Kangaroo Physics online workshop, December 1-3 (McNeel Europe)

 

Kangaroo Physics online workshop

Tutor: Ping-Hsiang Chen

December 1-3, 2025

10 AM-5 PM CET (Barcelona)

Hosted on Zoom by McNeel Europe

Ping-Hsiang Chen, former computational designer at Zaha Hadid Architects, will lead a three-day online Kangaroo Physics workshop hosted by McNeel Europe.

This course introduces Kangaroo Physics, the live physics engine in Grasshopper, covering interactive simulation, form-finding, optimization, and constraint solving. Participants will learn to simulate material behavior, analyze geometry, and create animations while exploring core concepts such as constraints, particle systems, and material properties.

The workshop will also cover the application of Kangaroo to various geometry types, including NURBS, Mesh, and SubD.

Day 1 – Fundamentals of Physics-Based Modeling

• Introduction to physics-based modeling concepts.
• Overview of Kangaroo solvers and basic setup.
• Understanding goals and forces.
• Exploring constraints and element interactions.
• Case study: Grid shell and wood bending systems.

Day 2 – Form Finding and Geometry Optimization

• Introduction to tensegrity structures.
• Exploring origami and folding behaviors.
• Introduction to Mesh and SubD geometry in Rhino.
• Using Subdivision and QuadRemesh for Geometry Optimization
• Form-finding with Mesh with Kangaroo.

Day 3 – Advanced Applications and Workflows using Kangaroo

• Simulating inflation and pneumatic structures.
• Geometry optimization using Kangaroo.
• Applying Kangaroo for fabrication workflows.
• Understanding and managing collision detection.
• Geometry packing and spatial optimization.
• Advanced modeling workflows with Kangaroo.

Course requirements: The class is designed for participants who have completed the Grasshopper Level 1 course or regularly use Grasshopper in their daily work and are familiar with its basic data structures. An intermediate level of proficiency in Rhino is also recommended.

Software requirement: Rhino 8

Online course fees for each course: EUR 395 (+VAT). Full-time students and university teachers receive a 50% discount (proof of status required). Please note that we will confirm your seat after your payment has cleared.

Maximum number of participants for each course: 25. If there is no quorum, the course will be canceled 15 days before.

Course language: English

Educational seats are limited. Sign up now by contacting Verena!

TRfem: Thermal Simulation in Grasshopper 2 - Interview with Mathias Fuchs (McNeel)

In this interview before his presentation at CDFAM Amsterdam, July 9-10, Mathias Fuchs discusses how the new architecture of the much-anticipated Grasshopper 2 opens the door to simulation-native design and more.

With native support for parallelism, field-based data structures, and more seamless integration between geometry and analysis, Grasshopper 2 enables plugins like TRmesh and TRfem to run finite element simulations directly on the canvas. Mathias explains how these tools bring volumetric meshing, heat conduction analysis, and isosurface generation into real-time design workflows, making physical simulation a first-class part of parametric modeling.

Read the complete interview...

LevelOpt - New topology optimization tool for Rhino and Grasshopper

Cutting-edge Level set optimization meets the flexibility of Grasshopper with FEA Simulation in the loop!

LevelOpt is a topology optimization tool that allows Rhino Grasshopper users to generate high-performance concepts quickly with automated topology optimization. 

A user-driven custom optimization option allows users to interject design changes, incorporate starting designs, and fine-tune settings at any stage. Rhino users automatically get access to LevelOpt with the latest version of Intact.Simulation for Rhino Grasshopper.

There is no preprocessing, model simplifications, filtering, or postprocessing with LevelOpt and Intact.Simulation for Rhino Grasshopper!

Features

• Optimization for Compliance: Maximize stiffness for a specified weight target.
• Supports Both Isotropic and Orthotropic Materials.
• Component-Level Flexibility: Optimize individual components or maintain interface connectivity in assemblies.
• Functional Region Preservation: Ensure critical zones remain intact during optimization.
• Custom Optimization:
• Interjecting design changes
• Incorporating starting designs and fine-tuning settings at any stage
• Freedom to adaptively adjust feature sizes, wall thicknesses, and preserved functional regions as optimization progresses

Complete details...

food4Rhino webinar: Flow – Crowd Simulation and Evacuation Planning in Grasshopper

food4Rhino webinar: 

Flow – Crowd Simulation and Evacuation Planning in Grasshopper
27 November 2024 at 5 PM CET

Join us for a live webinar introducing Flow, a new Grasshopper plugin designed for advanced crowd simulation and evacuation analysis.

Flow integrates seamlessly with Rhino, allowing designers and engineers to easily update their simulations by adjusting geometry directly in Rhino. Learn how Flow can help you simulate the movement of people in various scenarios, from routine pedestrian flow to emergency evacuations, while providing real-time feedback and optimization. Discover how Flow can enhance your design process, improve safety compliance, and streamline crowd management strategies.

This session will include a live demonstration, an overview of key features, and a Q&A with the developer.

About the speaker: Gianluca Casalnuovo is a computational designer, building engineer, and architect, currently based in Dubai, UAE, and working as Lead Computational Engineer at Zutari Middle East. With expertise in computational design, Gianluca focuses on integrating information to establish connections between behavior programming, form organization, and generated influences. He is skilled in 3D modeling and programming across platforms such as Rhinoceros, Grasshopper, and C#, with a strong passion for geometry, mathematics, and cutting-edge constructive-mechanical systems. After earning a master’s degree in Building Engineering-Architecture from Alma Mater Studiorum – Università di Bologna, Gianluca has worked with leading international firms, including Arup, Jacobs Engineering, and Maffeis Engineering, contributing to high-profile projects. His work spans parametric design, complex algorithm development, and automating design processes, helping streamline workflows and enhance efficiency.

Free registration…

Webinar: Simulation for Buildings & Cities: The Latest in the Rhino® & Grasshopper Ecosystem

Webinar: Simulation for Buildings & Cities: The Latest in the Rhino & Grasshopper Ecosystem
3 December 2024 at 3 PM CET/9 AM ET

Rhino® & Grasshopper have become standard tools for the AEC computational designer. With recent advances in AI integration and API access for third-party tools, join this webinar to learn about the latest plugins and workflows for urban microclimate, building, and system simulation.

Guest presenters (Jeroen Janssen from Thornton Tomasetti, Joel Lopez from LINK Arkitektur and Richard Szoeke-Schuller from Simscale) will showcase how they have developed bespoke simulation tools and workflows, including:

• Microclimate simulation in Rhino.
• Outdoor thermal comfort workflows for evaluating heat and cold stress.
• How they have used third-party tools like Speckle, BIM, and data visualization to augment their team knowledge, skills, and processes.

About SimScale

SimScale is the world’s first cloud-native SaaS engineering simulation platform, giving engineers and designers immediate access to digital prototyping early in the design stage, throughout the entire R&D cycle, and across the entire enterprise. By providing instant access to a single fluid, thermal, and structural simulation tool built on the latest cloud computing technology, SimScale has moved high-fidelity physics simulation technology from a complex and cost-prohibitive desktop application to a user-friendly web application accessible to any designer and engineer in the world.

Free registration...

New version of Lark Spectral Lighting Grasshopper plugin

 

ZGF Architects and the University of Washington Applied Research Consortium (ARC) have released version 3.0 of Lark Spectral Lighting on food4Rhino and GitHub. The Lark project is a global, peer-reviewed, open-source software to expand the toolkit for researchers and designers predicting non-visual light for human health.

Lark v3.0 allows for custom spectral power distributions for the sky, sun, electric lights, glazing, and finish materials. The workflow can be used by architects, lighting designers, manufacturers, researchers, and public health officials to test any configuration of daylight and electric lighting for any building type. 

Applying measured spectral data for light sources has been a driver for Lark, first with skies (v1.0), then electric lights (v2.0), and now the sun (v3.0). Their research shows the color of the sun transitions from warmer spectrums at sunrise (e.g., violet, orange, red) and sunset to cooler spectrums (e.g.,  blue) at its zenith, which can largely impact non-visual light stimulus. This cycle can be simulated with full-spectrum lighting for improved health and well-being in any indoor environment.

Details and download...

Intact.Simulation for Rhino/Grasshopper

Experience the New Standard in Native Model Simulation with the Power of Intact.Simulation for Rhino/Grasshopper!

Finally, high-end, robust mechanical simulation comes to the Grasshopper ecosystem.

Industrial-Strength Simulations: Say goodbye to geometry preprocessing and meshing headaches. Our cutting-edge solution delivers robust mechanical simulations without the hassle. Leave the small features on!

Rapid Iteration, Unrivaled Accuracy: Validate and iterate designs swiftly, all while maintaining precision. Automate and iterate on your designs without sacrificing results.

Unmatched Flexibility: Enjoy the most versatile mechanical simulation solution available. It's quick to set up, handles any geometry including implicit VDB files for lattices, meta-materials, unmeshable solids, STL, polygons, and BREP, and tackles simulation challenges effortlessly.

Comprehensive Capabilities: Explore structural, thermal, and vibration physics with access to a vast material database.

Elevate your design game with Intact.Simulation—simplifying complexity and propelling your projects to new heights in Rhino. Try it today!

Simulate non-visual lighting in Grasshopper

New version of Lark Spectral Lighting Grasshopper plugin

Why is this relevant?

Our eyes have a dual function: They allow us to see, but they also mediate several psychological and physiological (non-visual) responses. Light reaching the eyes regulates circadian rhythms and affects alertness. Since we spend most of our time indoors, building designers are responsible for providing healthy indoor lighting. A simulation tool is now available to help meet this challenge.

New version of the Lark simulation tool

Lark Spectral Lighting 2.0 is available on food4Rhino with new features, components, and templates to investigate non-visual lighting design. Lark is a plugin that helps architects, designers, and researchers examine a lighting design's effect on circadian rhythm and alertness.

The updates in Lark 2.0 include:

• Ability to run daylight and electric light simulation
• Calculation of spectral irradiance and output metrics relevant to the non-visual effects of light according to the CIE (α-opic metrics)
• Analysis workflow that accounts for the direction in which light reaches the human eye, which is relevant for non-visual effects
• Simulation of a period of light exposure and analysis to optimize alertness according to a light-driven biological model

Download Lark from food4Rhino...

Check out the source code and ask questions on the discussion forum on GitHub... 

YouTube tutorials...

Seanaptic - ANSYS Interface now available

Seanaptic is a plugin for Rhino that allows naval architects to model parametric ship structures with extreme efficiency.

The release of Seanaptic 7, now compatible with Rhino 7, has achieved a significant milestone by implementating the interfacing with ANSYS Mechanical and SpaceClaim. Full geometries of naval structures can now be directly exported to ANSYS for finite element analysis. Seanaptic pre-processes the geometry to ensure connected meshes of incredible quality while complete structural parameters of plates and beams are transferred directly to the FEA model, obtaining efficiencies never seen before.

What usually took weeks or even months can now be achieved in days or even hours. This golden bundle of Rhino, Seanaptic, and ANSYS will render traditional FEA pre-processing obsolete!

Request a trial on food4Rhino...

GRIDDLE - New volume mesher for Rhino

Griddle provides automatic, interactive, and easy-to-use surface meshing tools and volume mesh generation capabilities. 

Meshes created by Griddle can be imported into various numerical simulation software, including FLAC3D/3DEC, ABAQUS, ANSYS, NASTRAN, and LS-DYNA. 

Griddle is a commercial product with a free demo version available. 

It can be installed for Rhino Versions 6 and 7 (Windows platform).

Griddle has been designed to address meshing needs primarily in the fields of civil, mining, geotechnical, and petroleum engineering. However, Griddle is a general meshing software and it can produce volume meshes for a variety of applications requiring Finite Element, Finite Volume, Discrete Element analyses, or other types of numerical modeling.

Griddle's volume meshes are capable of creating:

• Fully structured, fully conformal, hexahedral volume meshes based on Rhino solids.
• Unstructured, fully conformal, hex-dominant, or tetrahedral volume meshes based on surface meshes.

In addition, Griddle provides powerful capabilities to work with surface meshes, such as mesh clean-up and repair, conformal intersections, re-meshing, extraction, extrusion, extension, etc.

Download an eval version on food4Rhino...