt and go to a directory (which is not the above) and type:
> ipy -V PythonContext 2.7.0.40 on .NET 4.0.30319.225
Tutorial on setting a Windows environmental variable (path):
http://www.computerhope.com/issues/ch000549.htm
But this fails to point out that path contains many entries already separated by semicolons so if I merely add a new variable called "path" it's likely that I will destroy existing program function. There's no info on how to just tack on another entry, and the Windows 7 edit box doesn't even show the whole collection, but one item (!), so I copied the existing path into a text editor to see the whole collection successfully and added the C:\Program Files (x86)\IronPython 2.7 entry after an added semicolon, correcting for an Enthought page typo of no 's' on the end of "Program Files". I also checked the others and many pointed to old missing directories so I deleted those entries.
...and the test fails and "ipy" is not recognized as a command, even though the path now shows up using "path" in the Windows CMD window, that is if I copy all by right clicking and pasting the stuff into a text editor to really view it all. I can run it from the source directory just fine.
The rabbit hole was indeed deep. Using the Task Manager (control-alt-delete) to kill Explorer and then Run in the menu to restart "Explorer," along with restarting the Windows CMD window however, worked. I can now invoke Iron Python ("ipy") via command line from any directory. For the "path" I edited path in the System Variables and not the User Variables. No, you don't have to type that whole crazy line above just to test the path variable, just "ipy" (and control-Z to quite IronPython) in the CMD window invoked by typing "cmd" into the Start menu search box.
From the CMD line this step did work fine:
3.) ironpkg
Bootstrap ironpkg, which is a package install manager for binary (egg based) Python packages. Download ironpkg-1.0.0.py and type:
> ipy ironpkg-1.0.0.py --install
Now the ironpkg command should be available:
> ironpkg -h(some useful help text is displayed here)
But of course Step 4 fails, giving pages of what seem to be error messages;
C:\Users\Nik>ironpkg scipy
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "C:\Program Files (x86)\IronPython 2.7\lib\site-packages\enstaller\utils.
py", line 92, in write_data_from_url
File "C:\Program Files (x86)\IronPython 2.7\Lib\urllib2.py", line 126, in urlo
pen
File "C:\Program Files (x86)\IronPython 2.7\Lib\urllib2.py", line 397, in open
File "C:\Program Files (x86)\IronPython 2.7\Lib\urllib2.py", line 509, in http
_response
...
Why can't I just download Numpy as a normal file and thus also have it easy for other users to install it when they use my scripts? This is just crazy and lazy. The Enthought developer has turned this into a computer game, with a missing registration link and then the last step spits out errors with utterly no information on how to fix it manually.
This Step 4 error is covered here:
http://discourse.mcneel.com/t/trying-to-import-numpy-in-rhino-python-but-im-getting-this-error-cannot-import-multiarray-from-numpy-core/12912/16…
Added by Nik Willmore at 2:36pm on October 11, 2015
ou will see all of the available components on a ribbon at once so there is no need to keep clicking drop down menus.
It's all about discoverability with GH. What if you're a beginner and don't know about the Create Facility (dbl click canvas) how can you find Extr?
Even if you hover over every component or use the drop down lists you will not see the name Extr appear anywhere.
Sure it makes sense that Extr is short for Extrude but it's also the Nick Name of Extrude to Point component
So you can easily miss the fact that one has a Distance Input verses a Point Input.
I think I made the move to Icons around about the move from version 0.5 to 0.6, possibly before. I initially thought that I would go back to text because I loved the mono chromatic look of the text but I soon realised that Icons were the way forward. The greatest benefit is speed. You don't need to digest and decipher every component (which is written 90 degrees to the norm).
I'm not saying you should move to Icons forthwith but at least consider that once you have a better knowledge and understanding of GH, Icons will set you free.
My top ten tips that I would highly recommend to anyone wanting to better themselves with GH.
1) Turn on Draw Icons
2) Turn on Draw Fancy Wires
3) Turn on Obscure Components
4) Use the Create Facility like a Command Line eg "Slider=-1<0.75<2" or "Shiftlist=-1"
5) Use Component Aliases to customise your use of the Create Facility eg giving the Point XYZ component an alias of XYZ will bring it up as the first option on the Create Facility as opposed to the other possibilities.
6) Try to answer other people's questions even if it's not relevant to your own area. By looking into solving a problem outside of your comfort zone and then posting your results it is very rewarding but it also lets you see the other approaches that get posted in a new light.
7) Take the time to understand Data/Path structures.
8) Buy a second monitor - There is nothing that can compare to real estate when working in Grasshopper.
9) Read Rajaa Issa's Essential Mathematics
10) Pick a panel in a tab on the ribbon and get to know every component inside and out and then move on. Start with the Sets Tab > List Panel…