Hi all, I am trying to use Rhino to model steel structure building. Is there a way I could use grasshopper to model steel joints (base plates specifically and maybe pin joints) instead of hand modelling them through Rhino?
Image attached shows CHS pipes intersecting where I would like the joint to be.
Thank you in advance
The MultiPipe tool in grasshopper is very good at doing complex pipe joints like this.
Although the result is not quite the same thing as doing the operation manually in Rhino.
This component spits out SubDs
It would be a pain to achieve this with boolean operations in Grasshopper since they are slow and often fail in my experience. But I’m sure this problem has been solved by many people smarter than me, and would not be surprised if there are plugins out there for this specifically.
Assuming that you are after a rational “real-life” AEC LBS solution AND if you have a complex (or worst: random kinda a Graph due to 3d proximity and the likes) I would strongly suggest to solve it via a classic Mero KK System. Shown an over simplified indicative random layout where balls are not shown (and cones are rather unrealistic plus there’s no sleeves present).
However you should solve clash situations (between tubes, cones, sleeves, bolts etc etc) solely using Graph Connectivity (VV/VE/EV) and trigonometry.
Plus: if your collections (tube axis) are big you should use Instance References for the components of the System (notably cones and sleeves) otherwise you’ll end up with a VERY BIG R file (for no reason at all).
These are more pragmatic takes on a Mero KK System:
All that before the Envelope plays ball: where things become far more complicated/challenging.
As a structural engineer I don’t think Rhino is the best solution for steel connection modeling. So I don’t recommend it.
Depending on the structural solution, the idea of @PeterFotiadis is good.
But if you want to use cutted / welded joints with different plates, gussets and thongues bolted together than use Tekla Structures. For the calculation I recommend IDEA StatiCa.
The complete and parametric solution in connection with Grasshopper could be to paramatrize some connections (Plates, welds, bolts) as geometries / lines than you can use them partially in Rhino and send to the adequate softwares like Tekla and IDEA StatiCa.
