I can see that I really would enjoy learning grasshopper but not sure if its something I can use within my career. I am currently a design coordinator in a Construction company and did 2 years as a Archi assistant. But I want to get more involved in modelling etc.
Are there anyone who have a career with similar background to mine?
Many thanks!
I guess you could use Grasshopper (and modelling in general) as quick concept generation tool.
I started out after my degree working as an Architectural Assistant, moving into design/bim coordination, and I found Grasshopper to be an extremely useful skill. I even wished I’d known it at University to be honest.
Things I used Grasshopper for
It’s fun! Hi Callum, that sounds awesome! Are you still a design/bim coordinator now? i take it its an architectural practice. (and I bet it earns better than the architects there 
?)
I also wish i found out about it during Uni as I mainly used revit so very limited in modelling but more in technical. But ever since I found out about Dynamo, I learnt the basic of it but found out that grasshopper offers an even better platform. (so now have to relearn the interface from dynamo)
Overall, would you say its a high paying career to pursue equivalent to Architects path at least? 
No I am a software developer for McNeel 
I’ve worked in/with Architecture, Structural Engineering and Interior Design.
In the UK it was much better paid (I also went home on time) because you weren’t constrained by RIBA payment bands and at least at the time, it was quite rare to find someone who could use Revit/Grasshopper/Dynamo/Rhino quite well. I would still imagine it is, but I’ve not worked in the UK for many years.
This is what I found, especially when dealing with Geometry, Grasshopper was much faster. I actually found it faster, and easier to do everything in Rhino.Inside.Revit than Dynamo. Although I did use a lot of python scripts and pyRevit too which was fantastic.
In the UK I believe you can far outpace an Architects salary quite easy and quickly if you can manipulate Revit (using Dynamo/GH/Code) effectively. My last job there was helping with Stadia, and when you can help generate and analyse the seating bowl, you are very useful.
A lot of the reasons why I believe this is true is that if you can quickly generate/automate buildings, drawings, BOMs etc you can move jobs which would not be cost effective or feasible for the company comfortably into the realm of possibility for them.
That being said, I never chased salary (per say), I only chased what I enjoyed, and tried to find ways to do what I enjoyed that paid well.
Oh wow, where did you learn to use grasshopper/dynamo/scripting when you first started out? and ideas of real projects to work on?
I was considering of taking an additional masters degree in computational design etc. I thought it can be a good way to learn with the people in the course as it feels like I am walking by myself atm with not much people taking interest in parametric modelling/ visual programming. It would also give a project to use this on
Currently working for a contractor in the UK because I saw how awful it was if I were to continue into Archi pathway. I also enjoy aspects of DM but I am seeing if I can go into BIM/Computational designer as I can see I would really enjoy the modelling/poblem solving aspects of it. (chasing the balance of 50% money, 50% enjoyment)
I started in Dynamo. I wrote down steps for how to do tasks I did regularly, and tried to replace each workflow with a dynamo script. Then I eventually started to replace them with python.
For Grasshopper I started to try to rewrite dynamo scripts in Grasshopper. It took some time but I’m pretty stubborn. The main ones I started with were for Stadia.
Facades are a really good way to learn GH, they’re fun to do and teach you a lot about data trees and geometry.
Here is a list of Facades in order of difficulty, try creating these 
If this an option for you’ll it’ll give you a lot of really useful knowledge, friends, opportunities and time to learn. Not only that but when you apply for jobs you look nicely certified.
I hope some day you can have 100% of both
Thanks for taking the time to answer these! I have a grasp of what I could potentially aim for.
I guess what I will do for the following year of my career is learning Grasshopper/Dynamo in my spare time and transition into a BIM role within a design firm.
Is there like a learning group etc where people can come together to work on something-- similar to a school? rather than a forum with individual problems
It’s a good idea, I’m not aware of it. It sounds like a fun thread to create and ask about, and if there isn’t something, you could start such a group
The good thing about learning any form of programming is the ability to learn more about causality. 
A.) Nobody knows the future.
B.) Being particular good at something does not necessarily help your career. It can be due to very stupid reasons why your boss is your boss or why your coworker is earning more money than you.
C.) If you think you are good at something, you might end up in such a forum.
life will give you unexpected pivots, I am an architect, working now on healthcare project and I use Grasshopper, Dynamo, pyRevit everyday! and I use them for design coordination, not design itself, so everything you learn will either 1- Help you or 2- give you a skill that will eventually help you.
Yeah, seeing loads of people I heard in Software engineering earning nice figures made me want to join in but I do not want to waste my degree I spent nearly a decade on. Hence I am looking at mixing the 2:
Architecture + Coding
Hi Tay, funny enough, I am actually going into a new role as a DC next month in healthcare as well for a contractor. My role will be on-site based.
Can I ask what kind of things you use grasshopper/dynamo to coordinate with?
I know about more technical based ones like facade area or energy efficiency calculations.
Our GC is using Dusti robotics for construction layout, as well as Canvas robotics for mudding/taping / finishing. We also considering the use of Hyperframe for toolless stud framing (Google them) I think rhino can also help in rationalizing curved walls, ceilings , segmentation. You can also build QAQC tools to run on the models for overhead clearances, study parapet heights / fall protection / MEP pathways and clash detection. These are possibilities and I am sure you will find more once you get settled into your new job.
Our current GC economics is driven by subcontractors but I think there is a huge opportunity to have the GC to be the master builder again.
You can waste your degree in architecture by working under-payed as an architect for more than 40h a week, no matter if you code or not.
This is actually likely, most architects I know are in this situation. Its alarming, especially nowadays with this high inflation.
I went all-in and switched my professions twice without caring about my degree.
There are always 2 major groups, one will always point out the relevance of the right academic career, and those who care about your performance only. I can talk about this all day, but you need to learn dealing with this then.
With just a bit of knowing Grasshopper, you are far away from becoming a software engineer. This is a ongoing process, and even after 15 years of real programming experience I still feel overwhelmed on a daily basis. But I find it to be very rewarding to solve very complex problems.
If you don’t see it yet, you might see the relevance of money and the availability of time, if you need to feed and care your own family. (Assuming that you are not at this point yet). Then a job with high flexibility and good payment can really increase your wellbeing. Although money of course is and should never be the motivation.
You learnt a lot, you have a very powerful degree, switching careers is never a waste. It’s very powerful to understand how the AEC world works and be able to automate it. It’s much more useful than a good programmer or grasshopper user who knows nothing about AEC or construction.
This is extremely good advice.
Wow, did not know this method existed. What if the surface was bumpy, would that affect the accuracy or does it use a global coordinate system?
This sounds similar to some of the works I’ve done for naviswork clash detection
hopefully not bumpy, but it get calibrated on site to get the CAD layout aligned to the existing conditions.
Is it true that software engineers are also getting targeted by AI? Writing a lot of the coding work.
So far my best use of AI is better auto-complete and writing some basic or simple code (1 function with ~ 10 lines inside of it). The code it generates always needs reviewing so I only ever use if it can spit out a chunk of text for me to save me writing duplicate-ish code (e.g switch statements or long ifs).
The most impressive thing I’ve had AI assist me with is SVG Spec, its suggestions were pretty good. If it was smarter, I’d use it more, but it doesn’t seem to be.
AI isn’t a concern to me, and I don’t know any programmers who are concerned.
