The VRZ 1, designed and built by Rhino user, Ralf Holleis, is a track bike frame with 3D printed stainless steel lugs glued together with carbon fiber tubes.
Friday, December 30, 2011
Printing Stainless Steel
The VRZ 1, designed and built by Rhino user, Ralf Holleis, is a track bike frame with 3D printed stainless steel lugs glued together with carbon fiber tubes.
AA Visiting School - Sydney 2012
InFloatables - AA Visiting School - Sydney
This ten-day studio-based design workshop will explore the potential of articulated envelopes and grounds through the use of computational design approaches and the construction of 1:1 inhabitable and floatable spaces. The workshop will be taught by tutors from the AA Visiting School and the University of Technology Sydney and will also include input from specialist participants.
Workshop Dates: February 6-17, 2012
Application Deadline: January 23, 2012 - Apply today.
Location: University of Technology Sydney, Australia
InFloatables is open to current architecture and design students, architects, and designers worldwide.
Wednesday, December 21, 2011
Bongo 1.0 Service Release 8 Now Available
You will require your CD-Key to run the installer for Service Release 8.
This key is printed on the license insert on the left side of your DVD case.
The Service Release include fixes for memory leaks, icons and button disappearing and lots of crash bugs.
Enjoy!
Tuesday, December 20, 2011
Maide Control iPad App available for Rhino 5
CONNECT CONTROL PRESENT SHARE COLLABORATE MODEL
LEAP alpine refuge designed in Rhino
The refuge represents the pinnacle of achievement of LEAPfactory, (the acronym means Living, Ecological, Alpine Pod) an Italian Company that designs, creates and produces modular structures which have minimal impact on the environment.
Thursday, December 15, 2011
Digital Design Workshop in Caracas
CCS Digital Design WorkshopJoin the DS Design Lab at their upcoming workshop. The CCS Digital Design Workshop is focused on giving a first approach to digital and parametric design to architects and designers. During the three days, participants will learn the Rhino basics as well as getting an introduction to Grasshopper. Come prepared to learn!
Dates: January 19-21, 2012
Location: Caracas, Venezuela
Tuesday, December 13, 2011
3D printing for children
SiTex Graphics announces RhinoAir 4.0
The RhinoAir plug-in enables Rhino 4 and 5 users to quickly start rendering using familiar Rhino materials and lights while providing easy access to Air's advanced features. RhinoAir brings full scene interactive shading and lighting to Rhino with the aid of TweakAir. View lighting and material changes as you make them in a high-quality interactive preview.
With BakeAir, RhinoAir allows shading in a scene to be rendered or “baked” to texture maps. Baked maps can be used as textures for real-time rendering in Rhino or with an exported VRML file. With Air 11 and RhinoAir 4, shading results can also be stored as vertex data of a mesh (with user-specified tessellation density). Baked meshes can be used for real-time viewing in Rhino or to accelerate rerendering with Air.
New in RhinoAir 4.0
- Object animation
- Motion blur
- Bake shading results to mesh vertices
- Ptex (per face texture mapping)
- Physical sun and sky shaders
- Spectral colors
- 2-point perspective in Rhino 5
Monday, December 12, 2011
News from food4Rhino
A few things happened last month on 
. There are some new Rhino plugins and Grasshopper add-ons:
And we can also tell about updates and new features in existing projects:
With more than 50 projects and 19,000 visits (9,000 downloads) in the last month, authors and visitors from all over the world contributed daily to establish food4Rhino as the first Rhino plugin and add-on site on the web.
. There are some new Rhino plugins and Grasshopper add-ons: | KUKA|prc Generate KUKA Robot Language code directly out of Grasshopper, along with a kinematic simulation of the robot. |
 | Rhino Membrane An application with one of the most powerful form-finding strategies available today. Using a Fea (Finite Element Analysis) model it is able to relax any mesh into a stressed surface in equilibrium with positive stress fields only. |
 | Hal A new Grasshopper plug-in to prototype RAPID code (program language for ABB Robots) very quickly. It is then possible to set entirely parametric code generation for the robotized nonstandard fabrication of your grasshopper based designs. |
 | Elk A set of tools for Grasshopper to generate map and topographical surfaces using open source data from OpenStreetMap.org and Shuttle Radar Topography Mission (SRTM) data from NASA/Jet Propulsion Labs. |
 | VSR WebGL Export A Rhino plugin to export any design you have created to a format that can be viewed on any other hardware. All you need is a state-of-the-art Web browser on your target device. |
 | EvoluteTools An advanced Rhino plugin suite providing access to powerful geometry processing algorithms through a user-friendly interface. Established computational tools from Evolute's core software library, as well as groundbreaking technology from our cutting edge research results, provide you with functionality not offered by any other system. |
And we can also tell about updates and new features in existing projects:
 | Kangaroo Physics Live Physics engine for interactive simulation. Added Level Set force, springs can now have upper and lower cutoffs, added depth-dependent pressure force, added relative and waterline options to Wind force. |
 | Genoform A generative design exploration method. Added a selection of Grasshopper models to play around with. |
 | SPM Vector Components Provides utilities that deal with vector fields. Added SPM Source Code: follow the templates to build your own dynamics. |
 | Karamba Dynamic structural calculations in Grasshopper now in two flavors: free and pro. New manual, new examples, and several new features including display of strains, stresses, utilization and section forces/moments, cross-section optimization (pro version only). |
With more than 50 projects and 19,000 visits (9,000 downloads) in the last month, authors and visitors from all over the world contributed daily to establish food4Rhino as the first Rhino plugin and add-on site on the web.
Friday, December 9, 2011
Bongo 2.0 Beta 8 now available
You are invited to try the Bongo 2.0 animation plug-in for Rhino 4.0 and 5. This is the eight Beta version of Bongo 2.0 for Rhino 4.0 and 5.
The beta is open for all Rhino users!
Download Bongo 2.0 Beta 8 from here.
fabworks Sevilla - conference and book
Dec 15 - fabworks - Sevilla (Spain)
fabworks is a new conference about computational design and digital fabrication, organized by the Faculty of Architecture in Sevilla (Spain) and its Fab Lab.
The fabworks book, available as a free PDF, showcases the latest projects and workshops at the Fab Lab Sevilla.
2nd Parametric Design Workshop Leipzig
January 5-9 - 2nd Parametric Design Workshop Leipzig - Germany
The workshop will be concerned with the development and optimization of large-area structures and climatic envelopes. Using Rhino and Grasshopper-based tools such as Karamba and Geco/Ecotec, parametric and iterative methods are to be used for system optimization. Limited rapid prototyping tools will be available for physical model making.
The workshop will be jointly organized and tutored by
- Prof. Frank Hülsmeier
- Prof. Henning Rambow
- Prof. Dr. Alexander Stahr
Guest lectures and tutoring by
- Clemens Preisinger (Bollinger•Grohmann•Schneider ZTWien GmbH, Wien - KARAMBA)
- Dimitri Demin (Gartner Steel and Glass GmbH)
- Martin Dembski and Christian Heidenreich, Uni Weimar
- Henning Seide, FIlou Gmbh and HTWK Leipzig
Shape To Fabrication Evolute-Corian workshop results
This year’s Shape to Fabrication Workshops brought something new to the table – interaction between teams and close cooperation among software developers, hardware developers, and fabricators. Although the cooperation itself created major constraints for the design teams, the constraints proved to be an incentive for the participants to harvest the full power of the digital tools and come up with unexpected, intriguing, and boundary-pushing designs.The task of Workshop #3 was to design and build a seating area for a projection “room” with developable strips made of thermo-formed Corian. For this task Evolute teamed up with Corian processor, Cutting Edge, whose vast fabrication experience proved to be a key factor for the success of the workshop. The Instructors – Mathias Hoebinger, Florin Isvoranu, and Kevin Hoy worked with a team of talented individuals, architects, designers and restoration artists, namely Alexandros Vazakas, Camilo Diaz, Marcin Gladzik, and Olivier Brouillard, who by the end of day #1 had a feasible design ready for production optimization.
Production optimization involved approximating the double curved free-form surface with developable strips that fit within the very tight workshop constraints such as: time, limited Corian sheets available, Corian sheet size, mould size, machining and thermo-forming time, cut-off minimization, handling restrictions and assembly possibilities. The participants made use of EvoluteTools to globally fit developable strips to the free-form surface they previously designed with Rhinoceros. The global fitting of the strips coupled with the edge-length analysis mode ensured that the unrolled panels fit within the maximum width of the Corian sheets. After the global fitting, each lengthwise strip was treated individually and further optimized, then broken down into perfectly unrollable panels of manageable size. Throughout the production geometry output process Mathias used RhinoScript to automate tasks and assist the fabrication process with data that enabled the Cutting Edge team reduce machining time significantly.
After all the production geometry was handed over to Cutting Edge, the fabrication process was a full all hands on deck experience and everybody “got physical” with the Corian panels, as showcased in the time lapse videos. Although a fun and educational experience for the workshop participants, the fabrication success heavily relied on the experience of the Cutting Edge team, who’s amazing dedication and passion inspired all of us.
The use of developable strips as a smooth approximation of a free-form surface proved to be very successful both from a manufacturing and aesthetic point of view. After the assembly was completed, the original designed surface could be easily recognized through the continuous flow of the single curved Corian panels. It needs to be added that the seating area was quite comfortable ! Hopefully you had the chance to enjoy it at the Robofold exhibition.
Videos
LaN-FLIGHT Europe January 2012 - Innsbruck // Stuttgart // Barcelona
LaN-FLIGHT Europe January 9-16-17 2012
// Innsbruck // Stuttgart // Barcelona
LaN FLIGHT //traveling seminar / tour of digital fabrication practices & programs // This en-route experience draws a diverse group of design participants from afar for a full schedule of exchanges with leading practitioners, practices, fabrication labs… all while exposed to European transit infrastructure... trains planes and even a few mountain roads.
LaN FLIGHT Europe marks LaN's fifth initiative on-the-fly and our first in Europe. Join us for the full trip or the leg that suits your interests. LaN is looking to attract a geographically diverse group of students and professionals with various design backgrounds. LaN FLIGHT 2012 Europe is copiloted by LaN Monika Wittig and Co-de-iT Andrea Graziano
LaN FLIGHT is looking for highly ambitious, adaptable, and endurance oriented participants to fully embrace the nature of this curated experience. Please take a look at our 3 previous editions to best judge if this type of experience suits you. If you are willing to allot 8 days of your life to this pursuit and have no allergies to extreme mobility and group dynamics… welcome to LaN FLIGHT.
Complete details...
Workshop robotic fabrication by Gregory Epps and Daniel Piker
Hyperbody TU Delft will be hosting our second workshop in the robotic fabrication series from Dec 12-16 in our robotics lab at the RDM Campus in Rotterdam, the Netherlands.
Internationally acclaimed architects/ researchers/ developers/ educators Gregory Epps (RoboFold) and Daniel Piker (Kangaroo plug-in for Rhino/ Grasshopper) from London will introduce the emerging trend of robotics in the field of architecture during these 5 intense days of folding, simulation, robotic fabrication, and building. Participants will become intuitive at designing folded surfaces, use the Kangaroo physics engine software for the Rhino Grasshopper plug-in to simulate the folding of metal panels, create robotic simulations in the Lobster software for Grasshopper and use the robots to build 1:1 prototypes.
The Hyperbody Workshop Series is open to architecture and design students and professionals worldwide. The workshop requires a fee of €150 per participant.
More information: www.hyperbody.nl / j.d.feringa@tudelft.nl
3DTalk Hamburg (Germany)
Dec 14 - 3DTalk - Hamburg (Deutschland)
3DTalk, organized by picturetools, is a yearly user meeting showcasing the latest in 3D modeling and animation by professional users and software manufacturers.
This year McNeel will be also presenting: "Rhinoceros: Design, Visualization and Development Platform".
Smart Geometry 2012 - Troy, NY - March
The event will be in two parts, a four day Workshop 19-22 March, and a public conference beginning with Talkshop 23 March, followed by a Symposium 24 March.
Thursday, December 8, 2011
Predicting urban growth
PostDoc Openings - Architecture, Fabrication, and Robotics
 |
| Flight Assembled Architecture Exhibition 01.12.2011-26.02.2012 FRAC Centre Orléans. 12 rue de la Tour Neuve, 45000 Orléans, France. |
They are currently looking for PostDoc researchers who are interested in investigating the design of robotically fabricated high-rise buildings emphasizing on how robotic construction processes can directly inform the design process and the articulation of high-rise buildings.
Wednesday, December 7, 2011
Digital Design/Build workshop in Melbourne
Ex-Lab will be directing an intensive two-week digital design-build workshop in Melbourne, Australia. The workshop will engage participants in a creative, collaborative environment encompassing architecture, art, digital design and fabrication tenchniques. The workshop will culminate into a full-scale built work and exhibition.
Dates: February 6-17, 2012
Location: Elseware Studio, Melbourne, Australia
Early-bird: AUD$450 Students/$700 Professionals Note: Early-bird rates available until January 1st.Starting January 1st: AUD$700 Students/$900 Professionals
Monday, December 5, 2011
A door handle inspired by a weaver bird's nest
The weaver bird constructs their nest by interweaving simple elements such as twigs, leaves, and grass.
Reforma constructs their Handle Nest door handle by interweaving simple elements of Grasshopper.
Both end up with a complex, lightweight, but sturdy 'nest'. Both provide security.
Friday, December 2, 2011
New RhinoFabLab: Gerald D Hines College of Architecture
Join us in welcoming another member to our RhinoFabLab community! The Gerald D. Hines College of Architecture at University of Houston has recently joined the group. Join their group and be informed of upcoming events, workshops and digital fabrication opportunities.
Thursday, December 1, 2011
Program your ABB robot from Grasshopper
HAL is a new Grasshopper plug-in which allows you to prototype RAPID code (programmation language for ABB Robots) very quickly. It is then possible to set entirely parametric code generation for robotized non-standard fabrication of your Grasshopper based designs.
Webinar: Shoe Design - T-Splines 3.3 for Rhino
T-Splines 3.3 for Rhino (currently in beta) contains new tools for reverse engineering that have a broad application across many industries.
In a free webinar on December 7th, T-Splines user Kevin Pasko will show how T-Splines 3.3 for Rhino enhances the footwear modeling process.
T-Splines CAD assets can be easily reused and reshaped for different variations, and the unique push-pull T-Splines modeling approach enhances creativity.
Kevin will show how T-Splines can be used to create editable, digital lasts. He will also demonstrate the creation of the midsole and outsole of an athletic shoe with T-Splines.
T-Splines models are unique in that each part is watertight, unified surface that can be easily pushed and pulled to get different variations. T-Splines models convert to NURBS or meshes for downstream compatibility.
Though this webinar will be focused on the footwear industry, the design principles Kevin will use are general and applicable to many industries.
If you missed the November 29th webinar about the new T-Splines reverse engineering tools, you can see a recording of it here.
Need a violin? Make a Stradivarius.
Working together with professional luthiers John Waddle and Steve Rossow of St. Paul, Minnesota, they used a CT scanner and Rhino to reproduce a 1704 Stradivari violin.
Wednesday, November 30, 2011
New Orca3D WIP 1.2.1
Available now - the release of a new Work-in-Progress (WIP) version of Orca3D. This new version (1.2.1) contains several new features, improvements, and bug fixes. Some highlights include:
- OrcaStraightenPoints: Added a new command to place control points (or point objects) in a straight line in 3D, or in the 2D projection of a line.
- Lines Drawing: Sections in the lines drawing are put on layers that mimic the Orca3D section layers in the model.
- Lines Drawing Fixes: Addressed issue with diagonals being offset when the full hull was sectioned, addressed issue with scaling when the full hull was sectioned, all lines are now drawn on the same plane.
- Stability Criteria Fixes: Calculation of Hybrid Ratio corrected, calculation of areas under curves corrected, corrected calculation of heavy lifting and icing heeling arms.
- Resistance Prediction Fixes: Added total propulsive power output (PpTotal) to CSV export of planing hull and displacement hull analyses.
- Lightweight Extrusion Objects: Fixed a bug in copying weight/cost data when copying lightweight extrusion objects in Rhino 5.
Tuesday, November 29, 2011
Rhino to Alias Plugin Release Final Version
Digital Sculptors introduces the only direct translator for Alias to import Rhino files. Rhino To Alias Plugin will import 3DM files to Alias. After three months of preview releases, the Rhino to Alias Release Final Version is available.
Grasshopper VB workshop materials
WooJae Sung recently taught a Grasshopper VB Scripting workshop at Harvard GSD. He has been kind enough to share his course work and has made it available for download on his site.
Available in English and Korean.
Monday, November 28, 2011
Shape To Fabrication photos and videos
With 200 participants from all over Europe (and some from US and Canada), the Shape To Fabrication 4 conference was a big success (some photos here).
Preceded by four days of intense workshops (here are some flicker photos and here are some nice videos featuring the Evolute workshop), London's premier architects, engineers, fabricators and contractors showcased amazing projects done in Rhino, including speakers from Populous, Aedas, Luca Biselli, Simmonds Studio, AKT, Arup, Buro Happold, Zaha Hadid Architects, Yolles, Amanda Levete Architects.
Software manufacturers:
- Chaos group presented the upcoming V-Ray for Rhino 1.5 (expected to be released Q1 2012), a new version that matches the functionality found at V-Ray 2.0 for 3D Max, including real time rendering.
- Giulio Piacentino introduced RhinoPython to the community.
- RhinoTerrain announced two new future modules for Rhino 5: RhinoCity and RhinoRoad.
- Evolute did a great demo on its Rhino plug-ins for geometry optimization and the new version 1.2.
- The SMART Form and SMART Move VIZ tools by Buro Happold on real-time analysis. Simulation tools for rapid design optimizations were also a hit.
- KUKA|prc (parametric robot control), a plug-in for Grasshopper that for the first time enables robot control from within architectural software, was presented by Sigrid & Johannes (Robots in Architecture Association).
- Francesc Salla from Asuni showed VisualARQ's new version.
- Symvol for Rhino, a new tool for volume based 3D design and modeling by Uformia, was simply a revolution.
- David Rutten explained the second solver available from within Galapagos which implements the Simulated Annealing algorithm (presentation here).
- And Daniel Piker made a great presentation about Kangaroo live physics engine with projects by students and commercial users.
HP explained how they see 3D printing in architecture through a very nice video at Span Architects.
At the closing session, the conference organizers announced a new Master program to be held at the South Bank University London.
Keep your eyes open for STF5 in 2012!
EuroMold Frankfurt
November 29-December 2 - EuroMold - Frankfurt am Main, Germany
EuroMold is the World Fair for Moldmaking and Tooling, Design and Application Development.
To see what's new in Rhino and a variety of plug-ins and hardware, visit our resellers and partners listed here.
Also, don't miss the presentation by Virtual Shape Research showing its modeling and analysis plug-ins for Rhino:
- "Fast, precise and affordable surface modeling for the design process" by Virtual Shape Research - Thursday December 1 at 2:30pm at the Design and Engineering Forum.
Engaging generative BIM workflows
"Generative tools such as Grasshopper are being utilized to explore architectural projects and influence design decisions with increasing popularity. Rapidly produced multitudes of options will not be utilized to full potential if entire design team assessments take days or weeks to fulfill. Maintaining and coordinating external documentation models is redundant and consuming work. To maximize the potential of these tools, teams must efficiently assess multiple objectives and criteria, to seek optimal solutions. Utilizing the generative information model as input to analysis and simulation tools (including structure, services, environmental, construction programming, and cost assessments) can facilitate superior design decisions."
Jon Mirtschin (GeometryGym) recently presented at IABSE-IASS London, LSAA Australasia, and Algode Tokio.
Read his technical paper on Engaging Generative BIM Workflows.
Wednesday, November 23, 2011
Bongo 2.0 Beta 7 Now Available
You are invited to try the Bongo 2.0 animation plug-in for Rhino 4.0. This is the seventh Beta version of Bongo 2.0 for Rhino 4.0 and 5.0.
The beta is open for all Rhino users!
Download Bongo 2.0 Beta 7 from here.
MadCAM 4.3 released!
MadCAM 4.3 is a free service release for existing madCAM 4.x users.
A partial list of new functions in madCAM 4.3:
A partial list of new functions in madCAM 4.3:
- Contour remachining: (Expert-level)
Automatic rest material contour machining calculated from previous cutter. This function works for 3-axis, 4-axis, and simultaneous 5-axis. - Axis of revolution: (4-axis and Expert-level)
New option for calculating towards or away from the axis of revolution. This makes it possible to cut the inside of a shape with 4-axis or 5-Axis tool paths. - Profiling: (4-axis and Expert-level)
New option for keeping the cutter perpendicular to curve when using 2D-profiling in 4-axis. - V-carving: (4-axis and Expert-level) New V-carving option when using From boundary Curves.
- madCAM License: Two new certificates for Entry + Remachining and 4-axis + remachining. You can buy each bundle or upgrade from the Entry level or 4-axis version.
SIGraDi presentation by Pablo C. Herrera
But that is not the whole story on how Rhino, RhinoScript, and Grasshopper came to be so widely embedded in Latin American architecture design education. For the rest of the story, see Professor Pablo C. Herrera's presentation to his colleagues at SIGraDi.
Friday, November 18, 2011
T-Splines 3.3 new reverse engineering tools
T-Splines 3.3 for Rhino (to be released in late November) will contain new tools for reverse engineering. You can fit T-Splines surfaces to scanned data to get an editable, unified, watertight surface.
