Workshops at Facades + Innovation Conference

Chicago Facades+Innovation - Conference, Workshops

October 11-12, 2012 Chicago, IL

Have you registered yet?  Chicago is the last city in the COLLABORATION conference series and it's happening on October 11 and 12.  Workshops are filling quickly but there are still a few open seats.

Sign up today!

Workshops include:

• Parametric Facade Tectonics - Rhino, Grasshopper, PanelingTools
• Optimization for Free-form Facades - Rhino, EvoluteTools, MonkeyScript Editor
• Facade Patterning - Rhino, Grasshopper, Revit

Details...

Note: Eight (8) AIA/CES Approved LU Credits for day-long workshops.
 

Bongo 2.0 Beta 12 now available

You are invited to try the Bongo 2.0 animation plug-in for Rhino 4.0 and 5.
This is the 12th Beta version of Bongo 2.0 for Rhino 4.0 and 5.

The beta is open for all Rhino users!

Download Bongo 2.0 Beta 12 from here.

Infinite Skills Rhino 5 Advanced Tutorials

Take your skills to the next level. This Rhino 5 Advanced Techniques Tutorial Video is the ultimate in comprehensive instruction for the discerning professional.

These training classes use broadcast-quality audio and video to deliver concise and informative training right to your desktop. The course is presented via an intuitive, easy-to-use interface, letting you learn at your own pace.

These Rhino 5 Advanced Techniques Tutorials break even the most complex subjects down into easy-to-follow segments. Following along is simple. Practical working files further enhance the learning process and provide a degree of retention that is unmatched by any other form of training.

Details, demos, and purchase...

Evolute workshops at Chicago FACADES+INNOVATION Conference

This year's Chicago FACADES+INNOVATION Conference will include a day-long EvoluteTools PRO and Rhino workshop, on October 12, 2012, at the Illinois Institute of Technology Main Campus, Engineering Building One.

This workshop will focus on the optimization of complex geometry envelopes for efficient and cost effective fabrication and will cover all steps from design to optimization to detailing to generating fabrication information and how to parametrically link these steps to become an integrated workflow. Throughout the whole workshop, EvoluteTools PRO 2.0 for Rhino will be used by the attendees for hands-on examples and exercises. Participants are strongly encouraged to bring their own designs to be rationalized. Experience in using Rhino and knowledge of RhinoScript is advantageous.

Workshop details...

Conference details...

New RhinoFabLab at University of Kassel, Germany

New RhinoFabLab at University of Kassel, Germany

"We, the staff of the architectural faculty of the University of Kassel note that for most students their designs come to a halt when a scaled architectural model is built. We would like to have our students make use of the possibilities of producing real prototypes, production models etc. So basically we want to show our students the possibilities of the personalized production that comes with a fabrication lab.

A main part of our motivation to become a RhinoFabLab is to help our students on planning, assessing and finally building non-standard architecture in a 1:1 scale. In educating the new generation of digitally planning and working architects to build their (non standard) designs, it is our obligation to teach the fabrication processes and hand the necessary tools over to our students.

Our facilities are of course not only open to students and staff of our university, but anyone who would like to build/produce their designs in our facilities. We are open to all kinds of support for local communities / schools when it comes to teaching the techniques of digital fabrication."

Some past cool projects include the Self-Supporting-Framework by Mischa Proll and the Radiolaria project by Christian Troche and students.

Equipment:

Rhino, Grasshopper, RhinoCAM, Epilog lasercutter, Precix milling machine, ZCorp 3D printer, Vialux 3D scanner with Geomagic Studio, self built CNC milling machines and 3D printers, thermoforming machine, and in the near future we are going to provide a KUKA robot and/or a waterjet!

Details...

Organize your iPhone cable

What do you do when your iPhone charge cable turns into jumbled spaghetti in your pocket? You design a solution to fix it.

That's how Michiel Cornelissen came up with the iPhone accessory, The Wrap.

Originally Michiel was simply trying to get rid of the inconvenience of trying to keep the USB cable wrapped around the charger. 'I realized that one end of the charger is already perfectly fit for the job, and all you really need is the same shape on the other side as well. The Wrap provides just that, clipping onto the USB plug.'

Michiel says, 'And of course, all my products are designed in Rhino!'

The Wrap is now available through his web site and Shapeways.

Integral Envelopes Workshop 2.0 - Barcelona

Integral Envelopes Workshop 2.0
15-19 October 2012
Barcelona (Spain)

Workshop integrated into the ELISAVA Master’s Advanced Design and Digital Architecture, ADDA.

The participants will gain a new perspective on the creation of forms and spaces through knowledge of the material and its “intelligent” behavior, complemented by learning Rhino plugin Grasshopper, a software package that allows visual programming and advanced modeling of these forms and structures.

This workshop will equip students to produce truly innovative designs in terms of material, form and behavior, to the point of creating designs that are able to adapt to their environment. Ultimately, we will learn that the boundary between natural and artificial (or that produced by humans) has been redrawn from the perspective of biomimetic engineering.

Workshop leaders:

• Jordi Truco. Architect, Director of ADDA, Advanced Design and Digital Architecture.
• Michael Weinstock. Architect, Director emergent technologies and design Architectural Association. UK Director technical studies AA.

Details and registration...

Rob|Arch 2012 - Author Notifications and Workshops

Rob|Arch 2012 has now sent out their author notifications. If you have not received an email, please check your spam folder or contact chair@robarch2012.org.

Also, the registrations for the free sponsor workshops are now open at the registration.robarch2012.org. These workshops are provided by the sponsors McNeel and ABB free for conference attendees. In the McNeel workshop, Grasshopper developer David Rutten will provide insight into Grasshopper, while the ABB workshop will expose attendants to the robot programming software RobotStudio. Seats are limited and only available for registered conference attendees.

The registration page now also offers a conference only registration, though we strongly recommend everyone to take a workshop. They offer a unique chance to get a look at today’s cutting edge robotics research institutions.

Finally, we have partnered up with the ACADIA conference, which will take place in San Francisco from October 18th to 21st. This year’s topic is “Synthetic Digital Ecologies” and promises some very interesting keynotes and presentations.

AA Rome Visiting School

AA Rome Visiting School
October 17-26, 2012
Rome (Italy)

The 10-day workshop investigates structural computational design, where students are engaging debate with Roman engineer Sergio Musmeci’s idea of ‘form as unknown’. According to his methodologies the structural form is not a priori, of which you only verify the safety margins, but instead it is ‘deducted from an optimization of its static conditions’.

The aim of the workshop is to develop parametric strategies which adapt form according to local site conditions and most importantly to social articulation of space usability. Once deployed on the site of Rome, these models will construct elegant context-specific structural, spatial and material organizations. The computational approach leads to discard the imposition of a prefixed form and instead create and use a performance driven procedure.

On a team-based structure students will pursue their computational design researches coupling physical analogue experiments with algorithmic digital tooling. Finally digitally fabricated prototypes of their projects will be tested for real structural performances and richness of their tectonic articulation.

Details and registration...

NU:S Installation: between Fashion and Architecture

NU:S timelapse/performance from doublestudio on Vimeo.

NU:S Installation: between Fashion and Architecture.

In the evocative setting of the Cloister of Bramante in Rome, an extraordinary and engaging installation - an installation which examines the connection between fashion and parametric architecture - attempts to break the mold of the Roman art scene, taking advantage of the important creative contribution of young and talented members of Made in Italy: architects Arturo Tedeschi and Maurizio Degni; fashion designers Flavia Migani, Simone Bruno, Chiara Cola, and Alessio Spinelli. The concept and the creative direction is entrusted to Antonella Buono.

The result is a harmonious work that merges the individual disciplines while respecting their identities creating an innovative expressive manifesto, thanks to advanced digital tools and techniques. The installation consists of four dresses, complete with accessories, which are located within a parametric framework in constant dialog with the exhibition space, involving the audience in a multidisciplinary learning process. The installation soundtrack was composed by Davide Severi.

NU:S is a project by DOUBLE: A young company based in Rome, which is interested in the interplay of diverse contemporary art form. DOUBLE is: Maria Rosaria Melia, Antonella Buono, and Benedicta Mariani.

Rhino and Grasshopper were used extensively by Arturo Tedeschi on this project.

Rhino and Grasshopper training in Sevilla

Monzón8 announces Tools'12, a new workshop series starting the 20th of September in Sevilla (Spain).

Covers from basic Rhino through advanced rendering with V-Ray to advanced parametric design with Grasshopper and other plugins (e.g. Geco).

Workshop schedule: 16-hour (2 days) workshop (10-14h & 15-19h)
Language: Spanish.
Price: 125€.
Location: c/ Monzon 12 acc (tras La Caixa)- 41012 Sevilla, Spain

Complete info and registration (in Spanish)...

PDF poster...

Co-de-iT Grasshopper workshop in Vienna

Co-de-iT Grasshopper workshop 

Vienna (Austria)

Sep 13-16, 2012

The "Informed Skins" workshop aims at managing and developing the relationship between information and geometry working on condition-specific envelope systems. Surface discretization (paneling), driving geometry through information (whether coming from environmental analysis or any kind of database), extracting and managing information for construction processes all require an understanding of data structures in order to build seamless design-to-construction pipelines. Through visual scripting in Grasshopper (Generative modeling plug-in for Rhino) participants will learn how to build and develop parametric data structures (from basic simple lists to complex data trees), data-driven geometry and envelopes and how to extract relevant information from such models for construction processes. Participants will also develop a personal envelope project and its full design-to-construction pipeline.

Book your seat here!

SimLab 3D PDF Plugin for Rhino

SimLab Soft just released the new version of SimLab 3D PDF plugin for Rhino, the new version is based on new capabilities of SimLab Composer 2013 and includes the following enhancements:

• New: Template designer, enabling users to create templates that can be used to export customized 3D PDF files.
• New: 64-bit support to handle very large and complex models.
• New: Embedding in HTML, user can include the generated 3D PDF in automatically create HTML to make it easy to share 3D PDF files in the web.
• New: Merging multiple PDF files, the plug-in includes a new tool for merging multiple PDF files. Users can use the merge feature to merge a company’s front page—in PDF format—with a 3D PDF model.
• New: Floating license support, ready to support teams of Rhino designers.
• New: Command line integration, GUI free mode to enable scripting the process of 3D PDF creation inside Rhino.
• New: Open After Export, the ‘Open file after export’ option, makes it easier for the user to view the generated 3D PDF file without searching for it.
• Enhanced: Better 3D PDF illustration mode, with the new illustration viewing mode, share your models in a new better look, showing details like never before.
• Enhanced: Better control over the generated 3D PDF file size. By utilizing Rhino’s Render Mesh, the user has control over the size of the generated 3D PDF file.

Download the new release here...

Neon 1.0 Beta 9 Now Available

There's a new Neon!

This one is a fairly minor update.  There are some optimizations to make it faster, but nothing dramatic.  There are also some bug fixes.

A complete list of changes from Beta 8 are below

Features

• Many optimizations and fixes.
• Improved dynamic dragging performance.

Bug Fixes

• Fixed enabling the Sun or the RDK skylight adding the light to the scene when the active lighting method is not "Scene Lighting".
• Fixed moving an object with a custom render mesh causing an error condition "Primitive instance not found" when the custom render mesh and regular render mesh count were different.
• The beta expiry warning doesn't pop under the splash screen
• Old files (written prior to January 2012) can be written to.
• The name of the Neon mode is now "Raytraced with Neon" to avoid problems with command line input.

Details and download...

Digital Fabrication workshop, Sept 8-9

Non-Linear Lab
September 8-9, 2012
Studio Mode - Mode Lab
Brooklyn, NY

Non-Linear Lab is two-day workshop on growth systems, parametric detailing, and digital fabrication. Join instructors Skylar Tibbits, Gil Akos & Ronnie Parsons for this fast-paced, hands-on workshop.  Participants will:

• Learn how to influence, manipulate, and grow systems capable of reaching unanticipated outcomes using Python and Grasshopper for Rhino.
• Cover fundamental concepts of programming and parametric design.
• Be introduced to laser cutting constraints and best practices, will also work with CNC equipment.

"Like" Studio Mode on Facebook before midnight tomorrow (August 31st) and enter the sweepstakes to win a complimentary seat in the workshop!

Details and registration...

New Interactive Prototyping/Arduino tools

Andy Payne has released a new Firefly Build (1.0067) which is compatible with the latest version of Grasshopper (0.9.0006).  This release has a lot of new features for Arduino experiments. A detailed list of new features is available in the ReadMe text file included in the download.

Andy has also been hard at work on a new Firefly User's Guide (called Interactive Prototyping).  This manual is still a work-in-progress but it is intended to teach the basics of electronics (using Arduino) as well as various digital/physical prototyping techniques to people new to the field.

For more information, visit the new Firefly web site.

Generative Algorithms e-book new edition

Zubin Khabazi, has released a new, updated edition of his popular book Generative Algorithms.  Included in this online book are tutorials and design experiments in architecture and related fields in geometry.

Download the new edition here for free: Generative Algorithms with Grasshopper version 2.0

PanelingTools for Grasshopper 0.9 and Rhino 5

A new release of PanelingTools for Grasshopper 0.9 (PT-GH) in Rhino 5 Beta was posted. PT-GH is an extension of PanelingTools plug-in for Rhino that supports parametric design of cellular patterns and surface rationalization.

Check release details from here...

Create polyhedra in Rhino 5

RhinoPolyhedra is new Rhino 5 labs plug-in that lets you to create and visualize over 300 different types of polyhedra. RhinoPolyhedra supports both 32-bit and 64-bit Rhino 5.

Details and download...

Scan&Solve service release 1.6

Expression loads in Version 1.6 of Scan&Solve™

This free service release adds a major advanced feature to Scan&Solve for Rhino: an ability to specify functional expressions for spatially distributed pressure loads. Just select the face and type in an expression.

Other significant user-requested enhancements include:

• Auto-width drop-down menu for material
• Retention of legend setting between runs
• Deflected shapes in report
• More legend types

This service release also includes several minor bug fixes in geometric, numerical, and user interface subsystems of the software.  Available for free to all licensed users and as an evaluation for new users.

Watch the video...

Download Version 1.6 of Scan&Solve for Rhino...

Sustainable architecture with Rhino and Grasshopper

El Habitat, the Art and Design building at Tecnológico de Monterrey (ITESM) in Leon, Mexico officially opened with its formal inauguration on August 15th.

Designer Minche Mena, Dean of the Architecture department and partner of SHINE Architecture, was responsible for the development of this sustainable building, but credits much of the ITESM faculty for the design. For software, Rhino and Grasshopper were used.

The idea was to recycle and use as little energy as possible. Sustainability was achieved in multiple ways. Air conditioning was eliminated by using a passive ventilation facade. Lighting was boosted with two types of glass: transparent for natural light and views and white matte for diffuse uniform light.

Local news on inaugural opening (in Spanish) . . . 

Save on Orca3D and Rhino training at IBEX

Join us for Rhino and Orca3D training during IBEX 2012 in Louisville, Kentucky. Receive a $50 discount if you register by August 24th!

Learn marine-specific 3D modeling and rendering techniques with Rhino, and naval architectural design and analysis with the Orca3D plugin. This training course will take place during the first two days of IBEX, and will run from 8-12 each day, leaving plenty of time to visit the trade show and attend other seminars and workshops. The first day's session will focus on Rhino, presenting modeling and rendering techniques specifically for marine design. Real-world examples will be presented and you will have the opportunity to work through the examples together with the instructors. Attendees should have at least a basic working knowledge of Rhino.

See course details and register now!...

Online Rhino training in September

Our next Rhino Level 1 Online course is scheduled for September 13-27, 2012.  The course consists of seven sessions: an orientation with GoToTraining plus six half-days of Rhino training.

• Orientation: September 13, 9:00am-10:30am
• Training:  September 17, 18, 20 and 24, 25, 27, 9:00am - 1:00pm each day
  
  Times listed are Pacific Daylight Time. Calculate your time zone.

All sessions are instructor-led and will be recorded for later viewing.  If you cannot make a session, watch the video and catch up before the class meets again.

Sign up today!

Import Rhino openNURBS into Revit

Revit has a free add-in that allows users to import Rhino 3DM curve geometry natively into a Revit project environment. 

 
The free add-in is currently limited to Model Curves in the project environment. A subscription version will include expanded curve support in Revit Families and surface support in Revit Conceptual Massing.

Details and to download...
Video...

Grasshopper in Bangkok

Introduction to Grasshopper
August 30, 2012
Bangkok, Thailand

Join the faculty at King Mongkut's University of Technology Thonburi (KMUTT) for a free lecture discussing Grasshopper.  The event will be held at the School of Architecture & Design on the KMUTT campus.  Join one of two sessions:


Architecture: 9:30am-12:30pm
Product Design: 2:30pm-4:30pm

Priority seats have been set aside for KMUTT faculty and students.  Limited seating is available to the public.  To reserve a seat, please RSVP to WK Lim and include your name, organization and email address.

Details...

Rhino 5 OS X - new WIP release

A new Work In Progress (WIP) build of Rhinoceros 5 for OS X is now available.

Download the newest build here.

This Mac WIP release includes all applicable updates and fixes from Windows V5 Rhino as of WIP 2012-04-25. The Windows V5 Rhino updates and fixes are listed here.

This Mac WIP release also includes these Mac-specific changes:

• Changes:
• Mac Rhino now requires OS X Lion (10.7) or later. There is a separate unsupported version of Mac Rhino for 10.6.8.
• Extra debugging tests have been turned on in an attempt to find an intermittent crash bug somewhere in Mac Rhino. Please report any "Failed assertion" errors in the support forum.
• Mac Rhino uses OS X Lion Auto Save and Versions when running on OS X Lion. Additional information about Versions and Auto Save specific to Rhino can be found here.
• Bug fixes

Note: This release of Mac Rhino requires OS X Lion (10.7) or OS X Mountain Lion (10.8) to run.


 Everyone is invited to download and use the OS X version of Rhino while it is in development. Most of the core functionality has been ported from Windows and is very stable. There is still much to do to port the rest of the functionality and refine the interface.

We don't expect the first commercial release to be ready until next year. Don't worry if the build you are using is about to expire. New versions will be available every week or so. There will be a newer one available before the expiration date.

Details and download...

HyperSpace dB: AA Visiting School, Egypt

AA Visiting School is heading to Alexandria, Egypt.  HyperSpace decibel or HyperSpace dB is a workshop that will focus on the challenges of an acoustic design vignette using digital tools.

Dates: September 10-20, 2012
Location: Bibliotheca Alexandria, Alexandria Egypt

The workshop's theme will be to create three distinct sets of installations: one that introduces sound, one that uses the existing sound in a space, and one that creates a visual sculpture that responds to sound. One of each set will be installed within an exhibition space in the Bibliotheca Alexandria, creating three different acoustical arenas within one space.

Details and registration...

Parametric Design workshop, Cincinnati

Parametric Design: Introduction to Grasshopper and Performance Driven Design

18-19 August 2012*

Cincinnati, OH



Parametric Design is a two-day workshop covering fundamental principles and concepts of using Grasshopper integrated within a performance driven design pipeline. Participants will learn the essential skills of manipulating geometry using various computational methods. More...

Topics include:

• Parametric design concepts
• Computation for Performance Driven Design
• Morphing geometry and biomimicry
• Surfaces and meshes

Demonstrations include:

• Image based tessellation
• Pattern making
• Paneling with adaptive objects
• Box morphing and variations
• Vertex color based object morphing, integrating Maya with Grasshopper
• Geometry manipulation based on the solar data from Ecotect and Vasari

*Registration Deadline: 15 August 2012

Details and registration...

Bio-Skin Architecture Workshop, Tehran

August 10-12

Tehran, Iran

Join Dr. Behrang Eghbali as he conducts this intensive three-day Bio-Skin Architecture Workshop.  Bio-Skin stands for a construction technique that supports structural load using an object's external skin. Contrary to the traditional design of building skins that distinguish between internal structural frameworks and non-bearing skin elements.

Call 09197804306 or email to register.

Details...

British design: Lula kitchenware

In honor of the Olympics, we are featuring London-based ChauhanStudio and its design of Lula melamine kitchenware for Habitat. Yes, it was the Spring/Summer Collection for 2009 but it is timeless and a good example of a design agency using Rhino production in the real world.

For this project, Rhino was used to make direct CNC physical models and in the manufacturing of the final product.

More designs by ChauhanStudio  . . .