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

[369]

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

[mikas]

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.

 

[cuba]

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.

[mikas]

@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.

[mikas]

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.

[Jp1138]

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.

[369]

Thank you everyone! Grasshoper it is!!