AEC Tech 2019: West Coast Hackathon, Seattle

Have you heard? CORE studio at Thornton Tomasetti has announced that they are bringing their AEC Tech 2019: West Coast Hackathon to Seattle for the first time! You don't want to miss this!

Dates: March 29-31, 2019
Location: UW Center for Education & Research in Construction (map)

AEC Tech 2019: Seattle is a three-day event featuring a day of master classes by industry professionals, a mini-symposium, and a 26-hour hackathon!  The goal is to produce a space for creative minds to build new technology, learn skills, and foster connections with like-minded individuals. 

Register and buy your tickets today!

Master classes are being offered on Friday, March 29th from 9:00 AM to 5:00 PM. Master classes are designed to teach participants new skills and build on existing ones that can be immediately applied to the Hackathon. 

A Mini-Symposium featuring talks from local professionals on current updates in the industry will conclude the day's event.

The Hackathon will take place from Saturday, March 30th to Sunday, March 31st. Team formations will begin on Friday, March 29th at 5:30 PM and project pitches will happen the same day at 12:00 PM and 5:30 PM. 

AEC Tech Hackathon is an event for all levels of programmers, developers, engineers, architects, and others. Additionally, it is an opportunity for attendees to collaborate, network, build new relationships, and generate new ideas and processes for the AEC community.

Details...

Grasshopper UK User Group Meeting at Arup Manchester - April 4, 2019

Daniel Edmiston and Mark Joynson – Structural Engineers | Building Engineering | Arup

The second Grasshopper UK User Group Meeting of 2019 will take place at Arup’s Manchester offices, on April 4.

The meetings follow a simple format of at least one presentation from a customer with experience in their field, followed by group discussion and informal pleasantries.

Confirmed presenters are the hosts, Arup, and architects Bauman Lyons.

Complete details and registration...

Merging culture with technology

Sitka High School junior Asa Demmert watches over the computer numerical control router carving his paddle. (KCAW Photo / Enrique Pérez de la Rosa)

A 3D modeled Tlingit paddle. The perfect marriage of culture and technology. 

Mike Vieira, the Design and Fabrication instructor at Sitka High, has co-developed a paddle carving project with Charlie Skultka Jr., a traditional arts instructor with the Sitka Tribe of Alaska.

Sitka High School's paddle carving projects were designed in Rhino, tool pathed in Aspire, and manufactured on a ShopBot.

It's an example of evolving art and sustaining the culture of the Tlingit people. 

The interview on KCAW Raven Radio...

AA Visiting School Dubai 5.0

AA Visiting School Dubai 5.0
In5 Design, Hai d3, Dubai Design District
Friday, March 29–Saturday, April 6, 2019

AA Visiting School Dubai (AAVS DXB) continues to explore boundaries of innovative technologies in the search for novel tectonics, contextual to the Middle East.

The fifth edition of the workshop will advance the findings of previous workshops, exploring additive manufacturing as a means to seed exciting, sustainable constructions. The groups will examine generating, testing, and constructing components of the scaled constructions in light of the principles of Stereotomy, the art and science of cutting 3D solids into particular shapes, to enable the assembly of structurally stable structures.

Throughout an experimental design process, AAVS DXB will arm participants with core skills in generative design, digital manufacturing, and visualization. The workshop will explain the future of high-performance environments and form-making and will conclude with project presentations and an exhibition of outcomes.

Complete details and application...

Two Python workshops by Long Nguyen, April 8-9/ April 10-12 at McNeel Europe in Barcelona

Python level 1 course: April 8–9, 2019

Python level 2 course: April 10–12, 2019

10 AM–6 PM

McNeel Europe S.L.

Roger de Flor, 32-34 bajos

08018 Barcelona (Spain)

McNeel Europe brings Long Nguyen- research associate at ICD Stuttgart, for two Python workshops this April 8-9, 10-12. Python is an increasingly popular programming language widely used in many fields, from 3D modeling, web programming, to scientific computing, artificial intelligence, and so on.

Its simple and clean syntax makes it accessible to beginners. Rhino and Grasshopper officially support Python, allowing the users to programmatically access its powerful 3D modeling environment, including all essential features of its advanced NURBS engine. This opens up many new exciting possibilities, such as:

• Building simple scripts/tools that automate repetitive modeling tasks, boosting efficiency
• Developing and customizing tools and workflow specific to your team's needs
• Programming advanced design algorithms that are not possible with standard out-of-the-box tools
• Using Python as a creative design tool
• Interfacing Rhino and Grasshopper with other software programs

Python level 1 course: (No knowledge of programming or scripting required, only Rhino and Grasshopper.)

• Intro to Python fundamental programming concepts: variable, data, data types, conditional statements, loops, data structure
• The Python code editor in Rhino and Grasshopper
• Creating simple Rhino commands using Python, etc.
• RhinoScriptSyntax library
• Intro to RhinoCommon library

Python level 2 course: (Requires familiarity of Python programming language)

• Understanding the pros and cons of using RhinoScriptSyntax vs. RhinoCommon
• Working with RhinoCommon geometry: Curve, Mesh, Surface, BRep
• Object-oriented programming in Python
• Randomness
• Generating and editing texts
• Reading/writing files
• Working with DataTree using Python
• Global Sticky Variables
• Using Python with Grasshopper timer

Course fees:
Python level 1: EUR 495,- (+VAT); full-time students and university teachers get a 50% discount (proof of status required).
Python level 2: EUR 795,- (+VAT); full-time students and university teachers get a 50% discount (proof of status required). 

Special offer for both courses: EUR 1195,-  (+VAT)
Please note your seat is only confirmed after payment has cleared.

Max. number of participants for each course: 10. 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 McNeel Europe!

Free workshop in London (May 8, 2019): BIM Workflow in Rhino with VisualARQ and Grasshopper

This 3-hour workshop will introduce you to the main tools VisualARQ adds to Rhino for developing an architectural project, producing the 2D documentation drawings and delivering a BIM model for other AEC applications.

What will you learn?

• How to work with parametric architectural objects
• The Level and Section manager that let you work and organize the model at different levels and sections
• How to produce 2D drawings from the 3D model
• How to generate dynamic BIM objects driven by Grasshopper (also known as “VisualARQ Grasshopper styles”) with unlimited options of design
• How to automate many modeling tasks through the VisualARQ components built for Grasshopper 
• How to add custom data to geometry and list in schedules
• How to deliver BIM models and collaborate with other tools through the IFC import/export capabilities

Complete details and free registration...

UK AR/VR/Grasshopper User Group Meeting report

The UK AR/VR/Grasshopper User Group Meeting took place on Thursday, February 21, 2019, at Grimshaw offices in London.

There were five presentations, and SimplyRhino UK has been kind enough to share a report:

• Georgios Tsakiridis | Grimshaw | How does VR make a difference in the design process?
• Lyudmil Vanev | Chaos Group | V-Ray Next for Rhino
• Long Nguyen | Research Associate at the University of Stuttgart | C# Scripting and Plugin development for Rhino
• Jonathan Rabagliati | Foster + Partners | The Bloomberg Ramp
• Gwyllim Jahn | Fologram | Making in Mixed Reality

Read the User Group Meeting report...

Next meeting: The second Grasshopper UK User Group Meeting of 2019 will be at Arup’s Manchester office, on Thursday, April 4. Details here.

ShapeDiver now supports the nesting plugin OpenNest

Good news! OpenNest, a Grasshopper plugin with tools for unrolling, packing, and of course nesting curves directly inside your definitions, is now supported on ShapeDiver. The nesting algorithm of this amazing and free plugin allows you to place as many individual pieces as possible in minimal space. A key step on the way to mass customization!

You can now send data to the ShapeDiver API regarding the result of nesting operation. For instance, use the nesting density, material waste and number of sheet of material for pricing calculations and to start planning the manufacturing steps.

Check out the demo...

Rhino User Meeting Helsinki 2019 photos

The Rhino User Meeting Helsinki took place on the January 24th at the Aalto University with great success, great presentations, 10 exhibition partners, and more than 110 participants.

Some speakers have been kind enough to share their presentations. Check the PDFs on the agenda.

Check also the event's photos.

Rhino and Grasshopper training in Zurich

On March 7 and 21, in Zurich,  PAZ – Parametric Academy Zurich is presenting new and fresh courses for 2019 based principally on Rhino and Grasshopper.

The presentation, oriented toward architects, designers and engineers, will explain the main concepts of computational design with different recent professional examples. 

Let's say goodbye to the old workflow! Let's create new systems to approach more types of projects, raising the quality and control of our design and construction process.

More information and registration...

New "Symposium für digitale Methoden in der Architektur" - April 5-6, 2019 - Hochschule Düsseldorf (Germany)

SDMA 2019

Symposium für digitale Methoden in der Architektur 2019

Hochschule Düsseldorf (Germany)

April 5-6, 2019

Come join one of the six workshops at the new Symposium für Digitale Methoden in der Architektur in Düsseldorf, including Grasshopper and VisualARQ.

McNeel Europe will also show the new developments in Rhino WIP, including SubD, Compute, and Inside.

Details and registration (in German)...

Botnica Vessel as a Luminous 3D Print

Gerard Petersen from RhinoCentre (authorized Rhino reseller) was faced with fabricating a 3D printed model for the TS Shipping company.

The challenge was to 3D print the well-known and ice-breaking vessel Botnica making it special as those beautiful, but old school, scale models of ships and yachts.

Using Rhino and fabricated by Shapeways, the result is as unique as the whole story behind it.

Read the full article here... 

Exploring Forms with Grasshopper, April 3-4, Seattle

Exploring Forms with Grasshopper workshop

Robert McNeel & Associates, Seattle, WA

April 3–4, 2019

$495.00

Is it time for you to learn Grasshopper for Rhinoceros? Join us for this fast-paced two-day workshop. Andres Gonzalez Posada from McNeel Miami will be coming to our Seattle office to teach this class. You don't want to miss it!

Seats are limited. Sign up today!

Grasshopper is the visual programming environment which is now included in Rhinoceros 6. Grasshopper scripts are represented by visual elements that progressively develop across the Grasshopper canvas. By creating visual Grasshopper scripts, designers explore and build their models from concept to fabrication.

This workshop will introduce you to Grasshopper and take you to an intermediate level. It will provide you with a functional understanding of Grasshopper and parametric design. The workshop will cover:

• Understanding the interface
• Modeling geometry
• Data structures
• The logic of using trees 

A detailed class outline is available here.


Notes:
Basic working knowledge of Rhino 5 or 6 is required.
Our Seattle classroom is outfitted with computers for each attendee to use during the training; laptops are not necessary.

Details...

The Central Plaza Rayong

Central Plaza Rayong in Rayong, Thailand, by Synthesis Design

Situated just south of Bangkok, Central Plaza Rayong's shopping mall attracts passers-by with its bright, vibrant facade.

Using Grasshopper, the Synthesis Design designers developed the series of surfaces for the shopping building facade. The facade is a series of undulating 2D CNC plasma cut aluminum profiles. Mirrored and nested, the waves appear to shapeshift as one drives by.

A few more details...

KeyShot 8.2 update now available

KeyShot 8.2 is now available. This release focuses on stability and integration with 3D modeling software. Some of the important new features are:

• Offline Rendering Pause
• Interior mode speed and performance increase
• Vertical orientation for Presentation Mode
• Shift-key drag-and-drop to add sub materials
• Network Rendering for Linux
• Alembic Vertex Color/Deformable Curve support
• Autodesk Revit 2019 Import
• Updated SOLIDWORKS integration
• Updated PTC Creo integration
• Updated Fusion 360 integration
• Updated Cinema 4D integration

To purchase or see upgrade options, visit buy.keyshot.com.

For other questions about upgrading to KeyShot 8, email sales@luxion.com or contact your local reseller.

More update information and details...

Barcelona glass manufacturer takes it technique to NYC

Rhino and a little Grasshopper were used to generate design intent files for glass manufacturing in a slumped glass facade project.

House of Innovation 000, Nike NYC is Nike's flagship store, completed in November 2018. Six stories cover more than 68,000 square feet of the undulating slumped and carved glass facade on the corner of Fifth Avenue and 52nd Street of New York City.

The building recladding is an old tradition applied to a new technique: The Spanish glass manufacturer Cricursa, based in Barcelona, has specialized in curved glass since the early 20th century.

Learn more about the process in The Architect's Newspaper, Nike’s New House of Innovation Brings an Undulating Glass Facade to Fifth Avenue.

Computation in Architecture Master Degree at CITA Copenhagen, Denmark

Computation in Architecture is a two-year Masters programme that equips students with the highest level of skills in computation and architecture. With a specific focus on digital design, advanced modeling, smart sensing, and robotic fabrication, the program examines architecture through the critical consideration of technology as a driver for thinking, forming and producing architecture. Students will develop the highest level of critical and practical skills and situated professional knowledge to shape future practice.

Applications for the new intake in September 2019 will be accepted until March 1, 2019.

Application and requirements...

How to create an alien environment

Tamara Deverell, the production designer for Star Trek: Discovery, joined the CBS TV series in the middle of Season One. She was tasked with coming up with the exotic look for the planet Pahvo.

It was all drawn in the computer in a 3D program, Rhino, and we made silicone membranes that would feel like the alien creature. It was like an organic Eden. —Tamara Deverell, IndieWire, May 16, 2018

Learn more about the production design in 'Star Trek Discovery’: How They Designed the Mirror Universe and the Klingon World.

Eagle Point adds McNeel content to Pinnacle Series

Eagle Point Software Corp. has expanded their Pinnacle Series content library by recently adding McNeel content to their design tools Grasshopper and Rhinoceros.

Adding content for Grasshopper and Rhino is something that stemmed from our clients. Our clients are interested in these products and we strive to bring them all content that is relevant to them. We noticed an increased interest and mention of Grasshopper and Rhino so we knew it was an addition we needed to make. -- John Biver, president and CEO at Eagle Point

For more information, visit eaglepoint.com.

Intro to Parametric Modelling with Grasshopper and Rhino V1.0 By DesignMorphine (March 22–24, 2019) - Sofia, Bulgaria

Description

Intro to Parametric Modelling with Grasshopper and Rhino V1.0 is an intensive course focused on the applications of parametric modeling and generative algorithms. Skill development on computational design and parametric strategies will lead to optimization through various parameters. The participants will be introduced to basic generative design using an iterative plugin.

Details

The three-day intensive course will introduce the basics of Grasshopper and generative design, explaining fundamental geometry concepts and exploring different design options through parametrically defined models. Using Rhinoceros as a base environment, the basic parameters will be set. In Grasshopper, we will explore simple examples of parametric design. Students with zero to none experience will be able to understand algorithm-based methodology and manipulate it into various kinds of designs. On the last day students will be introduced to Anemone—a plugin for Grasshopper to use iterative systems in their design. They will also learn the essentials of KeyShot rendering to create a relevant preview for their design.

Complete details...

ShapeDiver JSON components

Have you ever had problems managing large amounts of data in your Grasshopper definitions? 

Have you ever had so many parameters that the definitions get too complicated to understand? 

Do you need a clean way to communicate between ShapeDiver and your web application? 

Solve all these issues and more with the ShapeDiver JSON components.

Complete details...

Non Architecture Buying Competition

Non Architecture is a nonprofit organization whose only purpose is to
encourage and support the creation of bold innovative ideas.

We can consider Architecture everything that has already been designed or built, a realm of conventional solutions, often repeated in a self-referential system. Imagine a counterpart, a Non Architecture: a world of unexplored designs and countless possibilities, that if found, could enlarge and change the boundaries of architecture permanently. In its framework, Non Architecture is developing a series of competitions whose focus on finding innovative approaches to a specific architecture topic, always related to a functional issue. Emphasis is always pointed to nontraditional, and therefore non-architectural approaches to the architect’s work.

The 9th and final competition of the series, launched on February 1st, is Buying.

The Buying competition aims to develop design proposals for the shop typology, intended as space—either material or immaterial—where goods or services are available to the public. The participants are asked to create innovative and unconventional projects, questioning the very basis of the notion of the shop. 

With critical thinking and creative attitude, the participants are urged to investigate how the shopping experience can be reformed in the future, and how the concept of the shop as a space with material and immaterial characteristics can be reinvented. The proposal can be a device, a piece of furniture, an interior design project, a pavilion, a building or an urban plan. Scale of intervention, program dimensions and location are not given, and they can be arranged by the participants to suit their project better.

Eligibility: Non Architecture Competitions are open to all human beings, from every age and cultural background, working in groups or individually.

Submission deadline is April 30.

For more information, please check Non Architecture – Buying page on
www.nonarchitecture.eu

3D printing in the haute couture world

 

The Dutch fashion designer, Iris van Herpen, is not afraid to experiment for her haute couture collections.

Working with the Delft University of Technology to generate her computer files, she has her designs laser cut, to be later sewn on to her fabric designs.

Watch the Ludi Naturae collection develop from inside the atelier to the final runway show in this visually inspiring video: Iris van Herpen | Ludi Naturae | Process film.

Upcoming Webinar: Applying CFD Analysis to Your Design with Orca3D Marine CFD

Webinar Date and Time: Thursday, February 21, 9:00 AM EST (14:00UTC) 

Register here

In the past, marine design with CFD was expensive, required the expertise of a specialist, and wasn’t practical on ordinary engineering computers. Now Orca3D Marine CFD has changed that. They have coupled the power and ease-of-use of Rhino, Orca3D, and Simerics MP with specially designed templates allowing naval architects to easily and affordably analyze the hydrodynamic performance of displacement and planing hull designs with confidence in the results. Both monohulls and multihulls can be explored. And the effects of local design features including steps, spray rails, lifting strakes, flaps, trim tabs, foils, and other appendages can be investigated with high fidelity. With Orca3D Marine CFD, it takes only minutes to set up and start an analysis, and it is practical to run on ordinary engineering laptops or desktops.

Previous webinars have presented the process of going from a hull model in Rhino/Orca3D to a completed CFD analysis. (View the recording.) This next webinar will begin with a brief overview of that process and a presentation of benchmarks, as well as highlighting recent functionality and speed improvements to the software. Then we will move on to focus on how CFD can be used not only to analyze a design but also improve it. Presenters will include our experts as well as a customer who will discuss his real-world experience with Orca3D Marine CFD. After a Q&A session, we will present the very affordable pricing options, and the steps to follow to get a free 30-day evaluation of the software, including technical support.

Register here. The webinar will be recorded, and if you register you will receive a link to the recording, even if you are unable to attend.

Mathematical Art done in Rhino

CosmoCaixa Barcelona is hosting the exhibition Mathematical Art, a group of iron and steel sculptures made by the Dutch artist and mathematician Rinus Roelofs. His pieces show different mathematical concepts: dual and stellar polyhedra (the first is obtained from another by turning each face into a vertex and vice versa, and the second by building a pyramid on each face), and operations of turns and translations on divisions that make 3D structures from 2D surfaces.

The exhibition can be seen until September 2019.

Rinus Roelofs uses Rhino and Grasshopper to build all his artistic models.

More information (in Spanish)...

RhinoCAM 2019 released

MecSoft Corporation has announced the latest version of MecSoft’s fully integrated CAM plugin for Rhinoceros 5 and 6, RhinoCAM 2019.

Release highlights include:

• 2½ Axis – Improved feature-based machining, new drag knife cutting method, new cornering options in profile machining
• 3 Axis – Improvements in flat area machining, new trochoidal entry motions for high-speed machining, improved cut connections and performance improvements
• 4 Axis – Smoother motion outputs in the post-processor
• 5 Axis – Nutating head support and local coordinate plane programming 
• Simulation – Tool shank collision detection and early error detection
• Free TURN module included in certain 2019 MILL configurations
• Other productivity and user interface enhancements
• NEST has been enhanced to add 3D object nesting

More information...

Or download your free demo software of RhinoCAM...

Introduction to Grasshopper for Designers (Free Webinar Recording)

Given the positive feedback, Car Body Design has published the Introduction to Grasshopper Webinar that they hosted in December.

The webinar, presented by Marco Traverso, focuses on the possible applications in transportation design, product design, and industrial design industries.

To be notified about future updates go here...

Rhino at the Sydney Design Festival 2019

On the occasion of the 3rd Italian Design Day and of the Sydney DesignFestival 2019, the Italian Cultural Institute in Sydney (an official body of the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs) has invited Arturo Tedeschi, architect and computational designer, as a guest speaker of the event Inside Italian Design: Beyond the Glossy Cover. Arturo Tedeschi,  based in Milano (Italy) and worldwide known for his avant-garde work and for the best seller AAD Algorithms Aided Design, promotes a new approach that merges innovative fabrication techniques, algorithms, virtual reality, and AI.

Arturo develops all his projects using Rhino and Grasshopper.

More information...

Are you ready for the Super Bowl?

The next generation of the football helmet is here. Carbon technology is the key to the next generation of the football helmet coming from Riddell Diamond Technology.  Using generative algorithms, 3D scanning, advanced materials, and 3D printing, a new era of head protection is here.

Watch this video on the new process that will bring customized helmets to pro and college level athletes later this year:

Carbon 3D + Rhino + Grasshopper + Helmet Protection

Algorithm Summer School - July 2019 (Rome)

Algorithm Summer School

July 16-25, 2019

Faculty of Engineering - Sapienza University of Rome

Registration deadline February 14, 2019

Computational technology is rapidly developing. It provides strong capabilities to change the way we act, think, communicate, and interact in real life. The goal of the Algorithm Summer School is to provide students with a new digital paradigm in design and architecture and make them able to gain practical experience on future trends of computational architecture, generative design, algorithmic analysis, design optimization, digital fabrication, and smart kinetic systems.

School Program

Module 01 | Digital design, form finding Algorithms, and Parametric Architecture

Tools: Rhino, Grasshopper, Paneling tools, Kangaroo plugin fields Grasshopper, Digital Fabrication

Topics: generative design, NURBS modeling, parametric modeling, architectural design algorithms, form finding algorithms, generative designs in architecture and urban scale and fields algorithms

Module 02 | Digital Design and Fabrication

Tools: 3D printing, laser cutting, Grasshopper plugins, RhinoCAM

Topics: Digital design, digital fabrication, laser cutting, 3D printing, RhinoCAM, Introduction to Kinetic responsive design as an option

Details and registration...