Hi. This question is about creating a good workflow for rhino in architecture as I have been unfortunate to mainly having worked 2D in my previous job and now feels like I have forgotten everything.
The main question is how people do with doors/windows in order to create a non-destructive workflow. What I do is that I draw a floorplan, then use the slab-command to extrude a uniform wall of say 2,5m high. Then I draw a roof etc and create a layer that I call “cutbox” that I use for mapping out the windows etc and then do a bolean divide. Then I reduce the thickness of what is left and I get basic windows, doors that fits into the holes. The issue becomes when I later decide to change the height of this extrusion or change the windows etc. Other softwares uses negative spaces so it is easy to change the openings but I do not believe Rhino suppors this. What I usually do in this case is to split the walls I have previously created using the split command in plan and make a new wall but I am thinking that there must be a nicer way.
In plain Rhino, you can use sub-object selection to move the surfaces of the openings to new locations. A plug-in such as VisualArq lets you move the window or door as a separate object.
-wim
I googled subobject but it appears there is no negative space, just a sort of group?
Yes visual arq has this but was hoping that there is a simpler way. What I do now is that I save the cutting for last but also a copy so I can redo windows but it feels like a not great way to do things.
No, sub-object selection simply lets you select certain surfaces of a polysurface and then transform only these surfaces. This would let you combine the use of MoveHole for moving the hole in the wall and after that move the window object. You can select the window object and then sub-object select all surfaces that create the hole and then move these together.
If you always use the same window, it would also be possible to make a Grasshopper definition that would help with all this.
-wim