t. So here we go!
1. Honeybee is brown and not yellow [stupid!]...
As you probably remember Honeybee logo was initially yellow because of my ignorance about Honeybees. With the help of our Honeybee expert, Michalina, now the color is corrected. I promised her to update everyone about this. Below are photos of her working on the honeybee logo and the results of her study.
If you think I'm exaggerating by calling her a honeybee expert you better watch this video:
Thank you Michalina for the great work! :). I corrected the colors. No yellow anymore. The only yellow arrows represent sun rays and not the honeybee!
2. Yellow or brown, W[here]TH Honeybee is?
I know. It has been a long time after I posted the initial video and it is not fun at all to wait for a long time. Here is the good news. If you are following the Facebook page you probably now that the Daylighting components are almost ready.
Couple of friends from Grasshopper community and RADIANCE community has been helping me with testing/debugging the components. I still think/hope to release the daylighting components at some point in January before Ladybug gets one year old.
There have been multiple changes. I finally feel that the current version of Honeybee is simple enough for non-expert users to start running initial studies and flexible enough for advanced users to run advanced studies. I will post a video soon and walk you through different components.
I think I still need more time to modify the energy simulation components so they are not going to be part of the next release. Unfortunately, there are so many ways to set up and run a wrong energy simulation and I really don’t want to add one new GIGO app to the world of simulation. We already have enough of that. Moreover I’m still not quite happy with the workflow. Please bear with me for few more months and then we can all celebrate!
I recently tested the idea of connecting Grasshopper to OpenStudio by using OpenStudio API successfully. If nothing else, I really want to release the EnergyPlus components so I can concentrate on Grasshopper > OpenStudio development which I personally think is the best approach.
3. What about wind analysis?
I have been asked multiple times that if Ladybug will have a component for wind study. The short answer is YES! I have been working with EFRI-PULSE project during the last year to develop a free and open source web-based CFD simulation platform for outdoor analysis.
We had a very good progress so far and our rockstar Stefan recently presented the results of the work at the American Physical Society’s 66th annual DFD meeting and the results looks pretty convincing in comparison to measured data. Here is an image from the presentation. All the credits go to Stefan Gracik and EFRI-PULSE project.
The project will go live at some point next year and after that I will release the Butterfly which will let you prepare the model for the CFD simulation and send it to EFRI-PULSE project. I haven’t tried to run the simulations locally yet but I’m considering that as a further development. Here is how the component and the logo looks like right now.
4. Teaching resources
It has been almost 11 months from the first public release of Ladybug. I know that I didn't do a good job in providing enough tutorials/teaching materials and I know that I won’t be able to put something comprehensive together soon.
Fortunately, ladybug has been flying in multiple schools during the last year. Several design, engineering and consultant firms are using it and it has been thought in several workshops. As I checked with multiple of you, almost everyone told me that they will be happy to share their teaching materials; hence I started the teaching resources page. Please share your materials on the page. They can be in any format and any language. Thanks in advance!
I hope you enjoyed/are enjoying/will enjoy the longest night of the year. Happy Yalda!
Cheers,
-Mostapha
…
GH works (b) creating feature driven very complex parametric parts manually (the trad way) ... and then combining them in assemblies derived from (a) with components derived from (b).
Exactly what Generative Components does (if we forget the bugs, the extremely slow response, the lack of any development, the bugs, the bugs and finally the bugs).
Creating collections (libraries) of components in Rhino it's pointless since he doesn't support feature driven modeling. This means constrained driven geometry (solids NOT surfaces - another reason for totally excluding Rhino for the scope) that describe the actual components (that belong to nested assemblies etc etc).
So back to (a) : The only thing that Rhino/GH can do (in real-life) is to outline an abstract topology with "basic/primitive" geometry in place (= lines in this case). Exactly what this WIP script does, in fact. Of course it can do calculations as well (clash detection AND drilling axis related stuff).
But never say never: let's inspect an example from some WIP project (AECOSim + Generative Components) of mine to see what can GH/Rhino additionally do (in real-life):
Imagine a rigid "ring" (the truss shown) that manages tensional forces (via cables) in a "ring like" formed tensile membrane combo. Membranes (inverse cones) pull the ring thing downwards and mast attached cables pull it upwards = equilibrium (or disaster if some cable fails, he he).
So assume that the abstract layout (lines, that is) is made with a similar GH script with the one posted here. Rhino can't even imagine doing the parametric fasteners shown - thus we exclude them from the equation.
But GH could(?) "indirectly" feed a proper CAD app (from AECOSim to CATIA) with "seed" information in order to help making the components and the assemblies of components.
For instance assume that every truss linear member is a classic MERO system (ball - sleeve - cone - tube -cone -sleeve - ball). It's pointless to create (in GH) and bake a nested Block structure with "real geometry" (surfaces, that is) and export it via STEP : we can export lines + coordinate systems instead (ACS) ... that could be sufficient for AECOSim to replace "parts containing lines + ACS" with real-life "parts containing constrained/feature driven solid objects".
So the real challenge here is to mastermind a suitable nested block structure (and an equivalent GH_structure) that could pass the right assembly/component info.
I'll be back soon with some add-on script that takes truss lines and makes them MERO style "surfaces" in order to practically outline the issue(s) and the goal.
…
he plug-in supports intuitive design of paneling concepts as well as rationalize complex geometry into a format suitable for analysis and fabrication. The plug-in is closely integrated with Rhino 7 and is widely used for architectural and other building designers.
Download
The new PanelingTools for the new Rhino 7.2 is now available. You can access Rhino 7 evaluation and upgrades from here…
Documentation
For documentation and examples, please check:
PanelingTools Manual for detailed description of commands and options.
PanelingTools for Grasshopper Manual includes tutorials and description of PT-GH components.
Paneling Scripting page has a listing of paneling methods for RhinoScript.
Paneling Tutorials page has links to video tutorials.
Paneling Short Clips page has short video tutorials that covers the core functionality of PanelingTools.
Paneling Gallery page has users projects with PanelingTools.
Videos
**NEW** PanelingTools Webinar Course - December 2014 learn how Paneling tools works and how best to integrate it into your design process.
Paneling Tools Webinar - February 11, 2011
Paneling Tools Webinar on Vimeo
Feedback
Please tell us what you think and how you are using PanelingTools to help shape future development.
Join the PanelingTools Group in Rhino Forum and post photos, news and discussions. Make sure to tag with keyword “PanelingTools”.
For questions and feedback, contact the developer.
Source: McNeel Wiki
Keshia C. Stich
Grid Paneling Group
…
as the design table? I think this could be 'drawn' and constrained in Inventor in a lot less time. I know the GH model would have a lot of flexibility, but in this case, what can you do with it that wasn't provided by an Inventor model?
Only the 27 lines mentioned were modeled in Rhino, the rest is modeled with GH.
The 5 hrs involved thinking about the approach, defining vertical lines, tilts, elevations, pitch of the roof, intersections.
Once I had decided what my approach would be, and tested the logic with those first lines, points and data path arrangements, it only took one more hour to get to this:
Which is actually quite fast, compared to MCAD workflows.
If you already have components (columns, beams, etc.) modeled and ready to drop into a project, of course it is lightning fast to model simple projects like this example.
I am not as much interested in those situations, because improving efficiency is straightforward and obvious.
I'm more interested in situations where there are no pre-defined families of objects, in which case you need to start from scratch.
The GH model I'm showing is modeled from scratch, except for the 27 lines in Rhino.
Here's one obvious advantage to modeling with GH, once the definition is set-up, it's virtually effortless to change inputs and alter the overall design. Here's an example, lets say we wanted to extend the roof 3 more units, curling away from the original direction.
Plan view before:
And after:
An MCAD app will also allow you to do this, as long as the location of additional elements follows the existing geometric method of definition. What happens if you want completely change the way you locate columns, roof slope, intersection points?
In MCAD, you'll need to re-model the underlying geometry, which will take the same effort as the first round. In GH, this process is not only much faster, it's open to algorithmic approaches, galapagos, etc. and it just takes some simple re-wiring to have all down-stream elements associate themselves to this new geoemtric definition.
For instance, here's the same definition applied to two curves, which are divided in GH, the resulting points are used as a starting point for lines directed at normal from curves.
This is not so easy to do in MCAD.…
Added by Santiago Diaz at 7:55pm on February 24, 2011
e chosen to dive into Grasshopper. I’m about 6 months in. If some of my comments are completely off, please take that to mean that a feature is too inaccessible to a newish user rather that it’s just missing, as I may have stated.
One of my primary pain points is this. Things that can be done in other programs are invariably easier in other programs. This is a big enough issue that I doubt there’s an easy solution that an armchair qb like myself can offer up.
The interface:
I’ve used a lot of 3D programs. I’ve never encountered one as difficult as grasshopper. What in other programs is a dialog box, is 8 or 10 components strung together in grasshopper. The wisdom for this I often hear among the grasshopper community is that this allows for parametric design. Yet PTC (Parametric Technology Corp.) has been doing parametric design software since 1985 and has a far cleaner and more intuitive interface. So does SolidWorks, Inventor, CATIA, NX, and a bunch of others.
In the early 2000's, when parametric design software was all the rage, McNeel stated quite strongly the Rhino would remain a direct modeler and would not become a parametric modeler. Trends come. Trends go. And the industry has been swinging back to direct modeling. So McNeel’s decision was probably ok. But I have to wonder if part of McNeel’s reluctance to incorporate some of the tried and proven ideas of other parametric packages doesn't have roots in their earlier declaration to not incorporate parametrics.
A Visual Programming Language:
I read a lot about the awesomeness and flexibility of Grasshopper being a visual programming language. Let’s be clear, this is DOS era speak. I believe GH should continue to have the ability to be extended and massaged with code, as most design programs do. But as long as this is front and center, GH will remain out of reach to the average designer.
Context sensitivity:
There is no reason a program in 2014 should allow me to make decisions that will not work. For example, if a component input is in all cases incompatible with another component's output, I shouldn't be able to connect them.
Sliders:
I hate sliders. I understand them, but I hate ‘em. I think they should be optional. Ya, I know I can r-click on the N of a component and set the integer. It’s a pain, and it gives no feedback. The “N” should turn into the number if set. AAAnd, sliders should be context sensitive. I like that the name of a slider changes when I plug it into something. But if I plug it into something that'll only accept a 1, a 2, or a 3, that slider should self set accordingly. I shouldn't be able to plug in a “50” and have everything after turn red.
Components:
Give components a little “+” or a drawer on the bottom or something that by clicking, opens the component into something akin to a dialog box. This should give access to all of the variables in the component. I shouldn't have to r-click on each thing on a component to do all of the settings.
And this item I’m guessing on. I’m not yet good enough at GH to know if this may have adverse effects. Reverse, Flatten, Graft, etc.; could these be context sensitive? Could some of these items disappear if they are contextually inappropriate or gray out if they're unlikely?
Tighter integration with Rhino:
I'm not entirely certain what this would look like. Currently my work flow entails baking, making a few Rhino edits, and reinserting into GH. I question the whole baking thing, btw. Why isn't it just live geometry? That’s how other parametric apps work. Maybe add more Rhino functionality to GH. GH has no 3D offset. I have to bake, offsetserf, and reinsert the geometry. I’m currently looking at the “Geometry Cache” and “Geometry Pipeline” components to see if they help. But I haven't been able to figure it out. Which leads me to:
Update all of the documentation:
I'm guessing this is an in process thing and you're working toward rolling GH from 0.9.00075 to 1.0. GH was being updated nearly weekly earlier this year. Then it suddenly stopped. If we're talking weeks before a full release, so be it. But if we're looking at something longer, a documentation update would help a lot. Geometry Cache and Geometry Pipeline’s help still read “This is the autogenerated help topic for this object. Developers: override the HtmlHelp_Source() function in the base class to provide custom help.” This does not help. And the Grasshopper Primer 2nd Ed. was written for GH 0.60007.
Grasshopper is fundamentally a 2D program:
I know you'll disagree completely, but I'm sticking to this. How else could an omission like offsetsurf happen? Pretty much every 3D program in existence has this. I’m sure I can probably figure out how to deconstruct the breps, join the curves, loft, trim, and so forth. But does writing an algorithm to do what all other 3D programs do with a dialog box seem reasonable? I'm sure if you go command by command you'll find a ton on such things.
If you look at the vast majority of things done in GH, you'll note that they're mostly either flat or a fundamentally 2D pattern on a warped surface.
I've been working on a part that is a 3D voronoi trimmed to a 3D model. I've been trying to turn the trimmed voronoi into legitimate geometry for over a month without success.
http://www.grasshopper3d.com/profiles/blogs/question-voronoi-3d-continued
I’ve researched it enough to have found many others have had the exact same problem and have not solved it. It’s really not that conceptually difficult. But GH lacks the tools.
Make screen organization easier:
I have a touch of OCD, and I like my GH layout to flow neatly. Allow input/output nodes to be re-ordered. This will allow a reduction in crossed wires. Make the wire positions a bit more editable. I sometimes use a geometry component as a wire anchor to clean things up. Being able to grab a wire and pull it out of the way would be kinda nice.
I think GH has some awesome abilities. I also think accessing those abilities could be significantly easier.
~p…
with the core McNeel team in Seattle for about 2 months tomorrow and I wanted to release this before I left. It's a bit rushed, clusters are definitely not as 'finished' as I'd like them to be, but there should be enough there for some good old customer feedback at least.
Just in case I horked something up, you can still download 0.7.0057 here.
Download 0.8.0001 from the usual location.
First a basic new features and bug list, then the warning section. If you don't read the warning section you forfeit any rights to complain about this new release.
● Added a new Cluster Object. This is very young code, expect big (quite possibly breaking) changes in the future.
● Added auto-panning to Drag Object and Draw Wire interactions.
● Added canvas curl UI for drag+drop options.
● Added default values to the Quad-Face and Tri-Face components.
● Added a Tree Split component for separating out branches.
● Drag+Drop with text content now creates a new Panel.
● Curve data can now convert from a Surface/Brep with a single closed edge loop.
● Added runtime message balloon feedback.
● VB and C# script components now update immediately when typehints are changed.
● VB and C# script components now update immediately when input parameter access is changed.
● MoveForward and MoveBackwards arrange options are now available.
● Added a Grasshopper Version field to the status bar.
● GraphMapper can now adjust intervals, points and vectors in addition to just numbers.
● Parameter disconnection menu items now highlight the connection in question on mouse-over.
○ The menu short-cuts for Find and Move Forward were both Ctrl+F. Find is now F3.
○ Any Undo operation would wreck the Redo stack, this no longer happens.
○ Fixed a bug with automatic tooltip resizing.
○ Fixed an erroneous "app" autocomplete member in the C# and VB script members.
○ Fixed a bug in the CurveCurve intersection SDK code that occured with overlaps.
○ Fixed a bug in the PointList display component with stale point data.
○ Fixed a nasty bug with stale document caches and undo/redo.
○ Custom Preview Meshes would always draw wires regardless of the Grasshopper view setting. This is fixed.
The Aforementioned Warning Section
This pertains mostly to clusters. At present there's no way yet to edit the contents of a cluster. You can make clusters from a selection by clicking on the toolbar cluster button (selected objects remain on the canvas, this will change), or by drag+dropping ghx files onto the canvas and selecting the Cluster Insert mode from behind the curl.
Clusters contents can be opened as new documents via the Cluster object menu, but this code is very icky still. You can edit cluster properties by double clicking on one.
It is entirely possible that clusters will change so much in the near future that old clusters might not read correctly from 0.8.0001 files. Do not use them yet on production work and always make backups.
That's it. Enjoy,
David
--
David Rutten
david@mcneel.com
Poprad, Slovakia…
Added by David Rutten at 4:27pm on October 22, 2010
nts that I have found helpful and will be included in the next release, but you can try them now. They are online at https://github.com/fequalsf/Crystallon/tree/0972066e468f0a7a592ff4e7e88226028dcb029c/V2.1I have been interested in finding ways to save settings for different iterations of a design which can be baked into a rhino file and used again later. These tools I've made are for working with divisions of a surface.The first tool (Divide Surface) is for dividing a single surface using UV parameters and outputting a quad mesh. Simple enough. What makes this powerful is you can use that mesh with the "Morph Between Meshes" tool to create your voxels. So now you can morph between surfaces with the same number of divisions but with different parameters. The other nice thing about meshes is they are simple to work with and can be further modified with other plugins (such as kangaroo). They can be baked, manually edited in rhino and saved as STL or OBJ files to use again later. I will be updating all the tools eventually to output meshes.
The next tools are for creating those divisions. Any of the components that require a parameter input need a range of values from 0-1. The simplest way to do this is with the "Range" component. The default domain is 0-1 so you only need to give it a number of steps.
To make the range non-linear, there's a few components you can use. Graph mapper is the most common tool, but you could also use the gradient tool.
But these can be difficult to work with and quite limiting. Graph mapper has a limited set of graph types to work with (I tend to use Bezier) and the gradient tool makes a steep curve which cannot change. Also making small changes is difficult and saving a setting for later is not easy.
So the next tool I made is a curve plotter. This takes your range of number (X values) and your remapped numbers (Y values) and plots the points to either a polyline or interpolated curve. This way you can see the curve the gradient is making or bake out a graph mapper curve you want to use later.
The next tool I made is a curve graph mapper, so you can map numbers using any curve drawn on the XY plane. This gives you much more freedom than the graph mapper and is easier to make small adjustments. Then you can always make many iterations of a curve and go back to any of them saved in the rhino file. There are options to view tags with the values on the curve as well as a gradient preview.
If you take a look at the curve created by the gradient tool, you can see it is basically creating a Bezier curve from the handles on the gradient (position is X value, color is Y value). The problem with using it for division parameters is the tangency of the points is always in the X direction creating a nearly horizontal section in the curve. This will give you a series of the same values, which we don't want. The falloff of the curve is also quite steep with no way of adjusting it.
If you make a lot of divisions you will also notice stepping in the curve. This is because the gradient uses RGB colors which is only a range of whole number from 0-255. So you only have a total of 256 values from 0-1.
Yet there is something elegant and user friendly about Bezier curves which makes them nice for creating gradients. So the last tool I made is for creating a Bezier curve from points. All you need to do is input at least 2 points. The second input is the tangent length multiplier (which can be one value for all or one per span of the curve) and the third is the tangent rotation in radians (also either one value or one per span).
The values are shown on the curve and can be baked as text tags if you want to save them and use the same points and values later. Or you can just bake out the curve. This makes for a simple smooth curve that makes a nice gradient.
…
a problem with SSL. Any Ideas? I am using the following code:
import json,httplib connection = httplib.HTTPSConnection('api.parse.com', 443) connection.connect() connection.request('GET', '/1/classes/MY-CLASS', '', { "X-Parse-Application-Id": "MY-APP-ID", "X-Parse-REST-API-Key": "MY-REST-API-KEY" }) result = json.loads(connection.getresponse().read()) print result
I Get the Following Messages:
Runtime error (IOException): Authentication failed because the remote party has closed the transport stream. Traceback: line 280, in do_handshake, "C:\Program Files\Rhinoceros 5.0 (64-bit)\Plug-ins\IronPython\Lib\ssl.py" line 120, in __init__, "C:\Program Files\Rhinoceros 5.0 (64-bit)\Plug-ins\IronPython\Lib\ssl.py" line 336, in wrap_socket, "C:\Program Files\Rhinoceros 5.0 (64-bit)\Plug-ins\IronPython\Lib\ssl.py" line 1156, in connect, "C:\Program Files\Rhinoceros 5.0 (64-bit)\Plug-ins\IronPython\Lib\httplib.py" line 3, in script Any help would be greatly appreciated! Thanks in advance! -Zach…
n common tasks like updating GH definitions, viewing images on the GH canvass, and augmenting existing study-types. Most of the improvements to Honeybee have been in the making for a while and are just getting into the spotlight with this release. Notably, a number of improvements have been made to support large-scale full building energy models, including fixes to memory issues with large models, better components for splitting building masses into zones, and the ability to store HBZones in external files. Additionally, the THERM workflows have gotten a boost and these simulations can now be run directly from the Grasshopper canvass.
As always you can download the new release from Food4Rhino. Make sure to remove the older version of Ladybug and Honeybee before you do so and update your scripts. So, without further adieu, here is the list of the new capabilities added with this release:
LADYBUG
Better Method for Updating Old Grasshopper Files - As many of you have come to realize, Ladybug + Honeybee is updated on a fairly regular basis, with a stable release roughly every 6 months and a github version that never ceases to improve itself on a weekly basis. For this reason, we realize that updating old Grasshopper definitions to use recent components is a challenge for many of us. While we’ve had some methods for this in the past, there were always hiccups, particularly when it came to components that had new inputs/outputs since the previous version. Accordingly, Mostapha has added a new “Ladybug_Update File” component that will automatically update any Grasshopper Definition to be synchronized with the version of Ladybug+Honeybee that is currently in your toolbar (aka. the components in your userobjects folder). If there is a component that has new inputs/outputs since the time you built the definition, it will be automatically circled in red in your GH definition and a newer version of the component will be automatically added right next to this component:
While you still have to do some manual connecting of inputs to the newer component in this case, it should be much faster than our older methods and will hopefully help your old definitions survive long into the future!
EPWmap Now includes OneBuilding Files - Mostapha has added a number of new features to the EPWmap web interface that the “Download Ladybug” component connects to. Among the improvements are a color wheel that quickly shows you how hot, cold, and comfortable a given climate is and, perhaps more importantly, there is now support for EPW files sourced from OneBuilding. With the addition of many more weather files, you should now be able to use Ladybug with ease for more locations across the planet. We should also note that the “Open EPW and STAT” component that downloads/unzips files from a URL now supports OneBuilding URLs.
New Image Viewer Component - Mingbo Peng has graced Ladybug with a fantastic new “Image Viewer” component that takes a given image file on one’s machine and displays it on the Grasshopper canvas. It also enables one to pull color data off of the image with ease by simply clicking on the pixel of the image one is interested in. This new component is useful for a wide variety of cases, including the viewing of screenshots after they have been taken with the “Ladybug_Capture View” or “Ladybug_Render View” components. However, many of you will likely recognize it as most immediately useful in workflows involving image-based Honeybee Daylight (Radiance) simulations. This is particularly true as Migbo has built-in the capability to read many image file types, including PNG, JPEG, GIF, TIFF and the High Dynamic Range (.HDR) image files that Radiance Outputs:
The following video gives a quick overview of the Image Viewer’s capabilities:
The new component can be found under the Ladybug_Extra tab and I think I speak for us all in saying thank you Mingbo for this great component!
New Sun Shades Calculator Released Under WIP - After over a year of software development and nearly a career's worth of geometric math development, a joint effort between Abraham Yezioro and Antonello Di Nunzio has produced a new sun shade design component that can be described as nothing short of “magical.” Based on a similar principle to the current “Ladybug_Shading Designer,” the new component takes an input of sun vectors and produces shade geometries that can block the vectors. However, in comparison to the shading designer, the range of shade options that are available in this new component is truly staggering, ranging from classic overhangs, louvers and fins to pergolas and custom shade surfaces. Perhaps more importantly, the calculation methods used by this new component are faster and more reliable. It can currently can be found under the WIP section of Ladybug and it will continue to evolve in new versions of Ladybug.
Renewable Component Now Support Sandia and CEC Photovoltaics Modules - Polishing off his many contributions to the “Renewables” section of Ladybug, Djordje Spasic has added support for a couple more ways of defining Photovoltaic modules for renewables estimation. Specifically, the Ladybug WIP section now includes components to import modules defined with the California Energy Commission (CEC) and Sandia Labs.
HONEYBEE
Support for OpenStudio 2.x - A few months ago, the National Renewable Energy Lab (NREL) released a stable version of OpenStudio version 2, which included a number of improvements in stability and available features. This stable release of Honeybee is built to work with the new version of OpenStudio and, in the coming months, Honeybee will be adding a few more capabilities to its OpenStudio workflows to support v2.x’s new capabilities. Most notable among these will be support for OpenStudio measures. Measures are short scripts written in Ruby using OpenStudio’s SDK to quickly edit and change OpenStudio models. They are fundamental to visions of OpenStudio as a flexible energy modeling interface and to Honeybee’s goals of being a collaborative interface between the architectural and engineering industries. Stay tuned for the next release for many of these new capabilities!
Critical Memory Issue Fixed for Large Energy Models - A number of you wonderful members of our community have been aware of computer memory issues with large Honeybee models for some time (examples: 1, 2, 3, 4). Namely, a model that is larger than 50 zones could quickly eat up 16 GBs of memory and change Honeybee from a fast-flying insect to something more reminiscent of a snail. We are happy to say that, after a much longer time than it should have taken us, we finally identified and fixed the issue. In this version of Honeybee, such large models can now be created using less than 2% of the memory and time previously. Thanks to all of you who made us aware of this and hopefully you will now reap the rewards of your struggle.
Split Building Mass Component Getting a Makeover - Many of you veteran Ladybug users will recognize Saeran Vasathakumar as one of the original contributors of Ladybug who added components for solar fans and envelopes years ago. Now he’s back with new components to split a building mass into zones that are truly revolutionary in their speed and methodology. Saeran has divided the new capabilities into two components (one for floor-by-floor subdivision and another for core-perimeter subdivision) and they both can be found under the WIP section of this release. In this WIP version, core-perimeter thermal zones can only be generated for all convex and very simple concave geometries. Most concave geometries and geometries with holes (or courtyards) in them will fail. However it can handle even very complex convex geometries with speed and ease. You can expect the component to start accommodating concave/courtyard geometries very soon.
Load / Dump HB Objects to File - Keeping in line with the support of large, full building energy models, this release includes full support for two components that can dump and load any HBObjects to a standalone file. All information about HBzones can go into this file including custom constructions, schedules, loads, natural ventilation, shading devices, etc. You can then send the resulting .HB file to someone else and they can load up the same exact zones in another definition. This also makes it possible to have one Grasshopper file for generating the zones and running the simulation and another GH definition to import results and color zones/surfaces with those results, make energy balance graphics, etc.
Write ViewFactorInfo to File - After many of you asked for it, the _viewFactorInfo that is output from the “Honeybee_View Factor” component can now be written out to an external file using the same Load / Dump HB Objects components cited above. For those of you who have worked with the comfort map workflows, you probably already know that calculating these view factors is one of the most time consuming portions of building a microclimate map. Having to re-run this calculation each time you want to open up the Grasshopper script is a nuisance and, thanks to this new capability, you should only have to run it once and then store your results in an external .HB file.
Transform Honeybee Components Modified for Large Model Creation - Many large buildings today are made up of copies of the same rooms repeated over and over again across multiple floors, or along a street, etc. Accordingly, one can imagine that the fastest way to create a full building energy model of such buildings is to simply move and copy the same zones several times. This is what a new set of edits to the Honeybee Transform components is aimed at supporting by allowing one to build a custom set of zones, translate them several times with a Honeybee_Transform component, then solve adjacencies on all zones to make a complete energy model.
Central Plants Available on HVAC Systems - While Honeybee has historically supported the assigning of separate HVAC systems to different groups of zones, each HVAC was always an entirely new system from the ground up. So a building with separate VAV systems for each floor would be modeled with a different chiller and boiler for each floor. While this can be the case sometimes, it is more common to have only one chiller and boiler per building but separate air systems for each floor. The new ‘centralPlant_’ options on the Honeybee coolingDetails and heatingDetails enable you to create this HVAC structure by making a single boiler and chiller for any HVAC systems that have this option toggled on. Furthermore, in the case of VRF systems, you can also centralize the ventilation system, using the grouping of zones around a given HVAC to assign which zone terminals are connected to a given heat pump.
More HVAC Templates Added - As the profession continues to push the industry standard towards lower-energy HVAC systems, Honeybee intends to keep up. In this release, we have included a few more templates for modeling advanced HVAC systems including Radiant Ceilings, Radiant Heated Floors + VAV Cooling, and Two Ground Source Heat Pump (GSHP) systems. Variable Refrigerant Flow (VRF) systems have also gotten a large boost as it is now possible to model these systems with more efficient water-source loops. The next release will include the ability to model central ground source systems that use hydronics for heating cooling delivery.
Run THERM Simulations Directly from Grasshopper - Anyone who has used the THERM workflow in the past likely realized that, while Honeybee can write the THERM file, you would still have to open model in THERM yourself and hit “simulate” to get results. Now that LBNL has started a transition to becoming more open, they have graciously allowed free access for everyone to run THERM from a command line. What this means for Honeybee is that you no longer need to open THERM at all in order to get results and you can now work entirely in Rhino/Grasshopper. This also opens up the possibility of long parametric runs with THERM models since you can now automatically run simulations and collect results as you animate sliders, use galapagos, etc. A special thanks is due to the LBNL team for exposing this feature, including Setphen Selkowitz, Christian Kohler, Charlie Curcija, Eleanor Lee, and Robin Mitchell.
All Options Exposed for THERM Boundary Conditions - To finish off the full implementation of THERM in Honeybee, a final component has been added called “Honeybee_Custom Radiant Environment.” This component completes the access to all boundary condition options that THERM offers, including separate radiant and air temperatures, different view factor models, and the specification of additional heat flux (which is typically used to account for solar radiation).
Improvements to Schedule-Generating Components - Many of you who have watched the Honeybee energy modeling video tutorials have likely gotten in the habit of using CSV schedules for everything. While this is definitely one valid way to work, it is not always the most efficient since simple schedules can be specified much more cleanly to EnergyPlus/OpenStudio and the use of CSVs can also make it difficult to share your energy models (since you have to send CSV files along with the schedules themselves). This release adds two new schedule components that should take care of a lot of cases where CSV schedules were unnecessary. The new “Constant Schedule” component allow you to quickly make a schedule that is set at a single value or a set of constantly repeating 24-hour values. The second component allows you to create “Seasonal Schedules” by connecting “week schedules” from the other schedule components along with analysis periods in which these seek schedules operate. Together, these will hopefully make our schedule-generating habit a bit better as a community.
Lastly, many of you may know Mingbo Peng as the current maintainer of the Design Explorer web interface and the Colibri components under TTToolbox. Both of these tools have been revolutionary in enabling “brute force” studies of design spaces (aka. Grasshopper scripts where one runs all combinations of a set of sliders). Now, Mingbo has graced Ladybug with the aforementioned image viewer component and it is with pride that we welcome Mingbo Peng to the development team!
As always let us know your comments and suggestions.Cheers!
The Ladybug Tools Development Team
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currently within a fake euphoria framework - blame China/UAE) and a potential decision about doing/developing this or doing that … well …anyway … read and enjoy.
AEC matters: The good, the bad and the ugly.
The bad news: Rhino is NOT suitable for the job (although some use it … but only in the sense that people use Modo for the so called “hard modeling”). By job I mean things up to shop drawing level + specs + you and me (we call it Final level) – nothing to do with sketches and outlines of some abstract “schematic” topology.
The ugly news: The so called Design-Construct approach gains exponentially momentum especially in countries the likes of China/UAE/BRICS (95% of the whole AEC activity worldwide happens there). DeCo means: AEC engineers deliver some kind of study in a preliminary level and the main contractor splits (outsourcers) the job and assigns the study completion AND the construction to various sup-constructors. That thing appeared first – in a large scale - in Dubai 15 years ago. This means that the era of Sergio Pininfarina is over and out: welcome anonymous Toyota designer. In plain English: days of construction corporations fast replacing practices. Dead men walking.
The good news: All AEC related apps (Revit, AECOsim, Allplan and the likes) are in a lethargic state as regards the brave new world (based on the archaic level driven organization schemas etc etc). Of course they all claim the exact opposite and point that support BIM (nobody mention PLM) better than the other guy. But the 21st century – helped by 2 forthcoming unavoidable crisis (a) about shortage of water (b) about transition from carbon to hydrogen economy – isn’t about bureaucracy: think cost/resources optimization and “fitness” rather than China/UAE type of liquid trend. Days of euphoria fast approaching the Wall.
Top to bottom and visa versa.
Old days Titans (Oscar, Mies, Walter, Pierre Luigi, Frank, Eero, blah blah) outlined things (mostly using crayons) and the rest were struggling to translate these in reality in an one way vector like process : Top to bottom that is. These days the inverse gains momentum : when in the whole consider the part … validate … redo … validate … redo. This means bottom to top geared with top-to-bottom. In plain English : child imposes rules to parent and parent imposes rules to child. This means classic MCAD feature/history modeling (CATIA/NX/MS). This is something that Rhino can’t do (not to mention that Rhino is a surface modeler – a rather critical fact).
The parts that are bigger than the whole.
Go there ( http://www.behance.net/gallery/2885057/a-myriad-of-cables) are inspect the whole thing: it’s a parametric nightmare made with the other guy (Generative Components – slower than a Skoda + bugs + why bother?). But the whole (masts and membranes and the likes) means nothing here: focus to the details that are critical for connecting this with that. Complex feature driven solids that are made with internal (on a per se basis) parameters (like fillets required for casting or radius for cable anchoring) whilst they comply with external rules/parameters (cable angles, topology clash issues etc etc). So the whole outlines possibilities … and the part either can follow…or the part must change…or the whole must change. Can you do that with GH/Rhino? And if not what’s missing? (lot’s of things to be honest).
Some other "similar" things:
The narrow picture.
I agree with what others already said and with pretty much all Ola’s points – especially the visual drag-and-drop path mapper (i.e. a visual data manipulator so to speak) and the enable/disable components in groups capability.
Some other suggestions:
A multi canvas capability. As things are right now…it’s like working in Rhino in one view (rather unsuitable I guess). In fact …since overlapping views they don’t work in Rhino…well…you know, he he.
A working auto profile arrangement capability (non twisted Loft/Sweep and the likes). Worth 1Bn dollars that one.
Ability to locate components that caused this or that in the Rhino view: meaning a 2 way communication approach : GH makes things happen in Rhino and things can indicate their cause in the GH canvas.
A robust collection of components that bake stuff in nested blocks (emulating some primitive assembly/component way of thinking). Why may you ask? Well … the whole objective is to talk to CATIA (via STEP) don’t you agree? CATIA makes things happen in real-life not Rhino.
A robust collection of components that can create real-life parametric tensile membrane solutions (get some inspiration from FormFinder: useless because it’s academic but good to point the way). Membranes (and geodesics) are the future.
I could continue at infinitum but IMHO the big picture is worth 12345,67 “focused” GH improvements.
May the Force (the dark option) be with us all.
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