nts for Ladybug too. They are based on PVWatts v1 online calculator, supporting crystalline silicon fixed tilt photovoltaics.
You can download them from here, or use the Update Ladbybug component instead. If you take the first option, after downloading check if .ghuser files are blocked (right click -> "Properties" and select "Unblock").
You can download the example files from here.
Video tutorials will follow in the coming period.
In the very essence these components help you answer the question: "How much energy can my roof, building facade, solar parking... generate if I would populate them with PV panels"?
They allow definition of different types of losses (snow, age, shading...) which may affect your PV system:
And can find its optimal tilt and orientation:
Or analyse its performance, energy value, consumption, emissions...
By Djordje Spasic and Jason Sensibaugh, with invaluable support of Dr. Frank Vignola, Dr. Jason M. Keith, Paul Gilman, Chris Mackey, Mostapha Sadeghipour Roudsari, Niraj Palsule, Joseph Cunningham and Christopher Weiss.
Thank you for reading, and hope you will enjoy using the components!
EDIT: From march 27 2017, Ladybug Photovoltaics components support thin-film modules as well.
References:
1) System losses:
PVWatts v5 Manual, Dobos, NREL, 2014
2) Sun postion equations by Michalsky (1988):
SAM Photovoltaic Model Technical Reference, Gilman, NREL, 2014
edited by Jason Sensibaugh
3) Angle of incidence for fixed arrays:
PVWatts Version 1 Technical Reference, Dobos, NREL, 2013
4) Plane-of-Array diffuse irradiance by Perez 1990 algorithm:
PVPMC Sandia National Laboratories
SAM Photovoltaic Model Technical Reference, Gilman, NREL, 2014
5) Sandia PV Array Performance Module Cover:
PVWatts Version 1 Technical Reference, Dobos, NREL, 2013
6) Sandia Thermal Model, Module Temperature and Cell Temperature Models:
Photovoltaic Array Performance Model, King, Boys, Kratochvill, Sandia National Laboratories, 2004
7) CEC Module Model: Maximum power voltage and Maximum power current from:
Exact analytical solutions of the parameters of real solar cells using Lambert W-function, Jain, Kapoor, Solar Energy Materials and Solar Cells, V81 2004, P269–277
8) PVFORM version 3.3 adapted Module and Inverter Models:
PVWatts Version 1 Technical Reference, Dobos, NREL, 2013
9) Sunpath diagram shading:
Using sun path charts to estimate the effects of shading on PV arrays, Frank Vignola, University of Oregon, 2004
Instruction manual for the Solar Pathfinder, Solar Pathfinder TM, 2008
10) Tilt and orientation factor:
Application for Purchased Systems Oregon Department of Energy
solmetric.com
11) Photovoltaics performance metrics:
Solar PV system performance assessment guideline, Honda, Lechner, Raju, Tolich, Mokri, San Jose state university, 2012
CACHE Modules on Energy in the Curriculum Solar Energy, Keith, Palsule, Mississippi State University
Inventory of Carbon & Energy (ICE) Version 2.0, Hammond, Jones, SERT University of Bath, 2011
The Energy Return on Energy Investment (EROI) of Photovoltaics: Methodology and Comparisons with Fossil Fuel Life Cycles, Raugei, Fullana-i-Palmer, Fthenakis, Elsevier Vol 45, Jun 2012
12) Calculating albedo: Metenorm 6 Handbook part II: Theory, Meteotest 2007
13) Magnetic declination:
Geomag 0.9.2015, Christopher Weiss…
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:
…
using Grasshopper.Kernel.Data; using Grasshopper.Kernel.Types;
using System; using System.IO; using System.Xml; using System.Xml.Linq; using System.Linq; using System.Data; using System.Drawing; using System.Reflection; using System.Collections; using System.Windows.Forms; using System.Collections.Generic; using System.Runtime.InteropServices;
/// <summary> /// This class will be instantiated on demand by the Script component. /// </summary> public class Script_Instance : GH_ScriptInstance { #region Utility functions /// <summary>Print a String to the [Out] Parameter of the Script component.</summary> /// <param name="text">String to print.</param> private void Print(string text) { /* Implementation hidden. */ } /// <summary>Print a formatted String to the [Out] Parameter of the Script component.</summary> /// <param name="format">String format.</param> /// <param name="args">Formatting parameters.</param> private void Print(string format, params object[] args) { /* Implementation hidden. */ } /// <summary>Print useful information about an object instance to the [Out] Parameter of the Script component. </summary> /// <param name="obj">Object instance to parse.</param> private void Reflect(object obj) { /* Implementation hidden. */ } /// <summary>Print the signatures of all the overloads of a specific method to the [Out] Parameter of the Script component. </summary> /// <param name="obj">Object instance to parse.</param> private void Reflect(object obj, string method_name) { /* Implementation hidden. */ } #endregion
#region Members /// <summary>Gets the current Rhino document.</summary> private readonly RhinoDoc RhinoDocument; /// <summary>Gets the Grasshopper document that owns this script.</summary> private readonly GH_Document GrasshopperDocument; /// <summary>Gets the Grasshopper script component that owns this script.</summary> private readonly IGH_Component Component; /// <summary> /// Gets the current iteration count. The first call to RunScript() is associated with Iteration==0. /// Any subsequent call within the same solution will increment the Iteration count. /// </summary> private readonly int Iteration; #endregion
/// <summary> /// This procedure contains the user code. Input parameters are provided as regular arguments, /// Output parameters as ref arguments. You don't have to assign output parameters, /// they will have a default value. /// </summary> private void RunScript(bool bake, List<GeometryBase> G, Point3d L, Color C) { COL = C; LOCATION = L; NAME = ""; pnts.Clear(); crvs.Clear(); breps.Clear();
foreach(GeometryBase geom in G){ switch(geom.GetType().Name){ case "Point": pnts.Add(((Rhino.Geometry.Point) geom).Location); break; case "Curve": //create a new geometry list for display break; case "PolyCurve": crvs.Add((PolyCurve) geom); break; case "Brep": breps.Add((Brep) geom); break; default: Print("Add a new case for this type: " + geom.GetType().Name); break; } }
if(bake){ Rhino.DocObjects.InstanceDefinition I = doc.InstanceDefinitions.Find(NAME, false);
if(I != null) doc.InstanceDefinitions.Delete(I.Index, true, true);
int index = doc.InstanceDefinitions.Add(NAME, "description", Point3d.Origin, G); doc.Objects.AddInstanceObject(index, Transform.Scale(L, 1)); } }
// <Custom additional code> //GEOMETRY Lists to display
List<Point3d> pnts = new List<Point3d>(); List<PolyCurve> crvs = new List<PolyCurve>(); List<Brep> breps = new List<Brep>();
string NAME; Point3d LOCATION; int THICKNESS = 2; Color COL;
//Return a BoundingBox that contains all the geometry you are about to draw. public override BoundingBox ClippingBox { get { return BoundingBox.Empty; } } //Draw all meshes in this method. public override void DrawViewportMeshes(IGH_PreviewArgs args) {
}
//Draw all wires and points in this method. public override void DrawViewportWires(IGH_PreviewArgs args) { foreach(Point3d p in pnts) args.Display.DrawPoint(p, Rhino.Display.PointStyle.ControlPoint, THICKNESS, COL);
foreach(PolyCurve c in crvs) args.Display.DrawCurve(c, COL, THICKNESS);
foreach(Brep b in breps) args.Display.DrawBrepShaded(b, new Rhino.Display.DisplayMaterial(COL));
args.Display.DrawPoint(LOCATION, Rhino.Display.PointStyle.ActivePoint, 3, Color.Black); args.Display.Draw3dText(NAME, Color.Gray, new Plane(LOCATION, Vector3d.ZAxis), THICKNESS / 3, "Arial"); }
// </Custom additional code> }…
ion of both Ladybug and Honeybee. Notable among the new components are 51 new Honeybee components for setting up and running energy simulations and 15 new Ladybug components for running detailed comfort analyses. We are also happy to announce the start of comprehensive tutorial series on how to use the components and the first one on getting started with Ladybug can be found here:
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLruLh1AdY-Sj_XGz3kzHUoWmpWDXNep1O
A second one on how to use the new Ladybug comfort components can be found here:
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLruLh1AdY-Sho45_D4BV1HKcIz7oVmZ8v
Here is a short list highlighting some of the capabilities of this current Honeybee release:
1) Run EnergyPlus and OpenStudio Simulations - A couple of components to export your HBZones into IDF or OSM files and run energy simulations right from the grasshopper window! Also included are several components for adjusting the parameters of the simulations and requesting a wide range of possible outputs.
2) Assign EnergyPlus Constructions - A set of components that allow you to assign constructions from the OpenStudio library to your Honeybee objects. This also includes components for searching through the OpenStudio construction/material library and components to create your own constructions and materials.
3) Assign EnergyPlus Schedules and Loads - A set of components for assigning schedules and Loads from the Openstudio library to your Honeybee zones. This includes the ability to auto-assign these based on your program or to tweak individual values. You can even create your own schedules from a stream of 8760 values with the new “Create CSV Schedule” component. Lastly, there is a component for converting any E+ schedule to 8760 values, which you can then visualize with the standard Ladybug components
4) Assign HVAC Systems - A set of components for assigning some basic ASHRAE HVAC systems that can be run with the Export to OpenStudio component. You can even adjust the parameters of these systems right in Grasshopper.
Note: The ASHRAE systems are only available for OpenStudio and can’t be used with Honeybee’s EnergyPlus component. Also, only ideal air, VAV and PTHP systems are currently available but more will be on their way soon!
5) Import And Visualize EnergyPlus Results - A set of components to import numerical EnergyPlus simulation results back into grasshopper such that they can be visualized with any of the standard Ladybug components (ie. the 3D chart or Psychrometric chart). Importers are made for zone-level results as well as surface results and surfaces results can be easily separated based on surface type. This also means that E+ results can be analyzed with the new Ladybug comfort calculator components and used in shade or natural ventilation studies. Lastly, there are a set of components for coloring zone/surface geometry with EnergyPlus results and for coloring the shades around zones with shade desirability.
6) Increased Radiance and Daysim Capabilities - Several updates have also been made to the existing Radiance and Daysim components including parallel Radiance Image-based analysis.
7) Visualize HBObject Attributes - A few components have been added to assist with setting up honeybee objects and ensuing the the correct properties have been assigned. These include components to separate surfaces based on boundary condition and components to label surfaces and zones with virtually any of their EnergyPlus or Radiance attributes.
8) WIP Grizzly Bear gbxml Exporter - Lastly, the release includes an WIP version of the Grizzly Bear gbXML exporter, which will continue to be developed over the next few months.
And here’s a list of the new Ladybug capabilities:
1) Comfort Models - Three comfort models that have been translated to python for your use in GH: PMV, Adaptive, and Outdoor (UTCI). Each of these models has a “Comfort Calculator” component for which you can input parameters like temperature and wind speed to get out comfort metrics. These can be used in conjunction with EPW data or EnergyPlus results to calculate comfort for every hour of the year.
2) Ladybug Psychrometric Chart - A new interactive psychrometric chart that was made possible thanks to the releasing of the Berkely Center for the Built Environment Comfort Tool Code (https://github.com/CenterForTheBuiltEnvironment/comfort-tool). The new psychrometric chart allows you to move the comfort polygon around based on PMV comfort metrics, plot EPW or EnergyPlus results on the psych chart, and see how many hours are made comfortable in each case. The component also allows you to plot polygons representing passive building strategies (like internal heat gain or evaporative cooling), which will adjust dynamically with the comfort polygon and are based on the strategies included in Climate Consultant.
3) Solar Adjusted MRT and Outdoor Shade Evaluator - A component has been added to allow you to account for shortwave solar radiation in comfort studies by adjusting Mean Radiant Temperature. This adjusted MRT can then be factored into outdoor comfort studies and used with an new Ladybug Comfort Shade Benefit Evaluator to design outdoor shades and awnings.
4) Wind Speed - Two new components for visualizing wind profile curves and calculating wind speed at particular heights. These allow users to translate EPW wind speed from the meteorological station to the terrain type and height above ground for their site. They will also help inform the CFD simulations that will be coming in later releases.
5) Sky Color Visualizer - A component has been added that allows you to visualize a clear sky for any hour of the year in order to get a sense of the sky qualities and understand light conditions in periods before or after sunset.
Ready to Start?
Here is what you will need to do:
Download Honeybee and Ladybug from the same link here. Make sure that you remove any old version of Ladybug and Honeybee if you have one, as mentioned on the Ladybug group page.
You will also need to install RADIANCE, DAYSIM and ENERGYPLUS on your system. We already sent a video about how to get RADIANCE and Daysim installed (link). You can download EnergyPlus 8.1 for Windows from the DOE website (http://apps1.eere.energy.gov/buildings/energyplus/?utm_source=EnergyPlus&utm_medium=redirect&utm_campaign=EnergyPlus%2Bredirect%2B1).
“EnergyPlus is a whole building energy simulation program that engineers, architects, and researchers use to model energy and water use in buildings.”
“OpenStudio is a cross-platform (Windows, Mac, and Linux) collection of software tools to support whole building energy modeling using EnergyPlus and advanced daylight analysis using Radiance.”
Make sure that you install ENERGYPLUS in a folder with no spaces in the file path (e.g. “C:\Program Files” has a space between “Program” and “Files”). A good option for each is C:\EnergyPlusV8-1-0, which is usually the default locations when you run the downloaded installer.
New Example Files!
We have put together a large number of new updated example files and you should use these to get yourself started. You can download them from the link on the group page.
New Developers:
Since the last release, we have had several new members join the Ladybug + Honeybee developer team:
Chien Si Harriman - Chien Si has contributed a large amount of code and new components in the OpenStudio workflow including components to add ASHRAE HVAC systems into your energy models and adjust their parameters. He is also the author of the Grizzly Bear gbxml exporter and will be continuing work on this in the following months.
Trygve Wastvedt - Trygve has contributed a core set of functions that were used to make the new Ladybug Colored Sky Visualizer and have also helped sync the Ladybug Sunpath to give sun positions for the current year of 2014
Abraham Yezioro - Abraham has contributed an awesome new bioclimatic chart for comfort analyses, which, despite its presence in the WIP tab, is nearly complete!
Djordje Spasic - Djordje has contributed a number of core functions that were used to make the new Ladybug Wind Speed Calculator and Wind Profile Visualizer components and will be assisting with workflows to process CFD results in the future. He also has some more outdoor comfort metrics in the works.
Andrew Heumann - Andrew contributed an endlessly useful list item selector, which can adjust based on the input list, and has multiple applications throughout Ladybug and Honeybee. One of the best is for selecting zone-level programs after selecting an overall building program.
Alex Jacobson - Alex also assisted with the coding of the wind speed components.
And, as always, a special thanks goes to all of our awesome users who tested the new components through their several iterations. Special thanks goes to Daniel, Michal, Francisco, and Agus for their continuous support. Thanks again for all the support, great suggestions and comments. We really cannot thank you enough.
Enjoy!,
Ladybug + Honeybee Development Team
PS: If you want to be updated about the news about Ladybug and Honeybee like Ladybug’s Facebook page (https://www.facebook.com/LadyBugforGrasshopper) or follow ladybug’s twitter account (@ladybug_tool).
…
hopper) and High Definition visualizations (V-Ray) and exploring its scientific innovations supporting the users' platform philosophical ideas.
SESSIONS: 5 sessions of 8 hours (40 hours total)
E-MAIL: educacion@chconsultores.net
REGISTRATION: (55) 56 62 57 93
TECHNICAL INFO: 044 (55) 31 22 71 83
INSTRUCTORS: Have past experience working at Gehry Technologies, and participated at studios with Eric Owen Moss and Tom Wiscombe at SCI-Arc (Southern California Institute of Architecture).
Day 1: Introduction to MAYA tools, 3D exercise start.
Day 2: Continue 3D exercise.
Day 3: Original 3D architecture design.
Day 4: Grasshopper optional application on 3D architecture design.
Day 5: V-Ray Application on 3D architecture design.
30 DAY TRIAL SOFTWARE DOWNLOAD:MAYA 2012: http://www.autodesk.com/products/autodesk-maya/free-triaRHINO 4: http://s3.amazonaws.com/files.na.mcneel.com/rhino/4.0/2011-02-11/eval/rh40eval_en_20110211.exe3DS MAX 2010: http://www.autodesk.com/products/autodesk-3ds-max/free-trialVRAY FOR 3DS MAX: http://www.vray.com/vray_for_3ds_max/demo/thankyou.shtml#thankyouPHOTOSHOP e ILLUSTRATOR: https://creative.adobe.com/apps?trial=PHSP&promoid=JZXPS
www.helenico.edu.mx
www.scifi-architecture.com/#!workshops/c1wua
LIKE US ON: www.facebook.com/scifiarchitecture
…
ails.
Some word about the mesh... (see Image_01)
I took a flat 4 points NURBS surface as imput (very easy, it defines the total area of my pavilion) and some points (that defines the contact with the ground).
Then I extracted a grid of points from the NURBS (Surface_Util_Divide surface) and compared 'em with the contol points, in order to associate to each grid's point its own attractor (Vector_Point_Closest Point).
Than I moved the points down. I used the distance from each point to its attractor (inverted) as amplitude for the vector of the movement, in order to say: the nearer you are to the control point, the more intense your movement will be. During this operation I've passed the distances' data list into a graph mapper (Params_Special_Graph Mapper), in order to regulate in a very intuitive and interactive way the shaping of my canopy.
At the end of the process I asked GH for a simple Delaunay mesh (Mesh_Triangulation_Delaunay Mesh). It's a very cool command, I believe!!!
Ok, now some word about the component, it's design and it's repetition/adaptation to the mesh...
(see Image_02)
I took the mesh and extracted components on first and faces's information on second. Then I selected and separated the vertexes (1°, 2°, 3°) of each triangular face into threee well defined list.
Then I re-created the triangles' edges. Please pay attention because it's not the same if you use output information from Delaunay components, because here we need a justapposition of edges where triangles touches each others.
After this work I joined the edges and found their centroid. At the same time I found the mid point of each edge.
Now the component... (see Image_03)
It' a little bit longer to describe: I'll try to be synthetic.
Substantially it is a loft from a curve to a point, repeated three times for each triangle (Surface_Freeform_Extrude Point). The point is an elevation of the centroid of the triangle (you can choose if the exstrusion has a single height or it's related to an attractor. In my case it was fixed). The curve is combination of things. There's an arch, which starts on the edge (there's an offset from the corner) end terminates on the same edge (on the other side, obviously). While it's generation the arch passes through a third point which belong to another segment. This last connects the mid point of the original edge (base triangle) with the centroid. The result is a kind of polyline, with two segments and an arch. If you go back to the image of the component that I posted probably you'll understand what I'm saying better than with the definition.
The posit…
ou mean by 'Activate Direct Rhino Modifying'. Perhaps you could expand?
I like the idea of mixing and matching script and 'direct' modeling. There seems to be a lot of potential platforms for this:
1. Implict History: Is there a way for GH to read the direct modifications (with History activated) and translate this as a component (or cluster of components?)? IH seems to record the UI events and the associated elements. GH would need to write as well as read the IH info, in order to preserve as much flexibility downstream as possible. You mentioned Houdini. H seems to record all 'implicit' or direct mods, done via the CAD mouse-based UI, in its network graph. Maybe, this should be captured in the IH cluster/component mentioned above.
2. RhinoParametrics: RP has done a lot of work to intercept and translate Rhino commands into its version of Implicit History. Seems to be centred on points, which makes sense as so much of the traditional 'dumb' way of inputing CAD info is based on mouse clicks on screen (points) predicated by commands, active locks, workplanes etc.
3. Gumball: Rubberduck's use of the new Gumball tool to capture 'direct' modeling inputs thru the Gumball points to a good source for capturing this kind or input, that is related to the 'macro recorder' approach taken by RP and IH.
4. The new Geom Cache component seems to be able to preserve a lot of info about the baked object. There may be even a way to read tagged info generated both GH baked with the "reference" object, and external to GH (by IH, the gumball or even third party apps like RP).
Would be interesting to know what kind of info is 'preserved'. Houdini seems to have a pretty consistent approach to geometric data, that seems to allow parallel NURBS/subD/mesh versions of the geometry. It also seems to have a coherent heirarchical approach to vertices/edges/loops/faces etc that allows the subelements to be arbitarily grouped for 'direct' modeling, and still be part of a procedural script.
I guess the polygon / mesh approach to geometry lends itself to this. If all the procedural commands/components all understand mesh geometry in either vertex, edge, face format, then combining direct and script modeling is doable in transparent way?
In your example above, the Geo Cache node 'flattens' the object to dumb geometry which is manipulated using Rhino, then used as a Reference object, in the next section of the graph. I guess there is nothing to stop the follow on components reading the precedenting graph for parameters, for additional intelligence?
Does GH 'get' or 'put' parameter data?
…
sophy though, I have a rudimentary grasp of the Ancient Greeks and modern schools of thought such as Existentialism and Pragmatism, but there is certainly no depth in my understanding. However here the same rule applies. You can quote philosophy all you want, but unless you understand that which you're channelling you can be -at best- accidentally correct.
According to you, these are all vital characteristics:
Aesthetic judgement
Intuition about spatial effectiveness
Knowledge of construction materials & assembly systems
Consideration of performance-driven design properties
Mad synthesizing skillz
[1] and [2] are pretty much worthless, especially when we're dealing with students. Aesthetic judgement is not something that can be wrong or right. You can hone your aesthetic skills but you cannot cultivate better tastes. Intuition is also problematic. It's basically a stand-in for argumentation. Instead of saying "these buildings have to have 20 meters apart because of wind/sound/human perception/human psychology/light/shadow/etc. etc" is a far stronger statement than "these buildings have to have 20 meters apart because of my feelings". Who are you to be trusted? If you have a long and distinguished career backing you up, maybe your opinions carry some weight, but until that point you'd better be prepared to justify your decisions with cold hard logic and data.
[3] is certainly important for certain jobs in construction, but it can be argued that implementation details are not necessarily central to a design. One can design a good computer interface without having to be able to program, and certainly without being familiar with all the idiosyncrasies of a particular programming language. Conversely, one can design an excellent space without knowing exactly how strong certain atomic bonds are. If what you design is physically impossible, then obviously something has to change, but it doesn't mean that the design as an abstract idea was bad. Of course on the other hand one can argue that designing impossible things is not doing anyone any favours. I'm not exactly certain where I stand on this issue, probably comfortably in the middle; YES, students need to learn about what can be build in the physical world, but NO that is not part of design training.
I'm not quite sure what [4] means.
[5] is true for a lot of professions, not just Architects. I would concede that architects probably have more to take into account than most designers and that it is indeed an important skill to have.
I would say that -especially for students, who have little experience- an incredibly important skill to be able to ask yourself "why am I doing this?" about pretty much every decision you make. Basically you need to get very comfortable applying the Socratic method to everything you do.
--
David Rutten
david@mcneel.com
Tirol, Austria…
Added by David Rutten at 11:03am on August 14, 2013
ctor. I do not dispose of any IGH_Goo instances, mostly because I have no idea when an instance is truly no longer needed. If any of your fields need to be disposed, you may have to implement a destructor, but I have no experience with this.
2) should I pass those classes to other parameters by DA(0, MotherClass.Duplicate?) or it is already there by GH_Goo ?
IGH_Goo is not duplicated by default. If you use DA.GetData() and ask for IGH_Goo types, you'll get a reference to the same instance as exists. Thus, if you take in an instance of your type, modify and output it, you should duplicate it yourself. But you only need to do this if you change the state of an instance.
MyGooType data = null;
if (!DA.GetData(0, ref data)) return;
data = data.Duplicate() as MyGooType;
data.Property = newValue;
DA.SetData(0, data);
3) should I create ChildClass and MotherClass in SolveInstance, or create it once as a component's field and then change theirs properties and pass it to DA (as duplicate ?)....
It's almost always better to use variables with the lowest possible scope. So method variables are preferred to class variables, class variables are preferred to static variables.
4) if I create those classes in SolveInstance, is it necessary to Dispose them there ?
NO! Do not dispose of instances that are passed on to output parameters. Disposing objects typically makes them invalid, so if you share instances with anyone else, you should not dispose them or the other code may well crash. However I don't think your types need to be disposable so this is a moot point now.
In general, if you're dealing with disposable types, and the instances aren't shared, then you dispose them as quickly as possible. But if they are shared it's a lot more complicated.
5) finally - maybe it would be better if MotherClass inherits the ChildClass ?
Maybe. Not necessarily. Depends on the classes. …
Added by David Rutten at 12:08pm on December 31, 2014