Oasys GSA v8.4

Some GSA plug-in users might have been testing Oasys GSA v8.4 beta for some time, others might have downloaded the public release last week (http://www.oasys-software.com/products/structural/gsa/downloads.shtml ) and others might do so shortly.

If you are in any of these groups, you'll hopefully be happy to hear that the Rhino plug-in can already exchange structural data happily with both versions (note there were significant GWA changes I've dealt with). And GSA v8.4 brings some neat new graphic exchange in relation to object colours etc. Always check the wiki (http://ssi.wikidot.com/downloads ) for the latest version.

There's still work to be done, but in progress it's already up and running. Note if you need to update v8.4 model coordinates, you can right click on the export node button and opt for v8.4 format.



In about a week when I'll look to switch the default plug-in to be v8.4 compatible, but you'll still be able to use v8.3 if you're not upgrading. You can edit the export button (by shift-right click) and change the text to make left click export to v8.4

3D Printing and Rapid Prototyping

David Allgayer has posted an interesting article to the Expedition Blog. 3D printing or rapid prototyping from Structural Analysis models was one of the early principles of writing the structural plug-ins for Rhino (back in the day when it was in Rhinoscript).

I've heard (and repeated) that the day will come when you won't go to a hardware store to buy a replacement shower hook, if one breaks you'll simply load the model on your computer and print a new one to hang on the rod.

The Economist Technology Quarterly Review article can be found here