Getting there faster than expected...

Are we there yet? Really!

Old news: Last week MakerBot announced their new Replicator 2 desktop 3D printer. It is 37% bigger and more accurate—100 micron layers.

This week Formlabs announced Form 1, an even higher resolution desktop 3D printer—25 micron layers. Funded by Kickstarter!

As I mentioned last week, we have been watching 3D printing technology evolve for the last 20 years. Every year week there are major advances, but until now the technology hadn't quite gotten there. That is to say, when will 3D desktop printing start doing for product design what 2D desktop printing does for graphics design?

Have we arrived? Our check list:

• Cost
• Purchase price under $3,000: Yes.
• Supplies: Close enough.
• Accuracy: Good enough for most applications Yes.
• Speed: Maybe.
• Durability: Too early to tell, but that is no reason to wait.
• Ease of use: A software problem? If it is not easy enough for most Rhino users, it could be our fault.

So the answer is: Yes, and faster than we ever expected!

If you don't have a 3D printer yet, buy one in the coming year, and expect to replace it in two years six months or less with something even more amazing.

Grasshopper workshop, Sept 29-30

There are still seats available in this weekend's DATA LAB: Parametric Design + Data Structures with Grasshopper. DATA LAB is a two-day workshop on Advanced Topics and Data Structures in Grasshopper for Rhino. In a fast-paced and hands-on learning environment, participants will cover the fundamental concepts of data structures as well as strategies for working with Lists, Sequences, and Data Trees.

Dates: 29-30 September
Location:  MODE LAB/Studio Mode, Brooklyn, NY
Fee: $550/$450 Professionals/Students

Topics include:

• Data Structures: Advanced data trees – creation, manipulation, and management
• Modularity: File layout and organization, custom user objects, and file distribution protocols
• Coordination: Objects in/out, geometry pipeline through attributes, data connection to Excel
• Extending Grasshopper: Kangaroo, Galapagos, and Weaverbird
• Kangaroo: Physics-based simulation
• Weaverbird: High-order topological modeling
• Python: Scripting in Grasshopper

Sign up today!

Grasshopper webinar series

Studio Mode recently presented a Grasshopper webinar to an over-capacity crowd. Based on participant feedback and requests for more sessions, Gil Akos and Ronnie Parsons have launched an entire series of Grasshopper webinars for Fall 2012.

Spend your Friday afternoons with Gil and Ronnie. Sign up today for one or all...

• Working with Data Trees in Grasshopper
  October 5
• Paneling Surfaces in Grasshopper
  October 19
• Dynamic Patterning in Grasshopper
  October 26
• Subdivision Modeling Grasshopper + Weaverbird
  November 9
• Introduction to Python Scripting in Grasshopper
  November 16 * FREE
• Developing Python Components in Grasshopper
  November 30

Register...

Unless otherwise noted, webinars will be held Fridays from 2:00-4:30 pm Eastern time and the registration fee is $99/$59 for professionals/students.

iRhino 3D - Now iPhone 5.0 ready

Share your insight and inspiration.

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. Load Rhino models from web sites, Google Docs, Dropbox, email attachments, or from iTunes. Save views as images for mark-up and emailing.

Details...

Scan&Solve for meshes in Rhino

You can now perform structural simulation on native meshes in Rhino—from any source, of any size, and any complexity. And as always with Scan&Solve, no simplification, no preprocessing, no conversion, and no finite element meshing are needed. This version has the same functionality as the latest edition of Scan&Solve™ but works directly on closed meshes created in Rhino or imported from other applications that can export .stl, .wrl, .ply, and other mesh formats recognized by Rhino. Whether you are working with reverse engineering, 3D printing, digital mockup, scanned models or biomedical applications, in Rhino simply:

1. Select a valid closed mesh
2. Select the material (standard or custom)
3. Apply the restraints
4. Apply the loads (surfaces or body)
5. Select Go
6. View, Report, Bake, or 3D print the amazing results

There is nothing quite like SnSMesh anywhere and at any price. But you, the Rhino user, can download the full and unlimited work in progress (WIP) version of SnSMesh absolutely free.

Watch a video...

Download SnSMesh WIP...

Polka dot design

Marc Fornes, THEVERYMANY, LLC, a long-time user of Rhino, Grasshopper, and Python, is known for his distinctive sculptures. Now he is branching into retail design.

Until October 19th Louis Vuitton, the French fashion house, is featuring a limited edition collection of Japanese artist Yayoi Kusama, in a pop-up store in Selfridges, London. The Louis Vuitton handbags, ready-to-wear, travel bags, shoes, and accessories all feature Kusama's repetitive and polka dot patterns.

As the executive architect, Fornes created a carbon fiber self-supported shell and immersed the store in polka dots. See a video of the 'take-over' and construction on the site.

More photos in Dezeen Magazine . . . 

3Dexpo 2012

3Dexpo

Creative Tools, Slottsmöllan (Halmstad), Sweden

October 5, 2012

Creative Tools invite you to participate in their 3Dexpo, an event with an emphasis on architecture visualization and scale models/rapid prototyping.
Do not miss this opportunity, with a combination of lectures and workshops, to listen to interesting creative architectural and interior visualization specialists and learn how the new technology in 3D printing and rapid prototyping is changing communication and presentation within the architectural and manufacturing industries.

Also, meet Rodrigo Barcena, Rhino Training Specialist from McNeel Europe, and Sören Larsson, V-Ray rendering guru from Raylab.

Attendance is free, but registration is required.
Complimentary lunch and coffee breaks will be served.

Details and registration… (in Swedish)

Are we there yet?

MakerBot just announced their new Replicator 2 desktop 3D printer. It is 37% bigger and more accurate—100 microns per inch. (One micron is about the thickness of a sheet of paper).

We have been watching 3D printing technology evolve for the last 15-20 years. Every year there are major advances but until now it hasn't quite gotten there yet. That is to say, when will desktop 3D printing start doing for product design what 2D desktop printing does for graphics design?

So, are we there yet?

Our check list:

• Cost
• Purchase price under $3,000: Yes.
• Supplies: Close enough.
• Accuracy: Good enough for most applications.
• Speed: Maybe.
• Durability: Too early to tell.
• Ease of use: This could be a software problem. If it is not easy enough for most Rhino users, it is likely our fault.

So the answer is: Yes, we are nearly there.

We are expecting that most of you (750,000+ designers) don't have a 3D printer yet and will buy one in the coming year. And you will replace it within two years or less with something more amazing.

VSR iView: First app for iOS available

VSR iView is designed for both iPhone and iPad. By using VSR iView you can have your 3D data imported or created in Rhino + VSR product suite everywhere and anytime at your Apple mobile devices. It is the world's easiest way to show your latest created 3D models to anyone. Models can be viewed, assessed or also used as a virtual part in an augmented reality scene.

Get your model via email or web download to your iPhone or iPad or even synchronize the files with iTunes. Besides viewing your 3D model you can also show all the analysis you have set up before with Rhino + VSR product suite. These could be various shading modes, highlights, sections, draft angle, or curvature plots.

The most exciting feature is to put your virtual model into reality: using the build-in camera of your mobile device, you are able to display your virtual models in the current environment or use a picture from your photo album. Afterwards the screen content can be emailed or stored in the local photo album. This is usually referred to as augmented reality.

More information on the site by Virtual Shape Research.

Available on the App Store.

Solar-powered Exhibition Pavilion in Barcelona

Barcelona Smartcity is upgrading Barcelona's electricity supply system. As part of this project they've installed the Endesa Pavilion, a solar-powered exhibition center, as a control center for Barcelona Smartcity and to provide a model for other cities.

The architectural research and education center, the Instituto de Arquitectura Avanzada de Cataluna (IAAC), designed the project. To accommodate the needs of sun orientation and other environmental aspects, the solar modules' sizes and shape vary.

IAAC used mathematical equations to set the parameters for the solar inclination, orientation, and outside openings. If you look closely at the video on the Freshome web site, you will see Grasshopper being used. 

The wooden pavilion was fabricated by CNC machines, so construction was precise and quick, even though the various modules were completely different from each other. The building was built in less than one month.

The pavilion is in place till November 15, 2012, and located at the end of the Muelle de la Marina at the Olimpic Port of Barcelona. 

More information on the site by FastCoDesign. . . . 

Lands Design for Rhino

Asuni CAD has released the WIP version of Lands Design, a landscaping plugin to design gardens and green spaces that runs on Rhino 4 and Rhino 5 (32 and 64-bit). Lands is ideal for landscape architects, urban planners, town council technicians, constructors, designers and draftsmen, environment departments, nurserymen, gardeners, etc.

Get info and download.

Lands Design is under development. You can join the development process by sending your feedback to the Lands Design Community.

Bongo 2.0 Beta 12 now available

You are invited to try the Bongo 2.0 animation plug-in for Rhino 4.0 and 5.
This is the 12th 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 12 from here.

Infinite Skills Rhino 5 Advanced Tutorials

Take your skills to the next level. This Rhino 5 Advanced Techniques Tutorial Video is the ultimate in comprehensive instruction for the discerning professional.

These training classes use broadcast-quality audio and video to deliver concise and informative training right to your desktop. The course is presented via an intuitive, easy-to-use interface, letting you learn at your own pace.

These Rhino 5 Advanced Techniques Tutorials break even the most complex subjects down into easy-to-follow segments. Following along is simple. Practical working files further enhance the learning process and provide a degree of retention that is unmatched by any other form of training.

Details, demos, and purchase...

Evolute workshops at Chicago FACADES+INNOVATION Conference

This year's Chicago FACADES+INNOVATION Conference will include a day-long EvoluteTools PRO and Rhino workshop, on October 12, 2012, at the Illinois Institute of Technology Main Campus, Engineering Building One.

This workshop will focus on the optimization of complex geometry envelopes for efficient and cost effective fabrication and will cover all steps from design to optimization to detailing to generating fabrication information and how to parametrically link these steps to become an integrated workflow. Throughout the whole workshop, EvoluteTools PRO 2.0 for Rhino will be used by the attendees for hands-on examples and exercises. Participants are strongly encouraged to bring their own designs to be rationalized. Experience in using Rhino and knowledge of RhinoScript is advantageous.

Workshop details...

Conference details...

New RhinoFabLab at University of Kassel, Germany

New RhinoFabLab at the University of Kassel, Germany

"We, the staff of the architectural faculty of the University of Kassel note that for most students their designs come to a halt when a scaled architectural model is built. We would like to have our students make use of the possibilities of producing real prototypes, production models etc. So basically we want to show our students the possibilities of the personalized production that comes with a fabrication lab.

A main part of our motivation to become a RhinoFabLab is to help our students on planning, assessing and finally building non-standard architecture in a 1:1 scale. In educating the new generation of digitally planning and working architects to build their (non standard) designs, it is our obligation to teach the fabrication processes and hand the necessary tools over to our students.

Our facilities are of course not only open to students and staff of our university, but anyone who would like to build/produce their designs in our facilities. We are open to all kinds of support for local communities / schools when it comes to teaching the techniques of digital fabrication."

Some past cool projects include the Self-Supporting-Framework by Mischa Proll and the Radiolaria project by Christian Troche and students.

Equipment:

Rhino, Grasshopper, RhinoCAM, Epilog laser cutter, Precix milling machine, ZCorp 3D printer, Vialux 3D scanner with Geomagic Studio, self-built CNC milling machines and 3D printers, thermoforming machine, and in the near future we are going to provide a KUKA robot and/or a waterjet!

Details...

Organize your iPhone cable

What do you do when your iPhone charge cable turns into jumbled spaghetti in your pocket? You design a solution to fix it.

That's how Michiel Cornelissen came up with the iPhone accessory, The Wrap.

Originally Michiel was simply trying to get rid of the inconvenience of trying to keep the USB cable wrapped around the charger. 'I realized that one end of the charger is already perfectly fit for the job, and all you really need is the same shape on the other side as well. The Wrap provides just that, clipping onto the USB plug.'

Michiel says, 'And of course, all my products are designed in Rhino!'

The Wrap is now available through his web site and Shapeways.

Integral Envelopes Workshop 2.0 - Barcelona

Integral Envelopes Workshop 2.0

15-19 October 2012

Barcelona (Spain)

Workshop integrated into the ELISAVA Master’s Advanced Design and Digital Architecture, ADDA.

The participants will gain a new perspective on the creation of forms and spaces through knowledge of the material and its “intelligent” behavior, complemented by learning Rhino plugin Grasshopper, a software package that allows visual programming and advanced modeling of these forms and structures.

This workshop will equip students to produce truly innovative designs in terms of material, form, and behavior, to the point of creating designs that can adapt to their environment. Ultimately, we will learn that the boundary between natural and artificial (or that produced by humans) has been redrawn from the perspective of biomimetic engineering.

Workshop leaders:

• Jordi Truco. Architect, Director of ADDA, Advanced Design and Digital Architecture.
• Michael Weinstock. Architect, Director emergent technologies and design Architectural Association. UK Director technical studies AA.

Details and registration...

ROB|ARCH 2012 - Author Notifications and Workshops

ROB|ARCH 2012 has now sent out its author notifications. If you have not received an email, please check your spam folder or contact chair@robarch2012.org.

Also, the registrations for the free sponsor workshops are now open at the registration.robarch2012.org. These workshops are provided by the sponsors McNeel and ABB free for conference attendees. In the McNeel workshop, Grasshopper developer David Rutten will provide insight into Grasshopper, while the ABB workshop will expose attendants to the robot programming software RobotStudio. Seats are limited and only available for registered conference attendees.

The registration page now also offers conference-only registration, though we strongly recommend everyone attend a workshop. They offer a unique chance to see today’s cutting-edge robotics research institutions.

Finally, we have partnered up with the ACADIA conference, which will take place in San Francisco from October 18th to 21st. This year’s topic is “Synthetic Digital Ecologies” and promises some interesting keynotes and presentations.

AA Rome Visiting School

AA Rome Visiting School
October 17-26, 2012
Rome (Italy)

The 10-day workshop investigates structural computational design, where students are engaging debate with Roman engineer Sergio Musmeci’s idea of ‘form as unknown’. According to his methodologies the structural form is not a priori, of which you only verify the safety margins, but instead it is ‘deducted from an optimization of its static conditions’.

The aim of the workshop is to develop parametric strategies which adapt form according to local site conditions and most importantly to social articulation of space usability. Once deployed on the site of Rome, these models will construct elegant context-specific structural, spatial and material organizations. The computational approach leads to discard the imposition of a prefixed form and instead create and use a performance driven procedure.

On a team-based structure students will pursue their computational design researches coupling physical analogue experiments with algorithmic digital tooling. Finally digitally fabricated prototypes of their projects will be tested for real structural performances and richness of their tectonic articulation.

Details and registration...

NU:S Installation: between Fashion and Architecture

NU:S timelapse/performance from doublestudio on Vimeo.

NU:S Installation: between Fashion and Architecture.

In the evocative setting of the Cloister of Bramante in Rome, an extraordinary and engaging installation - an installation which examines the connection between fashion and parametric architecture - attempts to break the mold of the Roman art scene, taking advantage of the important creative contribution of young and talented members of Made in Italy: architects Arturo Tedeschi and Maurizio Degni; fashion designers Flavia Migani, Simone Bruno, Chiara Cola, and Alessio Spinelli. The concept and the creative direction is entrusted to Antonella Buono.

The result is a harmonious work that merges the individual disciplines while respecting their identities creating an innovative expressive manifesto, thanks to advanced digital tools and techniques. The installation consists of four dresses, complete with accessories, which are located within a parametric framework in constant dialog with the exhibition space, involving the audience in a multidisciplinary learning process. The installation soundtrack was composed by Davide Severi.

NU:S is a project by DOUBLE: A young company based in Rome, which is interested in the interplay of diverse contemporary art form. DOUBLE is: Maria Rosaria Melia, Antonella Buono, and Benedicta Mariani.

Rhino and Grasshopper were used extensively by Arturo Tedeschi on this project.

Rhino and Grasshopper training in Sevilla

Monzón8 announces Tools'12, a new workshop series starting the 20th of September in Sevilla (Spain).

Covers from basic Rhino through advanced rendering with V-Ray to advanced parametric design with Grasshopper and other plugins (e.g. Geco).

Workshop schedule: 16-hour (2 days) workshop (10-14h & 15-19h)
Language: Spanish.
Price: 125€.
Location: c/ Monzon 12 acc (tras La Caixa)- 41012 Sevilla, Spain

Complete info and registration (in Spanish)...

PDF poster...

Co-de-iT Grasshopper workshop in Vienna

Co-de-iT Grasshopper workshop 

Vienna (Austria)

September 13-16, 2012

The "Informed Skins" workshop aims at managing and developing the relationship between information and geometry working on condition-specific envelope systems. Surface discretization (paneling), driving geometry through information (whether coming from environmental analysis or any kind of database), extracting and managing information for construction processes all require an understanding of data structures in order to build seamless design-to-construction pipelines. Through visual scripting in Grasshopper (Generative modeling plugin for Rhino) participants will learn how to build and develop parametric data structures (from basic simple lists to complex data trees), data-driven geometry and envelopes and how to extract relevant information from such models for construction processes. Participants will also develop a personal envelope project and its full design-to-construction pipeline.

Book your seat here!

SimLab 3D PDF Plugin for Rhino

SimLab Soft just released the new version of SimLab 3D PDF plugin for Rhino, the new version is based on new capabilities of SimLab Composer 2013 and includes the following enhancements:

• New: Template designer, enabling users to create templates that can be used to export customized 3D PDF files.
• New: 64-bit support to handle very large and complex models.
• New: Embedding in HTML, user can include the generated 3D PDF in automatically create HTML to make it easy to share 3D PDF files in the web.
• New: Merging multiple PDF files, the plug-in includes a new tool for merging multiple PDF files. Users can use the merge feature to merge a company’s front page—in PDF format—with a 3D PDF model.
• New: Floating license support, ready to support teams of Rhino designers.
• New: Command line integration, GUI free mode to enable scripting the process of 3D PDF creation inside Rhino.
• New: Open After Export, the ‘Open file after export’ option, makes it easier for the user to view the generated 3D PDF file without searching for it.
• Enhanced: Better 3D PDF illustration mode, with the new illustration viewing mode, share your models in a new better look, showing details like never before.
• Enhanced: Better control over the generated 3D PDF file size. By utilizing Rhino’s Render Mesh, the user has control over the size of the generated 3D PDF file.

Download the new release here...