topic Re: Creating an Organic Perforated Facade in PARAM-O — Is It Possible? in Modeling

Creating an Organic Perforated Facade in PARAM-O — Is It Possible?

369 — Thu, 13 Nov 2025 17:14:09 GMT

Hi!

Would it be possible to create walls in similar shape as the image bellow in PARAM-O in Archicad?

I have no experience with Grasshopper (Rhino) or PARAM-O, so I’ll need to learn one of them anyway.
What would you recommend, and how complicated would this be to achieve?

I feel it might be easier to do it with Param-o, but don´t want to start with the wrong tool from the beginning!

Any other Archicad plugins or software suggestions are also welcome!

Operating system used: Windows

Betreff: Creating an Organic Perforated Facade in PARAM-O — Is It Possible?

Nurbs — Thu, 13 Nov 2025 19:22:14 GMT

No doubt about it, definitely Grasshopper/Rhino.

Re: Creating an Organic Perforated Facade in PARAM-O — Is It Possible?

Aaron Bourgoin — Thu, 13 Nov 2025 21:59:39 GMT

or try the curtainwall tool. that would way easier to edit.

Re: Creating an Organic Perforated Facade in PARAM-O — Is It Possible?

cuba — Fri, 14 Nov 2025 08:04:20 GMT

This is kind of random shapes are not possible in param-o at but very easy in grasshopper.

Re: Creating an Organic Perforated Facade in PARAM-O — Is It Possible?

CosminF — Fri, 14 Nov 2025 08:41:53 GMT

Hi,

I want to chime in with a free alternative: Blender.

You can easily model a shape and edit it with geometry nodes (this 12' tutorial is all you need).

Afterwards you can apply everything to the mesh so it becomes an object and you can export it as a collada file, which you can import into Archicad.
Unfortunately, the export will be one element and it will be "frozen" but if you just want to conceptually test out ideas you can easily look into that as well.

Re: Creating an Organic Perforated Facade in PARAM-O — Is It Possible?

369 — Fri, 14 Nov 2025 09:21:50 GMT

I was thinking of just doing it directly in Archicad, even if it won’t be fully parametric. Learning Rhino and Grasshopper just for this one project feels a bit overwhelming — but I’ll give it a try!

Re: Creating an Organic Perforated Facade in PARAM-O — Is It Possible?

mikas — Sat, 15 Nov 2025 00:00:38 GMT

Definitely ArchiCAD Grasshopper connection, but if not, it could be achieved pretty easily with complex profiles. It would not be that easily changed or evolved, it takes a lot of work, but achievable with basic tools in AC.

I did not bother to line up the edges of the pattern to make the pattern run seamlessly from side to side. That would be needed to make a repeatable pattern out of it.

edit. tweaked a little bit, made complex profile mask layer to covet some holes like in your picture. Cloned a few horizontally, and rendered.

Re: Creating an Organic Perforated Facade in PARAM-O — Is It Possible?

mikas — Sat, 15 Nov 2025 00:01:25 GMT

As for the original headline or subject line, you could now make a Param-O workflow/object and extrude your made complex profile according to Param-O programming. Rotate, move, or whatever is necessary for your design.

I tried to scratch the surface on this workflow, but unfortunately 3D representation broke on me in the Param-O 3D window. Maybe it's just the presentation but nothing more serious. Need to try to go a little further sometime later.

edit. I don't mean that repetition seen there is an error in 3D, it's not. It's the see through of the profile that is an error in 3D view. I did a multiplication seen in nodes, of 15 degrees (0, 30, 45, 60). That worked as it should of course.

Re: Creating an Organic Perforated Facade in PARAM-O — Is It Possible?

Jp1138 — Fri, 14 Nov 2025 15:56:51 GMT

I wouldn´t invest too much in Paramo, as it sadly completely dead. Better spend your time learning grasshopper or blender 😓

Re: Creating an Organic Perforated Facade in PARAM-O — Is It Possible?

mikas — Fri, 14 Nov 2025 16:14:03 GMT

@Jp1138 I sadly have to agree. Introduced in AC24 5 years ago, I'm not sure there's been any updates/upgrades to it.

It's pretty hard to tackle the grasshopper plug-in, which too is a Graphisoft programming, and to me a much more usefull piece of software.

But it's there (Param-O), and maybe more approachable to some users than AC-GH link is. I'm on the AC-GH link right now. Have some lazier times at work right now, and some time to experiment.

Re: Creating an Organic Perforated Facade in PARAM-O — Is It Possible?

mikas — Sat, 15 Nov 2025 00:11:25 GMT

I feel I'm hijacking the thread, sorry.

You could add some variations to your "parametric" looking design without actually being parametric, with adding SEO (boolean operations in some languages) to it. Cut it with curved solids; a wall, a beam or anything of an organic shape to it.

btw: chears to @Carstenem , haven't seen him a while.

Re: Creating an Organic Perforated Facade in PARAM-O — Is It Possible?

cuba — Sun, 16 Nov 2025 07:00:52 GMT

I completely disagree with this. Grasshopper and Param-O are two different applications that you use for different purposes. I mainly use Param-O to create objects or sub-assemblies in Archicad; these are native Archicad objects that you can easily adjust and fine-tune in place. Combined with GDL, it becomes a very powerful tool.

Grasshopper, on the other hand, is better suited for larger or more organic objects. The downside is that the elements inside Archicad remain static, so you always need Grasshopper to make further adjustments. Creating these organic shapes isn’t possible in Param-O, as it lacks Voronoi filters for these types of structures.

It’s true that Param-O hasn’t been further developed—perhaps because of criticisms like these, or simply because it has a relatively small user base. Still, I don’t think Param-O should become a copy of Grasshopper.

Re: Creating an Organic Perforated Facade in PARAM-O — Is It Possible?

mikas — Sun, 16 Nov 2025 09:48:14 GMT

@cuba Really good point. The purpose is different indeed, and as in this case the AC-GH would be more appropriate, but not necessarily in some other cases, as in native object creations.

I tried to tackle this with Param-O, but got discouraged as I couldn't solve the breaking of my complex profile. It was broken as a saved object too unfortunately. I looked at the generated GDL, but I'm nor that proficient with it that I could see why it broke. I should probably send a bug report.

I read on the forum that the developer of Param-O has left the company, allready in early stages I think. Maybe they haven't found another one wanting to take over the project. Maybe it's not that trivial to jump in there. I don't know.

Re: Creating an Organic Perforated Facade in PARAM-O — Is It Possible?

mikas — Sun, 16 Nov 2025 13:20:35 GMT

Ok, found out what causes 3D to brake. It doesn't survive the holes in the profile. Not a one hole actually. If I cut the profile fill in to pieces without holes in them, the 3D works ok in Param-O too. Some extra work, but good to know there is a fix to it - no holes in profiles.

Now I have my first, pretty rude but working, Param-O object. I can choose the profile and material, and can have matrix of 4x2 out of it. I should work on some variable inputs for bigger matrixes. Maybe later.

So I guess you can use Param-O for pseudo-voronoi style wall if that suites your needs.

Re: Creating an Organic Perforated Facade in PARAM-O — Is It Possible?

Jp1138 — Mon, 17 Nov 2025 13:11:58 GMT

I would like to us Param-O as you say - it´s an ideal solution as you get native objects. When it was launched it looked great, but then its development stopped there and that was it. All the critism I read around here is about not developing it further, as many other tools in Archicad, not about the tool itself.

In this particular case it seemed better suited for grasshopper than fighting Param-O limitations, but I may be wrong, of course.

Re: Creating an Organic Perforated Facade in PARAM-O — Is It Possible?

369 — Tue, 18 Nov 2025 09:28:18 GMT

Thank you everyone! Grasshoper it is!!

Re: Creating an Organic Perforated Facade in PARAM-O — Is It Possible?

Steve Jepson — Sun, 14 Dec 2025 19:19:45 GMT

I don't see anything is those pictures you can't model with ArchiCAD easy enough.

https://www.wernersobek.com/projects/trumpf-canteen/

Excellent project for using ArchiCAD. Below are some of the laser-welded steel profiles that were used in making that building.

Re: Creating an Organic Perforated Facade in PARAM-O — Is It Possible?

cuba — Sun, 14 Dec 2025 09:04:15 GMT

Modelling yes, making it fully parametric with param-o no.

Making it parametric can generate many options and change the scale without having to redraw it each time.