Hi. Jon. Thank you for sending testing license so quickly. I am enjoying testing with ggRvt
Our firm often create sloped wall, column, and roof for design reason. It’s not easy to create these complicated form in Revit. My idea is to create basic structural geometry using ggRvt. So far, so good. I list up some questions.
Q1. ggRvtCPD
ggRvtCPD is not linked with that of Revit’s family and type. So, even though I used the profiles in ggRvt, I have to change family and type in Revit so that steel connection can work. If the number element imported is a few, that’s not a big deal, but if it’s the case with structural framing, it’s time taking to change the family type of every element. As the project will go further, there will happen change with structure and form, which means whenever change is needed, I should change the family type of each structural element every time. Is there any good way of getting around it?
It seem like it doesn’t include every profile of steel structure. I’m working in Korea. I cannot but use CreateProfile?. Currently, only AISC has full profile from column to channel, purlin, angle, and so on. Is there any future plan to expand the profile?
Q2. Live Link
IFC is good strategy, of course. I think, however, better track is on “Live Link”. As you guys know, Archicad and Tekla Structure release their grasshopper plug-ins to link rhino and their applications. This is awesome. (It’s also true that they have some bugs to be fixed). Architects using Archicad and structural engineers using Tekla can share same basic geometry created by Rhino and Grasshopper and even though you have some change with a geometry, you don’t have change or recreate steel connection. Jon. This is just suggestion. As far as I know, nobody has created Live Link or Live Connection plug-in to link Grasshopper and Revit. if somebody can make it, it will be really awesome.
Q3. General Questions
I attached gh, rvt files and some screenshot images.
Thanks for a great post. Here’s some of my thoughts and suggestions for you to consider. Let me know if you agree or disagree.
Yes, it’s fair that my plugin hasn’t done a great job at aggregating similar types within a family when generating in Revit. This is something I have a strategy to implement. But typically users would already have the types (nested within a family) loaded in Revit, and if you use a consistent naming convention this will be used when my plugin imports. If you try this and it doesn’t work, let me know. In the revit project you posted, I didn’t see families loaded.
I am planning on opening up the profile catalog. Shortly it will be a set of IFC files (and you can redirect it to your own folder). If you can share the dimensions of Korean profiles I will gladly add them (and you can also generate them as per here: GeometryGym custom profiles)
I have a contrary point of view on the benefits of a live link. Sure, it works fast on the simple, limited number of parts shown in their demo models, but it slows to a lag on a real size project. You posted a sample project, how does the tekla live link perform with this size model? Of course it is in the best interest for Graphisoft and Trimble to have their application running the entire time with Rhino. I have no such motivation. And with Revit, even dynamo has a run button to try and discourage constant model manipulation. My strategy also permits users to run rhino/Grasshopper without even having Tekla, Revit or ARCHICAD installed.
I attached some comments and suggestions into the gh script explaining the reasons behind the behaviour or some suggestions.
Let me know if this helps. I look forward to discussing further,
I have the name of structural columns and beams matched with those of Revit family. It works! I also have the name of materials matched. IFC is imported exactly mapped with same material as Revit. Perfect!
We are currently working on creating profile catalog according to Korean Standard. I have read the article that you have linked, but I don’t exactly understand how it works. I think I should place ifc file somewhere created from gh files that you have uploaded at forum. If then, In which folder should I place it? The article of the forum did not articulate it. And what is ifc.json file? Probably, it’s better to send Korean Standard to you, but I think we need to be comfortable with as many issues of ggRvt as possible before we decide to purchase license.
Actually, we have used Revit since 2006. It works great for creating simple form, but it’s not easy to design irregular forms of architecture. So, we have been researching ways of achieving our design quality. Switch to Archicad+Grasshopper was one of them. We also tested with many other grasshopper plug-ins such as Grevit, but it makes too many errors too often. Meanwhile, we find out ggRvt. Some of staffs at my firm have been testing with it and we all are very satisfied with it. We have a quick meeting to discuss about ggRvt in the morning and everybody agrees with that it will definitely not only enhance our design quality but also save our time significantly. It seems like you have developed this tool for long time, but I don’t understand why there are not many people aware of this great tool. We had to spend a lot of time to figure out how each component works because we could not find out enough information about ggRvt. We have some wish list (For example, I see MassType component and it seems possible to create Revit Mass from ggRvt, but ggRvt Instance panel does not have a component creating Mass), but we can continue to talk about this later on. We are satisfied enough for now.
As for Live Link, the detail works such as steel connection are done only by Tekla. They are not shared by Grasshopper. That’s why slowing down is not a big issue. We don’t trust demonstration video done by application company. We always tested ourselves whatever it is. The reason that we still have attachment to Revit though is because Archicad and Tekla has their own problem and issues and switching costs anyway. Design achievement is our number one criteria in choosing software and if ggRvt can help us with it, we don’t have to consider other options.
Could you give me more details of how to create customize profile catalogue? If it does not work even though we will spend more time on it, I will send Korean Standard profiles to you.
I’ve also attached below a modified version of the gh script with some instructions about where to save the baked IFC file to have it show in the catalog next time that Rhino is started.
The tools have evolved over a period of 13 years, since I started using Rhino3. Armed with a double degree in structural engineering and computer science, I developed tools to help facilitate my work starting with rhino command scripting, rhinoscript plugins through to c# rhino and grasshopper tools. The revit exchange has been developed during the past 7 years. I have not yet been aggressive in marketing and selling the tools, and if you didn’t encounter the tools when searching for revit in the Rhino and Grasshopper forums, then seems I need to improve my SEO ability. The lack of documentation is a byproduct of thus far being a very small development company, and it’s something I am looking to address. In terms of mass instances, then the common create instance component works with various type components as an overload.