Join Simply Rhino and McNeel at Arup for the Grasshopper UK UGM, with updates from McNeel, a presentation from our hosts Arup, a Rhino.Inside.Revit case-study demonstration from Bimorph, and a V-Ray update from Chaos Group.

• Date: Tuesday 4th October 2022
• Time: 18:30-20:30
• Location: Arup, 80 Charlotte Street, London, W1T 4QS
• Book your place: Free to attend but places are limited and you must register for your place

Presenters at the Grasshopper UK UGM include:

Conor Black, Aditya Tiwari and Veronika Heidegger from Arup.

Conor Black is an Associate at Arup, specialising in the development of novel computational techniques to design, pushing the boundaries of how to design for better, more sustainable outcomes.

Aditya is an Application Specialist (Structures) with Oasys, wherein he assists the end users with model reviews, support and training for GSA and GSA Gh. He also acts as an engineering consultant to the sales, marketing and product development teams.

Veronika is a parametric designer at Arup. Her day-to-day work involves creating and managing custom computational tools to support engineering workflows. Since joining the firm in 2013 Veronika has worked on a variety of parametric design projects on different scales, from building component to master planning.

Conor will present how Arup applies novel methods to parametric and generative design with Rhino/Grasshopper, as well as how Arup overcomes complexity and scalability with its techniques.

The presentation will introduce the new Oasys GSA Grasshopper plugin. The main motivations behind developing the plugin will be discussed, while highlighting some of its key features. Some of the potential workflows and use case scenarios of the plugin will also be presented.

Arup has developed a scalable and reusable framework based on Rhino Compute that exposes Grasshopper scripts via a custom, project specific web-interface. In this way, parametric design tools become available to a larger user group and can be shared with clients. The interface allows us to compute and evaluate design options and collaboratively make informed decisions.

Thomas Mahon from Bimorph

‘Rhino.Inside.Revit for Revit add-in development: Why professional devs SHOULD be using it‘

Rhino Inside Revit (RiR): forget the ubiquitous Grasshopper interactions with a Revit model you might have seen, this presentation is a technical deep dive showcasing the fully realised potential of RiR for professional Rhino and Revit C# addin developers.

Gain a unique insight into the true potential of RiR technology as a backend geometry engine for Revit addin development and learn about the significant advantages it has to offer professional developers.

The case study reveals the considerable benefits of RiR through a real-world formwork configuration tool. The presentation provides a before and after comparison between developing the addin using the Revit API vs the results following redevelopment targeting RhinoCommon (via RiR).

Discover:

• The superior repertoire of geometric classes and methods compared to the Revit API
• Significant improvements to execution times and large reductions to SLOC
• Lightweight geometry mapping and communication strategies between the two applications
• PRODEV techniques for decoupling your apps from the Revit API

Learning Outcomes:

• Realise the full potential of Rhino Inside Revit as a backend geometry engine for Revit add-ins
• Discover significant software maintenance improvements with major reductions in SLOC
• Learn how Rhino.Inside.Revit (RiR) supercharges Revit addin’s and circumvents Revit API geometry bottlenecks
• Learn PRODEV strategies for implementing Rhino.Inside.Revit (RiR) into your Revit add-ins

Thomas is the CEO of Bimorph and a professional software architect / engineer. With a background in Architecture, he has worked with leading architectural firms including Foster + Partners and Rogers Stirk Harbour + Partners on a diverse range of technically complex, high-profile projects. This experience led Thomas into computational design and software engineering where he has specialised in developing next-generation construction design and delivery tools. Thomas has grown Bimorph into a highly successful construction technology company, with an international client-base and a reputation for providing high-end software engineering solutions.

Yordan Zarev, CHAOS CG Specialist – Chaos

What’s new in V-Ray for Rhino?

Join Yordan Zarev for an exploration of V-Ray 6 for Rhino. You’ll learn how its exciting new features can enhance your design process and bring your ideas to life.

Yordan Zarev has a master’s degree in architecture from the University of Architecture, Civil Engineering and Geodesy in Sofia. While studying, Yordan developed a passion for 3D rendering and decided to pursue a career in architectural visualisation. Since joining the Chaos team, Yordan has taken on numerous responsibilities in its 3D pipeline, creating stunning scenes and imagery for videos, training programs and webinars.

Catch up with our previous events, including our last Online Grasshopper UK User Group Meeting where we were joined by engineers Eckersley O’Callaghan and Karamba3D Developer, Clemens Preisinger.

Organised by Simply Rhino

Sponsored by BEAM

The post Grasshopper UK User Group Meeting | 4th October 2022 appeared first on Rhino 3D.

Join Simply Rhino and McNeel at Grimshaw for the Grasshopper UGM, with updates from McNeel, a presentation from our hosts Grimshaw alongside Buro Happold, and a V-Ray for Grasshopper update and presentation from Chaos.

• Date: Wednesday 22nd June 2022
• Time: 18:30 – 20:30
• Location: Grimshaw, 57 Clerkenwell Road, London, EC1M 5NG
• Book your place: The event is free to attend but you must register for your place

Presenters at the Grasshopper UK UGM include:

Carlos Perez and Agustina Jaime from McNeel Europe

Carlos and Agustina will be presenting at our first (post lockdown) in-person User Group Meeting, topics they’ll be addressing include:

• What’s new and what’s coming in Rhino v8. What can we expect to see in the next release of Rhino?
• How users of Rhino v7 can access and influence the development of Rhino v8 and beyond.
• What else have the Rhino development team been up to while locked up for 2 x Pandemic Years?  Come and find out!
• There’ll also be discussions around the status of Grasshopper v2, Compute / Hops and of course, Rhino.Inside.Revit.

Georgios Tsakiridis from Grimshaw and Dr Al Fisher from Buro Happold

Our second presentation will be from Georgios Tsakiridis, London Computational Design Manager at Grimshaw and Dr Al Fisher, Head of Computational Development at Buro Happold.

The wider AEC industry has recently seen a growing number of platform-based approaches, focusing on the deployment of DFMA and industrialised construction. A common aid to this approach is digital configurator solutions, ever-increasingly developed by AEC practices, technology start-ups, and others, aiming to improve design efficiency. This talk will focus on the proposed Common Configurator Framework – a means to allow these diversely developed configurators to exchange data with one another – developed as part of the on-going research under the UK-led Construction Innovation Hub (CIH) research programme.

Yavor Stoikov – Team Lead, Technical Content & Media • 3D Team • Chaos

Chaos’ 3D artist, Yavor Stoikov, will showcase how V-Ray’s powerful and time-saving V-Ray can accelerate your daily workflow in Rhino and Grasshopper. Watch as he explores and populates with Geometry, Set Lighting, Set Camera effects, and Set Animations.

You will find out how to:

• Work with V-Ray, Vision and Vantage in live link
• Use, manage and populate Chaos Cosmos assets including editing and work-sharing
• Generate environment lighting
• Create an object, sun, or camera animation
• Render out straight from Grasshopper or using Rhino functionalities also
• What’s coming soon

Yavor’s presentation will be followed by Q&A.

Yavor joined Chaos in 2010. With a background in architecture, he started as a 3D artist and became one of the driving forces behind the V-Ray Training Program. Since then, he has travelled around the globe as a CG Specialist to meet with artists and studios in the AEC and M&E industries, helping users to optimise their workflow using V-Ray.

Catch up with our previous events, including our last Online Grasshopper UK User Group Meeting where we were joined by engineers Eckersley O’Callaghan and Karamba3D Developer, Clemens Preisinger.

Organised by Simply Rhino

Sponsored by BEAM

The post Grasshopper UK User Group Meeting | 22nd June 2022 appeared first on Rhino 3D.

Meeting Information:

• This live online event took place on Thursday 22nd April 2021
• Time – 18:30 – 20:00 (UK Time)
• The meeting was recorded and the video is shown below

We had two live presentations at this Grasshopper User Group meeting. Firstly from Sam Gregson who is part of the in-house Digital Design Group at engineers Eckersley O’Callaghan in London. Then we heard from Clemens Preisinger, the developer of Karamba3D and learnt how Karamba3D can be applied for parametric structural design.

Following each presentation we had live Q&A sessions with our presenters.

Meeting Presentations:

Favourite Algorithms | Sam Gregson – Eckersley O’Callaghan

Sam Gregson will discuss some of his favourite algorithms and give insight into workflows and techniques employed at Eckersley O’Callaghan to inform design decisions, rationalise geometry and optimise structures.

The discussion will include:

• SIMP for topology optimisation
• k-means and other clustering Algorithms
• Nelder-Mead for general optimisation
• Potential opportunities of NURBS

Sam Gregson is a senior structural engineer and digital design specialist at Eckersley O’Callaghan. Over the last 6 years at Eckersley O’Callaghan Sam has accrued a wide range of project experience: large span glass and steel domes, such as several domes for Cruise Ships and Apple, Marina Bay Sands; bespoke structural glass staircases and facades; and acrylic structures such as the London Sky Pool.

As part of the in-house Digital Design Group, Sam develops tools and scripts for use across the firm, provides in house training on Grasshopper and scripting and undertakes R&D in computational design. In particular, Sam’s key areas of focus are structural optimisation, and geometry manipulation and rationalisation.

Karamba3D – Clemens Preisinger

The presentation starts with a short introduction into what Karamba3D is and how it can be applied for parametric structural design.

Karamba3D’s roots lie in a university research project which dealt with structural optimization of spatial structures. In combination with the visual scripting environment of Grasshopper Karamba3D has evolved into an interactive structural design tool. Three built projects will be presented which showcase the application of Karamba3D in different phases of design.The last section of the presentation covers future developments and features to be expected in the up-coming release of Karamba3D.

Clemens Preisinger, D.I. Dr. is a structural engineer and researcher. He started his career as a researcher at the Institute for Structural Concrete at the Technical University Vienna. Since 2008 Clemens is working for the structural engineering company Bollinger–Grohmann. During that time he contributed to several research projects at the University of Applied Arts Vienna. There he currently heads the department ‘Digital Simulation’ which investigates possibilities to bring computational modelling techniques into early stage architectural design.

Since 2010 Clemens is developing the parametric, interactive Finite Element program ‘Karamba3D’ as a freelancer. He holds a PhD in Structural Engineering from the Technical University Vienna.

Watch the full video recording of the meeting here:

Organised by Simply Rhino

Sponsored by BEAM and PNY

Watch the recording of our previous AR/VR for Rhino and Grasshopper meeting, featuring Heatherwick Studio and Epic Games, here.

The post Grasshopper UK User Group Meeting | 22nd April 2021 appeared first on Rhino 3D.

For our second Grasshopper User Group Meeting of 2019 we are meeting at Arup’s Manchester offices.

Grasshopper, now built into the popular 3D Modelling CAD tool Rhino v6 for Windows, is widely used with the AEC industry with growing interest in Product and Industrial Design, Furniture and Jewellery Design.  For those exploring and maybe new to the subject or for veteran users, we invite you to come along and hear from / network with key industry users.  More on Grasshopper here

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

Confirmed Presenters are our hosts, Arup, and architects Bauman Lyons.

Details

• Thursday 4th April 2019
• 18:30 – 20:30
• 6th Floor  3 Piccadilly Place  Manchester M1 3BN United Kingdom (Map here)

Heads up! Read the write up notes from the meeting at the foot of this page.

Presentation by Arup

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

Our presentation focuses on why and how we utilise Grasshopper. We describe our initial experiences in implementing the tool in the design development of two of the stadiums currently under construction for the 2022 FIFA World Cup™, the Iconic Stadium in Lusail and the Qatar Foundation Stadium in Doha, and then outline how we have since developed the skills and tools on various other projects, including its application at early concept stage, and our proactive approach to up-skilling the team across the region.

Presentation by Bauman Lyons

Our presenter is Matt Murphy – Architect | Bauman Lyons

MassBespoke is a parametrically driven timber cassette construction system that integrates structural design and fabrication into an automated system that can be accessed by architects from outline design stage to produce bespoke buildings through distributed local CNC fabrication.  

Primarily aimed at ordinary (rather than extraordinary) construction, Grasshopper has given us the capability to handle the complexities that arise from creating a single system that can iterate endless different design inputs.

We feel this gives rise to a paradigm shift for everyday bespoke construction – in particular the level of R&D that can be afforded as it is invested into a reusable system, rather than the reinvention of the wheel.  

Our goal is to create an easier way for architects to add value through good design without the drawback of added cost and uncertainty of bespoke construction and to enable a clearer path for manufacturers to sell their products to the end user through the future possibility of integrated compatible systems.

The presentation will discuss different stages of our work flow, including some of the different tools & plugins we are using in our Grasshopper definitions, as well as how we’re starting to improve data management and output verification as we move towards mortgage-backed accreditation of MassBespoke construction. 

Notes and photos from the meeting:

First up was a joint presentation from Mark Joynson, an Associate from Arup Liverpool, and Daniel Edmiston, a Senior Engineer from Arup Manchester.

Back in 2014 Mark begun work on the Health and Wellness Stadium for Qatar 2022.  Largely self-taught as Grasshopper was not widely used within the Liverpool office at that time, linking Rhino, Grasshopper plus the In-house Grasshopper plug-in Salamander (which itself allows further links to Structural Analysis tool GSA) and then passing this phase of work onto Arup Madrid.

Mark then discussed work completed on the Foster + Partners designed “Lusail Iconic Stadium” which is currently under construction for the 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar.  Arup’s focus for this project included the main 3 stadium components of Roof, Vessel & the Bowl.  All models from Architect were in Rhino format (as that was the primary design tool), Grasshopper use came later and after concept stage as the mesh became more defined within the Scheme stage.  Instead of exchanging 3d models with Architect they exchanged Grasshopper scripts all resulting in greater efficiency through a shared Parametric design approach.  For the Bowl, Digital Project also Rhino with Grasshopper and again links through Salamander to GSA for Static, Dynamic and Thermal analysis all played an important part.

Following these project successes Daniel mentioned the formation of the “Grasshopper Club” a group which has met on 26 occasions so far throughout the UK at various Arup offices, within these sessions they discuss, experiment and run competitions all to encourage the sharing of expertise and to encourage the use of Grasshopper.

3rd project was an international contest of ideas for roofing the Roman Amphitheatre “Verona Arena”.  The scheme featured a retractable cantilevered roof which had to be exceptionally considerate to the existing structure.  Geometry Gym translation tools were used to share the model with Analysis tools allowing the structural concept to be interrogated both visually and analytically.

We then heard of “The Loop” a curved 500m pedestrian and cycle bridge structure over varying terrain linking Lilleaker and Lysaker in Oslo, Norway where Daniel and Arup worked on the feasibility and concept design.  Grasshopper plug-in Human UI successfully assisted with the creation of a simplified interface for those with less Grasshopper experience but still required to perform a design coordination role.

Lastly Daniel presented Speckle as a solution for Rhino / Grasshopper users and far more, all potentially co-ordinating seamless workflows between Disciplines, Practices and Technologies.  An approach and solution we will be hearing much more about with future projects!

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Our second presentation was from Matt Murphy from Bauman Lyons Architects based in Leeds and also now a Director of MassBespoke which is now a fully fledged startup of it’s own.

Massbespoke is an insulated timber cassette system combining the benefits of Mass production with Bespoke design.  From conception in 2012 the requirement for Parametric controls were clear, Grasshopper features centrally within the Massbespoke workflow but it’s unlike where you would perhaps normally associate the tool, there’s no grand or signature Architectural output, a stadium from Arup as per the previous presentation for example, you could say it’s far simpler in the area or focus of output which is housing but the complexity lies in being able to handle any number of possible housing formats.

Using Elefront to communicate with fabricators on a wide range of CNC / CAM solutions, including very high throughput facilities on Scottish docks where the timber lands from around the world for processing on industrial CAM equipment on a huge scale.

ArchiCAD models utlising the tailored Grasshopper link enable the models to be BIM compliant but also assist in the co-ordination of M&E services.  This BIM compliance for the models allows for full support for Design for Manufacture and Assembly (DfMA) processes leading to high levels of quality control.

Real time costing is enabled via the use of OpenNest and Grasshopper, linked to live spreadsheets maintained by the fabricator which include personnel rates, general overheads, supply costs for materials etc.  Matt explained they are currently seeking BOPAS accreditation for Mortgage approval status, all so high street lenders can approve mortgages for Massbespoke built housing projects.

Quite a range of 3rd party plug-ins for Grasshopper are utilised by the Massbespoke team including those already mentioned plus Anemone, Speckle, Lunchbox and Bowerbird plus others

The post Grasshopper UGM | Manchester | April 2019 appeared first on Rhino 3D.

For our first User Group Meeting of 2019 we are combining our usual Grasshopper UGM with our VR/AR user group.

The group is for those who are interested in meeting in order to network, discuss and explore Grasshopper3d and virtual and augmented reality solutions for Rhino3d.

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

Confirmed Presenters are Grimshaw, Fologram, Foster + Partners and Chaos Group.

Details: This meeting took place on Thursday 21st February 2019 at Grimshaw, 57 Clerkenwell Road, London, EC1M 5NG

Special thanks to Andy Watts and the team at Grimshaw for hosting this latest UGM.

Meeting notes are available at the bottom of this page.

Preceding this UGM there was a 3-day workshop with Fologram on 19th, 20th and 21st February 2019 at Grimshaw – find out all the details about this workshop here on the Simply Rhino site.

Presentation by Grimshaw

Within the Design Technology team at Grimshaw, the VR and computational design are key components of the work our team undertakes to support our design teams and research new ways of working.

The use of VR has grown to become an well-established part of the design toolset at Grimshaw from internal reviews and design checking through to client presentations and stakeholder engagement. More recently, AR has shown the potential to introduce a new facet to this, overlaying our design information on a more readily understandable physical context, be it at full scale or otherwise.

From projects such as Waterloo International through to Dubai 2020 Expo opening next year, the work of Grimshaw has always had a strong relationship with computational design. Today, tools such as Rhino and Grasshopper are now integral to our everyday work.

Recently, our in-house Design Technology team had been looking at ways of merging these two key work-streams together. Whether through bespoke in-progress workflows or through the use of more developed tools such as Fologram, we are actively seeking ways to enable our teams to harness the power of computational design tools such as Grasshopper in an immersive 3D environment.

Presentation by Fologram

Fologram is a toolkit that allows designers to build interactive mixed reality (MR) applications quickly within Rhino and Grasshopper. By providing users with access to device sensor data (spatial meshes, gesture events and computer vision tools running on camera feeds) as inputs to parametric models, the full ecosystem of Grasshopper plugins (physics simulations, structural and environmental analysis, machine learning etc etc) can be extended to run in mixed reality. Gwyllim Jahn and Nick van den Berg will demonstrate applications developed with Fologram by partners and clients that augment existing processes of design, modelling, analysis and making.

Designing and making within mixed reality environments extends the skills and capabilities of designers and builders by improving spatial understanding of design intent and reducing the risk of human error associated with extrapolating 2D instructions to 3D form. These new capabilities dramatically improve the ability of conventional craftsmen and construction teams to fabricate structures with significant variability in parts, form, structure, texture, pattern and so on, and in many cases completely reverse design viability as impossibly expensive and difficult proposals become straightforward, low risk and cheap. Complex designs can now be fabricated on standard building sites, with cheap materials and tools, and without expensive expertise or design documentation.

We will discuss work from Fologram that investigates the implications of MR assembly methodologies on architectural design through the lens of several architectural prototypes. Could making in mixed reality allow us to refigure CAD-CAM not as a means of working to high degrees of tolerance and precision but instead as a return to craftsmanship, intuition and reflexive making? How will the medium of MR enable new forms of collaboration between designers and manufactures, or between humans and machines? What new architectural forms might be found in this superposition of the digital and the craftsman?

At the end of the presentation there will be the opportunity to have a brief demonstration of the Fologram toolkit on the HoloLens and mobile phones, and discuss applications within research, teaching and practice.

Check out Fologram’s vimeo channel to see Fologram at work.

Presentation by Jonathan Rabagliati from Foster + Partners

The Bloomberg Ramp | Rising through the centre of the building, the distinctive hypotrochoid stepped ramp, animates the whole Bloomberg office space.  Fabricated with a steel monocoque, the ramp is clad in bronze panels. Their form is based on a mathematical curve called a hypotrochoid, that forms a smooth continuous three-dimensional loop between that rises up to the skylight. Each loop cuts through a near elliptical opening in the floor plate and these elements, rotating through 120 degrees on each level, which creates dramatic views that open deep into the building.

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The ramp is central to the way Bloomberg chooses to operate, embodying a sense of movement and dynamism through its form and function. The ramp is conceived as a place of meeting and connection, between people and parts of the office. As the primary connection between the floors, it acts as a great social condenser for the building, bringing both life and light to the building.

The presentation by Jonathan Rabagliati charts the story of design through fabrication, using computation design, VR, laser scanning and metrology and close collaboration with structural Engineers and contractors to realise a remarkable design.

Presentation by Chaos Group | V-Ray Next: Immersing in Parametric Design

With 15 years on the front of expanding the possibilities of visualisation, Chaos Group have grown to have groundbreaking performance as the readily expected feature of every subsequent release. And moved to pushing the limits of what is generally possible to visualise. No better testament to that than V-Ray’s latest Next line, even more so – with the expected V-Ray Next for Rhino.

On February 21 CG Specialist Lyudmil Vanev is coming on stage with something way more powerful than a new version presentation, however exclusive it may be. Lyudmil is showing our whole take on the way designers can be seeing and experiencing their design. And adding substance to our concept of visualisation as a design tool, with an integral role in every stage of the design process.

You will get a detailed exclusive preview of the way how V-Ray Next for Rhino adds completeness to an approach we started in V-Ray 3 – the direct access to rendering from within Grasshopper, without the need to exit, bake, etc. V-Ray’s entry directly in the parametric toolset moves towards providing interactivity and a new depth of immersion and understanding of changes, parameter impact, and design evolution. Through simply giving a new set of eyes to the designer – to see all right where it happens, straight within the parametric script, changing in real time and with the most realistic materials, if needed. Which also makes the above the main reason and entry point into interactive immersive virtualised design with V-Ray Next for Rhino.
Operating straight within Grasshopper, V-Ray brings its complete list of features and powers, straight to rendering animations and supporting VR Scans. furthermore, it brings two major opportunities – GPU rendering for speed and computing power; and bridging to V-Ray for Unreal, to provide a seamless transition from the parametric plugin into interactive virtual setups.
So – interactive, fast, realistic, gamified parametric design. Firsthand, first time and with a hint on the next areas of research and development straight from the team.

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Grasshopper3d and AR/VR for Rhino3d Meeting Notes | Grimshaw | February 2019

Georgios Tsakiridis | Grimshaw | How does VR make a difference in the design process?

VR and AR sit within the research cluster of Grimshaw’s Design Technology department, where they have champions of areas of interest and research. They try to be first adopters, and had an AR exhibition about four years ago and now use 360° VR scenes as a standard project deliverable. They also have a VR cave available when the project can justify it.

VR as a new way of working : In general, a small group within the practice will explore new technologies first and then roll them out across the practice. But VR can be a relatively simple technology which everyone see results quickly, so does it change what and how people design?

They set up rooms for Vive rigs and gave small headsets like the Samsung Gear to design teams. The use of these simple headsets mean that the design teams use them in the design process itself, and not just in client reviews. They started with simple workflows, using N-Scape and Iris VR, offering quick and reliable output and being accessible to the team.

For stakeholders, VR gives unmatched clarity, without the distortions inherent in CGIs.

MIPIM was a key first showcase, where they demonstrated a model of their Dubai Sustainability Pavilion, but the ‘Heathrow Horizon Community’ engagement was perhaps more important because they created a set of 360s of key passenger journey points. The ‘Horizon’ are a group of frequent flyers who were shown VR scenes of a generic airport pier environment, and were asked to assess their perceptions of the width, amenities, comfort and so forth. VR allowed swift engagement in the complexity of systems of an airport, with members of the group even being able to start to plot out airport layouts themselves.

These early experiments led to the development of a wishlist for VR in the practice. These included; better design tools, integration with Rhino and Grasshopper, easy to customise interfaces, scene interactivity, live linking between applications, and some Augmented Reality.

Mixed Reality with AR

The journey is now towards the mixed reality world of AR. To explore this, Grimshaw hires a specialist games designer and started working with Fologram, thanks in part to its easy workflow from Rhino. They saw its immediate potential so implemented AR on quick review sessions, e.g, dynamically adjusting a stadium roof – a technology that is far quicker than the equivalent 3D printing process for design review. They have also tried AR at the masterplan scale, being able to see the impact of adjusting the volumes of buildings in relation to one another.  AR here has a distinct advantage over VR in that the ‘sunglasses’ style of headset means that the user can stay in the conversation taking place around the model.

Grimshaw have also been developing custom apps and engaging with video game platforms Unity and Unreal. However, this is time costly and requires coders in the team. But it does provide for a degree of photorealism and the animation of elements such as the doors on an underground train. The user finds themselves in much a more immersive place than before.

Grimshaw feel that they are still in the ‘humble beginnings’ of working with AR as an in-house technology. They are still exploring the tools and workflow, but it’s a priority for investment. The ‘holy grail’ is that of interoperability: can you connect Rhino and Grasshopper with video game engines? Well, that has been happening for a while, but what has gotten the team excited recently is the ability to run ‘Rhino Inside’, with the software being called from within other platforms.

Go-Rhino-Go

‘Go-Rhino-Go’ is an open source GitHub project that was developed at a hackathon in New York in conjunction with architects from Foster & Partners and others. It allows you to call Rhino and relevant libraries to permit the real–time building of geometry in rhino from the Unity interface, and combining these two worlds in a collaborative situation. It will never replace Rhino, but it’s an in–between sketching tool, with a really big potential which they want to explore further. There are certain limitations due to how Rhino is developed but they are in discussion with McNeel and Go-Rhino-Go is open source so they’re keen to see a community grow.

The advantage of game engines is that they have a certain power to narrate and to communicate complex messages within a simple frame of constraints — so it becomes less about where you do the calculations, but about what systems like Unity can give us. So, as a result Grimshaw have just welcomed a game developer to their team, which is a new breed in the world of AEC.

Lyudmil Vanev | Chaos Group | V-Ray Next for Rhino

Firstly, it will be smarter, so smart that it takes optimisation decisions for you. A new asset editor allows common libraries, which are stored where you want, not in V-Ray. It features a spline curve editor for value manipulation (eg; hue, saturation) and they have added metallic PBR style shaders. There’s a light editor, where you can set up lights in the editor without making test renders in scene, and a lighting heat-map analysis tool as well as new multi-matte elements for compositing.

V-Ray next also has two new patented algorithms governing scene intelligence.  

There’s an adaptive dome light that can use image based lighting. There’s no need for light portals any more, just use the dome. V-Ray Next now has auto exposure and white balance for scenes, so V-Ray can create perfect lighting for you, and it will also handle the difference between interior and exterior lighting.

Next has cut render time by 2 to 5 times, even up to 11 timesin some cases. Next is generally 20-50% faster for exterior scenes. And with GPU processing, up to 18 times faster (again in 3DS Max). The general message is that you can achieve more with less.

Denoising was good in version 3.6, but had only one algorithm. It was perfect for cleaning up the end result of a visualisation process, but what about faster workflow? So they have added a new denoiser using Nvidia AI, which is fitted with thousands of denoising patterns.

VRScan GPU

Chaos Group’s material scanning technology has been in development for 10 years. You can put any material sample inside and VRScan captures mathematical data of every single direction. Clients used to complain that programmed materials don’t look like their material samples and you end up spending weeks tweaking them and they’re still not happy. But with the scanner they look real.

V-Ray for Grasshopper

V-Ray allows you to render grasshopper without baking geometry. This leads to the ability to create animation in Grasshopper and render it directly, by having a V-Ray Scene node Grasshopper. You can also create materials in Rhino and manipulate them in Grasshopper. Grasshopper can also control the lighting, camera and sun and again create dynamic scenes all without baking.

Overall, these new items are about a tenth of what’s coming…

V-Ray’s VR and AR Pipeline

Using the vrscene transfer format is a great solution for taking work into Unreal. It does have one limitation — that everything should have be a texture as Unreal doesn’t accept procedural defintions. There’s also still the need to export, as there’s no live connection yet. But the V-Ray scene file does contain all the geometry, lighting etc and V-Ray for Unreal converts shaders, lighting etc., into to native Unreal definitions. In the Unreal settings, you can directly select V-Ray denoisers and other features, and V-Ray will bake all of the lighting within Unreal — you can even manipulate the bakes in Photoshop as they are not hidden away.

Project Lavinia

This is a new real-time ray-tracing engine viewing system, based on Nvidia DXR technology. It’s a drag and drop viewer for V-Ray scenes created in any V-Ray platform. It can handle scenes with billions of polygons without prebaking, or faked reflections. Where is it going? Will it be useful? Feedback to Chaos Group please! They have the alpha for 3DS Max out already, and Rhino is coming.

Long Nguyen | Research Associate at the University of Stuttgart | C# Scripting and Plug-in development for Rhino

Long teaches classes which start assuming no knowledge of C#, but during the course of the workshops the students learn it and get to develop their own plugins. He also shows algorithms for computational design, to achieve logic not possible within the visual parameters in Grasshopper alone. He also teaches good clean programming practices, to enable the creation of plugins that can be packaged and distributed commercially. Example use cases might include getting elements to obey rules, e.g. don’t self-intersect, or to study liquid erosion of a terrain. The next introductory classes with Simply Rhino will be in June.

Advanced classes coming soon.

In September, Long will also offer advanced versions of the workshop, for example parallel computation in C# for proximity checking or how to make a Grasshopper plugin to undertake heavy calculations in the background without freezing the main user interface.

Jonathan Rabagliati | Foster and Partners | The Bloomberg Ramp

The project for a grand ramp in the Bloomberg building in the City of London started 7/8 years ago, but has its roots in work done by the practice 20 years ago at the Reichstag in Berlin, and later at the GLA Building in London. There they had learned some of the tricks about how to create a minimal and smooth appearance while satisfying code requirements for level sections within the slope.

At Bloomberg, the attempt was to build a building with huge internal area but which respects the medieval street pattern. In heart of north zone of the plan, there is a huge triangular space and atrium with ramp that rotates as it passes each floor. It’s not just a conduit for people but it’s also a part of the ventilation strategy.

One of the challenges was how to the get clients’ head round what they were designing. They did 3D prints and presentation models and they did lots of renders. But the development process was necessarily complex — having designed the model parametrically in Grasshopper, every ‘frame’ in the animation of the ramp was its own Rhino surface model — so there could have been an infinite number of different ramps.

Jonathan is passionate about curvature and to use ellipses as the basis for the form disturbed him. The inherent tightening and loosening of the curvature was no good, and he wanted a more elegant solution. So he did a curvature plot of the acceleration and deceleration of the curvature and it revealed unwanted kinks. So he used an equation that is in fact just like a Spirograph: rolling one circle around another. The ratio between the gears on the moving wheel versus the circular frame creating a trochoid. And in turn you end up with the setting out of the ramp, with the skylight above being defined in a similar way.

There was then a dialogue to and fro with Adams Kara Taylor engineers to refine and simplify the geometry. The beauty was that you could pull out the structural model and plug it into his hypotrochoid model, that would then update the engineers’ model at same time. This process eliminated lags in coordination, but required common naming conventions and a shared language to make the collaborations work. Rather than wasting weeks on coordination they could get on with building the Grasshopper model and doing detailed analyses of load cases for all 96 steps and knock-on effects on all the other steps. It created a matrix of data that could be interrogated, and the efficiency then freed up engineering resource to undertake a far more in depth study than is usually done. Overall, it reduced the uncertainty factors due to greater clarity.

Full scale prototyping was very important for user comfort, and also to convince the district surveyor that the proposed gaps around a glass infill panel at the landings of the ramp would be safe.

In a combination of precision and brute force, they ended up with using a contractor for the bronze cladding panels who was based in Japan, with the substructure being created at Littlehampton Welding, with the elements coming together after a series of overnight deliveries into the City of London. For the contractors, they made a simple set of instructions listing the variables for each element and diagrams—which became a 96-page method statement of how to build it.

During the design process, Michael Bloomberg visited a mock-up, and being of lesser stature, he questioned the height of the balustrade and wanted it lowered, to which the senior partner at Fosters said ‘yes!’, not knowing the consequences. But through another equation, the team were able to find a solution. In January 2014, they made a pioneering use of the Oculus Rift in one of first projects to test different options, not just for client review. They had to find a way of smoothing the curves of the lowered balustrade but retain the setting out at the floor levels. To resolve this they had to introduce an s–curve to smooth shapes—but it had to do so imperceptibly. So they tried various s-curves to maximise the effect and used VR to see which looked best.

The whole development process took months with the Rhino geometry eventually transferring to a fabrication model produced in Catia within a tolerance of .004mm. Then came the amazing bit: yes, the fabricators had an accurate model, but did they build it right? And will cladding fit? To check this, they did three 1 billion point laser scans of the installed substructure. They then put that dataset in Rhino and tested against their design geometry and colour coded it for clash detection. The maximum deviation was 24mm over 6 or 7 floors, meaning there were a few areas where had to alter the geometry. But by this time the very beautiful and very expensive Japanese bronze cladding was landing at Tilbury Docks and couldn’t be changed. So the adjustment process was to combine the scan and the solid model to create a virtual model where they could ‘jiggle’ the bronze panels using the minimum shift distributed across them all, and set up rules of how periodic 10mm shadow gaps could be tweaked accordingly.

Although they were using metrology with sub millimetre precision, in the end the specification writing was key. The spec just called for ‘a smooth continuous curve’ — just a few words as opposed to all that data..! And you find yourself reverting back to written definitions, such as “plus or minus 2mm” and end up arguing on site when the contractor points out that this actually allows for 4mm of mis-alignment, because its plus 2mm on one panel and minus 2mm on the next. The moral here is that for all the computational sophistication, don’t disregard the specs!

It’s all very well designing or making things with these tools, but the process of actually realising something like the Bloomberg Ramp is just as fundamental and crucial. And don’t lose sight of the fact that the end result is about simple human interactions: the ramp enables casual interactions and conversations to take place. And one final nice reward was that the plan of the ramp was adopted as a logo for the building.

Gwyllim Jahn | Fologram | Making in Mixed Reality

Fologram are building software for mixed reality devices, so designers can use them for design and making. They’re interested in how you go from design packages to making things in the real world, without 2D drawings.

The AR technology was originally always about helping fabrication and comes from work done by two Boeing engineers to enable accurate placement of systems within an airframe under construction. Now it can still be used for precise registration, but also for shared experiences and to build natural, intuitive interfaces.

Fologram work with the Microsoft Hololens, which offers precise tracking, but the downside is the need to develop in Unity. So they have made a bridge from Rhino and other platforms.

Their target is to produce reductions in time and cost risk in experimental architecture. A case in point is Frank Gehry’s Dr. Chau Chak Wing Building at the University of Technology, Sydney. There, the undulating curved brickwork façade had to be installed by an expert team with painstaking precision, meaning that a bricklayer who was used to laying 400+ bricks per day was down to 80 bricks a day.

There was a clear need for a way to make the process simpler and faster, and avoid the need that Gehry’s had of providing setting-out information for every single brick. And to find a way to be able to use less skilled employees, not just master bricklayers. And for them to be able to work in parallel. So Fologram did a small test build of a sinuous brick façade, using local ‘brickies’, where they were able to build in one day what would otherwise have taken weeks, because each of the crew could see a projected hologram of exactly where the brick should be. The brickies themselves were super-excited as they could use less skilled labour alongside masters leading to better fees, a faster installation and a better result for the architects.

Fologram also work with art fabricators, who can use virtual templates to rapidly develop work as they go, without a steep learning curve.

It’s a case of using old tools for new tricks. Can we rethink old design tools? Now you can stream a model to multiple devices so can have collaborate modelling without cad skills. With Fologram you can have three people work on one Rhino document simultaneously, just using three iPhones.

A classic test are three-dimensional Voronoi diagrams; can these be done quicker using these tools? Now you can combine the precision of digital modelling with the ability to overlay analog tools, all without 3D printing. They overlaid a Voronoi hologram from Grasshopper into the workshop of a Chinese fabricator, who just had to follow the hologram and bend the metal components till everything is just right. You can even then use Fologram to augment the physical object with AR animated elements, like a breathing skin.

And the system is very lightweight, with the ability even using a laptop to combine a live 3D scan of a space with Rhino models and interact with it using an iPhone. All of which can be done anywhere in world with just a WiFi LAN and a phone hotspot.

There’s a free mobile Fologram app available from their website and they are about to debut exciting new developments following the launch of the HoloLens 2.

Next Meeting! Our next Grasshopper User Group Meeting takes place in Manchester on Thursday April 4th 2019 at Arup. See here for all the details on the presenters and how to book your place.

The post Grasshopper and AR/VR for Rhino UGM – February 2019 appeared first on Rhino 3D.

The group is for those who are interested in meeting in order to network, discuss and explore virtual and augmented reality solutions for Rhino.

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

Details

• Thursday 14th June 2018
• 18:30 – 20:30
• AKT II – White Collar Factory, 1B Old street Yard, Via Mallow street, EC1Y 8AF

Presenting at the meeting:

AKT II

At AKT II and through our in-house parametric applied research team (P.art) we persistently explore new means of approaching engineering challenges. As part of this evolving process of expanding our toolkit and enhancing our design processes, we are interrogating Virtual and Augmented reality applications in order to evaluate their potential uses, benefits and drawbacks in the context of the AEC industry.

While we acknowledge the significant advantages and prospects of these technologies being mainly used as visualisation tools, we also aspire to examine ways of utilising them as imperative early design tools.

Watch the AKT II AR Video Teaser here

On this presentation we will illustrate our thoughts on how Virtual Reality applications could supplement potential design interrogation exercises. In specific, how could they assist in informing early design decisions with basic structural engineering principles.

Foster + Partners

Foster + Partners has been exploring VR and other immersive technologies for more than two decades, having worked with Oculus Rift since the first release of its developers’ kit.

Using different devices such as Oculus Rift, HTC Vive, Samsung Gear, and Google Cardboard allows designers to visualise their content, test the wayfinding strategies, design comfort and spatial experience with users, while clients also become more involved in the design process, enabling faster and richer feedback.

This talk will discuss the integration of VR tools into project workflows, reflecting on the challenges and opportunities offered by immersive technologies to explore, alter and test design alternatives within a collaborative framework.

Thanks to AKT II for kindly hosting this AR/VR for Rhino UGM.

Here’s our notes from this meeting:

AKT II – Spyros Efthymiou

AKT’s in-house parametric applied research team “p.art” have been experimenting with VR for four uses; Illustration and Communication, Design Interrogation and lastly Design Enhancement (designing within VR).

For design interrogation, AKT have developed a bespoke bi-direction real-time workflow between Rhino and game engine Unity (running an Oculus Rift) via Grasshopper. Design changes made either in Rhino or Unity are updated in the other simultaneously. The aim is for seamless integration where Rhino becomes the modelling interface for Unity.

Unity was chosen due to the simplicity of its C# programming, and large community but AKTs approach is agnostic in terms of game engine.

Model built similar to a 3D printing model optimised and complete.

For design enhancement, they are using Unity hands interaction to design in VR. Options can be explored without upsetting the physical modelmakers.

Again they are modifying the Rhino geometry by modifying in Unity in real time. They can stretch, copy and rotate – not just manipulate.

A key benefit is being able to change locations – say model from the rooftop of an adjacent building.

It is particularly powerful when adjusting parametric assemblies in real time – being able to see downstand beams change in depth as you extend a floor slab, or a core changing in area as you increase its height, or a beam grid dynamically recalculating as you move columns.

Overall the feeling is that to be a useful tool it relies on a seamless workflow.

Fosters + Partners – Amy Elshafei

Foster + Partners have been using VR as a design tool for projects and VR review has even become a contract requirement.

They use it for internal meetings but also for user testing employing a variety of approaches to change and develop the design. A particular use-case is in developing wayfinding where diverse user personas can be studied. Having human figures in the simulations was of clear benefit.

They use a variety of workflows in and out of Unity from Revit and 3DS Max, but almost always via Rhino in one way or another. Foster + Partners had used CSV exchange between Grasshopper and Unity, but it wasn’t real-time so they developed their own DPU plugin.

Solo viewing is done via Oculus, or Cardboard – where they use very light surface models since it’s via a phone. The data is stored as a 1.5GB app. fully loaded on a phone, not streamed via the web.

For multiple person experiences, they use a Solus dome, which they find stimulates client engagement. Although not immersive, the Hololens is also good as it can be experienced by more than one person, and they can be in different locations.

In all, VR enables clients to achieve faster decision making, with better spatial understanding. It allows for better communication and design feedback from users, but it hasn’t currently reduced the requirement for static renders also.

The post AR/VR for Rhino UGM – June 2018 appeared first on Rhino 3D.

Rhino 6 for Windows now includes Grasshopper as standard, all part of the same single installation.

The Grasshopper bundled with Rhino v6 has many new enhancements.

In this series of short videos Simply Rhino takes a look at these new features and components, including Make 2D, Symbol Display, Flow, Maelstrom, Splop, Sporph, Stretch, Taper, Twist and Multi-Threaded Components.

In this video we focus on Maelstrom.

The post Grasshopper in Rhino3d v6 – Maelstrom appeared first on Rhino 3D.

Rhino 6 for Windows now includes Grasshopper as standard, all part of the same single installation.

The Grasshopper bundled with Rhino v6 has many new enhancements.

In this series of short videos Simply Rhino takes a look at these new features and components, including Make 2D, Symbol Display, Flow, Maelstrom, Splop, Sporph, Stretch, Taper, Twist and Multi-Threaded Components.

In this video we focus on Symbol Display.

The post Grasshopper in Rhino3d v6 – Symbol Display appeared first on Rhino 3D.

Rhino 6 for Windows now includes Grasshopper as standard, all part of the same single installation.

The Grasshopper bundled with Rhino v6 has many new enhancements.

In this series of short videos Simply Rhino takes a look at these new features and components, including Make 2D, Symbol Display, Flow, Maelstrom, Splop, Sporph, Stretch, Taper, Twist and Multi-Threaded Components

In this video we focus on Flow.

The post Grasshopper in Rhino3d v6 – Flow appeared first on Rhino 3D.

Rhino 6 for Windows now includes Grasshopper as standard, all part of the same single installation.

The Grasshopper bundled with Rhino v6 has many new enhancements.

In this series of short videos Simply Rhino takes a look at these new features and components, including Make 2D, Symbol Display, Flow, Maelstrom, Splop, Sporph, Stretch, Taper, Twist and Multi-Threaded Components

In this video we focus on Stretch.

The post Grasshopper in Rhino3d v6 – Stretch appeared first on Rhino 3D.