For all those interesting in text prompting Architectural Massings with OpenAI key in Grasshopper from images and text. Happy New Year
Youtube Link to highlighs: https://youtu.be/pLKCUGg9qMU?si=gnH0g6m3tgO0A4LD
Highlights of new research and development
The vCAD4 STEP Series is a modular Grasshopper pipeline (C# script nodes) that generates high-LOD architectural massing fast—driven by a single Master CFG string (numeric design knobs) plus an ArchitecturePrompt (design intent).
The core workflow
STEP_00 — Engine State / Defaults
Initializes a portable JSON STATE (version, seed, cfg/sfg, options, logs).
Gives you a stable base to build an entire parametric “product engine.”
STEP_01b — Prompt → CFG Overrides
Converts your ArchitecturePrompt into deterministic cfg overrides using only the keys later steps read.
Merges overrides into the master cfg so the model actually changes (not just the text).
Outputs: CFG_OVERRIDE, CFG_MERGED, and clean logs/debug for auditing.
STEP_02 — Floorplates + Planes (Lightweight)
Generates podium plates + twin-tower plates as curves (fast) using advanced math controls:
superellipse / star-section profiles
twist + taper
stepbacks
Fourier-style wobble
tower spacing + proportions
Also outputs level planes/centers and skybridge anchors.
Critical performance design: curves/planes first—no heavy booleans here.
STEP_03 — Massing Breps
Converts plates into clean lofted + capped Breps for podium/towers.
Generates a skybridge solid.
Includes safe downsampling controls to prevent crashes.
Why it’s “The Wickerson Way”
This system is built like a real production generator:
stateful + inspectable
prompt-steerable but deterministic
performance-aware (light geometry early, heavy operations later)
designed to expand into façade systems, perforations, mullions, exports, packaging, and productization.
What you can generate
podium + tower civic landmarks
counter-twisted twin towers
stepped ziggurat/brutalist terraces
courtyard/ring massing (as you extend the archetype switch)
“Hadid-style” fluid torsion and “Gehry-style” shard energy via prompt-driven cfg overrides
Get it / learn it
Explore more tools, templates, and products at https://www.wickersonstudios.com