topic Re: Questions from a beginner (Grasshopper Connection) in Parametric design

Questions from a beginner (Grasshopper Connection)

JGoode — Thu, 11 May 2023 09:09:03 GMT

Hello,

I have just started looking into Grasshopper/Rhino/ArchiCAD and I have a few questions about the functionality of it.

1. is it possible to get/send data to and from Project info or Layout info in ArchiCAD using Grasshopper?
2. Is it possible to identity SEO in an ArchiCAD model in Rhino.
3. Can you manipulate layout information?

If you are able to shed some light on any of my questions then it would be much appreciated.

Thanks!

Re: Questions from a beginner.

Anonymous — Sun, 24 Jun 2018 14:28:22 GMT

Hi,

Unfortunately to all your question answer is No.

Layouts - unfortunately, no access to Layouts/Drawings/ViewMaps yet. Either send or receive. Hopefully, it will be available one day.

Project Infor - Also no. However, PI file is quite simple XML so you can parse data from/to grasshopper if you need to. Personally, I don't see much advantage of tweaking PI data in Grasshopper.

SEO is not available as well. I suppose you want to manage SEO in Grass? This might be interesting. From Grass to AC you can use SHAPES instead of native AC elements for cut objects.

If you describe what are you trying to accomplish in more detail we can think of some workarounds

Re: Questions from a beginner (Grasshopper Connection)

JGoode — Mon, 25 Jun 2018 09:59:05 GMT

Thank you for the reply!
Very useful to know so I don't waste my time on it.
One more question, are you able to read / input data into specific elements? e.g. walls, doors, windows?

Thanks

Re: Questions from a beginner (Grasshopper Connection)

JGoode — Mon, 25 Jun 2018 10:05:25 GMT

Just one more question... Can you force a door to rename the ID based on other criteria? (Such as Zone or Storey)

Re: Questions from a beginner (Grasshopper Connection)

Anonymous — Mon, 25 Jun 2018 15:08:54 GMT

Yes and No. It's more complex question.

Since 2.0 you can manipulate GLD objects very efficiently.
Input is quite simple - you have a component for it. In the manual, you will find instruction on how to modify GDL to be able to select and manipulate parameters it works for doors and windows as well. Without it you can only place element.
Reading data is quite ok. But surprisingly some basic stuff is missing such as w/h and IFC props.

For second question specifics are welcome. Changing ID is possible. However, changing with according to Story is simpler since you can read Story relations of the element. Actually, this kind of stuff can be done inside AC no Grasshopper needed.

Zones are a bit more tricky. There is a native relationship based on Zone Number (no clue why not ID) so you read both Zones that doors are connected to. This can be done in AC as well but limited to Zone number which is not so practical.
Therefore I started to experiment with grasshopper but I haven't found any better solution than playing with ClosestPoint and sorting list to check relation. If you have it, rest is quite easy going. You read zone ID and put it to door ID.

Be aware of the performance of the Connection. Complex geometry and too many elements can crash Rh and AC. So it's better to create small scripts doing specific tasks.

Re: Questions from a beginner (Grasshopper Connection)

JGoode — Fri, 29 Jun 2018 14:16:11 GMT

I have an example of something that we might want to accomplish.
Say I have a walls that a variety of lengths. Could I set something up to input a specific property if a wall is under say 3m and input a different property if the wall is over 3m? This is as simple of an example as I could think of

Thanks

Re: Questions from a beginner (Grasshopper Connection)

leceta — Sat, 30 Jun 2018 09:37:11 GMT

This can be achieved using conditional logic.
Note: Seems that still is not possible to control de reference line when creating a wall from GH.

Re: Questions from a beginner (Grasshopper Connection)

JGoode — Mon, 02 Jul 2018 09:24:54 GMT

What is the function that connects height, first number and data 0?

Re: Questions from a beginner (Grasshopper Connection)

JGoode — Mon, 02 Jul 2018 09:41:42 GMT

Is it possible to create an 'if' statement within grasshopper? If {this} then do {that}?

Re: Questions from a beginner (Grasshopper Connection)

Anonymous — Mon, 02 Jul 2018 16:14:24 GMT

Yes, there are ways of making such statements. Actually good example leceta shows one way how to do it. (If elements is larger then… else..)

leceta:
Have you tried this script on a large amount of walls?
I don't understand your note about control of reference line. What did you mean?

Actually i hope that this kind of stuff will be possible in AC22 with Expressions for properties.

Re: Questions from a beginner (Grasshopper Connection)

leceta — Mon, 02 Jul 2018 17:41:29 GMT

I don't understand your note about control of reference line. What did you mean?

kzaremba, i meant that i couldn't (figure out) how to control from grasshopper the reference line location of the wall from Grasshopper. Is always using the input curve as the wall center line. Even changing the default settings for walls. see Figure 01

Have you tried this script on a large amount of walls?

I have tried now with 1000 walls, and it takes aprox. 700 ms the total process. 90% of the time spent by "wall parameter" component see Figure 02

On the other hand, my script was made only with the intention of to demonstrate how to use a simple conditional logic. Now I render that is quite absurd to take an existing wall, modify some of its properties, and then regenerate it to ArchiCAD, because at ArchiCAD side I finish with two (almost) identical wall which, in general, is quite a silly workflow. It would make much more sense to override properties of the existing wall. I guess that JGoode has also noticed this ; )
https://discourse.mcneel.com/t/input-properties-back-into-archicad-wall/66167
https://archicad-talk.graphisoft.com/viewtopic.php?f=43&t=61535
afaik, this is not possible. Seems that the bidirectional workflow proposed by the developers doesn't contemplate this possibility. They maybe have good reasons for this (a door for infinite loops?)

As kzaremba has pointed, the new AC22 Expressions seems a smart way to conditionally assign properties.

Re: Questions from a beginner (Grasshopper Connection)

Anonymous — Tue, 03 Jul 2018 13:02:31 GMT

Oh.. To be honest I didn't notice that. Wierd sometimes obvious stuff is not implemented (like door heigth/width extract). Hope it will be in future. Thankfully you can always adjust curve in GH if you need to change walls.

1000.. not bad. I'm usually struggling with AC_Connection stability when I'm trying to scale up scripts.

You can always delete previous walls . But seriously Lecta that's good point you don't need to use GH conn for such simple operation where you don't create or decompose any geometry. It actually seems a bit like fire to piegon for a big cannon

If you are trying to modify only properties it will be better to export proper schedule to exel. Modify there and import it back to model. So you don't have to wait for AC22 distribution (also it might look better on youtube that it really works).
Generally, I would use AC_Conncetion only if you want to use/create geometrical data which might refer to properties or other stuff which aren't possible to import from exel to AC.