ssiRhinoIFC Progress - Industry Foundation Class 2x3 - Import and Export

The first public alpha for ssiRhinoIFC is available for downloading at http://www.geometrygym.com/downloads  This allows importing, and some introductory exporting of IFC (Industry Foundation Class) version 2x3 for buildings and structure.

Whilst I'm the first to acknowledge there's a lot of work to be done to cover this comprehensive neutral BIM format, the basis of a very useful tool is already evident.  Working in a consultancy design office, we were often sent primitive DXF/DWG mesh models from steel detailers using software such as Tekla.  More intelligent models such as IFC will provide greater advantages for coordination and checking.

And IFC should also provide a very useful means of import/export to programs such as REVIT. An automated workflow from Grasshopper generation to external BIM software will reduce replicating work and coordination.

Development priority will be given to problems, suggestions, observations and ideas raised by users, so please download the plug-in, get the trial license and start exchanging IFC data with your other programs.

Start your testing by importing some of the example models I've been using, http://bimwiki.com/@api/deki/files/79/=NIST_IFC_Sample.zip and http://bimwiki.com/@api/deki/files/80/=Sample_IFC_files.zip contain a few model files to test.

And see if the IFC file exported from this Rhino model is compatible with IFC viewers and modifying software you use.  You need StructDrawRhino installed, use the command ssiIFCExport and select the beam centrelines.  You can move the locaction of the curves, apply different properties in the SDR property table etc.

A lot more to come on this in the near future, stay tuned....

David Rutten & Friends (AA London Lecture)

In front of a packed house, David Rutten, Daniel Piker and myself presented our recent work and developments for generative modelling utilizing Grasshopper3d.

You can view the presentation online at http://www.aaschool.ac.uk/VIDEO/lecture.php?ID=1212

David presented on his latest feature of Grasshopper, Galapagos (a genetic algorithm based solver).  It's fantastic how David can provide such an amazing user interface to the powerful tools he programs (When I was assisting Fred with the Genetic Algorithm solver for Naples, we had no time to program this visual feedback).

Daniel's work with Physics expressed in Kangaroo is amazing, and very popular.  It's going to be very exciting to see how designers utilize this into their design process.

And I presented on the Geometry Gym plug-ins featuring computation geometric design, and the existing and soon to be released BIM aspects of my tools.  It is becoming more and more apparent that if we have the power to generate many options rapidly, we need to ensure our evaluation tools (Such as structural analysis and other consultant design software) needs to be able to generated and evaluated quickly.  And there are massive benefits to minimizing coordination and duplicated model generation if we can transfer a Grasshopper model into BIM programs such as Tekla or REVIT (amongst many).  The Geometry Gym SDNF,  IFC (Industry Foundation Class) and CIS/2 tools are progressing rapidly.