Online Course for Advanced Timber Plate Structural Design

                             

Advanced Timber Plate Structural Design

A transdisciplinary approach in structural design and digital architecture of timber structures with advanced manufacturing workflow.

Institution: EPFL, IBOIS.

Authors: Prof. Dr. Yves Weinand, Dr. Aryan Rezaei Rad, Dr. Petras Vestartas.

The MOOC will introduce its audience to the development of a set of computational tools for geometry processing, mesh and network processing, computer-aided structural engineering design, and digital fabrication. The aim is to introduce a teaching module that systematically transfers both academic findings and industrial experience to the professional society. It also covers technological advancements in advanced timber construction and real-world applications. The latter, specifically, could be inspiring not only for graduate students but also for professional engineers and architects.

The proposed MOOC intends to foster a trans-disciplinary design approach in Architecture, Engineering, and Construction (AEC) for timber structures. It outlines an innovative and sustainable methodology with examples from recent construction projects. The primary development goal for this MOOC is to spread the innovative design approach in AEC we developed at EPFL. Therefore, the MOOC results from the compilation of five doctoral theses, research-industry technology transfer with our industry partner, and a flagship structural system with has been constructed. Accordingly, it will be beneficial for not only graduate students but also industrial professionals and civil engineering, architecture, and construction society.

Software

What you'll learn

• Technological advancements in timber construction.
• Innovative timber construction in the Architecture, Engineering, and Construction (AEC) sector.
• A structural design methodology for spatial timber shellsAlgorithmic-aided structural design.
• Joinery generation using Joinery Solver Algorithm
• Global geometry generation algorithm.
• Case studies, real-world applications, and flagship large-scale timber structures.

Contents

1. Introduction to advanced timber construction
2. Case studies in advanced timber plate structures
3. Advanced timber construction and large-scale structures
4. Digital architecture and advanced geometry processing
5. Engineering design and simulation methods in timber plate structures
6. Optimization methods

Rhino User Webinar: New solutions for eyeglass design, by Riccardo Pietro Visentin (In Italian)

                               

Rhino User Webinar (In Italian)

New solutions for eyeglass design

April 26, 2023, at 4:00 PM CEST

This webinar will explain how Rhino enables improvements to the traditional workflow in eyewear design, using SubD and parametric modeling with Grasshopper. We will address aspects aimed at both digital fabrication and product virtualization. Special focus will be given to using 2D and 3D tools in Rhino for eyewear customization, including models with custom designs in terms of shape, size, materials, colors, details, logos, and engravings, up to unique solutions for the person who will wear it. This is the new concept of sartorial eyewear, that is, eyewear designed as a tailor-made garment to express the taste and style of people who seek exclusive fashion accessories. Taking advantage of Rhino's potential and new functions, it will be shown how to handle complex design situations, including the creation of fittings for critical parts, the intersection of surfaces between bridge, nose pads, and the ergonomic shapes of temple ends.

Riccardo Pietro Visentin is the Founder & Owner of AUREASERVICE Design Studio (Est. 1989), which has been an Authorized Rhino Training Center since 2005. He is a Creative Digital Designer: consultant, 3D designer, and trainer for digital innovation in multiple areas of design. He has developed specific expertise in the design of fashion accessories and furniture components, working alongside and training designers from companies and professional studios. In the area of eyewear design, he has created training paths to introduce and improve digital design and fabrication in companies in the supply chain.

Complete details and free registration...

xNURBS Rhino Plugin V6.1 Released

xNURBS announces the availability of Version 6.1. And V4/V5/V6 customers can get a free upgrade to V6.1. V6.1 includes a number of enhancements, e.g., improving surfacing quality and reducing the number of control points needed to satisfy the required precision, etc.

xNURBS also produces a tutorial video, which explains the xNURBS settings in detail and helps users to understand how to use xNURBS efficiently and correctly.

The following is a short answer to "why xNURBS".

Key Features of xNURBS:

• Unlimited capacities for solving NURBS: Its optimization algorithm can solve virtually any NURBS surface in milliseconds (regardless of the constraints' complexity).
• High-quality surfaces: For a given set of constraints, xNURBS’ optimization algorithm uses an energy-minimization method to generate the smoothest NURBS surface among all possible solutions. The generated surface quality is outstanding.
• xNURBS is one super powerful NURBS tool that fixes virtually all surfacing issues for existing CAD software.
• Easy to use: It uses one simple UI for all kinds of NURBS modeling.
• Super robust: xNURBS is rock solid and works flawlessly.
• Native CAD surfaces: xNURBS is based on NURBS, i.e., the native CAD surfaces, which can be directly used for any CAD modeling operations without geometry translation.

Download and details...

Tutorials from Columbia Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation

The Columbia Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation (GSAPP) now has a series of self-guided course modules, providing an introduction to the fundamentals of computation and spatial design for students entering the GSAPP Computational Design Practices program at Columbia. 

The series of online courses, the Smorgasboard, includes an intro to Rhino, an intro to Grasshopper, Computational Design in Grasshopper, and Python in Rhino / Grasshopper.

The Smorgasbord tutorials complement a series of CDP foundation classes, which will include discussions, reading, feedback, and more tutorials. These tutorials are selected to provide a particular computational grounding to facilitate discussion, exploration, and creation of projects at the intersection of design, computation, and the built environment.

While the Smorgasboard is designed as the pre-program curriculum for the GSAPP Masters of Science in Computational Design Practices, it also welcomes any student interested in Computational Design across all programs at GSAPP.

More info GSAPP CDP Smorgasboard...

Profundizar en GhPython - Curso Online en Español

   

We're pleased to announce that our online course, Dive Deeper in GhPython, is now available in Spanish, Profundizar en GhPython. Since the Spanish version is still a WIP (work in progress) for a limited time, take advantage of our WIP introductory price and get 50% off! New chapters will be added weekly.

In this course, we use GhPython in Rhino 7 to gain a deeper understanding of Python in Grasshopper and create geometry and learn about the deeper layers of Python. We will cover built-in data types and functions, such as tuples and dictionaries. Then we will look at the format method and how it works with random to create unique colors with Python that help us generate animated geometries.

Finally, as promised in the free getting started GhPython course, we'll review the Grasshopper library. Also, we'll go over the difference between RhinoCommon and Rhinoscriptsyntax. By the end, we'll show you how to install Rhino.Inside.Revit and start working with some examples to warm you up, and you will learn how to use Grasshopper and Python in Revit and how to send geometry to Revit from Rhino "RiR."

Enroll now while the course is still a WIP, and save 50% with code: GhPython50ESPANOL at checkout!

Register here!

Plus: Upon conclusion, you will receive a certificate of completion for this course. Get started today!

If you want to save on several courses, check out our Bundles. Our Computational Designers and Programmers Bundle includes this GhPython course!

Questions? Contact Lucia at lucia@mcneel.com

Rhino3D.Education offers online courses in Rhino, Grasshopper, Computational Design, GhPython, PanelingTools, RhinoCAM, V-Ray, and more. Check it out!

McNeel Global Developer Meeting Barcelona (May 3-5, 2023)

On May 3-5 we will be holding the 2nd McNeel Global Developer Meeting in Barcelona (Spain) and we would very much like you to attend it.

Don't miss this unique opportunity to meet the McNeel Development team and the most successful 3rd party developers, accelerate your projects with one-to-one sessions and workshops, get the latest news about the Rhino and Grasshopper roadmap, Rhino.Inside, Compute, Rhino 8 WIP, learn cross-platform programming (Windows and Mac) and the best tools to manage your developments, discover the new food4Rhino, improve your Marketing and much more!

*Note this is an event for developers that have already a minimum experience with the Rhino Developer Tools, and not for beginners.

Seats are very limited, so if you want to secure a seat, please register asap.

All infos (topics, agenda, location...) and early bird tickets here...

 

 

Analyze the Swiss Re Building

ThinkParametric announced their newest online course, Analyze The Swiss Re Building Using Ladybug Tools, taught by expert instructor Brandon A. Gibbs.

This course is ideal if you are an architect, engineer, or simply someone interested in building design with Rhino and sustainability tools. 

The Swiss Re building is a world-renowned example of environmentally friendly design by the architecture firm Foster + Partners. In this course, you will learn how to model the tower using Rhino with Grasshopper and analyze the environmental performance of the building using the Ladybug Environmental Suite, a collection of powerful Grasshopper plugins for environmental analysis.

Because the course is self-paced, you can learn at your own pace and timetable. In a series of on-demand lessons, Brandon will walk you through the process of setting up your Ladybug Tools environment and using it to perform a variety of analyses, including:

• Daylighting

• Solar radiation

• Thermal comfort

• Applied sustainable design

You will also learn to visualize and interpret your analysis results to gain insights into the building's performance.

By the end of this hands-on course, you will fully grasp how Ladybug Tools is used to analyze building performance and how to apply these skills to your projects.

This course is free for registered members of ThinkParametric, and the membership fee is currently $289 for full library access for one year. You will also have access to the ThinkParametric community forum of fellow students and experts who can provide feedback and support as you progress through the course.

Get started now: Analyze The Swiss Re Building Using Ladybug Tools

Rhino User Webinar: Gradient Skins, by Boyan Mihaylov

Rhino User Webinar

Gradient Skins

April 5, 2023, at 4:00 PM CEST

This webinar will introduce typical approaches for algorithmic modeling used in the designing of Joris Laarman Studio's products, illustrating how they relate to their design philosophy and visual language and focusing on the parametric techniques behind several large-scale 3D-printed metal structures produced by MX3D. In this workflow sculptural logic meets a mathematical one in a complex interplay between function, aesthetics, and fabrication constraints.

Boyan Mihaylov is a Computational Designer and CAD Specialist at Joris Laarman Studio. Coming from a background in architecture, he specialized in parametric modeling for digital fabrication during his projects with ICD at the University of Stuttgart. For the past eight years, he has provided expertise in the digital implementation of complex designs in various scales, constantly looking for innovative computational solutions for design problems.

Complete details and free registration...

 

Shape to Fabrication 2023 Workshops (London, April 22-24)

Shape to Fabrication 2023 Workshops
London, April 22-24

Taking place in the days preceding the main conference, our curated selection of workshops feature the latest technologies delivered by industry leaders in a forum where attendees can make new connections, gain knowledge and develop existing skills in their chosen field.

We are fortunate to have this stellar line-up of Shape to Fabrication workshop facilitators, supported by members of the Rhino development team from McNeel.

Explore our workshops, join us on one, and learn!

• Robotic Fabrication for Industrialised Building Components
• Circular Design & Fabrication – Impacting reality one parameter at the time
• Data-Driven Workflows with Rhino and Power BI
• Pollination Rhino Plugin Workflows
• Multiplayer Design Workflows: Connecting People With 3D Data
• Automating building design using Grasshopper, ShapeDiver API, Cortex and Ellipse
• Integrating Rhino and Revit for Design, Fabrication, and Documentation
• Collaborative Design in the Industrial Metaverse: An introduction to NVIDIA Omniverse
• Robotic fabrication for industrialised building components with Maya, Rhino Compute and Omniverse

Complete details and registration...

VisualARQ webinar in Spanish

   

Join Rhino3D.Education in a free live webinar, "Modelado Arquitectonico BIM con VisualARQ," by Francesc Salla.

Register here!

VisualARQ is an architectural BIM software that works as a plugin for Rhino. It adds architectural features to Rhino for working with powerful associative objects, dynamic documentation tools, and collaborating with other programs with IFC file import and export capabilities.

VisualARQ adds powerful architectural object styling and dynamic documentation tools that adapt to your workflow. It is for Rhino users and professionals in architectural fields such as architects, interior designers, and developers.

Francesc Salla, architect, a specialist in parametric design, and Product Manager of VisualARQ and Lands Design at Asuni, will present this webinar. He will show us how VisualARQ integrates intuitively into the design process with Rhino and Grasshopper, with the shortest learning curve, and thus generates any type of freeform architecture.

When? Thursday, March 30, 2023.

Time? 10 am (EST) - Miami time zone
Where? Online live-stream via Zoom

Free with prior registration
The webinar will be held in Spanish.

Register now! 
After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the meeting.

If you can't make it, we keep recordings of our webinars so you can replay or watch them again!

Watch Rhino3D.Education's whole collection of free podcasts and webinars. 

Questions? Contact Lucia Miguel at lucia@mcneel.com

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

Designers Corner: Dan Cole from Webb Yates Engineers!

Webb Yates Engineers is a multidisciplinary engineering practice comprising structural, civil, mechanical, electrical, and public health engineers. 

In this interview, Dan Cole, one of their Structural Engineers, discusses his background, what sparked his interest in the AEC industry, and the benefits of using parametric design tools like Grasshopper. He also provides some specific examples of how computational design is beneficial in his job as a Structural Engineer.

Read the complete interview...

RhinoFabStudio and ART - Certification Online Training

   

If you are an ART Authorized Rhino Trainer, welcome to the on-site Digital Fabrication to all Certified RhinoFabStudios. Please update your information on the following form.

Update information for your RhinoFabStudio.

If you are not an ART Authorized Rhino Trainer, join us in our Online ART Training next week. Your certification will allow you to stand apart from others offering Rhino training. Remember, becoming an ART is a prerequisite in applying to become a Certified RhinoFabStudio.

This may be the only class offered this year, so hurry!

See details, sign-up, and outline.

When? March 20-24, 2023

Time? 9 am-1 pm PDT
Where? Online live-stream via Zoom

See the ART Requirements for all Regions.

Register now!

Questions? Contact Lucia Miguel at lucia@mcneel.com

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

Rhino Jewelry User Meeting - April 1, 2023 - Rome (Italy)

Rhino Jewelry User Meeting
April 1, 2023
Accademia Italiana
Rome, Italy

In collaboration with Accademia Italiana, McNeel Europe is organizing the first Rhino Jewelry User Meeting in Rome (Italy) on April 1, 2023.

The event will join together expert users, beginners, students, and teachers for several workshops, presentations, and discussions on how technology has had a major impact on jewelry design and production in the last two decades.

Industry partners like CrossGems, EasyJewels3D, KeyShot, RhinoJewel, RhinoPro-J, and 3D printers from 3DiTALY will have a space to show the latest technology by their plugins and hardware equipment.

Get inspired by industry experts like Giuseppe Massoni, Antonio Marsala, Riccardo Pietro Visentin, Fabio Zanoli, Lola Martinez, and Roberta Fontana, who will share their expertise and workflow, and don’t miss the chance to network with other users like you.

Presentations and workshops will be held in Italian.

Early bird tickets are available until March 17th. 

Space is very limited. Sign up now!

More information (in Italian)...

Grasshopper Trilogy Online Workshops in April, DEZACT & Ping-Hsiang Chen

 

Course 1 - Grasshopper Data Structure 
(April 15-16, 9:00-16:00 GMT) 

Course 2 - Grasshopper Geometry 
(April 29-30, 9:00-16:00 GMT) 

Course 3 - Grasshopper Programming
(May 21, 22, 27, 28, 9:00-16:00 GMT) 

Tutor: Ping-Hsiang Chen

Host: DEZACT

Introducing the Grasshopper Trilogy Workshops in April, a collaboration between DEZACT and Ping-Hsiang Chen, an experienced computational designer and UK-qualified architect currently working for ZAHA Hadid Architects. These Grasshopper essential courses are tailored to meet the needs of architectural professionals who want to improve their Grasshopper skills with critical techniques and skills. 

Condensing years of live courses into three comprehensive weekend workshops, the Grasshopper trilogy covers the most critical topics that professionals have struggled with. DEZACT has designed these courses to help you realize the full potential of the software, whether you're new to computational design or have been using Grasshopper for years. 

The trilogy includes three courses, each with a unique focus:

Course 1: The first course will give you an in-depth introduction to "Data Structure" which is essential to restructuring how you approach geometry and solutions. This course will help you achieve precision modeling in the parametric modeling environment. 

Course 2: The second course dives deep into "Geometries," giving you a comprehensive overview of all geometry types in Rhino and how to use them effectively with an efficient workflow. 

Course 3: The third course is a "C# Programming" course designed for designers without prior programming knowledge. It introduces customization, automation, collaboration, and plugin development, essential for those who want more control over their modeling process or use Grasshopper in complex or large projects.

You can register for each course separately or enroll in the trilogy course to establish a strong foundation and gain a broader range of uses for Grasshopper. Don't miss out on this opportunity to take your software skills to the next level with the upcoming Grasshopper workshops! 

Registration here...

New Dutch Rhino tutorials

At rhinoacademie.com, designer Michiel van der Kley has published a series of very accessible and short tutorials that explain, in Dutch, how to work with Rhino. Michiel explains the basics and shows you how fun it is to work with the program.

New and easy tutorials for Dutch-speaking Rhino users are added regularly to provide much-needed basic knowledge of Rhino as well as offer insight into the way Rhino is taught at the Rhinoacademie. 

The Rhinoacacademie organizes regular Rhino courses in the Netherlands. Check the website for more information.
 

Grasshopper for Beginners workshop by Parametric Architecture - March 11-12

Parametric Architecture has organized a Grasshopper for Beginners workshop that will take place on March 11-12, 2023.

Grasshopper for Beginners 1.0 is a weekend-long workshop that teaches the core principles of Grasshopper and provides the foundations for further advanced courses over two sessions. At the end of the course, students will have a solid knowledge of the fundamental principles and tools required to utilize Grasshopper properly. This course will give an excellent beginning place for your adventure into the world of Grasshopper, whether you are an architect, designer, or enthusiast.

Complete details and registration...

 

The Efficiency Boost: Computational Design in AEC

The Efficiency Boost: Computational Design in AEC 
March 21, 2023, at 5 PM CET
Free Live Webinar

Join ShapeDiver on Tuesday, March 21, for a webinar to showcase the latest computational design innovations for the Architecture, Engineering, and Construction (AEC) industry.

Hear from a panel of experts, including Thornton Tomasetti | CORE Studio (USA), Webb Yates Engineers (UK), Construsoft (Spain), and Cake Houses (Czech Republic), as they share how they are driving efficiency gains by leveraging Grasshopper and ShapeDiver in their respective projects.

Whether you are an architect, engineer, builder, or designer, this event is the perfect opportunity to learn from four of the most innovative companies in the AEC space. You will also have the chance to interact with the panelists and ask questions during the Q&A session, gaining a deeper understanding of how these technologies work and how you could leverage them in your projects.

Register now...

Rhino New Developments Day at Shape to Fabrication - London, 25th April 2023

The Rhino New Developments Day (London, 25th April 2023) is geared towards people and organizations interested in extending Rhino’s functionality either through Grasshopper or through new development frameworks such as rhino3dm, Rhino Compute or Rhino.Inside and external plugins.

There are many new revolutionary technologies available this year surrounding Rhino. Many of these technologies are opening up new workflows and previously impossible possibilities. Get a jump on understanding what McNeel has been working on and how it might help move your office's workflow forward. Learn about extending Grasshopper, Rhino, ongoing web technology projects that can be deployed anywhere, and the unbelievable Rhino.Inside integrations allowing you to bring Rhino and Grasshopper into almost any workflow you have.

Get up-to-the-minute information on what we have been working on as we explore together what is possible.

Meet the people developing these technologies to understand how they work and what might be possible.

The "Rhino New Developments Day" is by invite/application only. Everyone interested in attending must fill in this form.


Once completed, we’ll review your application and confirm whether a place at the Development day is available for you. We will email everyone who applies for a place as soon as possible.


The Rhino New Developments Day is separate from the Shape to Fabrication Conference. Of course, attendees may wish to also join the Shape to Fabrication conference on the following two days at the same venue. Find out more and buy your ticket for the Shape to Fabrication conference.

food4Rhino webinar: Share data between Rhino and Revit with Autodesk’s Data Exchange Connectors (March 15, 2023 at 5PM CET)

food4Rhino webinar: Share data between Rhino and Revit with Autodesk’s Data Exchange Connectors
March 15, 2023 at 5PM CET

In this webinar, Japhy Walton (McNeel) and Tobias Hathorn (Autodesk) will provide an overview of Autodesk’s new Data Exchange Connectors for Rhino and Revit, with some live collaborative demos between the two applications. We will walk through how you can use Data Exchanges to share your design data through the cloud, across the apps your team works with every day, without the hassle of importing / exporting entire design models. 

Free webinar registration...

Required ART Training online - March 20-24 (North and Latin American Regions)

 

Would you benefit by becoming an Authorized Rhino Trainer (ART)?

Your certification will allow you to stand apart from others offering Rhino training. As an ART, you can post your class schedule to the Rhino Learn page for exposure to Rhino users that visit the website. This schedule is searchable by type of training and region. 

ART Requirements include participation in this online class.

This class is offered for ART candidates in the North and Latin American Regions.

This class is typically offered in the fall and spring.

See details, sign-up, and outline.

• March  20-24, 2023
• Monday-Friday
• 9 AM-1 PM PDT

See the ART Requirements for all Regions.

Questions? Please email Mary Ann Fugier. 

DesignMorphine Masters Y23/24 Degree

DesignMorphine Master Y23/24 - Degree

Duration: September 2023 to June 2024

Scholarship Application Deadline: April 1, 2023

DesignMorphine has created a bespoke, accredited, and worldwide recognized 9-month Online Master of Science program. It is crafted to be accessible from all corners of the world and it aims to fulfill the demands of those who seek to exceed and lead in the field of multidisciplinary advanced and computational design. The Master of Science Degree is accredited by the University of Architecture, Civil Engineering, and Geodesy (UACEG) founded in 1942 in Sofia, Bulgaria. The program is also in partnership with The Microsoft Garage in New York, a hub for tech talent and community growth, driving innovation and inspiration.

In this age and time, we have reached a crossroads where technology can and will eventually shape not only our minds but our body. In this sense, designing the future entails, first and foremost, designing the body that will live in that future. Challenges inevitably arise and demand innovators and pioneers to overcome them; new tools and new technologies are required to materialize the answer; limits and boundaries will be crossed, and the equilibrium will change. In this journey, the compass will be a scalable notion of the human condition. Housing, transit systems, and the ways one moves around in the city, as well as the whole structure of the city itself, are essential aspects one has to consider when designing for this new reality. By changing the very unit the whole world is built around, the human body, we are no longer concerned with just designing parts of our world. Instead, we are designing the entire world we live in. It’s not a mere design process, it’s cosmogony.

Complete information and applications...

A night with Speckle In Real Life (IRL) - London, 26th April 2023

Our industry partner Speckle is inviting you to an exclusive in-person event to meet and network with AEC experts.

Join us for a fun break between the two Shape To Fabrication Conference days—whether you attend the conference or not. Everyone who is passionate about 3D tech, BIM, and AEC is welcome for an evening of networking, drinks, and gossip— powered by Speckle.

This is all happening IRL, so we have limited seats. Save your spot today before it's too late!

Here's what to expect:

• Drinks & Nibbles—the foundation of every good evening
• Bite-sized BIM Bingo
• Optional Anti-Demos and Gossip
• Cool Speckle Stickers and T-shirts (or maybe socks)

Date and Time: 26th April 2023 at 18:30h BST

Location: The venue will be within walking distance of Shape to Fabrication—so you won’t need to tire getting there.

Why are we organizing this?: Speckle’s mission is to enable multiplayer mode for 3D design—so why not organize a multiplayer party IRL, like the good old days?

Complete details and registration...