Software : Rhino 3d

Level : Intermediate

Description : This is a new plug-in that David Rutten is working on for Rhino. It has similar functionality to GC but at this point if not so component based. It is more like GC in that it uses features and stores them as nodes you can rearrange and change hierarchy’s. In this video I cover where to find the plug-in, how to install it and then the very (let me emphasize the VERY) basics of the interface. This is the first of what will be many Rhino tutorials. I also plan to cover the new implicit history functionality in Rhino. One of my biggest problems with Rhino has always been the lack of history based modeling and now that they are doing it, I figure I should learn it well. So…. here is the first one.

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Software : Revit Architecture 209
Level : Beginner - Intermediate
Description : Revit Architecture 2009 is out and has some pretty cool new features. The first one I’m posting about is Sweep Blend. I cant think of a better way to explain it than saying imagine taking the blend tool and combining it with the sweep tool. It’s pretty much just that. Like in the blend you pick to shapes “profiles” to blend between except now you can o it along a path. I’m going to experiment with surface continuity by importing 3d curves from Rhino but for now this video covers the basics of how it works.

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I have been looking for ways to get mesh geometry from design models into Revit as NURBS for quite some time now . Then I remembered when I was in school I was told about Geomagic by Roland Snooks. So, I called them up and requested a demo to see if it would work as a tool for architects. It turns out this program has some amazing functionality when it comes to converting mesh objects to NURBS. It’s not like Rhino’s MeshToNurbs command where each mesh face is turned into a NURBS surface, that is way too heavy. What Geomagic allows you to do is essentially paint seams into your mesh (from an .stl or many other 3d formats) which become the seams for your NURBS surfaces. My original interest came from converting a sub division surface I made in 3ds Max to Revit. I made a pretty simple form for a project I’m working on at SHoP (can’t post images, sorry…) to check it out and it works very well. It would have worked better had I known what I was doing with the program (I watched a couple of videos on their site and that was about all the training I had). I’m in the process of getting more information from then directly and I’ll post more as soon as I know more but in the spirit of this post series I just want to expose people to application that they might not have seen before.

These images are from a white paper on the Geomagic site explaining how geomagic was used to scan a motorcycle part and make a physical copy.

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Disclaimer: These video are from an open help session with student to work through some of the problems they are encountering making not so regular Revit Families. I stumble a bit with some of these models but it was meant to be a trial and error session. It was important for students to get a sense of how we can trouble shoot some of the issues Revit throws back at us.

Here is this groups project proposal. Please feel free to post some pointers or feedback as to how they could make the system better.

Software : Revit Architecture
Level : Intermediate / Advanced
Description : The group is making a parametric spider clip that will eventually be embedded in a curtain panel system. The problem that this group is trying to tackle is having th arm(s) of the spider clip be “self aware” of where they sit between 2 different curtain panel. we didn’t figure that part out but made some head way with reference line.

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Software : Revit Architecture
Level : Beginner
Description : Explaining some of the basic aspects of Revit. Where Levels are in the hierarchy. How walls constrain to levels , Coping in place or by level. This is just one of many tutorials that will explain fundamental aspects of Revit. Please feel free to post Question as i can answer them in future posts.

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The website for 290mulberry has launched. This is a new designed by SHoP Architects. On a more technical note this was our Revit Pilot project. We also used a few other programs to figure out the brick patterning (GC, DP, Rhino, and good old fashion Autocad). I worked a little on translating the original facade drawing package from Acad to Revit. All the Panel we modeled in Revit (minus the bricks). We then built parametric detail components of the brick section that we could use on all the detail drawings. I’ll post a bit on the technical aspects of the project later today. Just wanted to give a heads up on the site for now.

Software : Revit Architecture
Level : Beginner
Description : Pretty basic tutorial, If you know this then it won’t effect you if you didn’t. you’ll be glad you don’t have to navigate to you project folders anymore.

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Software : Revit Architecture
Level : Beginner
Description : This tutorial covers the different methods of creating 3d geometry in Revit. I explain the pro and cons of using solid extrusion, Blend, Revolve, and sweep. These are explained within a massing object but apply to all families.

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Software : Revit Architecture
Description : This tutorial covers how to make face based families, change a family category, and make voids. face based families are pretty handy for a few reasons. a big one though is that they do do delete when you erase the host object (this is not the case with wall based and floor based) Also they are easy to move around, re-host and rotate.

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Modifier : Displace
Works on: Shapes, Meshes, Polys, Patches, NURBS
3ds Max Description :The Displace modifier acts as a force field to push and reshape an object’s geometry. You can apply its variable force directly from the modifier gizmo, or from a bitmapped image.
Also See :3ds Max - Modeling with images

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