I’m the greenest of newbies and hoping for some advice from experienced users in drawing for construction, who need to generate walls with layers and eventually produce shop drawings from these.
I’m looking for a design tool that enables me to define a custom layered wall and to then automatically draw it up by either length and width or to a drawn curve. I think visual arq can do this, though I haven’t tried it out quite yet, in part because because once the trial runs out its quite expensive. Are there other tools or plugins that provide this kind of use for drafting or drawing that I could try out? Is there a way to do this within stock Rhino 8 with Grasshopper that just doesn’t provide easy UI? What is your experience and opinion?
There’s no BIM software for architects on a decent price in my opinion.
Revit, which is very expensive, has the best and most intuitive UI, for both drawing and layouting. It support NUBS geometry and there’s also Rhino.Inside available for it. But the price is very unfriendly.
I wish VisualARQ would be improved with a better UI and tools, making it similar to Revit.
BIM software draws the wall layers in floor plans and sections based on the wall type and in accordance to Industry Foundation Classes. So you need some IFC compatible software…
So, just simple lines is not what i’m looking for. Being able to designate a framing layer with stud spacing so that someone can actually build the wall.
Hence why i’m hoping someone with experience with this will chime in.
for instance like this in chief architect
placing a predefined wall calculates all the components and their spacing for the parameters given, and the material type and quantity.
But in real life walls are usually standardized products, they come with an ISO number, which can be set as a IFC parameter and the manufacturer will produce them based on that.
If you manufacture and you have custom components then using Rhino and Grasshopper makes a lot of sense. Because Rhino is a very strong CAD software and for repetitive tasks or higher complexity you can automate the process using Grasshopper.
And the workflow is as you describe it. First draw the geometry in 3D and later layout the pieces in 2D (as shop drawings) so you can cut them.
Ah ok. I was hoping to be able to use an existing tool and modify the walls to be able to achieve this result. So, using rhino/grasshopper, I will need to draw and program for automation each component of our builds from scratch manually, the walls, the foundation, the roof?
You can also use Revit, to keep your project very well aligned and documented in layouts.
Revit supports complex geometry and also adaptive components for doors windows, it has dedicated tools for drawing floors, ceilings, roofs, stairs and ramps, curtain walls, railings . But it is not so flexible with freeform modelling as Rhino is.
In Revit, with adaptive components you can define certain parameters that control your geometry in different situations. And this is done without programming, it’s just locking your geometry between construction planes.
In fact, the most commonly used combination in the building industry is Rhino & Revit and it can be used starting from concept stage and up to construction stage.
Also, it is very common for 3D models to be passed between those two software. A detailed model in Revit is double-checked by the builder in Rhino. And it is also common for the builder to build based on the 3D, without layouting or printing.
And using Rhino.Inside Revit is one of the most efficient way of working.
