buildz

Gilded Umbrellas

noreply@blogger.com (Zach Kron) — Sun, 16 Aug 2020 13:33:00 +0000

I started using metallic markers in my plotter drawings. When I was doing some stuff with heavily patterned backgrounds, it started reminding me of Gustav Klimpt paintings . . .

Which then reminded me that some of that work was inspired by Russian icon paintings.

I like the idea of an umbrella as a modern halo

Nesting

noreply@blogger.com (Zach Kron) — Sun, 02 Aug 2020 15:13:00 +0000

I'm building nests (well, scripting/plotting them, of course). Maybe it's a side effect of spending so much time at home. My mother draws nests, has done for longer than I've been around.

I think it started off a couple years ago where I was trying to catch some of the gesture and irregularity of hand drawing a circle. Here, my surgeon-like precision is shown . . . (perhaps I need to lay off the coffee?)

And then the Dynamo sketch to try and get that same jitteryness.

I revisisted the idea a couple months ago trying to do a series

Which, when you get a bunch all together, they just kind of resolved into . . . circlezzzzzzzzzzzzzz.

What is it about nests that are interesting? They're just accumulations of linear elements. (Here's a Dynamo to Inkscape, just playing with line color and width)

But "real" nests have volume and irregularity (Here's a plot which some errors introduced with removing some tape that I thought was less sticky

Nests are also assemblages, little found object sculptures woven out of bits and pieces of things

Have I started using sparkly and shiny pens in my plotter? Why, yes, I have.

Dynamo Graphs: Circles and Nests

tap-tap . . . is this thing still on?

noreply@blogger.com (Zach Kron) — Thu, 19 Sep 2019 13:03:00 +0000

Karma

noreply@blogger.com (Zach Kron) — Wed, 12 Aug 2015 23:36:00 +0000

The Boy and I just sat down to a new project, we're going build a quadcopter, because they're awesome. We thought: let's give ourselves a break, not bite off more than we can chew. Nothing so easy as out-of-the-box stuff, something a little DIY, but we'll steer clear of anything with soldering your own boards or trying to source our own pieces.

So we get a kit, choosing among RTF (Ready to FLY), BNF( Bind aNd Fly, essentially just pairing with a controller is needed) and ARF (Almost Ready to Fly). We choose an ARF setup that has all the pieces you need to get going. The kit says very clearly on the site that it doesn't have EVERYTHING, you need to buy a remote, and a couple other pieces of additional gear for things like First Person Video. Excellent, we get the essentials.

The Box shows up a couple weeks later and it's everything the website said, lots of shiny pieces and wires and . . . no instructions. Hmm, I guess it didn't SAY it had instructions, but I kind of assumed . . .

The interwebs, will of course help, right? Yes and no. As with many things, it's amazing how much help there is out there that assumes you already know what the hell you are doing. We quickly discovered we did not. For instance, yes, the ARF has a battery. Buuuuuut, no charger. "What?" says the interwebs, "you don't ALREADY have your own OEM Balance Charger for LiPo, 1s-6s Li-ion,1~15cell NiMH Akku 50W Balancer?" Ummm, no? The OEM Balance Charger for LiPo, 1s-6s Li-ion,1~15cell NiMH Akku 50W Balancer itself has no instructions . . . and also assumes that you already have a 12v DC output AC power adapter. At this point I'm realizing I might have entered into some kind of fractal DIY experience.

It continues . . . apparently the number of things I don't know about building remote controlled electronics would make your head spin. For instance, plugging the battery into the flight controller where the board is labeled "battery" with a matching coupling will not make the on-board display light up, rather it will make it smoke. I suspected that the board was defective from the get-go with a couple diagnostics I did . . . but the sizzling sure didn't help.

Why is this Karma? Folks who have opened up the perhaps minimally documented Dynamo Studio or Dynamo For Revit tools I'm responsible for will have already been giggling at my pain. It doesn't take too much torturing of the metaphor to see both tools and copter as shiny boxes of wires. It's all there, the potential for awesome just spread out before you. But where to start?

To be fair, Dynamo has a Primer, 10 hours of learning materials, and sample content, but it does leaves me wondering . . . what is Dynamo? RTF, BNF, ARF, or a store with all the parts you need? Feature based intuitive tool or programming IDE?

What should it be?

Rhino to Revit with Rhynamo and Dynamo

noreply@blogger.com (Zach Kron) — Tue, 23 Dec 2014 15:02:00 +0000

Passing Rhino data to Revit can be a challenge. I hear lots of stories from folks who have started a project in Rhino and need to migrate the design into a Revit for a more developed building description, and find a number of problems including, but not limited to: clunky giant SAT imports, cumbersome model rebuild, difficulty with late changes, etc. There is a four part series that the most excellent Joe Kendsersky wrote here a few years ago that has been pretty effective for engaging in that process. Today I want to show a more evolved way of passing information from the .3dm file format to .rvt using a great Dynamo package called Rhynamo, developed by Nate Miller and the folks at Case.

Files available here.

Random Numbers to Family Parameters

noreply@blogger.com (Zach Kron) — Sun, 14 Dec 2014 12:56:00 +0000

There are simple ways of looking at random numbers, and then there are awesome ways at looking at random numbers. We shall explore both (and write them to family parameters in Revit).

Download sample files here.

Get Mass Floor Data

noreply@blogger.com (Zach Kron) — Wed, 10 Dec 2014 14:40:00 +0000

Revit Massing studies + Dynamo = Love.

There is an interesting quirk in extracting data from Revit Mass Floors with Dynamo (probably any Revit API tool). Levels that are assigned to masses that don't hit the floor come up as blank data (not zero, not null), so there is a little cleaning up you need to do.

Datasets can be downloaded from here.

Happy Halloween VI

noreply@blogger.com (Zach Kron) — Sat, 01 Nov 2014 04:56:00 +0000

It’s time to announce the winners for the 6th Annual Parametric Pumpkin Carving Contest. Usually, we have the Baddest, the Goodest, and the Mostest Parametric. There may be a need to make some adjustments this year . . . I think Andy Milburn broke the system. Imagine that instead of a Parametric Pumpkin Carving we were having a Biggest Pumpkin competition, and we had a nice little scale to weigh each pumpkin. Imagine someone showed up with a 5000 lbs pumpkin and dropped it on the scale . . . all the spring go shooting out in all directions as the device crumbles to dust.

But I'm getting ahead of myself.

The Baddest

by Neil86

“Bad” in this case is regarded as high praise for an uncanny scariness, a serious and terrifying aspect.

This year's winner for Baddest comes in with Neil86's punk rock classic. It ain't slick, it ain't pretty, but it sure looks mean and I wouldn't want it in my room after the lights went out. Like the Ramones or Dead Boys, this nasty little beast is the equivalent of 3 chord manifestos like Sonic Reducer. The 3d print pushes the medium into elegantly broken and drippy spasms that at once seem on the point of collapse, while expertly evoking pumpkin slime.

Well done Neil86. Please don't hurt me.

The Goodest

by Scott Crichton, Architectus, Brisbane Australia
The pumpkin that gets to the wholesome essence of both Jack O' Lanterns and the design platform on which it was built. Free of workarounds and hacks, this winner is a model of both creativity and good citizenship.

Scott must have fried his poor hard drive, with this magnificent collection of 22752 Lego block Revit Families.

Wait . . . whut?

Ya, 4212 Big blocks and 18540 Actual size. In his own words:
"The concept was rather simple, create a Lego family that can be applied to Mass forms to give the effect that it is made out of Lego. From this simple concept began a very long journey of experimentation and refinement.

First things first, getting the Lego block modelled properly….. so the family now has some formulas that control the buttons on the top and the circular modelling underneath all controlled by the length of the block. I made the Lego size correspond with a typical concrete block module size (standard in Australia), 200mm wide 200mm high and 400mm long (with the length being flexible). An added little bonus is that if we want an actual real life Lego block size I put in a scale factor parameter that would scale everything down to an actual Lego block size, 16mm wide 9.6mm high and 24mm long. The last step was probably a bit of overkill but I wanted to push the family. (I thought I would even put the word Lego on the top of the buttons but that would be going too far......it was already going to take ages to populate the mass!!!)

The next step was the colours......this I found to be much more of a challenge....I have a randomiser add-in so I though great, use that.....but it only works in a project file and it will not work on the individual blocks in the Curtain panel....We also use BIMLink, I created some individual materials for the Lego colours and then I created a schedule, exported it out and using excel to randomise the materials imported it back in to my model.....same result, you can't individually control the materials of a curtain pattern family. I then had a look at creating a filter to change the colours of the Lego blocks based on their length, this worked great but I thought it was sort of the easy way out and it created bands of colours in my model, not really the random result I was after. So back to the drawing board....then I decided that I needed to look at using a different family type. So I hosted the Lego block into a 2 point adaptive family and then loaded it into the mass on the nodes of the divided surface. Then using the repeat tool, I created my logo blocks. Worked great (almost), unfortunately I had the same problem with randomising the colours as I did before. This is when I thought about a reactive component. So placing a control point in the adaptive family I created a sin wave formula and used family types to create the randomness. This was the answer and when it was loaded into the mass family with a control point I got my random blocks, plus you can change the randomness by moving the control point. Hooray!!!

Creating the pumpkin form was relatively easy in comparison, creating a profile from a couple of reference circles and hosted points (using the measurement type and specifying an angle), some splines for the segments, overall radius parameter controls it all. This then gets loaded into my pumpkin mass hosted to a few reference planes and then created the form and dragged the top reference plane down to create the shape. Same process for the little stalk at the top. Parametric Pumpkin Done!

The pumpkin was ready to be Lego'ed......

The surfaces were divided up and nodes activated, the U and V grids were adjusted to allow the blocks to stack nicely for the heights, and an ok length for the grids set. Then I started placing the Lego into the individual segments. Each segment took Revit about 15 minutes to repeat the component pattern, a bit of a side effect from having such a detailed Lego family. To add a little bit of a bonus I created the stalk of the pumpkin using my actual real life Lego blocks, 9.6mm high!!! In total there are a total of 22752 Lego blocks in the pumpkin (4212 Big blocks and 18540 Actual size), probably a good reason why it took hours to transform it into Lego. The mass family file size is now over 100Mb!!!"

We would offer the file for download . . . but it's 100mb!
Check out the rest of Scott's stuff on his blog: http://www.whilesyncing.blogspot.com.au/

Mostest Parametric

by Andy Milburn

The pumpkin that is shaped by rules and variables, that is definite yet infinitely flexible. It not only defines a particular look and feel, but conveys the possibility of endless variation.

It's difficult for me to talk about Andy's latest work. If you've seen the movie Groundhogs Day, think of the final speech made by Bill Murray, where he takes the occasion of a throw-away event (the announcement of Punxsutawney Phil's prediction of how many more days of Winter there will be), and uses it as the poetic vehicle to encapsulate the depth of experience of an immortal life. This is Andy's pumpkin.

If you have not seen Groundhogs Day, just know that Andy Milburn's work is moving and absurd and virtuoso and inspirational and goofy. For those that already know him, you have probably been following his activities on his blog Grevity, where he has been building and exploring desert ecosystems, human settlement patterns, trends in the evolution in world art, proportion, monumentality . . . and more.

Then a couple days ago I look in the mail and I see Andy's full submission . . . a thesis really. A 90+ page competition entry on "The Desert Pumpkin. The ongoing effort to improve the way that information is used in the construction industry. Digital tools to enable effective decision making". Beginning with precedent studies of the monumental architectural proposals of Ledou, and Boulee, Andy searches for connections between the intimacy of ancient domesticity that emerged out of the Fertile Crescent and the overwhelming vastness of the desert landscape. Along the way he finds a formal language to connect the small and tangible with the limitless.

So what does all this have to do with parametric design and BIM?

"BIM is habitually referred to as a technology, a documentation tool, a means for increasing productivity and revenue flow. What then of art ? Why do I insist on probing the intersection between BIM and the artist inside each of us ?

In the late nineteenth century as the classic phase of the industrial revolution reached its peak, the world of fine art was thrown into turmoil. Photography had undermined many of the artist’s traditional areas of expertise and authority. The impressionists looked beyond photo-realism to explore fleeting effects of light and mood. Some sought to capture emotions directly, others to simplify and abstract in search of pure form.
Cubism was a short-live movement based on the concept of capturing multiple viewpoints in a single image. We do not experience the world from a static position.
Our memories are not discreet entities, but blurred and subtle composites.
Art is many things: a search for truth; an exploration of beauty, horror, simplicity, ennui; an expression of status; a challenge to authority.
Architecture is more than just a business. Our lives are more than a series of workflows. We crave meaning and purpose. Enter the artist within our soul.
It is not yet clear what “BIM art” would be. Photography was not considered art when first developed. It took time to learn how this new medium could be used to explore meaning, to balance form and content as all art forms must. As an engraver I could be a technician, just doing my job, efficient but sterile. Or I could seek to combine skill and meaning into a seamless whole. I could use my mastery of technique to express ideas, try to capture the essence of engraving and convey emotions. An artist like Escher was able to weld form and content in the most magnificent manner.
The inscription on a Ledoux drawing reads “Le Doux, Architecte du Roi” and “Grave par Van Maelle” Here we have a partnership between Architect and Engraver. The combination of technique and vision may not be as seamless as an Escher, but it is evocative none the less. In some ways the mechanical methods of the professional print-maker are better suited to the utopian messages purveyed by Boullee and Ledoux."

We at Buildz can only stand back and gape at what Andy has given us. Please please please download his competition entry and read it. And don't forget to visit his blog at http://grevity.blogspot.com/

Thanks to everyone who submitted entries. As always, we at Buildz are humbled by the efforts of our readers. All our finalists will receive a choice piece of Buildz schwag, and our heartfelt thanks for participating.

-Buildz

Time is running out!

noreply@blogger.com (Zach Kron) — Sun, 26 Oct 2014 20:36:00 +0000

From Vintage Ephemera

Pumpkin deadline is looming, Oct 28 is nigh!

We've had a pretty good track record over the 1/2 decade of pumpkins . . . the form never fails to yield up new variations on the theme.

Getting a little nostagic and looking back at Year One, with finalists using Revit, Rhino/Grasshopper, and Inventor, submitted by the Greats: David Light, William Lopez Campo, and Rob Cohee.

Interesting that, while at the time only Rob was working for Autodesk, now William and David are too . . .

Check out the whole catalog, look for MEP, video games, early Dynamo prototypes, and other inventive oddities.

Galactic Pumpkraft

noreply@blogger.com (Zach Kron) — Mon, 13 Oct 2014 11:32:00 +0000

3 best things I saw this weekend:

Marvel Comics Dazzler issue #11, featuring this image of Galactus, godlike cosmic traveler, devourer of planets:

Loungin' like a boss in his fine post modern laz-e-boy. A lesson to all you would be world dominators to occasionally kick back and take it easy.

11 year old Green-Octopus-Spider-man's Minecraft stuff made real via jMc2Obj to Meshmixer to Repetier to Printrbot.
Revit Structural Framing and Floor pumpkin sketches via Dynamo (git yer red-hot pumpkin maker component on the Package Manager now)

15 days to Pumpkin! What better way to celebrate Invasion Day than with digital pumpkin carving?

6th Annual Parametric Pumpkin Carving

noreply@blogger.com (Zach Kron) — Sat, 04 Oct 2014 19:24:00 +0000

(Four months later . . .)
Sometimes the bottom falls out . . . the buildz-mobile catches a flat, the water heater explodes, some joker hides a bunch of fresh bananas in your cape just before you unleash the flying monkeys on disloyal minions . . . what have you.

Well, that isn't what happened. We at Buildz International Inc, LLC, have just been real damn busy. And neglectful. Sorry about that, and thank you for your concerned letters. (BTW, "riddance" has 2 d's, you illiterate cretin). We pledge to do better starting today.

And so, to kickstart the old beast back into production, we happily announce the 6th Annual Parametric Pumpkin Carving! Lubricate your fuse deposition modelers, fuse your model lubricants, and start making hierarchically engraved vegetables!

Prizes, as always, will be awarded for The Goodest, The Baddest, and The Mostest Parametric.

Remember that we at Buildz Open Sores Software and Vegetable Perforations LLP are platform agnostic. Submit entries from whatever tools you are comfortable with: Flood, Lego, LittleBits, abacus, Abaqus, all are welcome. Our factory judges are not judgy (well, we are, but we do it behind your back).

Along with receiving bragging rights, the winners will have their work showcased on these pages to the tens of readers of Buildz, and receive a valuable piece of Buildz schwag. Entries must be received by 12 noon EST Oct 28. Winners will be announced at midnight on Halloween.

So pour yourself a Dynamo (actually, don't), boot up your AKAT 1, and make a web-gl viewable, json based, gluten-free, smart-watch compatible Jack O'Lantern. Post entries to zachkron@gmail.com, at least a screenshot, but feel free to send models, journals, parameters, videos, scripts, whatever, modeled in whatever you like. If you have some huge-ass file, please send a link or let us know and we can work out some kind of upload.

A parting allegory/quiz:
A freshly poured cold beer is put on the counter just before the phone rings. When the pourer comes back and it's warm, (BTW, this is known as Alchohol Neglect) the pourer must decide whether to drink this flat, warm beer or pour it out and start a new one.
What is the proper course of action?

I love me a Parametric Bridge

noreply@blogger.com (Zach Kron) — Fri, 06 Jun 2014 17:37:00 +0000

I have a crap-ton of other stuff to do, and it's sunny outside, but I know that you, dear reader, really really need a slightly impractical bridge to get you into the weekend. So here is my triumphant (and somewhat muttering) return to screencasting: setting out geometry for a fancy pedestrian bridge, from scratch, in Dynamo.

Download the .dyn file from here.

I will follow this up with clothing this in Revit structural framing, and flexing.

Dynamo 0.6.3 Release and 0.7.0 Alpha

noreply@blogger.com (Zach Kron) — Fri, 04 Apr 2014 19:38:00 +0000

New Stuff! New Website! New Awesome!

It's been a while since the Dynamo team did a new official release, and there are plenty of new toys for everyone to use. The first bag of tricks is Dynamo 0.6.3, an incremental improvement to the 0.6.2 tools you know and love. There are, of course, a number of stability improvements, new nodes, access to more Revit functionalities and a richer computation environment. There's also a fresh, cutting edge release, 0.7.0, which takes a giant step into the future of Dynamo. This alpha release represents a significant refactor of the underlying code, a vast expansion of the geometric capabilities of Dynamo, and a rich new set of tools for scripting. 0.6 and 0.7 can each be installed side by side, so feel free to continue to use 0.6.3 in your more production oriented work, and install 0.7 to understand where Dynamo is headed. Both releases also feature a stand alone application, allowing you to experience Dynamo without running Vasari or Revit. 0.6.3 Stand-alone has access to all the logic, list, and general computing aspects of Dynamo, and 0.7.0 Stand-Alone also features a powerful and versatile geometric engine.

And there is also a new website and home base! This site is both a distribution point for free/open software as well as a hub for information and discussion around Design Computation, Architecture, Analysis, Fabrication, Construction, and Building Information Modeling. The Dynamo team prides itself on being able to directly talk to designers about issues and interests that affect their work on a day to day level, and hopes that this site can nurture this kind of discussion. The site itself is still new and relatively untested, so please be patient while the kinks get worked out of the system. There will be many more details and descriptions to follow. Please bookmark this page and visit frequently, as Dynamo is evolving rapidly.

Release notes:

0.6.3 Some noteworthy aspects, but please check the installer ReadMe for a more full rundown.

Dynamo Sandbox: Explore Dynamo without running Revit or Vasari (see your Start Menu)
Application level settings for Imperial and Metric Units: We hear that most of the world does not use Imperial Units, and we'd like to accommodate this. Please check out this post for a more in-depth look at our Units tools. http://dynamobim.org/units-in-0-6-3/
Daylighting with cloud Rendering service sample files: New analysis workflows available. You will need an Autodesk ID to use these services, but you can get access to this when you sign up for membership on this website.
Set Parameters Node - set writable parameters for any Revit Element, (not restricted to loaded Families anymore)
Add name to reference plane node.
Convert to Unitized measures (Length, Area, Volume)
Explode Node (Solids to Faces, Faces to Edges)
Solids from Elements handles lists
Select All Elements of Type and Category Nodes
Wall Nodes element IDs persist after changes
Area Node
Volume Measure node
Length from Curve Node
Topography from Points and Points from Topography Nodes
Last of List Node
Filter by Boolean Mask
Group by Key Node
Is Null node (for filtering out null values)
Explode Node (replaces Explode Solid)
Python nodes now can take node inputs as functions
Shuffle List Node
Select All Elements of Category Nodes
Divided Path Node updates
XYZs from Divided path
Treat curves and edges the same for intersection operations
Preserve Wall Elements on change
Improvements to node Help descriptions
Toolbar shortcuts
Improvements to Preview bubble display (fades, compact error messages, etc)

0.7.0 This is an alpha quality release which represents a significant refactoring of the underlying code. There are some notable (temporary) restrictions to the functionality that is available in 0.6.3, and major enhancements to others. To allow users to continue work with 0.6.3 while exploring 0.7.0, this release can be installed side by side with older releases. Please jump in and try it out. Let us know what you like and what you hate. The Dynamo team is counting on your feedback. New

Geometry tools: Dynamo now has a much more extensive collection of geometric operations that are available in stand alone mode as well as when running in Revit. Stay tuned for more posts about these tools and how to enjoy them
Scripting interface: Dynamo now allows for direct input of DesignScript code into CodeBlock nodes. Please see this document for learning DesignScript syntax and capabilities: http://designscript.org/manual.pdf and watch for more blog posts and forum commentary on how to make the most to these tools.

Temporarily Unavailable Functionality from 0.6.3 (coming back soon!)

Upgrade: 0.6 Dynamo files cannot be opened in 0.7.0. We are actively working on the upgrade mechanism
Package Manager: currently disabled until migration is working
Recursion in custom nodes
Revit Element explosion to geometry. Currently users cannot generically extract geometric information from Revit elements. However, there are different tools that, on a per element basis, can extract geometric data. For instance, After selecting a curve from Revit, a user can look in Revit>Element>CurveElement>Query>Curve to extract the geometry. Similarly, a Family Instance can be queried for such items as faces, curves, location, etc.
Revit Elements created in a Dynamo session are not remembered in subsequent sessions. New elements will be created when files are re-opened.

Known Problem Areas

To have both 0.7.0 and 0.6.3 installed, you must install 0.7.0 AFTER 0.6.3
You can only load 0.7.0 OR 0.6.3 in a single Revit session. You must close Revit before changing from one to the other.
Visualization can be slow with lots of curvy stuff
Manually Deleting and recreating Revit elements created by Dynamo can cause element duplication or failure to be re-created when the graph is re-run,
Search tags are in progress. If you don't find what you are looking for via search, try browsing.

Happy Valentine's Day

noreply@blogger.com (Zach Kron) — Fri, 14 Feb 2014 20:04:00 +0000

Solid Geometry Valentines, now available on the Package Manager:

Now get out of the office!

Dynamo Stadium

noreply@blogger.com (Zach Kron) — Mon, 20 Jan 2014 16:56:00 +0000

We've done a few Dynamo demo's using a Stadium dataset that Nate Miller started back this past fall and we have been tinkering with it ever since. It's a work in progress, and I'm sure we will keep refining it, but there are a number of nice things going on that folks can learn from now. You can see the file in action during the first few minutes of this presentation.

Download the Datasets.

Riser layout: there are some well tested methods for laying out stadium seating, a recursive method that starts with the person sitting in the front row, with each successive riser placed such that the next person can see over the head of the person in front. In this Dynamo file, it is handled with a tiny Python node.

Placing families: There is a boolean toggle to turn Revit family creation on and off. This is helpful if you are looking to experiment with the general structure of the Stadium while not having to commit to the performance hit of Revit family creation.

Visualization of downstream effects: There are a number of input parameters that are nice to see the isolated effects of. We placed a few watch 3d nodes so that you can monkey with the basic layout parameters and see the effects further downstream on specific structures: Risers, Trusses, Enclosure.

You can run the definition in either a mass.rfa, or in a regular .rvt environment, but you need to have the Truss, Riser, and Panel families loaded, as well as specify a sun setting for the file. Color Overrides will only work in the rvt environment. There is also a "custom node" in this definition that you need to download from the Package Manager. Is the menu bar at the top of the application go to Packages>search for a package> and search for "Quads from Rectangular Grid", then re-open Stadium.dyn

There will surely be updates to this in the future, but this can get folks going.
Download the Datasets.

Dynamo: Writing data to text files

noreply@blogger.com (Zach Kron) — Mon, 13 Jan 2014 14:20:00 +0000

There's been some recent discussion about how to write geometric data out to external data sources. Here is the most basic on both ends: xyz coordinates written to a .txt file.

Of course, you may want to do some fine tuning of this kind of thing. Here is a version that cleans up the data, reducing significant digits and other formating.

You might also add some information about these points to each line of data. Adding a couple nodes tells how far each point in from the origin, and labels what this data is:

Resulting in this .txt file.

There are surely a number of ways to do similar things.
A couple things to note here:
1. XYZ's are Containers, that is, they are a specific kind of chunk of computational stuff that is not automatically recognized as a series of numerical element or strings. They need to be decomposed to something consumable by a text file if that is what you are writing to. "To String" is the simplest way to do this, but there are other methods to create more fine tuned data.
2. You need to format your data for your consuming file format. Writing to a text file, you need to add commas, carriage returns, or other pertinent delimiters. In the "Joing Strings" node, the "del" or delimeter that is being added is a carriage return, this basically says "return" after every line of x,y,z that comes across
3. you can add all sorts of other data to this. For String processessing, just enter "string" in the search bar and take a look at some of the tools that are available.

Don't forget to also take a look at a couple other examples in the Help>Samples>23 Data Import and Export, for tips on how to write to Excel. There are also explanations in the pdf tutorial.

Thanks to the folks who participated in this discussion over on the Vasari Forum.

Dynamo Webinar, 2 parts, European time

noreply@blogger.com (Zach Kron) — Thu, 09 Jan 2014 13:41:00 +0000

Andrzej Samsonowicz, Autodesk Applications Engineer, is presenting a 2 part Dynamo webinar, free and open to the public. Register now, as there are a limited number of seats (and PLEASE only register if you think you are really going to make it!)

Dynamo on Revit. The super addin. Part I. General overview.

Join us for a Webinar on January 28

Space is limited.
Reserve your Webinar seat now at:
https://www1.gotomeeting.com/register/183156777

1. What is Dynamo.
2. What can you do with Dynamo:
- Create new complex geometries in mass environment. Reuse existing one.
- Create new structural complex framings, walls, slabs, adaptive components, and any family instances.
- Manipulate BIM data.
- Solar analysis
- Export data to Excel or CSV file.


Date:	Tuesday, January 28, 2014
Time:	9:00 AM - 1:00 PM CET

Dynamo on Revit. The super addin. Part II. Hands-on.

Join us for a Webinar on January 29

Space is limited.
Reserve your Webinar seat now at:
https://www1.gotomeeting.com/register/708245472

During the second part of the webinar you'll learn some basic operations on Dynamo. This will be a good start for you to learn some more advanced stuff on your own.


Date:	Wednesday, January 29, 2014
Time:	9:00 AM - 1:00 PM CET

NCalc and Dynamo's Formula node

noreply@blogger.com (Zach Kron) — Mon, 06 Jan 2014 02:15:00 +0000

You WILL love the formula node in Dynamo. Resistance is useless.

The Formula node is a beautiful thing. Once you get the hang of how it works, it will replace a number of other nodes. Lots of folks think that you use it for doing fancy calculations with fancy names like "logarithm" or "law curve", but it's got all sorts of other banal uses. Driving the Formula node's excellent operations is NCalc, "a mathematical expressions evaluator in .NET. NCalc can parse any expression and evaluate the result, including static or dynamic parameters and custom functions". The full description of the project can be found here.

As a non-text based programmer, the Formula node is my gateway drug to "real programming" (oooh, scary) because it's like dipping your toes in the deep and churning waters of traditional coding without having to plunge in up to your naughty bits.

For instance, let's say you were going to add 3 numbers, 1+2+3. You COULD do this with the big friendly looking Add nodes:

But, my goodness that looks clumsy. How about this instead?

Ah, much tidier, and the math syntax is recognizable to any 2nd grader.

OK, something a little more involved.

Or stuff that isn't necessarily an equation, like an IF/THEN statement that makes sure an output does not fall below a threshold:

Here the formula node is not only more legible, it actually becomes more powerful than the dedicated nodes, because it can handle lists of numbers much more easily.

(for more on how that sequence of numbers is made, go here)

Once you get into the logic and syntax (and visit the NCalc site to understand all the built in functions) you can go hog-wild.

(You know, "hog-wild" in the way that only someone sitting alone at a computer talking about math on a Sunday night with a shot of bourbon can . . .)

Examples of some other things you can do with the formula node can be found here:
- Page 28 of Dynamo Visual Programming for Design
and here

and most importantly, http://ncalc.codeplex.com/

You WILL love the formula node in Dynamo. Resistance is useless.

Autodesk University 2013 Dynamo lecture now online

noreply@blogger.com (Zach Kron) — Sun, 29 Dec 2013 15:59:00 +0000

Take the whirlwind tour through Dynamo! See how all the pieces fit together, learn basic list management techniques, how to use spreadsheets, read and write family parameters, color your models, and where to find more learning resources:
AB2551 : Enhanced Parametric Design with Dynamo Visual Programming for Revit and Autodesk Vasari.

Dynamo Training in Brooklyn, Jan 25 and 26 2014

noreply@blogger.com (Zach Kron) — Fri, 20 Dec 2013 16:11:00 +0000

Come get yet your computational BIM on at ModeLabs. Matt Jezyk and Zach Kron will be assisting in this 2 day hands on workshop. Space is limited, sign up now!

http://lab.modecollective.nu/lab/enhanced-parametric-design-with-autodesk-dynamo/

Dynamo and Design Computation at Autodesk University

noreply@blogger.com (Zach Kron) — Mon, 02 Dec 2013 04:52:00 +0000

I know many of you have already started the party in Vegas, but here’s a little roundup of what’s happening with Dynamo and Design Computation this week at AU. I’m afraid most of these events are booked up, but the very nice AU organizers sometimes let more folks into the room if you’re ok with standing. (That’s the only way I ever got into Fuzzy Math, among others). If you can’t attend these specific talks and want to talk about any of these topics, please feel free to ping me and we can try and set something up during the week.

We're also going to be bashing away at codes, nodes, and models at Case's Hackathon on Tuesday night. Hope to see you there!

Computational BIM Workshop
Monday, Dec 2, 7:30 AM - 6:30 PM
Learn to combine computational design and BIM with Dynamo visual programming and DesignScript. Use computational design to drive an Autodesk® Revit®-based software model. No programming experience necessary.
Ian Keough, Luke Church, Patrick Tierney, Matt Jezyk

FB1952 - Leapfrogging Rhino Grasshopper®: Project Dynamo and Autodesk® 123D® Make for Digital Fabrication

Tuesday, Dec 3, 3:00 PM - 4:00 PM

– Delfino 4004

Project Dynamo is an experimental "wire diagram"-style scripting environment for Autodesk® Revit®-based software and Autodesk® Vasari software. Autodesk 123D Make software takes 3D models and decomposes them into easy-to-fabricate forms. Combine them together, and you've got a powerful solution for conceptual architectural design, form finding, and fast digital fabrication. In this class we present these new free tools, teach the basics on how to work with them, and show just how quickly they can generate, rationalize, and fabricate form.

60 Minutes Lecture

Jeffrey Mcgrew, Because We Can

AB2586 - Design Computation Symposium

Wednesday, Dec 4, 8:00 AM - 11:30 AM

– Lido 3103

This year’s theme is “Computational BIM” and will explore how advanced firms are bridging the gap between Computational Design and Building Information Modeling. We have seen the development of different specializations inside firms and would like to explore the bridges and points of interconnection between the two. There are three areas of interest under this theme:
• Incorporating performance-based design, simulation and analysis.
• Digital fabrication and other modifications to streamline the construction process.
• Lastly, leveraging sensor data both for post-occupancy study and as an input into the design process.
More . . .

Symposium

Matt Jezyk, emcee

Session 1

Jonatan Schumacher - Thornton Tomasetti
Greig Paterson - AEDAS R&D
Juan Betancur / Anthony Viola – Adrian Smith Gordon Gill
Phil Bernstein - Autodesk

Session 2

Nathan Miller / Daniel Davis – CASE
Scott Crawford - LMN Tech Studio
Jeff Vaglio - ENCLOS Studio
Keynote Speaker- Enric Ruiz-Geli - Cloud 9

AB2551 - Enhanced Parametric Design with Dynamo Visual Programming for Autodesk® Revit® and Autodesk® Vasari™.
Thursday, Dec 5, 8:00 AM - 9:30 AM
– Marcello 4404
This lecture introduces participants to the fundamentals of visual programming within the Autodesk Vasari and Autodesk Revit conceptual design environment. Custom code gives users the ability to efficiently automate many design tasks while also enabling new generative design capabilities. This lecture shows how to compose useful scripts using Dynamo Visual Programming for Autodesk Revit and Autodesk Vasari software. The lecture provides users with resources and step-by-step examples for automating geometry creation, adjusting family parameters using external data, and sharing information with different design platforms.
90 Minutes Lecture
Zach Kron

AB3362-L - Enhanced Parametric Design with Dynamo Visual Programming for Autodesk® Revit® and Autodesk® Vasari™
Thursday Dec 5, 2:30 PM
- Marcello 4505
This Hands-on Lab introduces participants to the fundamentals of visual programming within the Autodesk Vasari and Autodesk Revit conceptual design environment. Custom code gives users the ability to efficiently automate many design tasks while also enabling new generative design capabilities. Users will try out resources and step-by-step examples for automating geometry creation, adjusting family parameters using external data, and sharing information with different design platforms.
75 Minutes Hands-on Lab
Zach Kron

Dynamo 0.6.2 update release

noreply@blogger.com (Zach Kron) — Tue, 26 Nov 2013 11:24:00 +0000

Dynamo is getting bigger, stronger, and faster by the day. Check out the 0.6.2 build here. As always we have a truckload of fixes and improvments, here are some:

New Samples and updated documentation
While we are very psyched to have some time with folks at AU to talk about design computation, we've also prepared some new documentations for those who can't make it out to Vegas. Our written tutorial has been in need of an update for some time. Now called Dynamo Visual Programming for Design (previously Programming for non-programmers), we have revised a number of the existing tutorials, but also have brand new sections on Lists, Color, and Data Interop. We have also done some cleanup and expansion of the samples that are available in the Help, Samples dropdown menu. In particular, we have more datasets around lists, color, data import/export, and file sharing (Package Manager). If you have been hesitant to get involved in Dynamo in the past, start with these documents and we'll have you up and running in no time.

Visualization
Knowing what you are making and seeing the relationship between nodes and data is supremely important. With Dynamo working on top of Revit, there is a distinction between making geometry and making Revit elements. By visualizing any geometric entity in the background of your Dynamo canvas, we are hoping to make the distinction more fluid, but it also gives us the opportunity to increase the quality of the information. For instance, selecting nodes highlights the geometry that is created, and selecting the geometry highlights the nodes that created it. We are going to continue to expand how we handle this sort of information and welcome your feedback on what works and what doesn't.
- Increased speed of display
- Background Preview elements highlight when nodes are selected
- Selection of Solids in background highlights nodes
- Resizable Watch 3d windows
- Point and Curve numbering available in node right click "Show Label"

Geometric Operations
- More forgiving inputs for Solid Geometry creation
- Solid Primitives: Boxes, Cylinder, Sphere, Torus
- extraction of Data from Revit elements. Use Get Family Location to get single origin location from regular families and all placement points from panels and adaptive components.
- XYZ and Vector improvements: Normalize, Dot product, components, polar and spherical coordinates. Extract Transform Basis for x, y, and z vector components. XYZ by distance offset from origin.
- Curve Plane Intersection
- transform origin node
- plane from reference plane.
- line by start point direction and length
- More!

General User Interface and Navigation improvements
- Drag and Drop dyn files into canvas to open
- Mouse-less navigation
- No limit to the size of canvas
- Preview data bubbles on nodes
- Browser reorganization
- Search Improvements

Other new nodes and node enhancements
- List handling. Most nodes now can take lists and lists of lists. In the past, many nodes needed data to be flattened. Now nodes will inspect their input and automatically dig deeper into the contents to find the data they need.
RaaS - Cloud based Daylighting Analysis. More on this later, but we now how the infrastructure to execute cloud based daylighting analysis, retrieve the data and drive it back into the model.
- Added an interval node to Web Request
- Equal can now compare all data types
- Updates to Arduino. Use delimiter instead of new lines.
- Get Family Location now takes single origin and multi-pick placement families
- Asin, Acos, Atan
- Wall and Floor Creation nodes. WARNING! Recreated, not modified on change.
- integer slider
- STL export (from file menu)
- Default values added to many nodes
- Separate nodes for solid boolean operations

More Dynamo Sample files

noreply@blogger.com (Zach Kron) — Sun, 17 Nov 2013 15:18:00 +0000

Are you looking for more examples of how to wire stuff up in Dynamo? There is a large collection of samples available on the Github repository that we use for testing the tools and making sure everything still works as we continue developing.

https://github.com/ikeough/Dynamo/tree/master/test

This folder is divided up into core, pkgs, and Revit.

The core functionality deals with nodes and operations that are independent of Revit, things like list management, math, conditional statements. You may also note that there are samples here that deal with geometry. These examples are using the Autodesk Shape Manager geometry kernel (ASM), and reflect development we are working on to be able to expand beyond the geometric capabilities of Revit. This geometry is still pretty experimental, so it does not yet connect up to Revit (although you can export to SAT.)

Pkgs folder is entirely concerned with making sure that the package manager continues to work. You can download any samples here from the package manager anyway

The Revit folder houses samples that are entirely about operations specific to Revit. Revit solids creation, family placements, view manipulations, etc. All of these tests involve some amount of interaction with the Revit document.

In theory, we should have samples that reference EVERY node that is available in Dynamo . . . we aren't there yet, but we are working on it. If you are looking for a particular node and you can't find an sample for it in this repo, please drop us a note. You need it, and we need a test to cover it.

Thanks
Z

Let's do some (more) Dynamo at AU

noreply@blogger.com (Zach Kron) — Thu, 07 Nov 2013 14:45:00 +0000

Were you unable to get a seat for the Thursday afternoon Dynamo class? We added a lecture Thursday morning with essentially the same content, so bring your laptop with Dynamo installed and we'll drop some parametric knowledge!

Thursday, Dec 5, 8:00 AM - 9:30 AM

AB2551 - Enhanced Parametric Design with Dynamo Visual Programming for Autodesk® Revit® and Autodesk® Vasari™.

· Zach Kron - Principal Design Strategist, Autodesk

This lecture introduces participants to the fundamentals of visual programming within the Autodesk Vasari and Autodesk Revit conceptual design environment. Custom code gives users the ability to efficiently automate many design tasks while also enabling new generative design capabilities. This lecture shows how to compose useful scripts using Dynamo Visual Programming for Autodesk Revit and Autodesk Vasari software. The lecture provides users with resources and step-by-step examples for automating geometry creation, adjusting family parameters using external data, and sharing information with different design platforms.

Additional Information

Class Discipline:

Architecture, Structural Engineering, Education

Conferences:

Autodesk University

Class Format:

Lecture

Class Length:

1h 30m

Happy Halloween V

noreply@blogger.com (Zach Kron) — Fri, 01 Nov 2013 03:26:00 +0000

(Ritchie Jackson, in solidarity with the Boston Red Sox, submitted the proper interpretation of a pumpkin carving. I'm under slept, so it took me a little while to figure that one out.)

But on to the BIMkins! A lovely batch again this year, with segmented orange harvest season parametric goodness.

The Goodest

This years award for the pumpkin that shows all that is harmonious and ordered, hack free and quantifiable in a parametric pumpkin goes to Alfredo Medina.
Alfredo Medina's MEP pumpkin asks the question "have you ever scheduled a pumpkin?"

And what exactly are we scheduling? All MEP fixtures! Ducts, connectors, conduits, all counted and measured.
And you don't have to look too closely before asking . . . is that a commode nose?

Yes . . .. yes it is.
Download Alfredo's pumpkin from here.

The Baddest

Kelvin Tam's PumPin
The award for the pumpkin embodying uncanny scariness, a serious and terrifying aspect.

Something happened to the staff at Buildz in the late 80's. We all uniformly have a debilitating terror associated with the Pinhead character from Hellraiser.
Don't get us wrong Kelvin. We appreciate the deft handling of surface normals, and the satisfying bounce and spring in the resizable and pleasingly rounded aspect of this submission. All masterful.

But Manni, the summer intern (who thinks we are still paying into his direct deposit and hasn't gone back to school) hasn't been able to sleep in his nest in the server room since seeing this. And Franz, our web guru, LEED expert, and coffee gopher, has been completely useless . . . just rocking back and forth muttering "come to daddy" So, thanks for that, Kelvin.

Download Kelvin's PumPin from here

The Mostest Parametric

Philip Chan's the Nightmare Before Halloween.
Remember those little rubber squeezy toys that, when you sat on it, or gave it to your dog, the eyes would pop out like a chihuahua on amphetamines?

Exactly!
Well, unlike the chihuahua, this one has a an actual check box to pop out the eyes.
The scale factor can go any size 1 or below, which changes the head size. You can control the smile length (mouth_length) as well as the teeth number. It's also hella big . . . coming in at a hefty 241mb, which Philip attributes to the rather elaborate eyelashes

We tend to agree. (Also, since when do pumpkins have eyelashes?)

Philip also gives a shout out to Kelvin Tam and Andy Milburn for the tips and tricks he has learned from them to make this pumpkin.

Download Philip's pumpkin from here.

Best in Breed/Off topic

We really don't know what to do with Andy Milburn's fabulous stuff anymore. Last year it was close enough to pumpkin based that we welcomed his Sleeping Beauty/Archimboldo extravaganza of harvest vegetables into the general arena of pumpkin carving. This year we are treated to another BIM opera of taste, color, form, and visual excitement . . . and once again it is a stunning tour of the parametric capabilities of Revit.

But it just isn't a pumpkin carving!
It is however an 11 blog post long study in proportion, perspective, perception, art history and MEP hash pipes. Words fail, yet again Andy. Thanks so much for being you. And dear readers, please please please frequent Andy's site for some profound insights.
Read more about this work and download the models from here.

A final heartfelt thank you to all our contestants. Philip, Kelvin, Alfredo, and Andy, please send in your mailing addresses and shirt sizes!