Tuesday, December 29, 2020

Looking for SubD tutorials?


We provide blog posts of short educational tutorials to learn Rhino. One example is a tutorial by Travis Serio of a heart-shaped ring. You can learn how to model a heart-shaped ring using SubD geometry in Rhino 7. 

Thursday, December 24, 2020

Panther (jewelry plugin) now compatible with Rhino 7


Panther 1.7 is now available! 

The new plugin version for Rhino 7 and Grasshopper is already available to download!

Current users are welcome to update today for free. It includes new SubD jewelry builders as well as full integration with newly implemented Rhino functionality. 

Roar with Panther - Interactive Jewelry.



Timber WH-Arena and Timber Tower in Vienna

Nicolas Sterling from Sterling Presser Architects + Engineers has been kind enough to share one of his latest project done in Rhino/Grasshopper.

The Timber WH ARENA and Timber Tower design proposal for the WH-Arena competition in Vienna has made it to the second round.

The 20,000-seat WH-Arena timber concept is rooted in nature in symbiosis with its environment. The project vision is to create a new sustainable landmark for a large-scale arena that performs at all levels of efficiency and flexibility. The dialogue between the arena, the side buildings, and the public space creates a unique combination. The architectural objects play as much role as the outer space they generate. The timber structural moiré skin is acting as the tree skin. The building maximizes natural, beautiful, and warm materials that connect us with nature and envisions a sustainable future.

The arena roof, the shape of a shallow saddle, consists of a triangular grillage of timber strips structure as a Gridnet, a hybrid of a gridshell and a cablenet. This composite construction, which optimizes the use of material while minimizing embodied energy, while using a renewably sourced timber, creates a warm feel to the space with an enhanced acoustic performance. The roof spans about 160 m lengthwise and about 130 m crosswise. The roof has photovoltaic panels on its upper side and an uninterrupted continuously closed acoustic ceiling on its underside, which is partially translucent to give the interior of the arena a striking design effect.

The integrated architecture and facade structure follows a subtle distribution to create an optical effect as one moves around the building. The roof, the façade elements, and the timber gridshell are a unique parametric model to balance structural performance and aesthetic and visual effect.

The project is great teamwork in collaboration with:

  • Thornton Tomasetti: Structure, facades, and acoustic
  • A24 Landschaft: Landscape
  • Transsolar: Energy, sustainability, environment design, MEP
  • Kunz: Fire engineering
  • Woo Architects: Arena experts
  • Yann Kersalé. Lighting artist
  • Ateliers de L’Éclairage: Lighting designer/engineers
  • SOL: Renderings
  • Xtrude.Berlin: 3D printing

Complete details...


Wednesday, December 23, 2020

ShapeDiver now supports Rhino 7!


After a big development push and a few weeks of coordinating, ShapeDiver is happy to launch its brand new Rhino 7 system (almost) in time!

Rhino 7 is packed with new features, and several of them come with brand new Grasshopper components that are compatible with the ShapeDiver Rhino 7 system. If you are excited about the new organic modeling possibilities offered by the SubD feature, try out the new SubD components in Grasshopper! Need to clean up or smooth some nasty meshes? The QuadRemesh component is there for you, producing clean quad meshes that will also help with the rendering performance in the ShapeDiver viewer.

At the moment, Rhino 7 is running on a brand new test system. The testing phase will extend until the release of the new platform in Spring 2021. If you want to test it right now, use the contact form on their website and request your account to be switched to the new Rhino 7 system.

More information...


Tuesday, December 22, 2020

Bongo 3.0 WIP 6 now available



Bongo 2.0 users are encouraged to download and try this WIP release of the animation plugin for Rhino 7, Bongo 3.0.

New features:

  • Improved dope sheet and keyframe table UI
  • Improved connections springs


Bongo 3.0 WIP 6 is now available from here.


Enjoy!

Thursday, December 17, 2020

PanelingTools for Rhino 7 released

 


We've released PanelingTools for Rhino 7 in Windows and Mac! Check the release details...

The PanelingTools plugin for Rhino and Grasshopper by Robert McNeel & Associates is widely used by designers, architects, and building professionals. It supports intuitive design of paneling concepts as well as helps rationalize complex geometry into a format suitable for analysis and fabrication.

Point Clouds now supports Rhino 7


Veesus now has a Point Clouds for Rhino 7 plugin. 

The Point Clouds plugin provides a way to load massive sizes of data into the native Rhino environment. The plugin also offers powerful point cloud manipulation tools such as slicing, clipping, smoothing, lighting, magnification, color ramp, and export.

Wednesday, December 16, 2020

Randselva Bridge - the world’s biggest bridge designed and built without drawings

Sweco is the leading architecture and engineering consultancy company in the European market with comprehensive expertise for all types of projects. 

In 2016 Sweco was in charge of designing the first drawing-less bridge in Norway. The successfully conducted project encouraged undertaking further challenges. Now, with PNC as a contractor, the company is designing and building a 634m long cantilever bridge without drawings. Krzysztof Wojslaw and Øystein Ulvestad showed at the Parametric Design Day 2020 in Oslo how parametric design supported creating an advanced 3D model and its further use. 

And more recently, Gabriel Neves features the project on his youtube channel Ministry of Bridges.

Tuesday, December 15, 2020

Enscape 2.9.1 now supporting Rhino 7


With Enscape 2.9.1 you can now use Rhino 7!

Update to version 2.9.1 to experience all the new features Rhinoceros offers in combination with your Enscape license. 


Monday, December 14, 2020

Mesh2Surface new release for Rhinoceros 7


The reverse engineering plugin Mesh2Surface is available with a new version that is fully compatible with all the Rhino versions, including the new Rhinoceros 7.

With its intuitive straightforward user interface, Mesh2Surface helps the users to extract information from scan data into CAD surfaces quickly. Extract primitives, create 2D sketches and free form surfaces. All this with full control over your process.


Friday, December 11, 2020

Rendering and Materials in Rhino 7 Webinar with Brian James

  


Rhino3D.Education invites you to a Rendering and Materials in Rhino 7 Webinar with Brian James. 

Brian James is part of the team at Robert McNeel & Associates where Rhinos grow. He provides technical support and training to users of Rhinoceros 3D and also teaches part-time in the Industrial Design department of the Rhode Island School of Design.

Brian will go over the new 'Rhino Render' in Rhino 7. Material creation and settings will be explained using the included material library as well as the provided template materials. Physically-based materials, texture mapping, emissive materials for lighting, and denoiser post effects will also be covered. 

Date: Tuesday, December 15, 2020
Time: 11:00 a.m. (EST)
Open to the public with prior registration.


Questions? Contact Lucia Miguel at lucia@mcneel.com


Check out Rhino3D.Education for the latest courses on Rhino, Grasshopper, and more!

Two open research positions at the Department of Experimental and Digital Design and Construction at the University of Kassel


The Department of Experimental and Digital Design and Construction at the University of Kassel (Prof. Philipp Eversmann) has two new positions for a DFG research projectAdditive robotic assembly techniques for timber construction – Computational design and integrated structural joining methods. Become part of a young, dynamic research team exploring new ways of designing and building. The project investigates material-efficient design and digital fabrication processes for timber construction, focussing on topology optimization and robotic assembly methods.

Both research associates (75% EG 13 TV-H) will participate as a team in all aspects of the project, with one focusing more on theoretical and computational design and simulation and the other more on the robotic manufacturing processes.

Please send your CV, motivation letter, and portfolio to bewerbungen@uni-kassel.de, reference: 33644. Female applicants highly encouraged. The deadline is December 30, 2020.


Friday, December 4, 2020

Jevero (Footwear Pattern Engineering) new version


Jevero 2021.0 Release is out now, and it's compatible with Rhino 7!

Jevero enables the most fluid and tight collaboration between pattern engineers, footwear developers, and shoe designers. Leveraging on the Rhino platform, this pattern engineering plugin lets you create pattern parts, develop sizes, and export to all sorts of cutting machines.


Monday, November 23, 2020

Chaos Group releases V-Ray 5 for Rhino


Chaos Group has released V-Ray 5 for Rhino, a powerful new update to bring realtime rendering into Rhino and Grasshopper. 

V-Ray for Grasshopper is included with V-Ray for Rhino and includes a collection of nodes to support V-Ray geometry, lighting, materials, rendering, and animation. Use Grasshopper's node system to use V-Ray's functions.

Some of the key features are:
  • Live Link component for V-Ray Vision. Visualize your Grasshopper designs in realtime. Build models, apply materials, and set up lights and cameras with immediate feedback.
  • Light Gen. Lighting options are generated automatically and displayed as a series of thumbnails, making it easier to find the best look and mood for a scene. 
  • Redesigned V-Ray Frame Buffer (VFB). Now includes some of V-Ray 5’s most user-friendly features, making it easy to apply finishing touches to any rendering. Composite render layers, make color corrections, and instantly adjust the lighting.
  • Light Mix. Interactively change the color and brightness of any light without rendering again. You can add image adjustments like exposure control, color balance, and color corrections. 
V-Ray 5 for Rhino is compatible with Rhino 6-7. For more features and pricing, visit the V-Ray 5 for Rhino product page.
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To see some user comments, go to our discourse page.



Friday, November 20, 2020

PAZ-BSS-Archicad+GH

PAZ-BSS-Archicad+GH
PAZ Academy (Parametric Academy Zurich)


BSS - Building System Specialist is a unique 4-month essential Certificate Program for those who want to have access to unlimited design tools such as Grasshopper inside BIM software.

BSS focuses on the powerful Archicad + Grasshopper Live Connection with numerous interoperability connections to become #BIMlingual!

BSS will not only lift you over Archicad BIM limitations, but it will also provide you with a deep understanding of visual scripting and working methods to organize your daily work.

Fully personalized, challenging, and on a visual and exciting platform. Be part of the professional #PAZNET!

Join our winter edition starting December 1st!


PAZ-BSS-Rhino.Inside.Revit

PAZ-BSS-Rhino.Inside.Revit
PAZ Academy (Parametric Academy Zurich)

BSS - Building System Specialist is a unique 4-month essential Certificate Program for those who want to have access to unlimited design tools such as Grasshopper inside BIM Softwares.

BSS focuses on the powerful Rhino.Inside.Revit plugin with numerous interoperability connections to become #BIMlingual!

BSS will not only lift you over Revit BIM limitations, but it will also provide you with a deep understanding of visual scripting and working methods to organize your daily work.

Fully personalized, challenging, and on a visual and exciting platform. Be part of the professional #PAZNET!

Join the winter edition starting December 1st!


Thursday, November 12, 2020

Tuesday, November 3, 2020

The Architecture Machine Exhibition



For the first time in German-speaking countries, the Architekturmuseum der TUM presents a large-scale exhibition on the computer's influence on architecture. Covering from the 1950s to the present, the show recounts this fascinating history in four chapters which sum up key developments of the so-called digital revolution: The computer as a drawing machine, the computer as a design tool, the computer as a medium for storytelling, and the computer as an interactive platform. The fundamental question that guided the two-year research project is simple: Has the computer changed architecture, and if so, how?

More information...


Friday, October 30, 2020

Spatial System by Estrtucturas Arqué


The Spatial Systems app is a web application for the parametric design of spatial structures that allows you to generate different typologies and download them in the available formats (.ifc2x3, .dxf, .dwg, .3dm, .stl).

The app, now available in food4rhino as a user service, was created by Estructuras Arqué, a Spanish construction company. It came from the idea of applying the parametric architecture concept to the design and manufacturing of metal roofs and modular construction.

It brings together the best of cloud applications and IFC interoperability by providing easy access to structural design. With it, architects can quickly test various options and configure desired products according to the project requirements.

The parametric logic of this tool was built in Grasshopper and then uploaded to ShapeDiver for publishing online. The model was then embedded in the final web application with custom UI. The IFC export is powered by the Geometry Gym plugin for Grasshopper.

More information...


Tuesday, October 27, 2020

BSS-BuildingSystemSpecialist_Rhino.Inside.REVIT

Rhino.Inside.Revit

PAZ Academy (Parametric Academy Zurich)


BSS is a unique, personalized 4-month Certificate Program that lifts you over your Revit BIM limitations to become a professional computational designer in your field! 

BSS focuses on the powerful plugin Rhino.Inside.Revit with numerous interoperability connections.

You'll learn the theory, gain technological understanding, build your own scripts, improve your algorithmic logic, create parametric BIM Models in Revit, and acquire a broad perspective look. Design with data, systems, code, AI, and animation while keeping your freedom and flexibility to design better buildings!

The autumn edition starts on October 1st!

Be part of our PAZ NET in a challenging and exciting BSS PAZ Platform.

Details and registration...


Lands Design webinar



Join Asuni for an introduction to Lands Design modeling tools.

Take your landscape design projects from 2D to 3D using the Lands Design plugin

During this webinar session, uncover:

  • BIM advantages of the program
  • Terrain modeling and vegetation tools
  • 2D Documentation tools 
  • Hardscape tools
  • Animation tools

Under the guidance of Asuni’s experts, learn how to develop a full landscape project - from drawing to 3D modeling and producing documentation with BIM technology.


More information and registration email...


Monday, October 26, 2020

Wood pavilion project and architectural folly



Looking for a video with happy people, an excellent project (using Rhino, of course), an educational competition? This clip from 2019 makes you feel good.

The video starts by defining folly: An architectural object that is deliberately non-functional and instead examines its surroundings and enhances the natural landscape.

Students from the Auckland University school of architecture were winners in this Brick Bay Folly. Consequently, they got to fabricate their digital model, learning how to transfer a drawing into a build object physically.





BSS-BuildingSystemSpecialist_Archicad

 Archicad + Grasshopper

PAZ Academy (Parametric Academy Zurich)


BSS is a unique and personalized 4-month Certificate Program that lifts you over your Archicad BIM limitations to become a professional computational designer.

BSS focuses on the powerful connection between Archicad + Grasshopper and the new GDL Visual Baby: Param-O

You'll learn the theory, gain technological understanding, build your scripts, improve your algorithmic logic, create parametric BIM Models in Archicad, and acquire a broad perspective look. Design with data, systems, code, use AI, and animation while keeping your freedom and the flexibility to design better buildings!

The Autumn Edition starts on November 1st!

Be part of the PAZ NET in the challenging and exciting BSS PAZ Platform.

Details and registration...


Thursday, October 22, 2020

Get Started | Enscape with Rhino


Realtime rendering is now at your fingertips! 

Get started with Enscape for Rhino and watch this short guide to help you integrate it into your workflow!

Wednesday, October 21, 2020

New plugin: GL Studio from General Lattice




Augmenting native Rhino functionality, General Lattice Studio expands user capabilities by democratizing the lattice design process providing powerful, intuitive latticing tools. Using 100% native CAD data (B-reps), GL Studio works inside Rhino and enables users to seamlessly integrate advanced lattice geometries into larger part files or assemblies with the ability to execute traditional downstream features.

The featured latticed car seat concept highlights the powerful workflow of pairing General Lattice Studio with Rhino’s SubD toolkit. Users can design, iterate, and render concepts without file conversion or any import/export processes through a completely integrated experience.

User manual, download and demo videos available here.


GL Studio (Beta) Objectives:

  • Generate solid lattice bodies (BREP) that can be manipulated within Rhino
  • Optimize workflow by enabling rapid iteration and exploration of multiple structures within the same design space
  • Remove the pains of mesh errors and repairs by creating ready-to-print files from solid bodies
  • Go directly from GL Studio to your slicer, by-passing the need for import/export to expensive mesh repair software


Did you miss the GL Studio webinar with food4Rhino? Watch it here!

Friday, October 16, 2020

Urban Dunes project

Urban Dunes is a project that envisions a solution to reduce the heat island effect for an extreme climate such as Abu Dhabi’s, where the harsh conditions felt across significant months of the year reduce the feasibility of normal external activities. 

The Italian design firm Barberio Colella Architetti, with architect Angelo Figliola, has designed a 3D printed structure using Rhino and GrasshopperThe structure embeds architectural elements from Abu Dhabi's and Emirates’ traditional architecture, such as elegant vaulted spaces, vernacular shading devices (mashrabiyya), and cold-water basins and waterfalls. The vault is composed of several stereotomic blocks made of desert sand made solid by using the binder jetting technology. The vault permits to avoid the overheating of the urban space thanks to the shell's high thermal mass. 

The project has won the honorary mention at the Cool Abu Dhabi Challenge


Congratulations to the whole team!


Thursday, October 15, 2020

Desktop vs. cloud computation time explained

What happens behind the scenes when you interact with a Grasshopper model on ShapeDiver? What’s the difference versus doing the same on your desktop? 

When working with parametric models, many users expect the same swift interaction from ShapeDiver as they experience in Rhino on their desktops. While this is completely understandable, there are many additional steps between the initial parameter change and the final delivery of the solution to your browser.

ShapeDiver's latest article explains in detail each of these steps and provides some insights on their strategies to improve the response times of your ShapeDiver models.

Read the complete article here...


Tuesday, October 13, 2020

11th Hour Racing Team designs innovative boat for The Ocean Race

 


Rhino user Guillaume Verdier is designing a new IMOCA 60. Guillaume is one of yacht racing’s most prolific designers with America’s Cup winners and Ultime record-breakers. And he was involved in the design of four of the last five Vendée Globe winners. How's that for credentials?

Get the details...

Friday, October 9, 2020

PointOneStudio: Why Rhino?

  

Why Rhino if you are an architect, engineer, or IT developer?  

Junghwo Park is the principal at PointOneStudio in Korea, currently working as a BIM specialist at Umdsch Group Ventures in Austria. On his YouTube channel, he talks about why architects, engineers, and IT developers should use Rhino. 


He also runs the Parametric-Culture.com website with his partner in Korea, working and researching on:   
  • Writing architectural design application books for parametric BIM
  • Introducing information and know-how on computational design and BIM through his blog and YouTube channel 
  • Using plugins of Rhino and Grasshopper to develop various BIM design approaches 
  • OpenBIM technical research for application 
  • BIM education and consulting in architectural design
Check out some of his video tutorials: 


Thursday, October 8, 2020

Gravity Sketch Import Plugin now available in food4rhino!


The Gravity Sketch Import Plugin allows you to import Gravity Sketch files directly into Rhino, reproducing the entire session with native-like Rhino geometry:

  • Preserve the layer structure and colors used in Gravity Sketch
  • Continue the workflow, manipulate control points and surfaces just as you would with any other Rhino file

Gravity Sketch is an intuitive 3D design platform for cross-disciplinary teams to create from the initial ideation stages of collaboration and review in an entirely new way. 

The tool has a wide variety of NURBS and SubD tools accessible in Virtual Reality with the use of motion-tracked controllers and supporting tablets (Wacom and iPad). 

Wednesday, September 30, 2020

BSS - Building System Specialist Online Program (Rhino.Inside.Revit)

Rhino.Inside.Revit

PAZ Academy (Parametric Academy Zurich)


BSS is a unique, personalized 4-month Certificate Program that lifts you over your Revit BIM limitations to become a professional computational designer in your field! 

BSS focuses on the powerful plugin Rhino.Inside.Revit with numerous interoperability connections.

You'll learn the theory, gain technological understanding, build your scripts, improve your algorithmic logic, create parametric BIM Models in Revit, and acquire a broad perspective look. Design with data, systems, code, AI, and animation while keeping your freedom and flexibility to design better buildings!

Be part of our PAZ NET in a challenging and exciting BSS PAZ Platform.

The autumn edition starts on October 1st!

Details and registration...


Tuesday, September 29, 2020

BSS - Building System Specialist Online Program (Archicad + Grasshopper)



BSS is a unique and personalized 4-month Certificate Program that lifts you over your Archicad BIM limitations to become a professional computational designer.

BSS focuses on the powerful connection between Archicad + Grasshopper and the new GDL Visual Baby: Param-O

You'll learn the theory, gain technological understanding, build your scripts, improve your algorithmic logic, create parametric BIM Models in Archicad, and acquire a broad perspective look. Design with data, systems, code, use AI, and animation while keeping your freedom and the flexibility to design better buildings!

Be part of the PAZ NET in the challenging and exciting BSS PAZ Platform.

The Autumn Edition starts on October 1st!


Friday, September 25, 2020

What VR headset is best for you?


In case you have missed it, our friends from
Gravity Sketch posted an article recently on the Rhino forum about their recommended VR hardware.

Read the post...


Also, check the
F1 Surface Model Design Challenge, where a 3D sketch was done in Gravity Sketch VR, and the goal is to take the sketch and create the surfaces in Rhino with NURBS or SubD.

Preparing the Geometry for CFD Process using Rhino


Cloud Towing Tank has been kind enough to share an article about "Preparing the Geometry for CFD Process using Rhino":

"In order to conduct a Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) simulation of a ship, high quality surface geometry is needed in order to generate the computational grid. The geometry needs to be watertight, without manifolds, and it needs to accurately represent the real vessel. For us, Rhino has always been and continues to be the main tool for adjusting the input geometry we receive from our clients. This is mainly due to the quality of the STL files that it produces, which is the input format for our simulations. In this example, we used Rhino to prepare ship geometry for a CFD study on the influence of rudders on overall propulsion power."


Thursday, September 17, 2020

How does parametric design work?




Are you struggling to understand the concept of parametric design? Kaushik LS wrote this post last February with a 4-minute explanation.

He stresses that parametric design is about designing the process, not the finished product. 

Kaushik LS is an architect, computational designer, and visual FX artist.

Wednesday, September 9, 2020

ShapeDiver and Swarm Merge!


While ShapeDiver started its business around eCommerce applications, Swarm was built with a focus on AEC workflows. Together, ShapeDiver and Swarm will offer a large and powerful cloud-native, Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) platform for building applications based on parametric models.

In the short term, the investment will give ShapeDiver more resources to increase the speed of their release cycle for new features in the plugins, viewer, and platform.

On a slightly larger scale, they’ll be merging the Swarm platform and apps into ShapeDiver within the first half of 2021, adding all of its unique features and capabilities to ShapeDiver and combining the strengths of both products and teams into an even more powerful, stable and useful product.

More information...


Tuesday, August 25, 2020

A fan inspired by an earwig?





A fan inspired by an earwig? Harvard University published a research article for the earwig fan developed in Rhino. 6.0 and Grasshopper.

They proposed a crease-pattern designing software developed in Rhino 6 and Grasshopper. An origami simulation toolbox of Grasshopper, Crane, was used to simulate the folded shape of the generated crease patterns. The folding processes and Movie S5 were drawn via the online application Origami Simulator.

Tuesday, August 18, 2020

SudoHopper3D Bonus Pack!


Keep learning Grasshopper!


Check out our new Bonus Pack with six more lessons, now available in the last chapter of our SudoHopper3D course.

Our free SudoHopper3D course is part of a card game created to improve the overall understanding of parametric thinking that will help you learn Grasshopper. 

In this new Bonus Pack, we will cover components like Graft Tree, Flatten Tree, Sort List, Tween Curve, and Polygon Center.

These new free lessons are available in English and Spanish:



For the Spanish version click here.

Enjoy them!




Check out Rhino3D.Education for the lastest courses on Rhino, Grasshopper, and more!


Thursday, August 6, 2020

New xNURBS Tutorial Video

 


Now, xNURBS is producing more tutorial videos. These new tutorial videos intend to help users to use the xNURBS Rhino plugin correctly and efficiently. They illustrate the basic rules discussed in xNURBS manual (xNURBS Rhino plugin and xNURBS SolidWorks addin have a very similar capacity/UI, so they share some screenshots/tutorial videos).

These new tutorial videos will explain:
  • How to use xNURBS to generate Quad-sided and N-sided surfaces
  • How to set internal curve constraints correctly
  • How to create a symmetric surface
  • How to use xNURBS for form-finding
  • How to avoid conflicting constraints

Tuesday, August 4, 2020

Datakit Import/Export plugins updated


Datakit has updated its collection of Rhino Import/Export plugins.

The new plugins for Rhino are twofold, both for the export and import of new file format extensions and for surface texture support.


New features of export plugins

"We have supplemented our range of tools for writing open files in Rhino 3D with FBX and glTF formats," explains Félix Thuilier, Marketing Manager at Datakit.

FBX format (.fbx) is an Autodesk proprietary file format widely used by the publisher with its Maya, 3ds Max, and MotionBuilder animation software, as well as its CAD software. It facilitates the acquisition and exchange of 3D models and associated documents and media from multiple sources, including the world of animation and video games.

For its part, the glTF format (Graphics Library Transmission Format) (.gltf, .bin, .glb) is a file format, free of rights, based on the JSON format, facilitating the exchange of scenes and models between 3D applications. Developed since 2012 by the Khronos Group industrial consortium, this file format is compact, interoperable, and fast to load. It is often presented as the “JPEG of 3D”, facilitating the 3D model visualization on web pages. 

These two plugins are available individually for € 1,000 or in the export bundle, which increases from five to seven supported formats at the unchanged price of € 1,500. All customers of this bundle, who are up-to-date with their maintenance, have access to these two new plugins at no additional cost.


What's new in import plugins

“For playing third party files in Rhino 3D, we have added to the Revit format import plugin support for .rfa files in addition to .rvt files. Similarly, we added to the IFC format import plugin, support for .ifcZIP files in addition to .ifc and .ifcXML files. This shows that the world of construction and in particular BIM (Building Information Modeling) is an important development axis for us,” explains Félix Thuilier.

Revit is a 3D design software for the construction world published by Autodesk. “The .rvt format corresponds to a global Revit project that can integrate several buildings. The .rfa format is used for standard element families offered by Autodesk, as well as for specific user-defined elements. They can be imported and instantiated in a .rvt project”, explains Laure Bedu, head of development around Revit at Datakit.

For its part, the IFC (Industry Foundation Classes) format is a standardized file format (ISO 16739 standard) used in the construction world to exchange information between different software. “These files can have .ifc, .ifcXML or .ifcZIP extensions, which are now all supported by the plugin,” notes Laurent Eraud, developer at Datakit.


The textures support

The surface textures are essential pieces of information to transmit when exchanging files with Rhino. In addition to the more realistic visual aspect, they inform the user about the nature of the elements they dress (brick wall or stone, for example). This is why Datakit has decided to support them in its JT and CATIA V5 file import plugins, and its export plugins to 3D PDF and FBX.

These developments result from monitoring market trends by Datakit's strategy team, confirmed by specific requests from customers. They are the subject of writing specific features allowing the use of the desired file extension for import or export. They are then directly integrated into a plugin that adds a Datakit Exchange tab to the Rhino menu bar.




Friday, July 31, 2020

Design Computing: 3D Modeling in Rhinoceros with Python RhinoScript





University of Michigan-Online Course
Taught by Glenn Wilcox, Associate Professor, A. Alfred Taubman College of Architecture and Urban Planning

Begin anytime... register today!

This course is free and available to everyone. You may begin this course at any time and follow at your own pace. For an optional fee of US$54, you may earn a certificate for this course. Details are here.

Course description

As algorithms increasingly impact our world, designers must learn how to use and create design computing programs. Structured around a series of fundamental design problems, this course will show you Python code in terms of its rules and syntax, and teach you what we can do with Python in its application and design.

By the end of this online course, you’ll know the fundamentals of Python and RhinoScript and understand them through the lens of their application in geometrically focused design lessons and exercises. This course is designed for any students and practitioners who use Rhinoceros and want to design more complex geometric forms by structuring and implementing coding logic.

This course will help designers (architectural, industrial, product, web, furniture), artists (multimedia, digital, sculpture), and programmers. By completing the course, students can decide if they’d like to study more advanced computing topics through further education, such as recursion, agents, and complex generative systems.

This course integrates with a third-party website called the Gallery Tool, created by the University of Michigan to support collaboration between learners. You will need to make sure that Javascript is enabled in your browser and check that you are using Chrome, Firefox, or Edge. Safari and Internet Explorer are not supported.

You will need access to Rhino. Download a free 90-day trial for Windows and Mac. The evaluation is fully functional for the first 90 days. After 90 days a purchased license will be required to save files or use plugins. The instructor will walk you through how to install Rhino in the course.

Wednesday, July 29, 2020

How to automate BIM's batch processes of DWGs using Grasshopper + Python



Do you want to know how Archicad treats DWGs imported from BIM?

Watch this presentation by Ami Nigam from Enzyme APD, shown last fall in Tokyo at an Archicad launch.  Ami discusses the problems and solutions.  He goes into creating a Grasshopper script, using Python, and using Elefont.

VisualARQ video tutorial in Spanish


Check out the new VisualARQ tutorial in Spanish showing how to model and document the Mies van der Rohe Barcelona Pavilion step by step.

Thursday, July 23, 2020

Managing BIG facades using Rhino.Inside


In this course organized by ThinkParametric, Oliver Thomas, BIM specialist at BIG, teaches you how they are currently using Rhino.Inside at their latest projects to manage complex facade systems.

"Rhino.Inside makes the transfer of information between Rhinoceros 3D and Autodesk Revit quick, easy, and intuitive. It’s a real game-changer. Rhino.Inside is an open-source project which allows you to run Rhino and Grasshopper within other programs such as Revit. It takes literally a push of a button to get your geometry into Revit from Rhino and vice versa. The power of Rhino.Inside is its simplicity, it doesn’t take a computational design expert to master it."



Tumor removal planned with patient-specific 3D printed model

The area affected by the tumor has been manually colored (red).

A 22-year old female patient was diagnosed with a tumor in her left pelvis. The tumor was specified as Ewing’s sarcoma. The medical team decided to perform surgery to remove it.

Hospital: Gujarat Cancer & Research Institute (GCRI), Ahmedabad, Gujarat, India.
Surgeons: Dr. Abhijeet Salunke and Dr. Mayur Kamani, orthopedic onco-surgeons.
3D Printing: Dr. Suresh Ludhwani, radiologist and 3D printing specialist, IDDS & Oroscan, prepared the model.

The role of 3D printing


“The purpose of the model was to study the patient’s anatomy and to do the mock surgery on it. Rhino3DMedical is a very user-friendly software with very self-explanatory actions. I have been using many software, but I found this one to be very specific and accurate. The best part was that it gives you freedom to adjust the threshold and edit the model at the same time,” explains Dr. Ludhwani.

The 3D model was printed with an FDM Ultimaker desktop 3D printer using a very affordable PLA filament.

Tutorial

Learn how to create a patient-specific 3D-printable model of the pelvis with Rhino3DMedical here

Wednesday, July 22, 2020

Enscape-Rhino case studies by Viewport Studio

Viewport Studio has been kind enough to share its latest Enscape-Rhino projects:






Viewport Studio, based out of London and Singapore, is a team of architects and designers across a mix of disciplines. Viewport Studio has designed a series of award-winning spaces and products that mix both innovation and rigorous attention to detail for clients as diverse as Virgin Galactic and Delta Air Lines to Royal Selangor in Malaysia and Walter Knoll in Europe.

Enscape™ is a realtime rendering plugin for Rhino (also for SketchUp, Revit, and Archicad, plus a free beta version for Vectorworks). With one click, you can start Enscape and within seconds find yourself walking through your fully rendered project—no need to upload to the cloud or export to other programs.

All changes made in Rhino are immediately available to evaluate in Enscape. Simultaneous editing and visualization allow project changes to be viewed in realtime thanks to live-link technology. If your client, for example, wants to see something different in the design, you can implement the feedback and the changes will appear in the project right away.

Enscape makes collaboration in realtime rendering easy. With the ability to capture and annotate issues directly in the project, feedback is made more efficient for the design review process. You can also create a standalone web file of your project, which allows you to send an Enscape file to your clients or colleagues for quick demonstrations. 

Enscape 2.8 is now available as a free upgrade to existing users! 

Monday, July 20, 2020

Building physics with Grasshopper



Watch this post from Structured Parametrics to see how to generate wind loads automatically with realtime physics. The wind loading determines the building shapes and automatically generates wind loading to code. The wind loading zones are translated into loads on members, and the resulting structure is tested in a physics engine. You can watch a brief video on LinkedIn or watch the full 11-minute video on YouTube.

Wednesday, July 15, 2020

Robotics in Architecture & Construction




Robotics in Architecture & Construction

An online Masterclass offered by the University of Sydney, Australia
AUD$65.00 - Register here.

Robotics and digital technologies can have a transformative impact on the way we design and construct buildings. Widely used in manufacturing, the application of these technologies to the built environment has been limited due to the complexity of the construction process and the difficulty of working with complex machinery.
Architects and designers are now harnessing these extremely adaptable tools through innovations in software and computation to realize complex design to fabrication workflows. Industry interest is surging, and applications are emerging from mass customization to worker safety.
This course introduces this exciting field, covering some of the key milestones and projects shaping research and development across the globe. It also provides a beginner's introduction to what a robotic arm is and considerations for integrating one into your digital fabrication workflow.
Learners will:
  • Have an overview of the theoretical background and a clear understanding of the robotic opportunities and constraints in the built environment
  • Understand the physical traits of an industrial robotic arm and principles of programming
  • Identify the steps taken in designing a robotic project
Software used in this course includes Rhino 6, Grasshopper, Ladybug Tools, and KUKA|prc.