Thursday, June 30, 2011

Revitalizing TDK's audio gear

TDK Sound Cube

DEVELOP3D, an online magazine, often highlights interesting projects using Rhino.

For example, Ziba's industrial design process for TDK's new range of audio products. Ziba, headquartered in Portland, Oregon, is a long-time Rhino user.


"For Your Shoes" Design competition

ControlMad Advanced Design Center (Spain) is pleased to announce the "For Your Shoes" competition and invites designers, architects and students to investigate new ideas and concepts for a new object or system to store shoes.

New book: "Rhinoceros per l'architettura"

Rhinoceros per l'architettura is a new book by Riccardo Gatti. It includes an overview of the new tools found in Rhino 5 and the most significant plug-ins in AEC.

Tuesday, June 28, 2011

Orca3D training at IBEX



You’re invited to attend an Orca3D training course in conjunction with IBEX 2011 in Louisville, Kentucky October 17-18. This Orca3D training class will be spread over two half-day sessions on Monday (10/17) and Tuesday (10/18) mornings to allow you to attend the IBEX show in the afternoon. It will cover hull design and fairing, hydrostatics and stability, resistance prediction, and weight and cost tracking.


Wednesday, June 22, 2011

Phil Frank launches new venture

Looking for innovative high performance components for your Lamborghini? Phil Frank, designer and consultant of the legendary Saleen S7 since 1994, has launched a new venture, PFD Carbonworks, for the exotic car enthusiast community. Digitally scanning vehicles ensures precision tolerances to within 0.135mm and a best-in-class fit. Designs are then are digitally developed, refined, and evaluated for aesthetics and precision. Large CNC machines create flawless patterns with perfect symmetry, something rarely accomplished in the exotic vehicle component world.

Tuesday, June 21, 2011

Online Rhino training in July

We're conducting another Online Level 1 Rhino course. Our first class was such a success and we're hoping to accommodate more people in our July class. One of the requests we received was that we vary the times. Our July class will be half-day sessions on Mondays, Tuesdays, and Thursdays over a two-week period.


  • July 11, 12, 14 and 18, 19, 21 An orientation session will be held at 9:00am (PDT*) on Friday, July 8.

  • 9:00am-12:30pm (PDT)

  • Cost: US$100.00 - Seats are limited; sign up today!



*Calculate your time zone.

Robots in Architecture Association

Robots in Architecture is a young association founded by Sigrid Brell-Cokcan and Johannes Braumann. Its main goal is to show approaches on how to integrate the robot not just in the parametric model, but in the design process itself.

Robots in Architecture has just recently developed some interesting Grasshopper plug-ins for intuitive KUKA robot control (incorporating e.g. milling strategies or full kinematic control). Its work will be presented at CAAD Futures 2011, 3D Modeling Symposium Berlin and ACADIA 2011.

  • July 4-8 - CAAD Futures 2011, Liege - Belgium
    Workshop "Parametric Design to Production"
     
    This workshop will demonstrate the optimization of the robot data workflow from digital parametric design to a physical geometry. In Grasshopper the robot's end effector visualization, the generation of manufacturing and design variants for mass customization and the necessary calculations for direct robot programming will be performed in real time providing instant design feedback. As a result of the parametric design process the KRL (KUKA Robot Language) Code will be automatically generated. A KUKA robot will be used for physically producing the participants' parametric designs. The custom KRL Component will be available. Participants will be introduced to the concepts of production inmanent design, manufacturing parametric designs, writing G-Code for CNC machining and controlling a robot with existing parametric design software (Grasshopper).
     
  • October 8-12 - Design Modelling Symposium Berlin - Germany
     
    Master Class "Plug & Play a KUKA robot" In this two-day Master Class participants will be using an innovative plug-in for Grasshopper, which enables the intuitive generation of robot code directly out of the parametric environment, without the former need for special software suites. This direct integration of CAD and CAM allows users to easily combine the existing geometric and analytic components of Grasshopper with the new robotic component – not only to rapidly output physical models but also to analyze, simulate and optimize the design and fabrication strategy, as well as to implement concepts such as mass customization. A compact KUKA KR5 sixx R650 industrial robot will be available on site to execute the parametrically generated jobs.
     
  • October 11-16 - ACADIA 2011, Calgary / Banff - Canada            "We'll be presenting something really exciting at this year's ACADIA conference in Calgary/Canada. The uploaded sneak peak should be able to give you a hint what's coming up! :) Hopefully we'll meet many of you fellow robot-handlers there!"

Architecture et formes complexes version 2.0, Paris

23 June - Architecture et formes complexes version 2.0, Paris

This event, organized by Ecole Nationale Supérieure d'Architecture de Paris La Villette, Gehry Technologies and Cadlantique, is an excellent opportunity to see how the leading architecture and engineering companies use the latest design, BIM, analysis and digital fabrication techniques to build the most complex shapes.

Speakers: ELIOTH, Gehry Technologies, RFR, DECODE, ATOLL, Jean Nouvel, Oger International, Bollinger & Grohmann, Gehry Partners, Ariam lrea, Ecole d'Architecture La Villette.

Software presentations: VisualARQ, RhinoBIM, Digital Project

Architecture webinar on June 22

Join T-Splines this Wednesday for their architecture webinar with EvoluteTools. Presenters will show how to use T-Splines and EvoluteTools for Rhino together to model and panel free-form architectural surfaces.

Date: Wednesday, 22 June
Time: 12:00PM (Eastern)



Thursday, June 16, 2011

LA sculpture by Heath Satow

Sculptor Heath Satow has another public sculpture in the works in Los Angeles. All the hanging hardware and sculpture parts are designed in Rhino 5. For this Ripple Sculpture no other software was used, except for a bump map edited in Photoshop. Per Keith, "no special scripts, pretty much just vanilla Rhino." Sometimes vanilla is the best.

Wednesday, June 15, 2011

Rhino user group in DC

A new Rhino user group, RhinoDC, is forming in the Washington, DC area. Join today on LinkedIn!

ID jobs for Rhino users

Are you an industrial designer? Are you looking for a change? Or a new challenge? These companies are looking for mid- and senior level designers. There are freelance opportunities as well. Take a look...



More jobs...

Saturday, June 11, 2011

Grasshopper gets iterative loops

hoopsnake02
Yiannis Chatzikonstantinou has introduced a new Grasshopper component called Hoopsnake.

Hoopsnake makes it possible to send the output of a set of components back to its input in a looping fashion. With a little bit of Data Tree manipulation, this should open up some new possibilities for iterative process modeling.

Find out more at the Hoopsnake group.

Python goes Outside the Box

Cloud pythonRhino.Python is our newest scripting language in Rhino 5 Beta. A great feature of Python is the ability to expand its capabilities by loading advanced modules. A couple great examples of this are Steve Baer’s new articles on rhino.Python.

Use Rhino.Python to tap into web services and real-time information from around the world directly within Rhino. In Steve’s Outside the Box series, he shows how to call into popular web APIs (REST/SOAP) and data structures (JSON/WSDL).

In another article, Steve creates multithreaded plugins. Multi-threading can improve performance and user interaction within computationally heavy plugins.

Rhino.Python is available in both Grasshopper and Rhino 5 Beta.


To find out more go to rhino.Python.

Friday, June 10, 2011

Organic seating design

Belgium furniture Peter Donders designed this striking aluminum chair with T-Splines for Rhino. The chair is cast in one piece in a 3D printed sand mold.

Wednesday, June 8, 2011

PanelingTools new release for Rhino 5 WIP



A new release of PanelingTools plug-in for Rhino 5 WIP (32 and 64-bits) is now available for download.

New in this release:

  • Added notch option to ptFinEdges and ptExtrudeEdges command to create notches and waffle structures.
  • Added local space bounding for distributing 2D variable panels.
  • Added base and shift options for paneling custom patterns.
  • Added support to morph multiple objects in the 3D custom variable distribution.
  • Added the ability to define a local bounding space for the 3D custom variable distribution.
  • Added option to distribute variable mean curves in the 3d custom variable distribution command with user defined bounding space.
  • Updated ptPanelGridCustom command options to be consistent with ptPanel3DCustom command.
  • Updated prompts to be more clear.
  • Fix a memory leaks and a crash bug.
Fun stuff:

Rhino UK User Meeting 2011


July 6 - Rhino UK User Meeting 2011 - Design Museum London, UK

Simply Rhino UK, in association with HP, presents the Rhino UK User Meeting 2011.

Presentations include (more to follow):

Making Up Things
Stuart Wood - Senior Designer
Heatherwick Studio

T-Splines 3.0 for Rhino
Matt Sederberg
T-Splines

Class A Surfacing Goes Mainstream
Peter Salzmann
Virtual Shape Research

HP Designjet 3D Printers
Graham Bennet
HP/CDRM

The Hand and The Glove
Michael Eden
Eden Ceramics

Constraint-Based Parametric Modeling with RhinoWorks
Dmitry Ushakov
Ledas

Rhinoceros, Design Environment and Development Platform
Carlos PĂ©rez
McNeel Europe

From Rhino to Reality
Gerard Petersen
ScheepsbouwKunst

Scan & Solve - Analysis in Rhino
Vadim Shapiro
Intact Solutions

V-Ray for Rhino - Next Version Preview
Chaos Group / Simply Rhino UK



Tuesday, June 7, 2011

N12: 3D printed bikini


Developed in partnership with Continuum Fashion, the N12 is the first fully 3D printed bikini, ready to wear and available for purchase from the Continuum's Shapeways Shop [...]

Digital Fabrics and Patterning

The N12 was designed using Rhino software and specially written algorithmic script to create the structure of the 3D printed fabric. The algorithm uses a complex 'circle packing' equation on an arbitrarily doubly curved surface (the bikini). The size of the circles responds to curvature and edge conditions of the form, creating smooth edges and a responsive pattern [...]

One of the goals of the circle patterning system is to be able to adapt it to any surface, at any size. This means that future articles of clothing can be produced using the same algorithm, this could be taken a step further into absolute customization by using a body scan to make a bespoke article of clothing, 3D printed to exactly fit only that person.

Monday, June 6, 2011

The Business of 3D Modeling: Interview with Dot San


From the Shapeways blog:

As we see awareness of the potential for 3D printing spread and the Shapeways community grow, we are also starting to see more and more businesses run off the back of the Shapeways shops. Alongside the people creating items to sell, we are also seeing an increasing number of people who want to get their ideas 3D printed, but do not have the necessary CAD skills to make it happen for themselves. To fill this need Shapeways has set up a place in the forums for people to seek out 3D Modelers, and a place for 3D modelers to promote their services. What started as a small number of people wanting help to make their item real, has turned into a constant flow that has now become a revenue stream for some members of the Shapeways community.

One of the Shapeways community members tapping into this stream is Dot San aka Vijay Paul. Vijay has helped a number of people realize their ideas with his 3D modeling mastery. His reputation, communications skills and reliability has been transposed into a steady stream of to the point that he has built his business with the majority of his referrals now coming through Shapeways, our 3D Modeler Needed and 3D Modelers for Hire forums.

"If the job requires it I use a number of different software but Rhino 3D and a Dell laptop are my main tools, I’m self taught and have been using Rhino3D for over 10 years."

Thursday, June 2, 2011

Superyacht! Super size? Nope!

To appeal to owners who wanted the luxury of an 80-meter yacht but still wanted to pull into smaller moorings, Bill Prince Yacht Design designed this 60-meter superyacht in Rhino to meet their demands.

Advanced structural design allowed a glass wall measuring 1.5 meters high by 15 meters long on both sides of the full-beam main saloon and dining area. The yacht is full of outdoor relaxation spaces, with fold-down side platforms and a swimming pool that can be converted to additional deck space. More style is added by finishing the sheerline/bulwark in matte aluminum.

Python workshop is next week

The Point Crowd Python scripting workshop is next week. Have you registered? Sign up today to reserve your spot.

Dates: June 8-10
Location: Boston, MA

Topics include:
- Introduction to programming Python
- The mathematics of space
- Introduction to NURBS and Rhino data structures
- Systems for generative geometry

New Programming Interface for Rhino













Yeti is a live-programming interface for Rhino. Using Yeti you can build a parametric model through code and see changes instantly.



Download links and details here.

ACADIA proposal deadline is two weeks away

The ACADIA 2011 Design+Fabrication Competition deadline is two weeks away! Put those Rhino skills to great use and enter today.

The ACADIA 2011 conference committee is seeking proposals for innovative geometric forms that push the limits of design through the exploration of integrative material strategies for digitally fabricated assemblies. Winning projects will be fabricated and exhibited at the ACADIA 2011 Conference in Calgary/Banff, Alberta. In addition to a fabricated prototype, winners will receive $1,000 and all finalists will form part of the exhibit and catalog. Competition submission deadline is June 15th!

The ACADIA 2011 conference will be held October 11-16 in Calgary/Banff.

Wednesday, June 1, 2011

Canopée des Halles de Paris


“CanopĂ©e des Halles” represents one of the largest projects in the French scenario, focused on the reconfiguration of the area which represents the heart of Paris, under a commercial and infrastructural point of view.

During the PRO phase, the society DECODE played an intermediary role between architects, engineers, and other specialists, developing a 3D master model based on Rhino and Grasshopper. This model represented a useful instrument for the evolution of the project, supporting the verification of technical solutions and resolution of conflicts. Once concluded the evolution was enriched with information, integrating through specific plugins a database of attributes and 2D drawings necessary during the tendering. The project was then exported into an IFC interoperable model, through a custom exporter, and delivered to construction industries who participate to this innovative digital tender procedure.

Architect: Patrick Berger & Jacques Anziutti
Responsible for the PRO phase: Ingérop

Further information at www.decodebim.com

RhinoBIM Structure, new beta available

RhinoBIM is a series of BIM plugins for Rhino 5 from Virtual Build Technologies LLC. This new beta version of the first module, Structure, has many minor bug fixes.

Everyone is invited to download it.

Features include:
  • Robust tools for adding and editing structural steel beams
  • Extensive library of steel shapes including the international standards
  • User definable steel shapes
  • Assign materials, attributes, and process treatments to each element
  • Extract data for downstream application including structural analysis, detailing, cost estimating, scheduling, staging, and fabrication
  • Very fast clash and clearance analysis
  • Very large model support using new Rhino 5 technology