It's back, Scia from Grasshopper

A few years back, I advanced on a Grasshopper plugin to generate SCIA Engineer structural analysis data.  For a few different reasons, this stalled and didn't work as successfully as I would have liked.

Late last year I started work again on the ability to convert Structural Analysis IFC files into SCIA, and now I've enabled the same code into a revived Grasshopper plugin.

It's now available from http://www.geometrygym.com/downloads  At present it can generate beam elements with releases, restraints etc.  I will be looking to enable loads, area elements and other features that users might request so please get in touch.

Here's a sample gh script to start with.

Karamba Exporter to GSA, Robot, SAP2000, Sofistik etc

I'm seeking out Karamba users (and potential users) for a new workflow for this grasshopper plugin.  For anyone that doesn't know Karamba, it's a structural analysis plugin for Grasshopper.  GeometryGym has developed various plugins to allow generation of structural analysis data within Grasshopper, but then has the overhead of having to export the data out of Grasshopper to the external software, and then import back the results.

Karamba works as a solver entirely within Grasshopper, and should perform faster as a result.  But more traditional software has advantages of being proven and trusted, and often project requirements mandate particular software or certifications for detailed design.  At present, many users are generating the Karamba model for preliminary design, but then rebuilding the model using Geometry Gym equivalent components to export the model out for refined analysis or advanced assessment.

I've been discussing with the Karamba developer Clemens (and advancing on) a utility to extract the Karamba Structural Analysis model so that it could be verified or advanced in alternative commercial structural analysis software.  I know that Karamba can presently export to RSTAB, but I'm working on enabling this further for a wider range of software.  The exporter for Karamba would save users on generating, maintaining and coordinating multiple components if desired to use the data downstream.
At least initially the primary options are the software that I have developed plugins for.  This includes Oasys GSA, Autodesk Robot, SAP2000, Sofistik, Spacegass, Strand7/Straus7 and hopefully shortly SCIA.  The way this exporter would work also means that any structural analysis software recognizing the structural analysis aspects of IFC could also be utilized.

This would permit verification of the model results, and often projects have mandates on using specific (often certified) software for detailed design calculations.
If you're interested in participating in the early testing and advancing of this feature, please get in touch.

Also refer to this forum post for discussion and details.

Thanks,
Jon

SCIA and Grasshopper

Thanks to the Scia Open Interface (which is a library for reading and writing XML data files for Scia) I'm pleased to present a new plugin for exchanging data with Nemetschek Scia.  Thanks in particular to Mark Flamer and Peter Zalman for their assistance with this.

Here's two example files to start with, the popular 3 pin truss generation

Rhino Model    Grasshopper Model   Scia XML Export
and generating a mesh model:

Rhino Model   Grasshopper Model   Scia XML Export

The Scia open interface is still work in progress, it's not allowing me to open models yet and I see node restraints are generated in xml but do not seem to be acknowledged by scia in the latest version.  So please use with care.  But if you would like to see these improvements and more in the tools, the more interest I can demonstrate I'm sure will encourage fixes and support for this development.

Installation instructions are here: http://www.grasshopper3d.com/group/geometrygym/forum/topics/installing-geometry-gym  I'd recommend installing StructDrawRhino as it is also used in some sample models.