Download the New Orca3D 1.4 WIP

A new Orca3D Work-in-Progress (WIP) is now available. This new version (1.4 WIP 2014-04-15) will expire on August 5th, 2014.

Please note that this release no longer supports Rhino 4. 
This and future Orca3D WIP releases require Rhino 5.

This release includes:

• A new hull assistant for creating developable surface models. This assistant takes a new approach to the developable surface problem and is based on a composition of conic and cylindrical surface patches that guarantees to form a mathematically developable surface model. See the Orca3D Help File for a detailed discussion of the new developable surface functionality.
• Fixed a bug in the Orca tree view which caused a crash in Rhino 5.
• Fixed some error condition message handling in Orca3D hydrostatics.
• Addressed a units and persistence issue related to overriding the initial plane height for free float hydrostatics in the Orca3D design condition.

Download Orca3D 1.4 WIP 2014-04-15...

RhinoPolyhedra update available

The RhinoPolyhedra plug-in for Rhinoceros 5 will allow you to create and visualize a variety of polyhedral shapes; over 400 different shapes.

RhinoPolyhedra supports both 32-bit and 64-bit Rhinoceros 5.

The RhinoPolyhedra plug-in has three commands:

Polyhedron. Creates a variety of polyhedra.
PolarZonohedron. Creates a polar zonohedron.
SelPlanarSrf. Selects planar surfaces.

RhinoPolyhedra is free!

Version 1.0.14108.445 adds 16 additional prisms & antiprisms and dipyramids & trapezohedra shapes.

Download...

EXTRA FABRICA Workshop 2014

DEZACT announces the launch of a workshop series, commencing with EXTRA FABRICA WORKSHOP in June/July 2014 in Taipei, Taiwan. 

ExtraFabrica is a part of Dezact’s exploration aiming to develop and test interactive design and fabrication scenarios in neglected or problematic urban interstices and ecologies, to adapt to existing constructs for new use and identity, to catalyse socio-cultural activities and to engage behaviour parallax between physical and virtual environments.

Visit the website for more details: www.dezact.org

Scan&Solve 2014 Beta - Free Until June 18, 2014

Scan&Solve 2014 Beta is free to all Rhino 5 users until June 18, 2014. During this period, you can upgrade your current 1.x license at 40% off, or you can purchase a new license at 20% off the regular price.

Scan&Solve 2014 Beta expands the power and simplicity of structural simulation to any solid geometry within Rhino 5. It offers many powerful features, including faster solvers, higher resolutions, and automation through Rhinoscript.

Download Scan&Solve 2014 Beta...

Purchase Scan&Solve 2014...

RhinoGold presentation in Amsterdam

RhinoGold team visits Amsterdam
May 7, 2014

TDM Solutions and Dutch Innovision Group will hold a practical presentation in which attendees will not only be able to see how RhinoGold 4.0, 3D Printing and 3D scanning can work together to create different pieces of jewerly, but also how RhinoGold Jewelry Builders, Clayoo and RhinoEmboss can help.

Time: 19:00 – 22:30
Location: Duivendrechtsekade 82, 1096 AJ Amsterdam

Seats are limited. To register, send an e-mail or call +31 (0)10 30 20 880.

Complete details (in Dutch)...

More RobArch workshops

Rob|Arch 2014 will offer 8 workshops dealing with different aspects of robotic fabrication, including multi-robot cooperation, sensor feedback, an advanced design to production workflows. All workshops take place in parallel from the 14th to the 16th May. The results will be discussed at the conference - along with the scientific papers - on the 17th and 18th May.

Featured workshops:

Princeton University & Greyshed
Augmented Materiality

This workshop will demonstrate strategies for interactive and intuitive robot control during the design and fabrication processes. Rather than using the robot in isolation as a means for fabricating digital design, the robot acts as one of many mediators between the digital and physical world throughout the design process. Employing 3D scanning technologies in conjunction with user tracking, human interface devices, various sensors and augmented reality strategies, we are able to demonstrate multidirectional communication between the human designer, physical materials, computer simulation and robotic scanning/manipulation. The setup and tools will be used, experimented upon, and (ideally) modified by workshop participants.

Carnegie Mellon University
All Bent Out: Adaptative Fabrication of Bent Wood Assemblies


All Bent Out… explores adaptive fabrication techniques for robotically constructing steam-bent wood assemblies. The workshop explores a constellation of hardware and software tools that leverage the material constraints of steam bending (e.g. spring back, irregular grain) as opportunities to develop adaptive fabrication workflows where predetermined machine tasks can be informed by sensor-based events. In particular, workflows using coordinated motion control of two industrial robots and environmental sensing help to negotiate discrepancies between intended, digitally modeled geometries and actual, physically bent wood assemblies.

Shop class isn't what it used to be

Kent Winship modeling an Orca skull (KCAW photo/Robert Woolsey)

"This is not your grandfather's shop class." And John Neibergall, from Sherwood High School in Oregon, is out help others with that. Last month over spring break shop teachers convened in Sitka, Alaska, for a professional development class. Neibergall explained, "I'm helping some teachers and students get into digital design and fabrication."

So they spend three days drawing, scanning, printing, and just exploring the state-of-the-art technical tools in the shop lab.

Here at McNeel & Associates, we are particularly proud that we helped one of the teachers, Kent Winship of the UAF Bristol Bay / Dillingham campus. Self-taught in Rhino and struggling, he signed up with Bob Koll's online teacher training last November. Now Winship is a poster child of a top notch fab-lab.

KCAW, the Sitka public radio station, highlighted the class in their news.

Listen to or read the KCAW article... 

DigitArchi.com - New tutorial website in Korean

Three architecture students from Hongik University in Korea launched DigitArchi.com, a tutorial website for digital design tools including Rhino and Grasshopper.

In DigitArchi.com, you can find free video tutorials in Korean, tips and examples of Grasshopper definitions that would help those who are interested in architecture and industrial design.

More tutorials and experimental projects will be published in the website.

Visit DigitArchi.com...

Kadou coffee table and spiral mirror - Milan, Italy

Kadou coffee tables

Bonaldo will show their new products at the Salone del Mobile Milano 2014. Included are the Kadou coffee table and spiral mirror by the Japanese designer Ryosuke Fukusada.

The furniture, designed in Rhino, is named Kadou after the art of flower arrangement. Kadou's leg shapes mimic branches and are a take-off of original Kadou coat stand.

Salone del Mobile Milano 2014 will be April 8-13th in Milan, Italy.

Ryosuke will also exhibit at Ventura Lambrate in  'Another Perspective 2'.

Bonaldo details . . . 

Tech Workshops at facades+

Facades+ returns to New York City
April 24 - Conference
April 25 - Tech Workshops

Facades+ is the premiere conference on high-end building enclosures. Take advantage of your time there and sign up for one of the TECH WORKSHOPS. Get hands-on instruction from leading software developers and designers.

Register today!

Grasshopper workshops include:

Advanced Facade Panelization and Optimization Techniques
Matthew Naugle, Thornton Tomasetti
Rhino, Grasshopper, Galapagos & Kangaroo

Parametric DashboardsDaniel Davis & Tim Dumatrait, CASE, Inc.
Rhino & Grasshopper

Details and Registration... 

 

A smartwatch that looks like a watch

Motorola is coming out with a smartwatch. The innovative design part is that it looks a fashionable watch, but happens to be a touch screen. It's not a rectangular wrist gadget that happens to to show the time and date.

The press may be all excited and throwing out theories on the details of Motorola's new smartwatch. But what we are really excited about is that Rhino is used in its design. You can see it in this video.

Motorola expects the watch to go on sale in limited quantities this summer. It will be compatible with Android devices running 4.3 and higher.

V-Ray for Rhino developer needed - Chaos Group USA

Chaos Group USA is looking for an experienced software developer to join their V-Ray for Rhino development team in Baltimore, Maryland. This person will be responsible for the implementation of features and bug fixes for V-Ray for Rhino. This is an opportunity to work on the latest developments of the V-Ray rendering technologies.

Full job requirements and to apply...

AEC Technology Symposium in NYC

 

AEC Technology Symposium
The Cooper Union, New York City
May 16 - Symposium / May 17-18 - Hackathon

REGISTER NOW for the second Architecture, Engineering, and Construction Technology Symposium to hear noted speakers on the topics of Computational Design and Big Data.

Speakers include:

• Shane Burger, Woods Bagot, Keynote
• Scott Crawford & Erick Katzenstein, LMNts
• Jeff Vaglio, Enclos
• Daniel Segraves & Mostapha Roudsari, CORE studio Thornton Tomasetti
• Daniel Davis, CASE
• Randy Deutsch, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign 
• Andrew Heumann, NBBJ
• Jonatan Schumacher & Ben Howes, CORE studio Thornton Tomasetti

The first half of the symposium will highlight recent advances in data-intensive computational design, analysis, construction, and fabrication. The second half of the symposium will concentrate on how web-based applications can enhance these processes in the future.

The symposium will be followed by a weekend-long hackathon aimed to generate new ideas and processes for the AEC community through data-driven design and web-based applications.

To learn more about this event's schedule, symposium speakers, and hackathon leaders, please visit the CORE studio website or email AEC Conference.

Details...

SimAUD 2014 in Tampa, April 13-16

Join architecture and simulation researchers at the symposium on Simulation for Architecture and Urban Design (SimAUD). The symposium will be held April 13-16 in Tampa, Florida.

 

SimAUD Talks will take place April 14-16. Check out these Rhino and Grasshopper related talks:

• Visual Robot Programming - Linking Design, Simulation & Fabrication
• Design-Friendly Strategies for Computational Form Finding of Curved-Folded Geometries

 

About SimAUD 2014...

Buildings are the largest consumers of energy responsible for 48% of all Green House Gas emissions. Due to the complexity and multidisciplinary aspects of architecture design and construction, and urban design and society, modeling and simulation become valuable techniques to understand and optimize this enormous challenge. Scientists, engineers, managers, educators, and business professionals who develop or use simulation tools are invited to participate and present original papers.

 

Register...

3D Print exhibition - Lyon (France)

3D Print exhibition
Lyon (France)
June 17-20, 2014

Equipment in operation, advanced thematic conferences, presentations of innovative projects : 3D PRINT gives you an overall view of the latest technological advances in additive manufacturing.

Come visit authorized Rhino reseller Cadlink (together with Vanessa Steeg from McNeel Europe) to learn more about 3D Modeling, Analysis and Optimization for Rapid Prototyping.

Robotic Infiltrations workshop, Die Angewandte, Fall 2013

Tutors: 
Andrei Gheorghe, Georg Grasser, Kadri Tamre, Thibault Schwartz. 

Participating students:
Lu Jiaxing, Rhina Portillo, Matthias Urschler, Maria Valente, Yi Lin Vincent, Matea Ban

The Robotic Infiltrations workshop was a collaboration between the University of Innsbruck's REXILAB and the Institute of Architecture at the University of Applied Arts Vienna. The workshop represented a continuation of research that explores the potential of additive digital production through roboti­cally controlled placement of phase-change polymers in producing full scale structures.

The "ARCHITECTURE CHALLENGE" program is an international design workshop series in collaboration with international experts and institutions. It is intended for architecture students interested in exploring integrated digital design and fabrication while simultaneously desig­ning a full-scale built project within the teaching environment of the Institute of Architecture at the University of Applied Arts in Vienna. Architectural Design at "Die Angewandte" is taught as an integrated, multidisciplinary process. 

The design process in the workshop was enriched with robotic design strategies, combining Grasshopper plug-ins such as the HAL and KARAMBA platforms. Specialists from Bollinger + Grohmann Engineers and invited guest experts Georg Grasser, Kadri Tamre and Thibault Schwartz from Techni­cal University Innsbruck co-tutored the workshop. Virtual simulation methods and full-scale structural engineering using robotic manufacturing were a primary focus of the workshop. Three ABB industrial robots from REXILAB were used for on-site fabri­cation.

Structural performance
Structural testing of PU foam mockups revealed a strong tension ability of the expanded material. Supporting points on the floor and suspension point on a moveable rack were defined locally, taking into account the architectural site context. Possible connection lines bet­ween these points were optimized for internal bending moments using the structural plug-in Karamba in combination with the genetic algorithm Galapagos.

Intrinsic material qualities
The geometrically accurately defined design strategy reacts with loosely defined material behavior. The precise abilities of the robots corre­late with the very uncertain geometrical condition entailing from the foam expansion process. This intuitive material behavior enriches the digital precision, resulting in artifacts of one-time unique aesthetic design results. Experimental and final production of the structure merge in one single fabrication process.

Fabrication process
A Grasshopper Definition was developed to extract 4-point nodes and 2-point connections from the final design network. HAL was used to compute specific tool paths for the three robots. A specific material mixture (PU foam, gypsum, water and hardener) developed at TU Inns­bruck combined with precise time management was required to produce the structural nodes.

See the complete workshop results here...

The team of University of Innsbruck together with Harvard GSD (Georg Grasser, Nathan King, Kadri Tamre, Allison Weiler, Marjan Colletti) is holding a Explorations in Robotic Forming of Thermoplastic Materials workshop at Rob|Arch 2014.

Digital Jewelry Symposium - Madrid (Spain)

Symposium de Joyería Digital
Madrid, Spain
May 24-25, 2014

TDM Solutions and MR Tools, with the collaboration of Solid-Scape Inc., invite you to a 2-day symposium on Digital Jewelry Design and Fabrication, including several workshops: RhinoGold, OrganicModeling with Clayoo, RhinoEmboss, Rendering, 3D Printing and Milling.

Complete details (in Spanish)...

Interactive Prototypes - FireFly at Rhino-DAY - Guadalajara, Mexico

Date: 4/3/2014 [ April 3, 2014 ]
Time: 8:00 am - 5:00 pm

Cost: US $95

Course Description:
Drag and Drop programing 

Using Grasshopper's visual programming interface, Firefly gives you the ability to create interactive programs and devices by manipulating elements graphically rather than by specifying them textually. It attempts to bridge the gap between the digital and physical worlds by simplifying the prototyping process for interactive objects. It combines a specialized set of components with a novel communication protocol (called the Firefly Firmata, or Firmware) which together enable real-time feedback between hardware devices such as the well-known Arduino microcontroller and the Rhino / Grasshopper modeling environment. All this happens instantly - so there's no compiling. Your program runs as you build it, making development and prototyping an extremely rapid process.

Optional: Arduino/FireFLY electronics kit: [ Price 129.00 US$ ] 

Join us also for the 2-day Master Lectures April 4-5
Please go to: http://mcneelmiami.com/rhino_day_2014
Details...

Location:
Rhino-DAY - Tec de Monterrey, Campus Guadalajara (map)
Av. General Ramon Corona # 2514 - Zapopan
Guadalajara, 45201
Mexico

To Register:
e-mail: Jackie Nasser
phone: +(305) 513 4445
http://www.mcneelmiami.com/inc/sdetail/1730

RhinoCAM 2 1/2 y 3 axis at Rhino-DAY - Guadalajara, Mexico

Date: 4/2/2014 [ April 2, 2014 ]
Time: 8:00 am - 5:00 pm

Cost: US $95

** Bring your own Laptop with Rhino 5 and RhinoCAM installed ** 

Course description:
First part: RhinoCam 2 1/2 ejes

1.- Material de trabajo
2.- Orientacion del modelo
3.- Creacion de herramientas y parametros de maquinado
4.- Maquinado de perfiles
5.- Maquinado de cajas

Second part: RhinoCam 3 ejes

1.- Maquinado de desbaste
2.- Maquinado de acabado

No te pierdas tambien de participar de las Conferencias Magistrales Abril 4-5
Por favor visita: http://mcneelmiami.com/rhino_day_2014

Location:
Rhino-DAY - Tec de Monterrey, Campus Guadalajara (map)
Av. General Ramon Corona # 2514 - Zapopan
Guadalajara, 45201
Mexico

To Register:
e-mail: Jackie Nasser
phone: +(305) 513 4445
http://mcneelmiami.com/inc/sdetail/1706

Stone setting and its 3-D model for Rapid Prototyping at RHINO-DAY - Guadalajara, Mexico

 Date: 4/2/2014  [April 2, 2014]

Time: 8:00 am - 5:00 pm

Cost: US $95

Course Description:
This hands-on demonstration will cover the basic knowledge of stone setting and how to model jewelry for stone setting purpose. Also, we will discuss the difference between model for RP [Rapid Prototyping] and rendering.

Note: PJ-Chen is an ART, Authorized Rhino Trainer and works full time as a professor at SCAD

** Bring your own Laptop with Rhino 5 installed ** 

Join us also for the 2-day Master Lectures April 4-5
Please go to: http://mcneelmiami.com/rhino_day_2014

Location:
Rhino-DAY - Tec de Monterrey, Campus Guadalajara (map)
Av. General Ramon Corona # 2514 - Zapopan
Guadalajara, 45201
Mexico

To Register:
e-mail: Jackie Nasser
phone: +(305) 513 4445
http://mcneelmiami.com/inc/sdetail/1747

Paneling solutions from concept to fabrication at Rhino-DAY - Guadalajara, Mexico

Date: 4/2/2014 - [April 02-2014]
Time: 8:00 am - 5:00 pm

Cost: US $95

Course description:
PanelingTools plug-in generates 2D and 3D cellular patterns and populates them over rectangular grids.

In this workshop you will learn to create intuitive design of paneling concepts. As well, you will rationalize complex geometry into a format suitable for analysis and fabrication. The plug-in is closely integrated with Rhino 5 and is widely used for architectural, building designers, and industrial designers. 

** Bring your own laptop with Rhino 5 installed ** 

Join us also for the 2-day Master Lectures April 4-5
Please go to: http://mcneelmiami.com/rhino_day_2014

Location:
Rhino-DAY - Tec de Monterrey, Campus Guadalajara (map)
Av. General Ramon Corona # 2514 - Zapopan
Guadalajara, 45201
Mexico

To register:
e-mail: Jackie Nasser
phone: +(305) 513 4445
http://mcneelmiami.com/inc/sdetail/1707

Plasticity Digital Design Competition

Plasticity, an international digital design to fabrication competition, is now open and accepting submissions. Download the Competition Brief for details and eligibility.

Enter today!

Important Dates:

   April 20         Deadline for Questions
   June 29         Deadline for Registration and 1st round Submissions
   July 14          Finalists announced
   Oct 3             Finalist submission and 2nd round jury
   Oct 20-26      Finalists exhibition & public announcement at ACADIA
   Spring 2015   Exhibition at TEX-FAB 2015 in Houston

More...

Translating water into a 3D form

The province South Tyrol in Italy has drinkable, high quality, and mineral rich tap water. But still, the local population buys water in plastic bottles.

To entice the local population to consume tap water and as a part of the 2013 Bologna Water Design at Cersaie, Italian designer, Andreas Trenker of the Free University of Bolzano designed a series of localized water carafes.

Using five characteristics of the different water sources -- sea level, temperature, water hardness, conductivity, and pH -- Trenker used Rhino to generate the shapes and translate to a 3D form. The molds were then machined to make the carafes with Rhino and RhinoCAM.

More design process details in MecSoft blog . . . 

Thinking about Tensile Structures?

Joe Roper has been. Check out his blog where he explores the work of Frei Otto using Rhino, Grasshopper, Kangaroo, and the Weaverbird.

Rob|Arch 2014 workshops

Rob|Arch 2014 will offer 8 workshops dealing with different aspects of robotic fabrication, including multi-robot cooperation, sensor feedback, an advanced design to production workflows. All workshops take place in parallel from the 14th to the 16th May. The results will be discussed at the conference - along with the scientific papers - on the 17th and 18th May.

Featured workshops:

ICD - University of Stuttgart
Fiber Syntax
 

Fiber-reinforced polymers (FRP) possess a number of characteristics such as a high load-bearing capacity combined with minimal self-weight, which have made them the preferred choice for structural applications in a variety of engineering fields ranging from automotive to ship-building to aerospace. The performative nature of these material systems is further enhanced through design considerations at the scale of material organization which allows for a higher degree of material efficiency and morphologic articulation in light-weight constructions. Such a system requires the fabrication of complex geometries with precisely controlled fiber orientation — a difficult process to achieve on an architectural scale using traditional modes of fabrication. Existing manufacturing techniques for FRP rely on costly formwork for serial production of identical elements or complex adaptable formwork for one-off production. Neither of these strategies seems applicable to the building industry. Coreless winding strategies developed for the ICD/ITKE Research Pavilions reduces the necessity for formwork to a minimum while providing a high degree of freedom for geometrically differentiated building components.

Bot & Dolly
Craft Class 4 Robots


Bot & Dolly Reel from Bot & Dolly on Vimeo.

We will work through two creative spaces – fabrication design and visual effects – to leverage multiple human-robot interfaces for programming motion. The workshop encourages rapid iteration and experimentation using parametric and animation toolsets to design both sequential and timebased motion. Through iterative design charrettes, participants will be introduced to motion design for synchronous robotics, motion capture using multiple sensory inputs, and workflows for rapid ideation.

ACADIA 2014 | DESIGN AGENCY | Call announced

Association for Computer-Aided Design in Architecture 2014 International Conference

Conference: October 23-25, 2014

Los Angeles, CA

Workshops and Tour: October 20-22 & 26, 2014

Los Angeles, CA

DESIGN AGENCY will bring together the spectrum of research and creative practice currently in the ACADIA community, through the combined support of the research networks of the University of Southern California, University of California Los Angeles and Southern California Institute of Architecture. Questions the capacity for computation to inform or challenge traditional design processes; computation as design operation - the capacity, condition, or state of acting or of exerting power, and/or computation as design instrumentality - the design mechanism through which power is exerted or an end is achieved.

Full papers, work in progress, and projects with a special call to be announced soon.
  

For the submission information page please go to: http://2014.acadia.org/submit.html 

10th RhinoDay Italy

10th RhinoDay Italy 2014
Università degli Studi di Padova - Dipartimento di Ingegneria Civile, Edile e Ambientale11-12 April 2014


The 10th Italian User Meeting, organized by Università degli Studi di Padova - Dipartimento di Ingegneria Civile, Edile e Ambientale and sponsored by ZEN's s.r.l., has been announced and registrations are now open.

Apart from the live users' presentations, Steve Baer, Giulio Piacentino and Giuseppe Massoni (McNeel) will show the latest news on RhinoPython, Grasshopper and Rhino, respectively.

Details and registration (in Italian)...

Creative Industry Fair Szczecin 2014, Poland

Creative Industry Fair Szczecin 2014, Poland 
27 – 28 March 2014

Do you need to learn more about 3D modelling, 3D scanning and visualization? Come visit authorized Rhino reseller Bardins at Creative Industry Fair Szczecin 2014 in Szczecin, Poland and get up-close with the newest software tools.

Bardins 
Booth 9-10, room B
Szczecin ul. Cukrowa 12, budynek Service Inter - Lab
(Open from 10.00  to 17.00)

A special presentation will be held for Rhinoceros 5, Photomodeler Scanner 2014 from EOS Systems and KeyShot 4 from Luxion
Other products that will be shown are Strata 3D, V-ray, HDR Light Studio, RhinoGold, madCAM, VisualARQ, Vue xStream, Resolume and ZBrush.

Spring Species - Grasshopper workshop, Bratislava (Slovakia)

Spring Species _Grasshopper workshop
Bratislava, Slovakia
April 22-26

The workshop will focus on minimal surface physical simulations and iterative subdivisions, with an in-depth look at mesh construction and accurate topology development. We will follow various approaches of creating complex geometries, with increased control and manipulation possibilities processed by a computational subsystem articulated by Rhino 5 + Grasshopper & Sub-Plug-ins.

We will explore design potential based on physical simulations with added interactivity and the formal expressivity of tensile membrane structures.

Tutors: Andrei Padure_Romania, Alex Ahmad_Austria
Crash course tutors: Ján Pernecký_Slovakia, Rojiar Soleimani_Iran
Organizer: 3D Dreaming, research

Complete info at www.parametricbratislava.sk 

Grasshopper and V-Ray training in Nottingham (UK)

Computer Modelling with Rhino using Grasshopper and V-Ray Rendering
Nottingham Trent University, UK
April 26 - May 24

The course runs over five days, with a focus on modelling in the morning and rendering in the afternoon. It is aimed at product designers and architects interested in the generation and exploration of new shapes. The course also covers the application of professional quality rendering to constructed geometries.

Details and registration...