Lille Langebro cycle and pedestrian swing bridge, completed in July

The WilkinsonEyre architecture practice created the Lille Langebro cycle and pedestrian swing bridge for Copenhagen.

The bridge is an application of curves to align with the moat and bank of the historic Christianshavn neighborhood and to accommodate boats passing through. 

The CAD software used was Rhino, Grasshopper, and MicroStation.

This is a landmark project both for Copenhagen and for the wider bridges sector. By combining cutting-edge design with unique technical solutions it has been possible to minimise the structural depth of the bridge and really push the boundaries of design, affording pedestrians and cyclists views across the harbour. The opening and closing of the bridge acts as a spectacle in itself, bringing a sense of theatre and excitement to the area. We’re delighted to have been able to work closely with Realdania and WilkinsonEyre to make the vision a reality.—Simon Fryer, technical director, bridges, BuroHappold Engineering

More details in Architects' Journal...

Ameba lightweight structures algorithm released

Like its namesake, the single-cell ameba or amoeba, the software app Ameba can change its shape in different environments.

Per your design requirements, apply different loading and boundary conditions to the initial design domain. During the computational process, the design domain will evolve into various shapes, and eventually reach an organic form that is structurally efficient.

Ameba is based on the BESO method, which provides topology optimization for 2D and 3D geometrical models.

You can learn more about Ameba in the YouTube video.

Download a free trial from food4Rhino!

IASS-Structural Membranes Symposium in Barcelona - October 7-10, 2019

FORM and FORCE (Barcelona, October 7-10, 2019), a joint International Conference incorporating:

IASS Symposium 2019
60th Anniversary Symposium of the International Association for Shell and Spatial Structures

and

Structural Membranes 2019
8th International Conference on Textile Composites and Inflatable Structures


Following the customary celebration of the IASS Symposium every ten years in Spain and the Structural Membranes Conference every four years in Barcelona, the organizers have found an outstanding opportunity to merge both communities into a joint international conference that aims to provide a forum for state-of-the-art contributions and fruitful discussion in the broad fields of shell, spatial, tension and inflatable structures.

Complete info and registration...

Competition and exhibition of innovative lightweight structures: An invitation for artists, designers, engineers, and researchers

Internationally recognized and celebrated artists, designers, engineers, and researchers in cooperation with top universities from all over the world are invited to participate in a contest and exhibition of innovative lightweight structures. The structures must display a strong vision of structural design and innovation and demonstrably be the result of structural engineering focused research projects. 

The exhibition aims to show new insights into structural typologies, through the design of a pavilion. The pavilions will be exhibited in the summer of 2019 and during the joint IASS - Structural Membranes Form and Force 2019 symposium in Barcelona. During the conference the contest jury, chaired by the president of the IASS, will award a prize to the most innovative realized structure. 

The competition brief is to design an innovative lightweight pavilion, of maximum external dimensions 4x4x4m. It must be transportable and fit into six boxes each with a maximum external size of 1x0.75x0.65m and maximum weight of 32kg (total pavilion 192kg). The structure should reflect the structural engineering research of the submitting team. Each structure will be judged by examining the production techniques, materiality, level of structural innovation, constructability, transportability, architectural expression, and overall originality of the finished pavilion. The choices of materials, manufacturing methods, erection techniques, and so forth are at the entire discretion of each team. Innovative ideas and prototype methodologies that push the boundaries of construction are strongly encouraged.

Submission extended to January 20, 2019!

Complete details...

Fabricating a 3D printed sculpture to withstand Times Square

Formlabs, a 3D printing technology developer and manufacturer, was faced with fabricating a 3D printed sculpture for Times Square. The challenge: it was to be installed for one month in the winter. It had to stand up to cold, wind, water, UV exposure, and New York City crowds.

Alongside design studio Aranda\Lasch and engineering firm LaufsED, they created Window to the Heart. The Formlabs team was able to print and finish 1,000 tiles, and assemble and adhere them together to become the final 10-by-12-foot installation in the heart of Times Square.

Designing for wind is a core aspect of any structural engineering endeavor. Times Square is an especially tricky location because it is an intersection where several wind tunnels meet. And the standard engineering procedure is to make sure that the safety factors can withstand the wind speeds from 100-year wind speed data.


Read how Formlabs approached this design and printing challenge of wind, adhesives, and tiles.

PolyFrame Beta from the Polyhedral Structures Lab

Announcing the first release of PolyFrame Beta 01.

PolyFrame is a geometry-based, structural form finding plugin for Rhinoceros. It is based on the principle of the equilibrium of polyhedral frames known as 3D graphic statics.

PolyFrame is a computational framework that allows the construction and manipulation of reciprocal polyhedrons for structural form finding. With this tool, a designer can simultaneously design and control the flow of forces in a structural form and drive the optimal structural solutions constrained to certain boundary conditions or specific geometric properties such as edge lengths and surface areas.

PolyFrame is based on a polyhedral construction and manipulation environment called PolyFramework.

Watch the demo video.

Download it from the Polyhedral Structures Lab website. 

Karamba3D Workshop - November 28-30 in Vienna

Location: Vienna, Austria

Venue: Sichtart e.U., Mariahilfer Straßer 112/1/9 Vienna 1070

Dates: November 28-30, 2018

Time: 10:00-18:00

Course Fee: Professional EUR 750 (+VAT), Student EUR 375 (+VAT) 

Led by plugin developer and structural engineer Clemens Preisinger, along with Zeynep Aksoz and Matthew Tam from the expert Karamba3D team, this three-day workshop will focus on methods of setting up structural systems in the parametric environment of Grasshopper. Participants will be guided through the basics of analyzing and interpreting structural models, to optimization processes and how to integrate Karamba3D into C# scripts.

This workshop is aimed toward beginner to intermediate users of Karamba, but advanced users are also encouraged to apply. It is open to both professional and academic users.

Karamba3D is a parametric structural engineering tool that provides an accurate analysis of spatial trusses, frames, and shells. Karamba3D is fully embedded in the parametric design environment of Grasshopper, a plugin for the 3D modeling tool Rhinoceros. This makes it easy to combine parameterized geometric models, finite element calculations and optimization algorithms like Galapagos.

Course Outline

• Introduction and presentation of project examples
• Optimization of cross sections of line-based and surface-based elements
• Geometric optimization
• Topological optimization
• Structural performance informed form finding
• Understanding analysis algorithms embedded in Karamba and visualizing results
• Complex workflow processes in Rhino, Grasshopper, and Karamba3D

Requirements

• The workshop will be taught in English.
• Basic Rhino and Grasshopper knowledge is recommended.
• No knowledge of Karamba is needed.

Places are limited to a maximum of 10 participants with limited educational places. A minimum of 4 places is required for the workshop to take place. The workshop will be canceled if this quota is not filled by October 15th.

Participants must bring their own laptops with either Rhino 5/Rhino 6 and Grasshopper installed. A 90-day trial version of Rhino can be downloaded from Rhino.

Karamba ½ year licenses for non-commercial use will be provided to all participants.

Registration...

Curvahedra the new style of puzzle

Curvahedra is the brainchild of British Mathematician and University of Arkansas Math Professor, Edmund Harris, and is more than a fun and interesting new style of puzzle. With its new tagline Art + Puzzle, it creates new ways for people to engage in creative thinking through puzzle and design that everyone can enjoy. It consists of sets of identical cut pieces which link together ingeniously, without the aid of glue or tape, to build a variety of 3D structures. 

Edmund does his 3D work in Rhino and Grasshopper and has written CAMel a CAM plugin to export the Code straight from Grasshopper. The individual pieces for the metal models were drawn in Rhino and then cut using the Code from CAMel.

Follow them on their social networks:

Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter!

For information please contact Brad Harvey at 479-715-1639
or email Edmund Harris 

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.

Optimizing multiple design variables with Karamba

Analysis of principal stresses and deformations of a cantilevered beam

Architects Patricio Llordella and Juan Fostel and engineer Jorge Farez recently collaborated on the design of a single-family home in Hudson, Argentina.

They used parametric modeling to study the combination of the structural and architectural parameters. Karamba was paired with Zirkel, an in-house developed multiple objective optimization tool, to develop the design to meet the architectural and structural design needs. 

More details on the design of the Vierendeel House...

ExpressMarine now Rhino 6 ready

The ExpressMarine plugin for structural modeling is now available for Rhino 6.

With the ExpressMarine plugin for Rhino, designers can rapidly build parametric 3D models of marine structures. 

ExpressMarine 2.0 features new functionality to assign weight group information to the model. 

Weight and center of gravity are essential parameters in ship design and critical to establishing a good design. Determining it can be time-consuming, especially if you are still changing that design. 

Economy, stability, payload, speed, and maneuverability are all related to the weight and center of gravity of a vessel. In ExpressMarine, the weight groups can be defined by volume areas for modules or by assigning a weight group ID to the various object types. In either approach, the weight and center of gravity information are calculated and summarized for the weight groups and can be exported to ShipWeight.

More information...

IASS 2018 - Registration is open!

IASS 2018 | Creativity in Structural Design

July 16-20

MIT Campus | Kresge Auditorium 

Boston, MA 

In July 2018, the annual Symposium of the IASS – International Association for Shell and Spatial Structures – will take place in Boston, an American hub of academics and innovation. Hosted at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), the symposium brings together leading designers and researchers working in structural engineering and architecture from around the world.

The symposium theme, Creativity in Structural Design, celebrates work in the built environment that pushes beyond the status quo and synthesizes across disciplines to solve problems of today and the future. Empowered by recent advances in computation, materials, and fabrication, creative structural design is expanding possibilities for shell and spatial structures.

The week's schedule is posted here. Sessions will be posted soon. Register and continue to watch the IASS site for details!


About the IASS:
The IASS, founded by Eduardo Torroja in 1959, seeks to achieve further progress by an exchange of ideas among all those interested in lightweight structural systems such as lattice, tension, membrane and shell structures, and in the creative integration of architecture and structural engineering more broadly. The Journal of the IASS is in its 58th year of publication. More information can be found at the organization’s website: www.iass-structures.org

Registration is open. Sign up today!

Karamba for Rhino 6

Karamba is a parametric structural engineering tool which provides the accurate analysis of spatial trusses, frames, and shells.

Karamba is fully embedded in the parametric design environment of Grasshopper, a plugin for the 3D modeling tool Rhinoceros. This makes it easy to combine parameterized geometric models, finite element calculations, and optimization algorithms like Galapagos.

The new work in progress version for Karamba is now available. It now contains a dedicated installer for Rhino 6 as well as many other new features!

Full list of new features and bug fixes.

Download Karamba 1.3.0 from food4Rhino...

Karamba3D Training Workshop - McNeel Europe (Barcelona)

Karamba3D Training Workshop by Clemens Preisinger
February 7-9, 2018
10.00h-18.00h
McNeel Europe S.L.
Roger de Flor, 32-34 bajos
08018 Barcelona (Spain)

Join us for the next Special Training Session at our European office in Barcelona. Clemens Preisinger, structural engineer at Bollinger Grohmann and plugin developer, will lead a three-day Karamba3D Workshop February 7-9, 2018. 

Clemens will introduce Karamba, a parametric structural engineering tool which provides an accurate analysis of spatial trusses, frames, and shells. Karamba is fully embedded in the parametric design environment of Grasshopper, a plugin for the 3D modeling tool Rhinoceros. This makes it easy to combine parameterized geometric models, finite element calculations, and optimization algorithms like Galapagos.

Day 1

• Introduction
• Presentation of recent building projects
• Setup of  a simple structural system
• Results retrieval and display 
• Optimization of beam and truss cross sections
• Geometry optimization based on Karamba results

Day 2

• Structural basics
• How to debug a structural model
• Analysis of shells and plates
• Results retrieval and display
• Creating shell-meshes and loads
• Optimization of shell cross sections
• Form finding

Day 3

• Gridshells
• Eigenforms and natural vibrations
• Global buckling analysis
• The Karamba Utilities
• Using Karamba in C# scripts
• Individual project development

Karamba 1-year licenses for noncommercial use will be provided to the participants free of charge.

Course Fee: EUR 795 (+VAT); full-time students and university teachers will get a 50% discount (proof of status required). Please note your seat is only confirmed once payment has been 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!

New course on structural analysis with Karamba now available

ThinkParametric now has a new course on structural analysis with Karamba.  This course will teach you how to check the performance and structural integrity of your designs and how to enhance them.

Karamba can provide an accurate analysis of spatial trusses, frames, and shells early in the design process. It's fully embedded in the parametric design environment of Grasshopper, a plugin for the 3D modeling tool Rhino. This makes it easy to combine parameterized geometric models, finite element calculations, and optimization algorithms like Galapagos.

In this intro course:

• Understand how to use Karamba. The course starts by briefly going through the installation process and the different licenses that exist. 
• Build definitions with Karamba with six basic steps.
• Create your first load case scenario using two simple beams and a point load. The course covers the different components of Karamba, their inputs and outputs, and what they all mean. 
• Create a simple canopy to use for structural analysis and to control parametrically. 
• Perform structural analysis of the structure. Take a critical look at the results, like maximum displacement, resulting force of gravity, and internal elastic energy. 
• Visualize the results to better understand how the structure behaves under loads. 

For this course, no prior Karamba knowledge is required. The free Karamba version is sufficient, which you can download.

Karamba 101 Introduction to Parametric Engineering with Judyta Cichocka...

Rhino Beam Tools plugin

  

NAVINN announces Rhino Beam Tools, a new Rhino plugin built as a bridge between Rhino and specialized beam calculation software.

At the moment, the only supported export format is for Steel, which is Bureau Veritas' (Certification office) official software for beam calculation certifications.

More info and to download...
Rhino Beam Tools on food4Rhino...

ExpressMarine 1.2 recorded webinar available

The ExpressMarine 1.2 recorded webinar session from June 14th is now available for viewing.

You will get an insight on how to create an ExpressMarine project and generate parametric marine structures. The demo ship is a 130-meter chemical tanker.

We encourage you to send any additional questions to support@expressmarine3d.com.

If you would like a free 30-day evaluation, you can download it. Express Marine AS will be happy to give you a brief, personal tutorial online to help you get started.

More information...



ExpressMarine Webinar, June 14th

ExpressMarine Parametric Marine Structural Modeling in Rhino

Join Orca3D for their webinar this week on Wednesday, June 14th, at 9 AM EDT. Register here.

ExpressMarine is a new plugin for Rhino that enables designers to rapidly build up parametric 3D models of marine structures. This webinar will demonstrate some basic techniques and then move on to more advanced modeling. You can view the previous webinar on YouTube (Tip: Set the YouTube video quality to HD1080p).
​ 
ExpressMarine's main advantage is the dramatic reduction of modeling time, achieved through the integration of 2D drawings and the 3D model in a single, common environment. 
​ 
Weight and center of gravity results become available much earlier in the design tender phase and the model topology allows easy updates throughout all later design stages. 
​ 
It is the ideal preprocessor of a structural model to be used in other marine design software for detailed engineering, class drawings, weight distribution and tracking, FEM analysis, etc.

Registration is limited, so be sure to register soon. 

Sign up today!

Robert Otani & Daniel Segraves | IASS 2017 Master Class

IASS 2017 Conference HafenCity University (HCU) Hamburg, Germany September 25-28, 2017 Robert Otani and Daniel Segraves of CORE studio will host a Master Class at the IASS 2017 Conference in Hamburg, Germany. Their class Parametric Modeling and Optimization of Complex Structural Systems will cover essential strategies for setting up a framework to carry out structural optimization for complex systems. The class will cover: Defining flexible parametric relationships Analysis workflow Optimization Find more information in the class description. The last day to register for the Master Class is August 11, 2017. Register for the IASS 2017 Conference...

ExpressMarine Version 1.2 released + recorded webinar + new upcoming free webinar (June 14)

A new version of ExpressMarine, a parametric ship structural design plugin for Rhino, is now available to download.

It comes with improved structural definition methods, much more stable structure management, and many bugs fixed since the previous release.

Download now the 30-day trial.

More info on the plugin...



Webinars

The recorded webinar session from May 31 is available for viewing here.

A new ExpressMarine free webinar is scheduled on Wednesday June 14, 2017 (3 PM-4 PM CEST).

Register here...



Parametric Structures Workshop - June 24-25, Berlin (Germany)

Parametric Structures Workshop

June 24-25, 2017

Parametric Support Office

Hardenbergstr. 38

10623 Berlin, Germany

Parametric Support invites you to join its Parametric Structures Workshop, where you will learn how to design structures using Grasshopper and Karamba parametric tools.

The main goal of the workshop is to show the potential of parametric design in the field of structural engineering.

Tutor:
Marco Pellegrino, structural engineer, graduated at the University of Pisa. He worked at aei progetti and participated in several conferences, such as Design Modelling Symposium Copenhagen and AA Summer School. He is interested in applying new media to structural design and he runs the Ingegneria Parametrica fan page. Marco is currently working at Parametric Support.

This event is for Grasshopper advanced users.

Registration at hello@parametric.support

Tuition Fee:
450 EUR

More info and Facebook event...

Scan&Solve Pro update

Intact Solutions posted an important update to Scan&Solve Pro.

A few of the important bug fixes are:

• Improvements in accuracy in simulation dominated by material in shear
• Corrections to torque load application
• Removal of numerical noise a certain resolutions with some geometries

Get the latest Scan&Solve Pro...