Hello,
Is it possible to use a Rhino block making a Grasshopper VA element definition? I want to use a regular block as a part of a component, but how? The block is not seen by the rest of components… What is wrong with it?
Regards, Jaro
Regards, Jaro
Hi Jaro,
From the screenhot I can see that the IfcTag component is red because you are linking a block definition to it, instead of a block instance.
Regarding your question, yes, you should be able to create a VisualARQ Grasshopper style that uses block definitions as components. For example, if you wanted to create a Railing sytle from a GH definition that uses the “Man3D” block definition (that comes with VA templates for the “Man” Element style) the definition should look something like this:
Hello Francesc,
I was doing so, but I didn’t work. The block is seen as a geometry and I can use it as an element of a definition, except IFC tagging… Also block decomposing doesn’t work… The message is “1. Solution exception:Odwołanie do obiektu nie zostało ustawione na wystąpienie obiektu.” which means (I think) “there is no object calling set for object existence”, such a philosophical sentence 
Regards, Jaro
Hi Jaro,
There is an error when trying to assign an ifcType to a Block Instance. I’ll let you know when we fix this.
On the other hand, the Decompose Block Definition Component returns error because it requires a Block definition as input, and not a Block Instance:
Thanks, Francesc!
For now it is enough to decompose a block, I can assign an IFC property to its geometry. It helps a lot 
Regards,
Hi @jerry.bakowski, I’m glad to say we have fixed this issue in VisualARQ 2.11, just released!
I was able to create a block definition with a VA grasshopper style, but it seems that the block is converted to geometry. I’m not able to see the blocks created inside a grasshopper style in a va table or in the block manager. When I explode the VA element everything is coming in as geometry.
The grasshopper style is outputing blocks. The geo component keeps the block definition so the output on the grasshopper side is not the issue.
Once I create the object, none of the blocks appear in the table.
The blocks don’t appear in the document. The block manager on the right is blank. Block definitions and instances need to be baked to the document, but I assume that is what the grasshoper style should be doing?
I’ve attached the files for reference.
block-test.zip (162.5 KB)
Hi @Benjamin_Paolo_Fortu eventhough you can connect block instances to the Geometry output param, these will be turned into geometry when you create a Grasshopper style from that definition.
The option to have Block Instances as output parameters has not been implemented so far. I’ll let you know when we do it.
Got it. The marketing material states that VisualArq 3 supports blocks and there are a couple of block tools in the grasshopper plugin.
I’m not sure what the point of using a block would be if it’s turned back into geometry?
I guess what you are saying is you can bring in blocks explode it and use the geometry. You will loose all the data and it will no longer be a block instance.
The point of blocks is that you can edit one and everything else edits. You can also count block instances.
@Benjamin_Paolo_Fortu What VisualARQ can do so far in relation to use blocks with Grasshopper Styles is the option to call block definitions by name (which can be an input parameter), in the Grasshopper Styles.
But still we need to implement 2 more things:
- Use block instances as input parameters
- Use block instances as output parameters. So if you explode the object, these parts will be still blocks in the model.
@fsalla
Please also
2.1) VisualARQ objects as output parameters. Explode to VisualARQ objects.
This would allow the creation of gh-based assemblies.
@Toni_Osterlund That’s also planned for future versions: VisualARQ objects as input and output parameters in Grasshopper Styles.
I didn’t see anything to get a block from a file. In order for that to work you would need to have all the blocks loaded. I created a c# script to get a file based on a path and file name and then extract the geometry. This is essentially the same functionality, except that you can get geometry from files.
Correct.
That’s cool!
We have also the request in our wish-list to detect File Path and Data Path components for VisualARQ Grasshopper Styles, so I add your vote.