Pushing creativity with terra cotta in buildings

The 2019 ACAWorkshop was an opportunity to innovate and expand what is possible with terra cotta in architecture through the assembly and testing of ceramic prototypes. Teams in the weeklong event explored different applications of terra cotta in a collaborative environment at Boston Valley Terra Cotta and the UB School of Architecture Sustainable Manufacturing and Advanced Robotic Technologies Lab.

The next workshop is on August 10-14, 2020.

See how Grasshopper is used to enhance creativity in a new way to see terra cotta in the Video Highlights from the 2019 Architectural Ceramic Assemblies Workshop.

More on Phil Frank's SuperCar from Factory 5

More on Phil Frank's SuperCar from Factory 5: Simerics Rhino Flow RT provided CFD real-time simulation of the carbon fiber SuperCar designed using Rhino.

Even with little CFD experience, the SuperCar team was able to match the simulations with their wind tunnel tests. 

Influence the enhancements and development Rhino Flow RT! You can join the Rhino Flow RT Early Release program.  (CFD experience not required.)

Karamba3D Workshop by Clemens Preisinger, Mar 25-27 at McNeel Europe in Barcelona

March 25- 27, 2020

10:00 AM–6 PM

McNeel Europe S.L.

Roger de Flor, 32-34 bajos

08018 Barcelona (Spain)

Clemens Preisinger, structural engineer at Bollinger Grohmann and plug-in developer of Karamba3D,  will teach Karamaba3D from scratch. Karamba3D is a parametric structural engineering tool which provides accurate analysis of spatial trusses, frames, and shells. It is fully embedded in the parametric design environment of Grasshopper, a plug-in for the 3D modeling tool Rhinoceros. This makes it easy to combine parameterized geometric models, finite element calculations and optimization algorithms like Galapagos.

Course Outline

Day 1

• Introduction
• Presentation of recent building projects
• Definition of a basic structural system
• Results retrieval and display for beams
• Optimization of beam and truss cross sections
• Structural performance informed form finding

Day 2

• Analysis of shells and plates
• How to debug a structural model
• Results retrieval and display for shells
• Creating shell-meshes and loads
• Optimization of shell cross sections
• Form finding for shells

Day 3

• Generation and analysis of gridshells
• Eigenforms and natural vibrations
• Global buckling analysis
• The Karamba3D Utilities
• Using Karamba3D in C# scripts
• Individual project development

Karamba 1-year licenses for non-commercial use will be provided to the participants free of charge.

Course fee: EUR 795,00 (+VAT); full-time students and university teachers will get a 50 % discount (proof of status required). Please note, your seat is only confirmed once your payment has cleared.

Max. number of participants: 10. If there is no quorum, the course will be canceled 15 days before.

Course language: English 

Educational seats are limited. Sign up now by contacting McNeel Europe here! 

Prosthetics for dogs

For fun, watch Rhino help make dog prosthetics in a Comcast advertising spot. If you have a soft spot for dogs and the children who love them, you'll like this ad.

Comcast Business TV Commercial, 'Going Beyond'...

Rhino and V-Ray classes in New York

Levet Design Studio is now offering Rhino and V-Ray classes in New York. These comprehensive Rhino and V-Ray workshops are taught by Jessy Duval, a New York designer with over 15 years' experience using Rhino.

Current classes:

• Rhino and V-Ray Training—February 27-28 
• V-Ray Training—March 14 
• Design Jewelry with Rhino—March 27-28
• Animation Using Rhino and V-Ray—April 4 

Location: 

Levet Design Studio

79 West Street 

Brooklyn NY 11222

For more details...

Nate Miller reviews a few Grasshopper tools

Nate Miller of Proving Ground regularly offers respected opinions on generative design, such as his podcast discussion. Now, he has published his take on a few Grasshopper plug-ins. As Nate points out, for over 12 years, a vibrant digital design community has sprung up around Grasshopper, with its freely available plug-ins and tools that leverage “generative” concepts.

Three categories Nate discusses are:

• Evolutionary solver
• Topology optimization
• Machine learning and artificial intelligence

You can find the tools he talks about, and others, through resources such as food4Rhino. 

Free Generative Design – A brief overview of tools created by the Grasshopper community...

Webinar with Orca3D Marine CFD: Maneuvering and Other Advanced Features

Join Orca3D on February 26th for a webinar showcasing the advanced analyses available in the Premium version of Orca3D Marine CFD. CFD experts from Orca3D and Simerics, Inc. will show how you can improve your designs with computational fluid dynamics (CFD).

Find more information and register!


By the way, if you missed the last CFD webinar with Rob Kaidy, VP of Engineering for SeaVee Boats, you can view it at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SGJtLiFX1rA. Rob shows how he implemented Orca3D Marine CFD at SeaVee Boats. He first benchmarked it on some of their existing boats, using it to validate their latest high-speed stepped hull offshore fishing boat, before committing to the tooling.

Algomad 2020 - March 26-28 - Madrid (Spain)

Algomad 2020
Seminario sobre métodos computacionales y tecnologías de diseño en Arquitectura e Ingeniería
26, 27 y 28 de marzo de 2020
IE School of Architecture & Design - Madrid

Algomad is a series of workshops and talks about computational methods in architectural design.

This year with a special focus on data capture, data processing, interoperability and visualization.

The interoperability workshop will include a Rhino.Inside Revit session.

Complete details and registration (in Spanish)...

Tutorial: From line to surface in Grasshopper

Dušan Cvetković posted a new tutorial to help architects learn Rhinoceros.

This Grasshopper tutorial, a part of the Rhino for Architects Training Program, explores the ways to create a surface from two curves.

Learn the logic behind creating randomized curves so that our surface gets that wavy effect.

Tutorial: Rhino Grasshopper Creating surface from curves...

Essential Algorithms and Data Structures workshop

Rajaa Issa, the author of the new McNeel publication, Essential Algorithms and Data Structures for Computational Design, is presenting a live webinar with Performance Network.

Effective methodologies to develop complex 3D modeling algorithms using Grasshopper will be introduced. The book also covers the data structure adopted by Grasshopper and its core organization and management tools. 

The material is directed towards designers who are interested in parametric design and have little or no background in programming.

Thursday, February 13, 2020 

10:30 AM-12:00 PM PST

Download the book and example files. 

Register for the webinar!

3D-printed model of the Super Bowl stadium

Miami-Dade Police enlist students at FIU to create a 3D-printed model of the Hard Rock Stadium to help prepare for the Super Bowl.

Miami-Dade Police Department (MDPD) has used the Hard Rock Stadium model – which also splits into cross-sections – since November 2019 for table-top sessions ahead of the event on Sunday, February 2nd.

Created by students in the College of Communication, Architecture + The Arts at FIU, the four-by-five feet (1.2-by-1.5 meters) mockup details bleachers, hallways, exits, rooms, and support beams in the 65,000-seat stadium.

It has allowed the force to become better acquainted with the structure, prepare safety procedures and plans where to deploy officers for the major American football event. The model will also be used by the police for future activities like music concerts.

Watch the video...

Interested in becoming a RhinoFabStudio? A RhinoFabStudio® (fabrication studio) is a small-scale digital workshop, certified by McNeel, with an array of Rhino and Rhino compatible software and computer-controlled tools and training. These tools cover the various leading-edge industrial methods and materials needed to design, analyze, and fabricate almost anything.

xNURBS new release

Blending dozens of edges with one watertight G2 NURBS surface.

xNURBS announces the availability of ground-breaking NURBS software - xNURBS Rhino Plugin V3.

Except for surfacing quality improvements, V3 provides new capabilities, e.g., supporting command history and cloud-based licenses, etc. The following is a short answer to "why xNURBS".

Key Features of xNURBS :

• Unlimited capacities for solving NURBS: Its optimization algorithm can solve virtually any NURBS surface in a matter of milliseconds (regardless of how complex the constraints are.)


• High-quality surfaces: For a given set of constraints, xNURBS’ optimization algorithm uses an energy-minimization method to generate the smoothest NURBS surface among all possible solutions. The generated surface quality is outstanding.


• xNURBS is one super powerful NURBS tool that fixes virtually all surfacing issues for existing CAD software.


• Easy-to-use: It uses one simple UI for all kinds of NURBS modeling.


• Super robust: xNURBS is rock solid and works flawlessly.


• Native CAD surfaces: XNurbs generates native CAD surfaces, i.e., trimmed or untrimmed NURBS surfaces, which can be directly used for any CAD modeling operations.

Get details and download on food4Rhino...

Rhino.Inside.Revit at the San Francisco Computational Design Institute

The San Francisco Computational Design Institute is featuring a presentation on Rhino.Inside.Revit and you are invited.

Marcello Sgambelluri, the speaker, manages the implementation, the research and development, and the marketing of BIM, Revit, structural design software, and visual programming for John A. Martin & Associates.

His many responsibilities are:

• Creating 3D digital content beyond contract documentation that includes creating 3D real-time and pre-rendered animations, the use of real-time physics and the use of game engines. 
• Training and educating designers, engineers, clients, and project team members on the latest BIM tools. 
• Creating tools and add-ins to improve office BIM tools and office structural design tools, including Revit, Dynamo, Grasshopper, Rhino, Tekla, Stingray, SAP, ETABS, RAM, RISA, and much other software.

Come learn from Marcello's experience.

February 21, 2020
12:00 PM – 1:00 PM PST
Gensler, SFCD Institute
45 Fremont St, Ste 1500
San Francisco, CA 94105

View Map

To register, go to:

https://eventbrite.com/e/sfcdi-february-2020-rhinoinside-by-marcello-sgambelluri-tickets-89491424259…

PlanBee - compute and visualize the features of a floor plan at variable resolutions

PlanBee is a plug-in intended to help compute and visualize the features of a floor plan at variable resolutions and in doing so to help the designer look at the programmatic organization of the floor plan from a different vantage point. Use the ‘Rendered’ view mode when using PlanBee to make the most of built-in analysis/display components. All analysis components support parallel computing.

Besides computing various metrics across different floor plan locations, PlanBee offers the implementation of a Kohonen Self-Organizing Feature Map algorithm (SOM) to ‘self-organize’ the specified programmatic blocks of the floor plan. To understand this, it helps to think of the floor plan as a field of voxels, each of which contains values for different computed metrics. Once the metrics are calculated, each voxel corresponds to a multi-dimensional vector. The SOM basically reconciles the multi-dimensional vectors of the field of voxels with the features one specifies should belong to a programmatic mix.

Details and to download...

Two C# Scripting and Plugin Development workshops by Long Nguyen, March 9-10, March 11-13 at McNeel Europe in Barcelona

C# level 1 course: March 9–10, 2020

C# level 2 course: March 11–13, 2020

10 am–6 pm

McNeel Europe S.L.

Roger de Flor, 32-34 bajos

08018 Barcelona (Spain)

McNeel Europe and Long Nguyen—research associate at ICD Stuttgart—are presenting two C# Scripting and Plugin Development for Rhino and Grasshopper workshops, March 9-10, 11-13, 2020.

This 2-level course will help you take your skills with Rhino/Grasshopper to the next level by developing custom Grasshopper scripts and plugins using the C# programming language. As a popular modern programming language, C# is an accessible, high-performance, consistent language suitable for small to large project developments. Thanks to the official support of C# in Rhino/Grasshopper, we can extend the capabilities of Rhino and Grasshopper – from automating repetitive tasks, developing customized workflows, to implementing advanced design algorithms and tools, as well as building two-way interaction between Rhino/Grasshopper and other software applications (e.g., Revit).

C# Level 1 (2 days): Introduction course

The basic-level workshop will introduce the essential programming concepts using the C# language and the well-documented RhinoCommon programming library.

• Essential C# programming concepts: variables, data types, conditional statements, loops, function
• Object-oriented programming
• The C# Script component in Grasshopper
• RhinoCommon basics
• Creating Grasshopper plugins using Visual Studio
• Custom graphics display (custom colors, materials, styles, etc...)

C# Level 2 (3 days): Intermediate/Advanced Course

The intermediate/advanced course builds on the basic-level workshop and will focus on advanced aspects of C# programming, RhinoCommon API, Grasshopper API. You will also gain better understandings about the complexity of algorithms (i.e. why they run slow/fast) and clear optimization techniques.

• More in-depth topics about Rhino geometries (Curves, Surfaces, Meshes)
• Editing strings, exporting and importing text files.
• DataTree and Grasshopper data types
• Programmatically interacting with Rhino modeling environment from Grasshopper (e.g., Rhino objects, lights, layers) such as “baking” geometry
• C# Delegates
• Computational complexity: understanding code performance and scalability
• Spatial Data Structure: using RhinoCommon R-Trees to accelerate 3D searches, proximity checking, collision detection
• If time allows, parallel computation with the .NET Task Parallel LibraryOptional topics (if time allows) e.g: recursion, using external libraries, or topics requested by participants

Course fees:

C# Level 1: EUR 495,- (+VAT); full-time students, university teachers, and remote participants get a 50% discount (proof of status required).
C# Level 2: EUR 795,- (+VAT); full-time students, university teachers, and remote participants get a 50% discount (proof of status required).
Special offer for both courses: EUR 1195,- (+VAT)
Please note your seat is only confirmed after payment has cleared.

Max. number of participants for each course: 10. If there is no quorum, the course will be canceled 15 days before.
Max. number of remote participants for each course: 6.

Course language: English

Educational seats are limited. Sign up now by contacting McNeel Europe!

Parametric Design Workshop in Berlin (March 2020)

LAVA Laboratory for Visionary Architecture (Berlin)

Beginner course March 7-8, 14-15, 2020

Intermediate March 14-15, 2020

Are you interested in gaining parametric competency to push your design skills to the next level?

Are you ready to learn an exciting and powerful tool that will take your ideas and concepts to a whole new realm?

These Parametric Design Workshops (Beginners and Advanced) by Wassef Dabboussi will provide you with the necessary knowledge and ability to use Grasshopper, a free visual programming plug-in in Rhinoceros. The workshop will also include a hands-on parametric project.

• Option 1: General Workshop for Beginners - 16 hours. Starts March 7, 2020.
• Option 2: Intensive Workshop for Intermediates - 8 hours. Starts March 14, 2020.

More information and registration...

Rhino and Grasshopper Training with Akiyo Matsuoka, ART

Akiyo Matsuoka has been an Authorized Rhino Trainer for over a decade. She specializes in custom jewelry CAD design, teaching jewelry design and Rhino 3D CAD training in the New York City area and online.

She is offering the following Rhino or Grasshopper training sessions:

Introduction to Rhino 3D Modeling, 3 Days                       
February-March 1                                                               
Friday, Saturday, and Sunday
9:00 AM to 5:30 PM
15 W. 39th Street, 3rd floor, New York, NY 10018
$945

Grasshopper - Introduction to Generative Jewelry Design - "Live" Online
In this class, students can learn jewelry design from anywhere in the world.
March 14-15
Saturday and Sunday
9 AM-4:30 PM  (EST)
$525

Introduction to Rhino 3D Modeling - "Live" Online
March 18 to May 6
Wednesdays
12:30 PM-3:30 PM (EST)
Eight Classes Total
$675

More details and additional training sessions available here.
Questions? Please email Akiyo Matsuoka.

Seminar: Modelling with Tekla & Rhino/Grasshopper - London - Feb 25, 2020

Modelling with Tekla & Rhino/Grasshopper

The Institution of Structural Engineers, London

February 25, 2020

Join Trimble to discover more about algorithmic design using Tekla software and Rhino/Grasshopper.

Digital Data provides a basis for rethinking the structural engineering design process and with the addition of increased computing power, this combination is beneficial to a computational data-driven process helping engineers work more efficiently with closer data-driven collaboration.

The Institute of Structural Engineers is hosting a Trimble industry workshop. The workshop will focus on the Grasshopper-Tekla live link which enables algorithmic modeling for Tekla Structures using Rhino/Grasshopper. The link is a set of Grasshopper components that can create and interact with objects live in Tekla Structures. We will also look at how a Tekla Structural Designer model can be driven parametrically using Grasshopper.

The day will be divided into a series of presentations and demonstrations during the morning. During the afternoon, there will be interactive demo workshops providing an opportunity to delve deeper into the software with Trimble's experts.

Complete details and registration...

New SubD (Rhino WIP) video

In this video, Phil Cook from Simply Rhino UK takes a look at SubD, or Subdivision Surface Modelling, that is being developed for Rhino v7.

The video starts by examining SubD surfaces and how these compare to NURBS before moving on to look at some examples of how and why SubD can be used alongside the traditional NURBS workflow in Rhino.

Watch the video here...

Morphine Streams V2.0 Webinars by DesignMorphine, March 2020

DesignMorphine has organized a series of webinars in March 2020:

"Welcome to our webinar series, Morphine Streams V2.0! See below the webinar topics we have curated for this Morphine Streams version. Each webinar will be 4 hours long of pre-recorded video with a 30 minute live stream Q&A which will also be recorded and uploaded. 

Webinars will take place in Private Facebook groups and participants will be able to ask questions by commenting on the videos, this gives the webinars a more interactive community environment. Each webinar will be pre-recorded and uploaded at the time of the webinar to ensure optimal quality and to avoid issue s of connectivity that can occur with live streaming. At the live stream Q&A times, tutors will be live streaming to summarize the videos and answer questions. 

All videos will remain available, including the live streams, for your viewing as much as you like, even after the live stream. This means you can also enjoy the videos if you are not able to at the live stream time, you may view them at your convenience and availability. 

All webinars will be conducted in English and there is no previous experience of the topics required. You must have a valid non-business Facebook account to attend and watch the videos."

• March 8: Formfinding Optimized Shells
• March 14: Dynamic Parametric Pavilions
• March 15: Morphing Polygonal Geometries
• March 21: Procedural Architectural Landscapes
• March 22: Advanced Plug-In Creation
• March 28: Fluid Skin Interoperability
• March 29: Twisted Box Jewelry

Complete details and registration...

ARCHICAD + Grasshopper by Paz Academy, March 2020 in Barcelona

AC+GH_BCN

March 16-20, 2020

Workshop_9:00-15:00 (28 h) +

+ Jam Session_16:00-19:00 (15 h)

PAZ Academy & Friends

Barcelona, Spain

Join ARCHICAD + Grasshopper_Barcelona and learn how to get the maximum potential in the bridge between BIM and parametric design.

During an intense week, you will learn about the power of Rhino + Grasshopper + ARCHICAD, with professional and useful examples for your working days.

You will get advanced library files, a personal web, knowledge, and skills to start using this incredible methodology.

Also, during the week you will have lectures from different experts sharing their computational working experience.

Complete details and registration…

Houdini and Grasshopper interoperability

HouGh is a set of Grasshopper tools designed to provide interoperability interface between Houdini and Grasshopper by reading and writing Houdini geometry JSON file format.

HouGh brings the best of two worlds together. Houdini’s polygon mesh modeling, volumes, simulations ..., Grasshopper’s/Rhino openNURBS engine, amazing resources, and community. Apart from the fact that the two software are low level, fully parametric, and procedural modeling tools with endless possibilities.

HouGh is written in Iron Python and fully open source. Everyone is welcome to take part in further enhancement.

Download houGh from food4Rhino...

Pufferfish V2.8 with SubD support

The Pufferfish is one of few animals which is capable of changing its shape.

This plug-in is a set of 305 components which focuses on Tweens, Blends, Morphs, Averages, Transformations, & Interpolations—essentially Shape Changing.

Pufferfish V2.8 has been released and includes SubD support for Rhino WIP.

Download Pufferfish from food4Rhino...

Rhino3dMedical, a plug-in for orthopedics

Anatomically correct human knee segmented from CT

With Rhino3DMedical you can view, analyze, measure, and annotate medical images. Segment, extract, and repair meshes directly within your 3D image space. Then prepare it for 3D printing and visualization.

Applications include implant design, pre-operative planning, virtual surgery, biomedical engineering, medical training, and education.

For more information, visit Rhino3DMedical.

V-Ray for Rhino workshop in Bratislava (Slovakia)

V-Ray for Rhino workshop

Bratislava (Slovakia)

February 27-March 1, 2020

Join the FlyingArchitecture Emotion workshop series focused on storytelling through emotion-imagery creation in Rhinoceros, V-Ray, and Photoshop.

Details and registration...

Connecter - now integrated with Rhino

Connecter is a free and visual assets management system for 3D artists.

The newest release (Connecter 1.7.6) includes integration with Rhino. It allows simplified drag & drop import of assets from Connecter (.3dm, .obj, .fbx and .3ds) and saving assets from Rhino to Connecter in .3dm format with preview based on the active viewport.

Complete details...

Solemma Symposium 2020 - February 20 & 21 - Los Angeles, CA

Solemma Symposium 2020

When: Thursday, February 20, 2020
Where: HOK's Los Angeles office in Culver City
Optional: Follow-up full-day of training the following Friday, February 21, 2020

Register here.

The Solemma Symposium is a full-day event and will include a series of presentations and discussions focused on how daylighting and thermal simulation tools can be used in design and performance-evaluation workflow. During the Solemma Symposium, the new software ClimateStudio will debut for the first time! ClimateStudio is their new flagship software to enhance the user experience for daylighting and early design phase energy modeling by simplifying simulation setup, greatly increasing simulation speed, enhancing graphical data output, and automating simulation reporting for demonstrating compliance with LEED and other standards.

Register for the Solemma Symposium:
$395 Symposium and Dinner
$790 Symposium and Dinner plus full-day of training which will cover the use of the new ClimateStudio and ALFA lighting design, thermal analysis, and circadian lighting design software packages.

Questions?  Contact the Solemma development team.

New airflow simulation in Grasshopper

Analyzing wind flow? Eddy3d is a new airflow simulation tool for Rhino and Grasshopper. 

Find more information and download...

Creation of a BIM model of a façade using Rhino, Rhino.Inside, and Revit

Imagine Computation, a German-based consultant for digital AEC processes, was asked to deliver a native Revit BIM model of a façade of an office building. To use the flexibility of Rhino and in-house developed Rhino plug-ins, they created a new tool-set to transfer 3D objects, attributes, and other specifications such as materials and transformations to Revit without having to break the hierarchy of Revit elements.

To speed up the creation of 3D façade elements, they first developed a tool to link all elements as external blocks, including material information and other attributes. Next, they exported the same block definitions as single files and re-imported them into Revit as families to set the given attributes and materials. In the final step, they inserted all Revit families at the corresponding position in 3D space to digitally assemble the façade. 

The tools were mainly developed as C# Rhino plug-ins and as C#- Grasshopper components as part of Rhino.Inside within Revit.

More information can be found here...

New version of Discover, an optimization tool for Grasshopper

Danil Nagy announced the latest version of Discover, his optimization tool for Grasshopper. This version 19.12 includes a set of new features and bug fixes.

For more details check out the release notes.

Get the latest version now...