Grasshopper to Vasari

Thanks to Lilli Smith (and her Autodesk Colleagues) for arranging a very interesting Vasari Webinar discussing some of the different developments to link Grasshopper to Vasari.

The panelists were myself demonstrating the OpenBIM approach using IFC4, Hiroshi Jacobs presenting Chameleon, Tim Meador demonstrating HummingBird and Nathan Miller showing his OpenNurbs importer.

If you missed it, you can watch it here:
Or the individual playlists are here.

I'm sure this is the start of the discussions, so keep an eye on the Vasari and Grasshopper forums.

IFC Importer for VASARI

Vasari Beta1 was released a couple of weeks ago, and last week the SDK that I set about adjusting my Revit IFC importing code for.

I've just uploaded the first public installer, http://www.geometrygym.com/downloads

Here's an example model to start testing.
Grasshopper Definition   IFC File

You can nominate site longitude and latitude and also building storey levels.  Conceptual masses can also be nominated, this example uses a loft/sectioned spine.

There's lots more improvements and features to add, let me know what you'd like to see and I'll try to prioritize it.

GH to Archicad (OpenBIM IFC)

With the new release of Archicad v16, it permits me the opportunity to download and test improvements made to IFC support.  This is still in progress, and initially I was a little disappointed, but revisiting a single test case for Constructive Solid Geometry (CSG) or Solid Element Operation as it might be known to Archicad users leads me to confidence and optimism about IFC exchange with Archicad.

So here's the test case that has me excited.  I posted nearly 2 years ago about most software reverting to "coordination" IFC models, primarily faceted breps (meshed surfaces).  Possibly this is acceptable for visualization and clash detection (but not efficiently) but if you want smart models that can be enhanced and edited down stream, IFC is derived from STEP and capable of many advanced and accurate shape representations.  This is also explained in my Technical Paper from last year.

So in two years I've still had no success in other software understanding the CSG steps that can define a gothic arch roof, until now.  I was thrilled to see Archicad v16 import this accurately, which might enable some really exciting project work flows from Grasshopper.  Perspective view doesn't seem to render anything, but isometric does (maybe someone can explain why).

Here's the IFC file if you want to test yourself, and here's the Grasshopper Definition.

The first test I ran also worked quite well.  Archicad doesn't have nurbs (at least yet), so I converted the nurbs curves for the Klein Building slabs into polycurves.  IFC file, Grasshopper Def

Now for some tests with scope for improvement. I tried to import an IFC file with swept beams.  It was pleasing to see the straight beam generate accurate edit handles, but none of the curved beams worked.  IFC4 does not appear to developed, so useful improvements such as cardinal points are not accessible.  IFC file, Grasshopper Def

And the final test for the time being, the waffle structure.  Slabs come in fine, seems to be an orientation issue for the walls.  Geometry looks accurate otherwise.  IFC file, Grasshopper Def

I'm hoping to do some more tests very soon.  If you've comments, suggestions or questions, I look forward to hearing them.

Tekla exchange Grasshopper/Rhino

The Geometry Gym Grasshopper/Rhino plugin to generate and import Tekla model data will be presented by RhinoForYou and Decode at the France Tekla User Days in Paris and Toulouse.

Decode will be explaining the use of the connector to generate fabrication data from Grasshopper for the impressive Canopée des Halles de Paris project.  Hopefully I can post details on this here soon for those unable to attend.

I recorded a couple of youTube videos to further explain graphical programming in Grasshopper for Tekla users, and outline fabrication model attributes presently available including assemblies, welds, bolts and cut parts and planes. (I will gladly accept requests for more)

Wembley Arch Grasshopper File  Twisting Tower Grasshopper File

IFC inclusive of Analytical Model

I'm pleased to have the opportunity to implement something I've discussed with quite a few Architectural offices in the past.  Coordination and duplication of models is a really time consuming aspect of working in a Design Team.  And despite the best efforts to date, success has been limited in sharing or using a single model for cross purposes.  Say an architecture office has prepared a great 3d model of a project, and then asked the Structural Engineer to analyze it and provide advice.

Structural Analysis models are quite fussy, and are only an approximation (to some extent) of the physical entities it represents.  An analytical model requires clean "junctions" or in effect ends of members tied into "nodes"  to not have unsupported parts that don't participate in the frame stiffness.  The physical reality has junctions where members are "cut" apart from the junction, or offset locations (say purlins sitting on top of a joist) and a BIM model should represent the physical situation as accurately as possible.  Because a structural analysis model is an approximation, care is not usually take to "precisely" replicate element position.  So the Structural engineering team leading the modelling process is also quite often not successful.

The advancement in software such as Revit (release 2012) had particular emphasis on an intelligent analytical representation trying to detect the physical situation.  I've been planning on implementing something similar, and now have a commercial user prepared to embrace this model transfer.  Note there are other aspects such as responsibility and other legalities that mean team work and close working relationships are essential to this process.

If engineering makes you a little squirmish, look away now.  This isn't really for the faint hearted.  But it has the potential to save hours and hours of duplicated effort or coordination if used successfully.  I can't wave a wand and make technical requirements of a model disappear, but I (and other software developers) can make them as easy as possible to incorporate into the process.

The attached model is a simple and crude truss.  The vertical member is physically modelled short of the chords.  The IFC components that define the analytical model are input with a "sphere radius" to search for other members terminating in this region.  An eccentricity or end offset is created joining the member to the other elements in the analytical model.  Mathematical stability and intended behaviour without explicitly having to identify the end offsets, demonstrated here in SAP2000 import.

The IFC model contains physical and analytical representations.  I hope that the "OpenBIM" structural analysis software soon recognizes this aspect of IFC.  To enable the Structural Engineering office to open the IFC model, I've developed an importer for SAP2000 (I'm happy to do similar for any of the other structural analysis software I've developed links to).  Attributes including constraints, releases, loads, material and profiles can all be conveyed.

This is just the beginning, lots more to implement on this process.  Note IFC4 has some subtle improvements that means I'm primarily targeting this version of IFC.
To try yourself, update plugin from http://www.geometrygym.com/downloads
Here's the Grasshopper model, and IFC file.  If you're interested in a Structural Analysis importer (Such as to SAP2000), please get in touch.

Curved Beams Grasshopper to Revit

It's been a little while since the last update, but I have been working on some subtle and not so subtle improvements.

The primary new feature is the ability to generate and import to Revit beams with curvature (arc and splines).  This includes preservation of cardinal points.  For the time being it works with IFC4, I will enable IFC2x3 initially with mid cardinal point.  At present the axis curve must be planar, but if you need non-planar I'll take a look at it.

If you look carefully at the image (or try for yourself the models), then you'll see Revit alters the end details at the junction.  These elements using the IfcSurfaceCurveSweptAreaSolid shape representation, which is totally under utilized in my opinion.  I've seen some client models where IFC is not practical to use due to bloated file size from faceted brep shape representations of these parts.

Here's the Grasshopper file, and here's the IFC file.

Generative Adaptive Component

Adapative components has been one of the common threads amongst those pursuing model transfer from Grasshopper to Revit (refer here).  So not wanting to miss out, I decided to start to start implementing this (an extension of the blog post from Nathan Millers great blog The Proving Ground).

I've enabled generation of the adaptive component itself from Grasshopper (where as to date the others have provided means of locating existing adaptive components).  This model demonstrates that IFC can exchange topology (or connectivity) of elements including vertex and edges of faces, as well as parametric locations (such as position on curve).  Note then that manually editing (or inserting) of the adaptive component, these relationships are retained.

Here's the Grasshopper model, and here's the IFC file.

One of the common criticisms of IFC is that it's a "lowest common denominator" model format, so you can't exchange parametrics or model specific attributes and have to revert to APIs.  This only has to be demonstrated in one circumstance to hold true, but doesn't mean it to be true in all circumstances.  I hope that some of the recent work I've shown demonstrates that IFC is capable of pretty advanced model transfer.  I read an interesting tweet quote from a recent BIM conference that said "If you can't get IFC to work maybe your vendor doesn't want it too", and it is important for software vendors to request and demand improvements to the IFC format for areas they have identified as a short coming.  

One of the IFC short comings I worked around in this example is how to nominate the Adapative Point locations for instance insertion.  I decided at the moment to apply the type (family) to the instance, and use a polyline shape representation to convey the point locations.  Of course a possible desired improvement for IFC might be a more specific description of this type of entity, and I'm sure there are many more that can help make this format be used more successfully.

Grasshopper to Vasari (via Revit for the time being)

I've started developing more aspects of conceptual mass family development primarily extruded form.  Others will follow ASAP like blends (http://thebuildingcoder.typepad.com/blog/2009/07/revit-form-creation-api.html is a good reference for forms that can be created from the API and some of the restrictions on the defining geometry).  I'd like to highlight and publicly thank Jeremy for the excellent resource his blog provides, it's been instrumental in me getting my addon up and running.

I also implemented an aggregation of buildings associated to a site as a conceptual family.  This then opens up an easier model transfer to Vasari.  Note I have started trying to implement a revit addon to generate conceptual IFC files directly, but some technical details (ie a crash I am yet to resolve) in initiating the import is preventing thus far.

So, here's the process for the time being.  Bake the IFC file from this Grasshopper definition (or download ifc file here).  Then import the IFC into Revit using the GeomGym addon.  This will create a revit conceptual family in the same folder as the model (or download here).  You can then import this into Vasari and run analysis such as the virtual wind tunnel.

Look forward to hearing suggestions and requests for improvements.

EDIT 21st September 2012  Note now there is a Vasari addon for Beta1 that directly imports IFC files.  Note the above example generates an individual mass family element for each building (there is not means to generate an inplace family object from Revit API).  Here's a Grasshopper file where there is a single site family and here's the resulting IFC file (but this isn't as fast to generate as I might expect so patience will help).

IFC Import Revit - Walls

Todays build (http://www.geometrygym.com/downloads) of the Rhino and Revit plugins includes improvements related to wall model exchange.  This includes creation of families where they are not already loaded.

I initially started with testing the wall path curve as a NURBS (spline) curve, but Revit (2012) doesn't seem to permit spline paths so I used my BullAnt component to approximate it with a polycurve of arcs.

For the moment, the wall path curve has to be on the centroid (I'll look to enable face and offset locations) and I'll have to investigate whether I can enable my nurbs to polycurve routine using openNurbs outside of Rhino.

Look forward to hearing feedback and comments.  Openings are one of the items next on my agenda.  Improvements that come to mind include locking top/bottom to levels and I'm sure users can propose many more.
Grasshopper Model,  IFC File

GH to Revit, Families & Cardinal Points

I've been implementing many aspects of IFC model data that facilitate the "family" based approach consistent with Revit.

You'll notice many new components for Slabs, Walls, Columns, Beams and framing members to generate a "Type" (equivalent to a family in Revit) and then "standard case" components to generate objects based on that family.

This can include cardinal (or insertion) point locations (such as Top-Mid or bottom right) as this information can be conveyed in IFC4 (make sure you right click on the ssiBake button to enable this).  Here's the example model in the image above.  Plugins should be updated from http://www.geometrygym.com/downloads

If you use IFC2x3 the location of the beams should still be accurate, but a default "mid" insertion point will be used.

Next on the agenda (other than improving and expanding on the above) are aspects such as curtain walls, grids and grid relative locations.  If you've particular requests or suggestions, I look forward to hearing them.

NURBS GH to Revit

Another example model for you to test (Inspired by Tim Meador's post on the Grasshopper Forum).  I've been enabling nurbs profile/perimeter exchange using the IFC2x4 format (status Candidate Release, anticipated to be approved late this year).

Here's the example Grasshopper model, and the IFC file.  You need to right click on the SSIBake component and check the IFC2x4 option. This should be sticky then for the model (I need to check why it sometimes reverts when reopening the model).

Note I'm yet to find other viewers/software that can interact with this version of IFC, so for the time being it's only useful for my Rhino/Revit developments.  I'm still implementing other aspects of IFC2x4 (which might still have subtle changes), so be careful as exported file might not always open in the future.  I'm presently implementing advanced breps, that should permit much smaller IFC file sizes (and avoid the implications of meshing objects).  Look forward to hearing comments and suggestions.

GeomGym Revit Addon importing IFC

Here's some sample models and an explanation/demonstration of the work I'm advancing to import IFC models into Revit.

You can test for yourself.  Here's the grasshopper files used in the demonstration and some example IFC output..  You need to download the latest plugins from http://www.geometrygym.com/downloads

Note I've only been working on the Revit addon over a period of 3 months compared to 22 months for the Rhino plugin (although I can reuse 80 to 90% of the same code) so I still need to enable many aspects of IFC file importing.  But I will prioritize any example models and requests that come from users, so please don't hesitate to ask.  I look forward to hearing from you.

GeomGym IFC API

I've recently been considering and developing means of interacting directly to my IFC c# assembly without necessarily using my Grasshopper addon components (which in effect is a graphical wrapper to my assembly) or Rhino plugin commands.  This can enable academic and 3rd party interaction with my developments to generate IFCmodel files in a more direct manner.

Still early days, but already quite a powerful capability.  The example can be tried yourself if you've installed and licensed my IFC plugin.  You might have to alter the path to the referenced assembly in my plugin folder.    Grasshopper Model Download 

Scripting in Grasshopper is difficult for debugging and developing when there's more than a few lines of code, so you can reference the .dll from visual studio projects for Rhino/Grasshopper addons.  There's also means to execute my code outside of the Rhino/Grasshopper environment based on OpenNurbs (as my Revit Addon is doing).  Get in touch if you want to register interest, learn more or request particular features to be enabled.

Rhino/Grasshopper MEP Piping

The question arose on the Rhino forum today about exporting pipe objects into Rhino.  Refer here

I'm interested to see how Revit MEP handles IFC files (other than faceted brep/mesh) shape representations, as it can make the file much more compact and efficient.  Fitting such as elbows/bends can cause large problems if these "coordination" shape representations are used.

Here's my example model that you can download as Grasshopper model or IFC file to test yourself.  I look forward to hearing the results.

In Progress: Louisiana State Museum and Sports Hall of Fame

It's great to see details being published on projects that have been developed with assistance of Geometry Gym plugins for Grasshopper/Rhino.

ArchDaily has posted this article on the Louisiana State Museum and Sports Hall of Fame.

Method Design (in the design team with role as Geometry and Detailing Consultant) used the Geometry Gym plugin to exchange the Grasshopper geometric steel framing model into Autodesk Robot Structural Analysis  where analysis and design checks could be conducted accurately by David Kufferman P.E.  The model could then be exchanged beyond for coordination and fabrication.  You can also find more details and other links by David Stasiuk on the Grasshopper website.  

Revit IFC Plugin by Geometry Gym

I've recently been advancing development on a tool/workflow that's really needed to use Grasshopper to somewhere near it's full potential for Architecture/Engineering.  And that's to export the model into other BIM software with strengths and functionality that are not always evident or easily accessible in Rhino.

I started developing my IFC (neutral BIM format Industry Foundation Class) plugin (within Rhino/Grasshopper software) with the intent of enabling generation of BIM attributes and relationships to the already powerful geometric tool that is Rhino/Grasshopper, and then utilizing this in other BIM software without having to model everything again from scratch, and then maintaining/coordinating multiple models.

I touched a little about the current use of IFC as a model exchange in my technical paper last year.  Presently to be IFC certified (and there is a current drive to improve on this) you effectively need to import/export IFC models for coordination.  This can be done (with accuracy but certainly not efficiency) utilizing only two shape representations, linear extrusions and meshed/faceted breps.

This has led to a chicken/egg scenario, where BIM software vendors haven't imported advanced (and more efficient) shape representations (IFC is based on STEP model specification) because other vendors haven't exported them, and vice versa.

So whilst there is a long list of Software that interacts with IFC, it's really difficult (and I've discussed this with a number of big and small design firms in the past year or two) to use this "bridge" as it's intended.

Autodesk Revit is a very popular tool for Architects/Engineers to document and detail their projects.  However testing of means to import models using neutral BIM formats (primarily IFC and SDNF) hasn't resulted in much to boast about and utilize.  SDNF can generate native beam elements but can take hours (without succeeding) to import a pratical size roof model.  The Autodesk IFC plugin import generates reference objects, useful for coordination, drawing and even schedules, but as soon as you wish to edit or manipulate the objects, you nearly need to model it again (as families aren't utilized and aspects such as analytical representations not created).

So, with a few Geometry Gym users looking for a work flow to get Grasshopper models into Revit, I've been looking for improved ways to do this using the Revit SDK.  I started looking at direct model interaction, but for technical and practical reasons have decided a neutral bridge is the best way to do this.  Most of my c# IFC code is reusable (with some interaction changes) as a Revit plugin (this is my first plugin outside of the Rhino/Grasshopper environment), and I've today posted an example import of a steel frame roof (British Museum Great Court Roof) using my own IFC engine.

There's lots of improvements and work to do, but I'm confident with time I can create a powerful IFC engine within Revit (as I've already achieved within Rhino/Grasshopper).  The priorities for improvements are being driven by real project use of this tool (let me know if you have your own use for it) and will include curved members, orientations and synchronization options.  If you look closely at the image you'll see Revit has still tried to be clever with the bevel/miter at element connections, hopefully I can find a way to disable this (as an option) as I believe its significantly part of a slow import process.  Other objects including slabs, walls, MEP, etc etc will also be quickly added to the toolset.

It will be interesting to encounter the other hurdles and pitfalls in front of this development, but stay tuned to the blog for public release of this tool and examples of it's use.  Feel free to get in touch to learn more (and influence it's development) in the interim.