Create curved Thin shell structure in Grashopper and interface with Autodesk Robot Structural software

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Jon Mirtschin on October 31, 2010 at 1:14pm

Hi Catchai,

Yes, it seems the panel creation can be tedious, I've been working on generating the panels in Grasshopper. There's a couple of examples at http://geometrygym.blogspot.com and you can download the plugin from http://www.geometrygym.com/downloads

I'm more than happy to help you get started with this.

Cheers,

Jon

Permalink Reply by chatchai on October 31, 2010 at 8:02pm

Dear Ron,

Many thanks.
I am very new to Rhiono environment and plugin.
How can I get start quickly? Can I buy your service ?

Most of my project will be dome and 3d free form house.

Thank you very much.

Chatchai

Permalink Reply by Kevin Berry on October 31, 2010 at 8:40pm

Jon/Chatchai,

Further to Jon's comments, I have found that Robot will generally only accept non planar panels as cladding elements (panels only to be used to apply loading to). Depending on the type of dome you are creating you may need to triangulate the elements if you are looking to create a concrete shell. I think you are still going to save lots of time using Jon's plugin for this purpose.

One other method which I have discussed with a colleague is to create a triangular panel mesh in Rhino and then import it into Robot. I haven't tried this for myself yet but may be worth a try.

Regards,

Kevin

Permalink Reply by Jon Mirtschin on October 31, 2010 at 10:20pm

Hi Kevin,

The diagram above with hex panels actually is generating cladding panels, if you look at the sides where the curvature is high there are a couple of panels there that are not being "filled" with a surface by Robot.

In the Oasys Gsa panel I have built into the routine that converts Rhino (or associated) mesh that it automatically triangulates quads that warp or have extreme shapes. Something similar may be done for Robot, although it obviously has some curved panels which are created by revolution (for one customers project we have segmented the revolved surface in Grasshopper to get planar panels).

Catchai,

I do work full time on the development of the tools, so I do charge commercial users a license fee (which includes full support and assistance from me). I normally grant users a month free license to evaluate the tools to ensure they will save their firm money, you can email me at jonm@geometrygym.com and I can help you with getting started.

Cheers,

Jon

Permalink Reply by chatchai on October 31, 2010 at 10:22pm

Great Jon,

I will contact you via email now.
Thanks

Chatchai

Permalink Reply by enrique soriano on January 19, 2011 at 10:24pm

Thank you!

very helpful!