Ok, here goes!
I’ve spent some time developing a set of components to simplify the process of creating Grasshopper styles for doors and windows, to be downloaded on Food4Rhino: OpeningTools
I find the styles feature of VisualARQ incredible, since it allows you to create almost any imaginable type of parametric building component. The flexibility of Grasshopper is very difficult, or impossible, to integrate in a built-in window and door editor.
But, to create window and door styles from scratch is a tedious and repetitive process so I wanted to simplify some of the steps that are always necessary. It started with a simple calculation of wall alignments and grew to a complete package with features that are missing in the internal editor, for example custom frame profiles, custom opening profiles, precise pivot points, 2D and 3D symbols and custom transoms and mullions.
The iterative method for window generation in OpeningTools might not be completely logical at first glance, so I’ve provided some demo files and simple documentation. I’m not a developer and did this in my spare time, so it’s not recommended to use the components in production work. Also, there are still some things that are not working completely like I want. However, it would be nice with some feedback so I hopefully can find time to make it more stable in the future!
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I see what you’re doing here, @studioselva. I’ve been working through some similar challenges with creating a custom library windows and doors, this is really fantastic stuff. I’ll take a look and provide feedback.
Thanks for sharing your work!
@studioselva
One quick note: I think you may have uploaded “openingtoolsdemofiles.zip” instead of the components to the “OpeningTools 0.2” link on the Food4Rhino page.
Or do I need a second cup of coffee this morning?
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Thank you! I’ve updated the download section so it should now contain the .ghpy file.
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I’ve gotten to spend a little time with these tools and can happily report that they’re incredibly handy.
Saves an enormous amount of time and also retains complete flexibility. Once I’ve finished adapting this to a project, I’ll share the output scripts.
@studioselva Thanks for sharing your work, really fantastic stuff.
Thank you so much! Please mail me any feedback or suggestions. There are some things that are not working exactly as I want yet, mostly regarding the 2D symbols, but I’m sure I’ve overlooked a lot of missing features and bugs.
Hi @studioselva I’ve run into an odd bug.
Openingtools GH components appear to cause the definiton to bake any geometry that passes through any of the OT components. Changing any parameters causes it to bake anything downstream of that parameter.
I’ve been able to replicate this with the template files provided from food4rhino.
Any guesses what’s going on?
Hi Clayton,
Yes, this glitch happened to me once or twice, and it also affected other components. Restarting Rhino helped, but this is of course not a long term solution. Thanks for letting me know that it wasn’t a one-time occurrence, and I’ll have a look at the code.
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