New Rhino Plug-in for the MicroScribe Portable CMM

Revware Announces New Rhino Plug-in for the MicroScribe® Portable CMM RALEIGH, N.C., (May 13, 2013) – Revware Inc., manufacturer of the MicroScribe® portable measurement system is pleased to announce the release of the MicroScribe Plug-in for Rhinoceros® (Rhino). 

You can read the press release here.  

MicroScribe is a strategic partner of RhinoFabLab. To watch a short video about how this new Plug-in works with Rhino 5 click here.   

RhinoShoe 2.0 for Rhino 5

RhinoShoe 2.0 for Rhino 5, by TDM Solutions, has been announced!

RhinoShoe adds to Rhino advanced tools to scale and correct shoes and soles, in accordance with international patterns and with the possibility to define new ones.

It allows vectorization, developing 3D curves on the plane, variable offset to correct patterns, etc. Extremely easy and intuitive!

Details and download...

New BoltGen 1.71 With Aircraft Bolts

NEW in BoltGen 1.71:

   BoltGen 1.71 now creates inside-thread-cutters and nuts,
   as well as the bolt selections.

   Added English Head-type HEX heads for small sizes.

   Parts have names in the properties window for easy identification.

   BoltGenAN for type AN Aircraft bolts is included.

   Still Free!

Download BoltGen, and More From McVan Aerospace...

FREE RhinoCAM + Rhino Technical Webinar

At this webinar you’ll get an in depth look into both RhinoCAM and
Rhino 5.  MecSoft’s Support Manager Uday Honnalagere will be
showcasing the advanced capabilities of RhinoCAM 2012 and its seamless integration into Rhino 5.  As a bonus, we’re happy to have Scott
Davidson of McNeel & Assoc. joining us to demonstrate the power of
Rhino.  This is going to be a great learning experience for beginners and
advanced users alike.  This is a FREE webinar, so feel free to spread
the word.

Here are the details:
Date: Wednesday, June 26, 2013
Time: 8:00AM (Pacific Daylight Time)
Location: Any internet enabled computer!

Register Now...

MixExperience new website

MixExperience, the social network for Italian Rhino users, has recently launched its new website: http://www.mxp3d.com/

Instructions to migrate your old account (in Italian)...

Architecture Challenge 2013 - Robotic Infiltrations - Vienna (Austria)

Architecture Challenge 2013 - Robotic Infiltrations
06.28 - 07.07 @ Die Angewandte (Vienna)

The “ARCHITECTURE CHALLENGE” program is an international design workshop series organized by Andrei Gheorghe and Bence Pap 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 the Angewandte is taught as an integrated, multidisciplinary process. Following this tradition, the design process will be enriched with robotic design strategies combining Grasshopper plugins such as the HAL and KARAMBA platforms. Specialists from the Institute of Architecture and invited guest experts Georg Grasser, Kadri Tamre and Thibault Schwartz from Technical University Innsbruck will co-tutor the workshop. The handling of virtual simulation methods and the engineering of full-scale structures using robotic manufacturing will be a primary focus of the workshop. Three ABB industrial robots will be used for on-site fabrication. This workshop will result not only in built structures and environments, but will also inform and prepare interested students for the architecture study program at the Angewandte.

Complete info and registration...

Job Opportunity

Do you know how to use Rhino and Grasshopper? There has been a sharp increase in the demand for Rhino and Grasshopper courses; therefore, NASKA DIGITAL is looking for instructors for their ARTC (Authorized Rhino Training Center) in Colombia.

If you are interested, please send your CV or Portfolio to Haydibe Contreras or click here.

Online course for Marine Designers

ProBoat E-Training has announced that their next Rhino for Marine Designers course will begin on July 7th. It is a six-week online course.

Learn to enhance your boat and yacht design skills with Rhino. Participants will learn how to work with curves, then surfaces, then move into fairing a simple chine hull, followed by a more complex sailing schooner hull.

Price: US$390 (student discount available on request)

Instructor: Cliff Estes

Details and Registration...

Car Design Workshop in Barcelona

 

Car Design with Rhinoceros
Barcelona (Spain)
July 15-17

This course is oriented to designers and concept modelers who wish to interact with their creations in a friendly and enriching manner.

This 3-day workshop will provide the students with all the understanding needed to create and easily interact with their concepts using all the potential Rhinoceros and VSR can offer. During this course, students will learn the main concepts regarding car design and how to implement them to improve their concepts into the 3-D environment. The participants will find how to generate, edit, and evaluate their models in a simplified manner. This will let them concentrate on the really important part of their creations: the design.

• Instructor: Jorge Biosca
• Language: English
• Cost: Students 395€ + VAT / Professionals 495€ +VAT (early bird price until June 24)

Complete details and registration Students...

Complete details and registration Professionals...

Digital Fabrication at FAU-UPM, São Paulo

RhinoFabLab and shopfront fab are pleased to announce a presentation on Digital Fabrication with Rhino 5.0 and Grasshopper. André Schimmelpfeng and Affonso Orciuoli will demonstrate designs and models created using cutting edge technologies and their application in architecture during the project development.


Date/Time: Thursday, June 13, 2013 / 12:30 pm UTC

Location: Edifício da Faculdade de Arquitetura e Urbanismo - Mackenzie - Auditório do subsolo.

 
For more information, please contact: shopfront lab or click here

Rob|Arch 2014 - last call for workshops proposals and other news

 

The organizing committee of the Rob|Arch 2014 conference and the Association for Robots in Architecture are inviting the community to submit workshop proposals for the upcoming Rob|Arch 2014 conference (May 14th to 18th, 2014). A total budget of 15.000USD is available to financially support the workshops.

 

One of the defining elements of Rob|Arch 2012 were the eight robot workshops that were offered all over Europe. European universities not only organized their own workshops, but also hosted teams from the American universities Harvard and SciArc.

 

For Rob|Arch 2014, the host universities of Michigan and Carnegie Mellon have additional robot capacities for external workshops. We are encouraging workshop proposals until 15.6.2014. See call.robarch2014.org for more details.

.

In other news, there are several robot workshops and lectures upcoming: Robots in Architecture will hold a lecture at the “BIM for Life Cycle Structures” symposium in Vienna (June 13th to 14th), alongside other presenters such as Tobias Schwinn (from ICD Uni Stuttgart – refer to their great robotic research pavilions), Christian Derix from AEDAS, Baris Cokcan of 2Architects-Int, Martin Tamke of CITA, and Stephan Laub of LaubLab/VrayforC4D. Registration is free for students.

 

Later in June (27th to 28th) the 7th National Symposium on Digital Design takes place in Istanbul/Turkey, with a robot workshop that is offered in cooperation with KUKA Turkey and ITU. Soon thereafter, from July 3rd to 5th, we are doing a two-day robot workshop in Shanghai as part of the upcoming CAAD Futures 2013 conference.

Orca3D 1.3 Released



Leveraging the Power of Rhino for
the Naval Architect
DRS Technologies, Inc. announces the release of Version 1.3 of Orca3D. This version has been through a number of Work-in-Progress (WIP) releases, that allowed feedback and suggestions from many Orca3D users.
 
Some important points to know about Version 1.3:

• This is a free update to all of our licensed users and, as a full release, will not expire.
• Any Orca3D information in a Rhino file that is saved with this new version will NOT be readable in version 1.2.4 or earlier versions. No native Rhino model information will be lost, but Orca3D information, such as section locations, weight/cost information, etc. will not be found by earlier versions of Orca3D. Since this is a free update for licensed users, we recommend that version 1.3 be used to avoid this issue.
• This is expected to be the last version of Orca3D that is compatible with Rhino 4. All future updates, WIPs, and upgrades will require Rhino 5.
• In the event that a critical bug or other significant issue is discovered in version 1.3, there may be a 1.3 Service Release that is compatible with Rhino 4.
• Some new features which are still in development are not included in Version 1.3 (Stability Criteria Evaluation, Longitudinal Strength).
• A new WIP (1.4) will be released soon, which will include Stability Criteria Evaluation, Longitudinal Strength, and more.
• Version 1.3 includes both 32-bit and 64-bit versions of the standalone and network license versions.

 Version 1.3 highlights include:

• 64-bit network license version now available
• Option to have real-time sections computed from the mesh (as in previous versions) or from the surface (previous versions were computed from the surface only after the control point editing was finished). Rhino 5 has improved the speed of this computation to the point where it is practical to use sections that are computed from the surface during real time editing.
• Better licensing compatibility with Windows 8
• Inclusion of short tons in the available options for Weight and Force custom units

Download Orca3D Version 1.3...
About Orca3D...

Rhino at FAB LAB DC

• Introduction to Rhinoceros®

Fab Lab DC
Saturday, June 8, 2013 from 9:00 am to 5:00 pm (EDT) 

This all-day workshop offers an introduction to Rhinoceros®. Rhino provides the tools to accurately model and document your designs, to create, edit, analyze, render, animate, and translate curves, surfaces, and solids with accuracy and flexibility. Files created in Rhino can be exported to laser cutters, milling machines or 3D printers.

This workshop includes: 
Class time, one-on-one guidance, and a chance to meet other makers.  

For more information, click here.

 
Would you like to run an Authorized RhinoFabLab™?   
A RhinoFabLab™ is an Authorized Rhino Training Center (ARTC) with a 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.

Fantasy and Sci-Fi outfits with Rhino 5 and Poser

 
Sergio Martinez, one of our instructors at McNeel Miami has been creating  Fantasy and Sci-Fi outfits for more than a decade. Come and join Sergio for the virtual conference: POSER CONTENT CREATION MASTERCLASS with Rhino 5.0, Photoshop CS6, UV Mapper 3 Pro, Unfold 3D and more.

For more information, click here.

Digital Novelty – Crystallised Geometrics

 

Should you be in Paris on the 20th of June, don't miss Wendy W Fok Open Studio at the Cité internationale des arts Paris. This will be a work-in-progress exhibition of the design-research Project "Digital Novelty – Crystallised Geometrics".

Over 100 iterations and studies which challenges, and produced through, the premise of digital production and analogue tooling, Digital Novelty is a series of design-research that is an intersection between of platonic solids and the notion of basic geometric shapes, assisted by 3D modelling software (Rhinoceros), 3D printing technologies (additive manufacturing processes), and hand-drawn inked on vellum exercises. The research and development of Digital Novelty – Crystallised Geometrics reveals itself through a feedback system that carefully interrogates a simple method of production and design.

More details...

Grasshopper User Meeting in London

 

The next London-UK Grasshopper Group meeting (organized by Arthur Mamou-Mani, SimplyRhino UK) will take place at Robofold's studio and production facility in Herne Hill, London, on Wednesday 26th June from 18h30.

Gregory Epps (RoboFold founder) and Florent Michel (RoboFold developer) present a recent project, and how it has used Grasshopper for the design to production workflow. RoboFold projects typically take client designs, and develop parametric tools for the translation of design ideas into manufacturable objects. The design development stages are complemented by CAM tools - GH plugins to output to CNC routers and robots - developed in-house and extended on a project by project basis. This has included implementing live baking, multithreading, CAM, robotics, the Godzilla timeline for the GH interface, optimising attractor systems and of course folding.

This GH User Meeting will also be a chance for an informal discussion about your experiences using GH, and where you see GH heading in the future. Please bring your ideas and experiences with you; new features you need e.g. loops; how does programming for GH compare to other approaches; would you like to be able to automatically compile definitions into components; what are your problems and particular features or approaches you would like to see. The big picture is that GH is a great prototyping tool but what are limitations as it grows - and how can we help shape it's future?

Complete details...

AEC projects designed using Rhino

Gros Ventre Residence in Jackson, Wyoming by Stephen Dynia Architects

AECCafe, the online magazine, has highlighted Rhino projects in the AEC industry. AECCafe features various architectural projects, both residential and commercial.

AEC featured projects ...

Droid Rhino for Android now available

Thinslices developed the Droid Rhino for Android app so you can view your Rhino models anytime, anywhere, with any Android device. Pan, zoom, and rotate with a tap or drag of your finger. The handy navigator lets you scroll through thumbnails, so you can quickly jump to any model you want.

Currently Droid Rhino for Android is available on more than 766 Android devices, ranging from handsets to tablets.

Food4Rhino News - apps for Rhino and Grasshopper

With more than 100 apps available and 35.000 downloads in the last month, food4Rhino is the first Rhino plug-in and Grasshopper add-on site on the web. 

New and featured apps

For Rhino:

	RhinoRing is a new Rhino plug-in by Cadwax that supports jewelers and jewelry designers in their day-to-day work. It improves the workflow with custom windows and menus.
	eVe|voronax is a plug-in used for the generation of Voronax structures. It is a specific type of structure obtained when a Voronoi diagram is “relaxed” over a free form surface.
	Bubble for Rhino is a free tool from Asuni CAD that displays a tooltip with information of any object in the document.
	MeshPaint3D  is a free Rhino plug-in allowing intuitive painting, as is performed with pixel images, but on multi-resolution mesh geometries. Painting can be done based on vertices or faces within a single mesh.
	BrickDesign enables the controlled design and manipulation of a large amount of discrete elements.  The plug-in provides a parametric design environment, which allows for a fast build-up of brick façade geometries.
	Rhino Open Projects is a collection of tools for biomedical (including dental), veterinary sciences, reverse engineering, rapid prototyping, cultural heritage, the geometric products specification, the naval field, ophthalmic optics and others.
	BoltGen is a plug-in to create most English or metric screws and bolts.
	Lands Design is a landscaping plug-in to design gardens and green spaces. Lands is ideal for landscape architects, urban planners, town council technicians, constructors, designers and draftsmen, environment departments, nurserymen, gardeners, etc.
	eVe|sun is a plug-in used for shadow analysis with a slightly different approach. The plug-in enables you to set the sun position for any time interval and calculate shadows that multiple points|curves|surfaces throw on surfaces.
	Smart3d KONG plug-in encrypter: Protect your intellectual property.

  
For Grasshopper:

	VisualARQ Grasshopper Components is an add-on for Grasshopper which allows to create and work with VisualARQ architectural objects inside Grasshopper.
	Heliotrope is a Grasshopper plug-in for manipulating solar geometry. The tool calculates solar position vectors at specific dates and times and provides a variety of components for manipulating those dates and times parametrically.
	Hummingbird is a set of Grasshopper components that facilitate the creation of Revit native geometry.
	FabTools allows you to handle a lot of tasks when working for production.
	Kangaroo is a Live Physics engine for interactive simulation, optimization and form-finding directly within Grasshopper.
	GhExcel is a plug-in for Grasshopper to exchange data with Excel. Multiple sheets are supported with ZUI (Zoomable User Interface).
	karamba is an interactive, parametric finite element program. It lets you analyze the response of 3-dimensional beam and shell structures under arbitrary loads.
	KUKA|prc enables you to program industrial robots directly out of the parametric modeling environment, including a full kinematic simulation of the robot.
	Godzilla: Simple and intuitive robotic simulation
	HAL is a Grasshopper plug-in for industrial robots programming. With its large library (126 components), HAL allows designers to simulate, program and control complex multi-robots setups in real time.

  

Much more at www.food4Rhino.com!

facades+ PERFORMANCE, San Francisco

Architects, fabricators, developers, consultants, and all other design professionals are invited to participate in the San Francisco facades+ Performance conference, symposium, and workshops!

Dates: July 11-12, 2013 - Early-bird registration ends June 14th.
   Day 1 - Symposium
   Day 2 - Dialog and Technology Workshops

Location: San Francisco @ UCSF Mission Bay Conference Center

Sign up today and save!

 

Workshops include:

• Responsive Facades, Jason Kelly Johnson
  (Grasshopper, Firefly, Arduino)
• Design Scripting, Ronnie Parsons
  (Rhino & Python)
• Intro/Intermediate Grasshopper, Andrew Kudless
• Hands-On 3D Printing, Gil Akos
  (Rhino & Makerbot)

AIA CE credits available.

 

 

ZAHNER + TEX-FAB skin competition

TEX-FAB is pleased to announce a new partnership between ZAHNER and the Digital Fabrication Alliance. ZAHNER will be joining forces to provide engineering, material and fabrication support for the skin competition. They will assist with full-scale prototyping after a competition winner is chosen in October.

Registrations and submissions are due by June 30, 2013. Have you entered the competition yet?

Sign up today!

Not just whirligigs of color and shapes

An 8' tall silicon bronze by Andrew Carson

We have discovered another fascinating Rhino user, Andrew Carson Kinetic Sculpture: Whirligigs ranging from sophisticated metal to a cacophony of colors. And always delightful and fun. To see the art in motion watch one the videos.

The artist starts with a rough sketch, stores those ideas, and eventually pulls the most intriguing for his projects. He then works digitally, sizing the parts and working out the mechanics, including reflecting the rotations and clearances on these moving pieces of art, designed to withstand 60 mph windstorms.

Andrew Carson Kinetic Sculptures will be at these art fairs this summer:

Summer 2013

Des Moines Art Festival June 22-24

Breckenridge July Art Festival July 6-8

Aspen Arts Festival July 28-29

Palo Alto Festival of the Arts August 25-26

VisualARQ webinar, June 5th

VisualARQ webinar: Efficient workflow and architectural design with VisualARQ for Rhino

Date: Wednesday, June 5th
Time: 11:00am - Noon (PDT)

Join Francesc Salla, VisualARQ Product Manager, for a fast-paced and exciting demonstration of VisualARQ 1.7.2.

Register here...

The webinar topics include:

• How VisualARQ streamlines workflow + improves architectural design process efficiency within Rhino
• How to model using 3D parametric architectural objects
• How to create floor plans, section and elevation drawings from any 3D model automatically
• How VisualARQ adds BIM features to Rhino: geometry and object data are linked
• New integration with Grasshopper: the VisualARQ Grasshopper Components add-on

The webinar is organized by Novedge. It is free to attend; registration is required. The webinar will last approximately one hour including Q&A.

Design Modelling Symposium Berlin 2013

The 4th Design Modelling Symposium Berlin “Rethinking Prototyping” will take place at the University of the Arts in Berlin, Germany, from Saturday 28 September until Wednesday 2 October 2013.

As in previous years, the Symposium consists of two parts, two days of Workshops and Master Classes (including Rhino, Grasshopper, Sofistik, Firefly, Arduino, RhinoScript, RhinoPython, RhinoCommon SDK and KUKA|prc) followed by a three-day Conference with Keynote Lectures, Case Studies and Poster Sessions.

Design modelling has benefited from computation but in most projects to date there is still a strong division between computational design and simulation leading up to construction and the completed building  that is cut off from the computational design modelling.

The Design Modelling Symposium Berlin 2013 would like to challenge the participants to reflect on the possibility of computational systems that bridge design phase and occupancy of buildings. This rethinking of the designed artifact beyond its physical has had profound effects on other industries already. How does it affect architecture and engineering?

Details and registration...

STEM Schools and RhinoFabLab

Ms. Swanson’s 8th Grade Engineering Class from Gulfstream Middle School recently visited McNeel Miami. See the video here.
 

Gulfstream Middle School is a Certified RhinoFabLab, and according to Ms Swanson, they are constantly looking for ways to blend math into technology and engineering. The Middle School is learning Rhino and Grasshopper to create projects that will help them achieve that goal.

VisualARQ Grasshopper Components

 

VisualARQ Grasshopper Components is a new add-on that allows working with VisualARQ architectural objects inside Grasshopper.

 

Check the Help, exercises and videos!

 

Download from food4Rhino...

REaction workshop in Paris

REaction workshop
Grasshopper + Smart Cities
July 6-7, 2013
Paris (France)

THE WORKSHOP
Based on the “Smart City” concept, the workshop will be focused on the analysis, understanding and proposal of this new approach through the next steps:

1) Presentation of three case studies regarding the concept of Smart City in the Urban Public Space developed in the Master of Advanced Architecture of the Institute for Advanced Architecture of Catalonia (IAAC), specifically in three different streets of Barcelona: Pere IV, Meridiana and Paseo Grácia.

2) Approach to the first visualization tools and based on the mapping concept (data collection, interpretation, representation and new analysis strategies).

3) Tools application over different urban contexts in order to understanding the relation between Paris and the smart city concept.

4) The workshop results will be published in the collective blog and web page, with the goal of amplifying the range of influence of this developing concept and bring to public view the work of all the people involved in this knowledge incubator.
 
DETAILS AND SUBSCRIPTIONS: http://www.superbelleville.org/reaction/

New book: Working with Rhinoceros 5

Working with Rhinoceros 5.0
New Rhino book by Michiel van der Kley

This new book (320 pages, 680 illustrations) is a user guide for working with Rhinoceros 5, the 3D modeling and visualisation program for product designers, artists, architects and sculptors.

The book will teach you, step by step, to use the program. It describes drawing in 2D, building in 3D, editing in 3D, materials, light, rendering, export possibillities, scripting and a lot more with a lot of examples.

Available in English or Dutch here...

DIVA Day 2013

Thornton Tomasetti has just announced that the 2^nd Annual DIVA Day will be held on July 15^th at their offices in New York City. Early-bird registration is now open.

DIVA Day is a conference on the use of environmental analysis in design practice and research. The full-day event includes a series of presentations and discussions, focused on how DIVA and associated simulation tools can be used in design and performance-evaluation workflows. Sessions include introductions to new features by the DIVA Team, and research and case studies by practitioners at leading architectural, engineering and consulting firms and universities. This year, the afternoon will be devoted to an “Educators Session” which will focus on ways DIVA is used in college and university architectural and building technology education.

 

Details...

 

Visit the DIVA site and learn more about DIVA for Rhino.

SCAD Jewelry and Objects Class of 2013

The SCAD Jewelry and Objects program prepares students for a variety of careers in industrial, fine art or entrepreneurial settings. SCAD Jewelry and Objects are a Certified RhinoFabLab; here, students gain a foundation in traditional jewelry, metalsmithing and silversmithing techniques through a diverse yet detailed curriculum and acquire an understanding of new technologies, concept development, electronic design and rendering, and production methods.

Please come and join SCAD Jewelry and Objects to celebrate the exhibition of work by the graduating class of 2013.

Date:  May 31st, 2013
Place: SCAD Fahm Building
Time:  5:00 - 7:30 p.m.

For more information, please contact Jay Song