VisualARQ 2 Webinar on November 1

VisualARQ 2 Webinar: Flexible BIM for Rhino and Grasshopper

Wednesday, November 1, 2017

11:00AM PDT

Register here.

Join Francesc Salla, VisualARQ Product Manager, for a fast-paced and exciting demonstration of VisualARQ 2. The webinar will show the new features of VisualARQ 2 including:

• New toolbar: object selection commands
• New Section and Level Manager
• Hidden line 2D vector drawings and Layout sheets preparation
• Grasshopper styles: VisualARQ object styles created from Grasshopper definitions.
• New Furniture, Element and Annotation object, also created from Grasshopper definitions
• Custom parameters created by object, style, document and from Grasshopper
• Creation of Tables listing objects with custom parameters
• New Space object features
• VisualARQ objects in external references

This webinar is organized by Novedge.

The webinar is free and will last about one hour, including the Q&A session.

Sign up today!

CLOAK watches: an entire collection in one watch

Hundreds of material combinations, all interchangeable in seconds - CLOAK is the most personalizable watch ever.

Support our friends from CLOAK watches with their Kickstarter campaign!

"The modeling process was very smooth and we were able to create drawings to send to our many fabricators and meshes for in-house and external rapid prototyping.

We are used to working at the building scale as architects and civil engineers. To be able to move to the industrial design scale and still use the software we know was fantastic. The high tolerances required posed no problems for Rhino."

CLOAK watches Kickstarter campaign...

The Brabham Evo Project by EPTA Design

Following several rumors of a possible return of Alfa Romeo to the F1 world, EPTA Design wants to pay tribute to Alfa's history and specifically to the Brabham BT46.

"The Rhinoceros software was crucial not only as a modeling tool, but also for the rendering phase.

Given the high number of textures (logos) we directly cut the surfaces with reconstructed vector logos. This has allowed to arrange the clipped surfaces into specific folders and, above all, to avoid having texturing problems (mapping) and to have to deal with heavy images (to use as high-quality textures) to make larger renderings.

Rhinoceros stands out for speed and precision and was, as always, crucial to managing a model with a high number of components.

The Maxwell rendering plugin, integrated with Rhino, gives the benefit of organizational system folders, levels, and groups for the management of the rendering."

Complete details...

Iray for Rhino Version 1.4 with denoising

In its latest update to the photorealistic rendering plugin from NVIDIA, a new powerful feature for denoising renderings has been included. The denoiser takes advantage of latest advances in deep learning and applies these to the rendering results of Iray. As a result, images will now become noise-free in a much shorter amount of time.

See a presentation of this feature in this video.

More information...

Nature's forms in architecture produced by a CNC machine

Laguna Tools has produced a video documentary that's an enthusiastic endorsement of using the CNC machine onsite to print architectural finishes of a home.

The Wave House in Venice, California, blends elements of nature into its contemporary design through the implementation of CNC machining for the walls and floors.

Mario Romano, the designer and builder, takes his fascination with nature's forms in architecture and uses technology to pioneer his design-build systems, incorporating customized digital tools and CNC machining technology. The walls were milled using Corian. The exterior skin of the home is aluminum.

Get inspired by Mario's use of a CNC machine... 

Online Level 2 Rhino in November

Image credit: Kyle Houchens, The Outside

Ready to take your Rhino skills to the next level? Join us for an online Level 2 course. Our detailed course outline is available here. 

• Level 2 Rhino 5 for Mac, Online
  November 7-16
• Level 2 Rhino 5 for Windows, Online
  November 28-December 7

Our online courses are taught "live" and are interactive sessions. All sessions are also recorded and will be posted to a private class album for your study and review. Videos will be available for streaming up to three months following the class.

Join Proving Ground at ACADIA!

Proving Ground is presenting new research at ACADIA.

Nate Miller's and Dave Stasiuk's paper, A Novel Mesh-based Workflow for Complex Geometry in BIM,  is research built upon "recent work in utilizing meshes as an often overlooked interoperability data-structure relative to constructive solid modeling in BIM software."

ACADIA will be in Cambridge, Massachusetts, November 2-4. Register for ACADIA.

More info on the Proving Ground research...

Arq.A 2017 Conference in Colombia

CPNAA + Voxel C&T SAS are hosting ARQ.A 2017 in Medellín, Colombia. At this conference, you will be able to appreciate the new design technologies that are being used worldwide like Rhinoceros, Grasshopper, VisualARQ2.0, and  V-Ray 3.

Join Leonardo A. Velasco P., Director of Innovation at Voxel S.A.S, who will offer a conference about digital design processes for architecture, from BIM to Generative Design. Leonardo Velasco has experience in production processes and product development in plastics, architectural design, furniture, and graphics. 

Open to the public, free of charge! Register here!

Date: 

October 19, 2017    

Time:
5:15 pm

Place: 
Ruta N: Cl. 67 #5220,
Medellín, Antioquia, Colombia

For more information, contact Sebastian Figueroa.

What is 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.

A racing kayak close up

Just for fun, here are a few photos and specifications of Sencha, a strip built racing kayak by Warren Williamson from Anacortes, Washington. William uses Rhino to design and build kayaks from scratch.

A few photos....

C# Scripting and Plugin Development for Grasshopper Workshop - McNeel Europe (Barcelona)

Advanced Course 

C# Scripting and Plugin Development for Grasshopper by Long Nguyen (ICD Stuttgart)

November 28-30, 2017

10.00h-18.00h

McNeel Europe S.L.

Roger de Flor, 32-34 bajos

08018 Barcelona (Spain)

McNeel welcomes Long Nguyen, a research associate at ICD Stuttgart, for a 3-day Advanced Workshop for Developers at McNeel Europe in Barcelona. 

This 3-day advanced course will focus on advanced aspects of C# scripting and plugin programming for Grasshopper. In addition to going in-depth with Rhino geometries, custom graphics display and Rhino-Grasshopper interaction, learn different techniques to vastly improve code performance and significantly speed up execution time (including using multithread parallel computing). The participants will also have the opportunity to kick-start the development of their own personal projects under the instructor’s guidance.

Day 1:

• ScriptSync: Using Visual Studio as a replacement C# Code Editor in Grasshopper
• Custom graphics display (custom colors, materials, styles, etc...)
• Rhino geometries (Curves, Surfaces, Meshes)
• String editing: useful for generating robot/machine control codes

Day 2:

• Programmatically interacting with Rhino modeling environment from Grasshopper (including geometry baking)
• C# Delegates
• Computational complexity: understanding code performance and scalability
• Spatial Data Structure: using RhinoCommon R-Trees to accelerate 3D searches, proximity checking, collision detection
• Parallel computation with the .NET Task Parallel Library

Day 3:

• Personal project development
• Option to discuss topics requested by the participants

Course Fee: EUR 795 (+VAT); full-time students and university teachers will get a 50% discount (proof of status required).  Bookings will be formalized once payment is cleared. 

Max. Number of Participants: 10. If there is no quorum, the course will be canceled 15 days before.
Language: English

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

Rhino and a fixie: Arc Bicycle

We've spotted Rhino in a fun bicycle project: Arc Bicycle, the 3D-printed steel frame designed by a student team at TU Delft and printed by MX3D.

See Rhino in the YouTube video...

A few details in BikeRadar...

VisualARQ 2 - flexible BIM

Say hello to VisualARQ 2!

Asuni, makers of VisualARQ and Lands Design plugins for Rhino, are pleased to announce the release of VisualARQ 2, the architectural modeling software which adds BIM features to Rhino. This release is not only about introducing new features and fixes, it is about entirely redefining industry paradigms by enabling new tools to develop powerful workflows with Flexible BIMTM.

Some new features include:

• Grasshopper Styles
• Vector Output
• Custom Parameters
• IFC Import / Export

Owners of VisualARQ 1 can have a free upgrade to VisualARQ 2. Tech support and training are available on the VisualARQ support website.

Download VisualARQ 2 Eval from food4Rhino...

Exploring Glass with Grasshopper

One of the finished pieces, a vase.

McNeel & Associates take a field trip! One of our staff, Brian Gillespie, explored the world of Pilchuck Glass. Tara Broyhill and Brian joined the Pilchuck Glass School as artists in residence for two weeks. Neither person had worked in glass before. They were invited to come to the school to explore how generative design and digital fabrication can be used for art glass. In the process, they studied the texture and optics of hand-blown glass, along with the mathematics of a Voronoi diagram as computed in Grasshopper.

Initially, Brian and Tara set out to explore four-part molds as a way to make unique versions of optic and pineapple molds. They ended up making a couple variations of roll plates to add texture to their glass.

The Pilchuck Glass School is a woodland retreat, so the equipment they provided needed to be portable. They chose a Handibot as their CNC tool for their fabrication work. The Handibot was used to mill a roll plate to apply the texture to the glass.

Watch the overview of their project...

Xirus - Augmented CAD in Rhino

Mirrakoi recently announced (at the Rhino User Meeting Berlin) the future release of Xirus, a brand-new geometric modeling kernel which provides augmented CAD: a powerful modeling technology that combines the best of the worlds of NURBS, subdivision, and polygon meshes and adds augmented access to the 3D digital object. Xirus provides decoupled control of tangents, curvature, mixed- and higher order derivatives and enables direct smoothness control in 3D modeling. 

The WIP will be released on November 20th. In the meantime, check out the tutorial videos...

Innochain Winter School 2017 in Berlin

HENN will host the Innochain Winter School 2017. Join us for two days of great presentations, discussions, and exhibitions in Berlin.

Innochain Early Stage Researcher (ESRs) and their Industry Partners (IPs), as well as Universities, are asked to describe how their research will make a difference to society and the building profession in both a short and long-term perspective. 

Please join HENN for two days of discussions and presentations.

October 12-13 Public Sessions and Presentations

Complete details...

3D Printed Bridge

The town of Alcobendas is the home of the first pedestrian bridge printed in 3D. The Institute of Advanced Architecture of Catalonia (IAAC) was in charge of the architectural design of the bridge, which has a total length of 12 meters and a width of 1.75 meters and is printed in micro-reinforced concrete.

With this bridge design, the IAAC remains committed to innovation and becoming a global pioneer in large-scale 3D printing. The 3D printed footbridge of Alcobendas, designed with Rhino and Grasshopper, represents a milestone for the construction sector at an international level, since, to date, this technology has not been applied in the field of civil engineering.

The 3D printed bridge, which reflects the complexities of nature’s forms, was developed through parametric design, to allow optimizing material distribution and minimizing the waste by recycling the raw material during manufacturing. Thanks to the application of generative algorithms and challenging the traditional construction techniques, the computational design also maximized the structural performance, with total freedom of forms, maintaining the porosity.

More information...

Job Offer at Digital Timber Construction DTC Group (TU Kaiserslautern)

The group of Digital Timber Construction DTC at the faculty of architecture at TU Kaiserslautern is searching for a research assistant (50% TV-L 13). The position starts December 2017, and includes the possibility of a PhD thesis.

The working group directed by Jun. Prof. Dr. Christopher Robeller is part of the research laboratory Timber Architecture and Engineered Wood Products T-Lab and operates at the intersection of architecture, civil engineering, computer science, and fabrication technology.

The group is focused on the development of novel digital tools, which automatically generate 3D building components and CNC fabrication data—while being aware of the constraints of assembly sequences, fabrication parameters, and material properties. This allows for the development of new building construction systems, where the details play a particularly important role.

The working environment is a technical university, with equipment of the T-Lab (including a new 5-axis CNC machining center) and an exchange with industry partners.

Requirements

A passion for digital timber construction, as well as a Diploma or Master in architecture, civil engineering, or computer science. Useful skills include CAD (Rhino), programming (C#, Python, C++) and experience with CNC machines and robots.

Tasks

Tasks include the work on research projects and research funding applications, as well as the participation in teaching activities. The position is initially limited to one year and should be extended afterward through successful funding applications.

Applications

Please apply via email to christopher.robeller@architektur.uni-kl.de

Simplified Complexity Conference in Mexico

We invite you to the official presentation of the Spanish version of Simplified Complexity, a book by author Giancarlo Di Marco, about advanced NURBS modeling with Rhino. 

Simplified Complexity is a method (not a manual) resulting from 20 years of professional and teaching experience and consisting of a structured knowledge system, ideal for an in-depth understanding of Rhino and useful for both basic and advanced users. Giancarlo Di Marco is the founder of ARTC.it, an Italian professional design agency offering consulting, training, and design services.

Andres Gonzalez from McNeel (Rhino) and Ricardo Ortiz from Chaos Group (V-Ray) will be part of the conference. 

When:

Friday, October 13 at 6:00 pm

Where:

Center of Design, Cinema and Television

Av. Constituyentes, 455, Mexico City

The conference is free and open to the public!

Book price:

38EUR - 800MXN

There are 100 copies of the book available at the event. Or you can buy your copy in advance here and pick it up on the day of the event!

Available soon at Amazon (US and México) and local bookstores.

For more information please contact Giancarlo Di Marco.

What is 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.

Job Opportunity - Tu Taller Design in Colombia

Tu Taller Design has a job opening for a designer/architect to join their team! 

They are looking for a designer or architect who has advanced knowledge in 3D modeling, with strong Rhino and Grasshopper skills, who can parameterize furniture.

Tu Taller Design is an integral design company located in Medellín, Colombia. It conceptualizes, advises, directs and develops ideas and projects for their clients. They provide services in product development, creation of a graphical identity and specification and design of interior spaces until the finished product and the final application.

For more information and to apply, please contact Tu Taller Design and mention this job opportunity through this link!

What is 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.

Marc Fornes in Kazakhstan

The Stripes Effect, a video from Marc Fornes and THEVERYMANY, features the Minima/Maxima World Expo Pavilion in Astana, Kazakhstan.

This playful structure is a multi-ply ultra-thin composite material as thin as a coin. Its structural is 43' high, composed of ultra-thin aluminum. If you scaled an egg up to the same height as Minima/Maxima, it would be much thicker.

Minima/Maxima's strength comes through a self-supporting curvilinear structure -- a series of three layers creating a multi-ply composite. The self-supporting forms find their strength in the double curvature of their form. The layers are constructed in tandem, supporting one another as they gain curvature and height. One layer never exists on its own, but contributes to and benefits from the unified whole.


Minima/Maxima was commissioned for World Expo 2017 in Astana, Kazakhstan, where it will stay as a permanent structure.


Marc Fornes is the founder of THEVERYMANY, a design studio and collaborative research forum engaging architecture via encoded and explicit processes. A Rhino and RhinoScript expert, Marc collaborates with McNeel on a regular basis.



Minima/Maxima details: 43' high, 6' wide x 6' depth. 3x2 mm thin. 5,312 structure stripes with 164,252 rivets.

The Stripes Effect, a video from Marc Fornes and THEVERYMANY...