ArchiCAD & Generative Components (Grasshopper+Geometry Gym)

[Anonymous]

What does ArchiCAD have to do with GC's?

According to Geometry-Gym, quite a bit!

Geometry Gym develop an IFC plugin for Grasshopper,
while Grasshopper have developed the most mind boggling
generative components synthesizer for Rhino(cerous).

Being a BIM architect in this day and age and NOT knowing
of these tools means you have gone missing.
Wake Up!

My final comment is: Who will develop such tools for GDL?

Gil

Links:
http://www.grasshopper3d.com/
http://geometrygym.blogspot.com/
http://ssi.wikidot.com/start

[Anonymous]

Great work..
Could you show the wireframe of that model in archicad? I would like to see how it handles it in polygon level.

[Anonymous]

@whiteman I think that archicad is no good handle a lot of polygons. In the picture above i need to reduce the numbers of polygons because the redraw was very slowly in sections... In other tread I ask if there is any improvement about this but not lucky.

(this sample wasn't made whit grasshopper)

[Bricklyne Clarence]

Geometry wrote:
Hi All,

Interesting comments and debate, good to see.

I'm the developer of the Geometry Gym plugins, and the software is licensed "software as a service". This includes support and advise (and new features) to ensure the model exchange meets the requirements that you have (between Rhino, Grasshopper and ArchiCAD via IFC).

Whiteman, the main reason you would choose IFC over a neutral geometric format (such as dxf or iges) is to apply attributes such as material, purpose (roof, beam, slab, stair, window etc), assign to a building, building level etc. All those attributes can be assigned within Grasshopper using my plugin.

I don't get to promote to many of the commercial uses of my plugins, but as I'm involved in this one it's a little easier. This render presents a new canopy at Ballito Lifestyle Mall (in South Africa). It was rendered in Archicad at Evolution (www.evolutionarchitectscc.com/ )



The Steel grid and glass panels were developed and arranged in Grasshopper, the geometric model was exported to Archicad using IFC for geometric checks and detail development, and the structural analysis model sent to structural engineer (www.nessconsulting.co.za/) using the Oasys GSA plugin.

If anyone has any questions or wants to learn more, please post here or contact me directly.

Cheers,

Jon

Wow.

That geometry must have been painful with a capital "P" to handle inside ArchiCAD.

We all know how ArchiCAD begins to choke up on high polygon count objects, so I Can imagine it would have been any fun importing, handling and trying to document a structure like that inside ArchiCAD.

I would just build and document it from within Rhino and then merge the 2D representations as linework into ArchiCAD on a separate layer.

Supposedly ArchiCAD's ability to handle high polycount objects has been improved in AC15 in light of the new modeling tools and capability, but I still habour a lot of doubts as to just how far this "improved" ability extends.

[Anonymous]

I'm not sure the polygon count is that high? Every piece of glass is planar, and steel member straight. Our steel grid member count is around 1600.

I'm not an Archicad expert, so unfortunately I can't advise much on render settings and importing and model performance (but I have advised the person at Evolution about this forum so he might respond). I do know for some reason, they did use ACv13 to import and save up a version, ACv14 would not open the ifc files (it may be I need to adjust the data slightly).

I have posted some benchmarking ifc files if anyone wishes to try importing themselves, including the Grasshopper definition that assigns the IFC attributes for a similar project, the British Museum Great Court Roof. This includes partial models (with lower element counts). This doesn't include glass and orientations are not normal to roof surface, the mesh relaxation technique is studied in an earlier post on my blog.
http://ssi.wikidot.com/local--files/2011-blog-posts/110519%20Great%20Court%20Roof%20ifc%20models%20and%20grasshopper.zip



If you wish to test the Grasshopper plugin, installation instructions are here
http://www.grasshopper3d.com/group/geometrygym/forum/topics/installing-geometry-gym

We did study and test a few variations for exchanging the fabrication model for the roof grid (including orientation, length and possibly end miters) but in end elected for a custom means of exporting this.

[Anonymous]

I am very interested in this topic..
Unfortunately, I don't know much about AC native programing language, or GDL.. But, I've worked in grasshopper for some time now, and I love it.
What I was wondering, if it could be possible to save somehow a GDL object from grasshopper? So we could somehow define paremeters that could be transformed into gdl object?
Maybe this is no possible, again, I know very little about gdl and programing

[Anonymous]

GDL generation from Grasshopper looks plausible (from the quick glance I've just taken of it), in a similar manner to the way I've enabled IFC generation.

It would need sufficient interest to make it a "priority" development, so either post here or let me know directly. If there is a useful example that could be used as a pilot, that would also help.

Cheers,

Jon

[Anonymous]

Hello ! This is a very interesting topic. I have tried in the past to import into AC 14 an organic shape made in Revit but it only recognized the standard vertical and horizontal geometry. How did you import this organic mesh? Is it seen in AC as a network of beams?

[Anonymous]

Hi Coty82,

You can test the import for yourself (I don't have access to archicad myself) from the ifc files included in this zip file:
http://ssi.wikidot.com/local--files/2011-blog-posts/110519%20Great%20Court%20Roof%20ifc%20models%20a...

Note that the architect was using AC v13 to import (we never got to the bottom of why v14 couldn't read it), I haven't had any reports about success or not in v15.

Revit can be particular about whether items are "beams" or "columns" so it's possible that might be related to your issue about non vertical or horizontal elements.

I'm happy to advise further.

Cheers, Jon

[Anonymous]

I `v been able to open it in AC 14 but it seems that some of the beams are not visible. When i check their settings, and choose undo roof trim, they do appear (the green ones wich are selected)
I quess there must be a problem in AC 14. .
Also, would it be able to open circular beams? Because as you mentioned, i see that all beams are straight

[Anonymous]

Hi,

Interesting that as you first mentioned, it only seems to show horizontal members. If anyone can comment on this, I'll gladly produce variations of this model that might lead to all members being generated.

IFC can convey non linear members, to be IFC certified for coordination it is not mandatory to acknowledge many of the useful shape representations available. Typical software venders would "mesh" a non linear element into a faceted brep.

If you want to try, I posted some shape representation folders (including revolved profile) to test at this blog entry:
http://geometrygym.blogspot.com/2010/12/ifc-shape-representations.html

Cheers, Jon