Happy Holidays! See you in 2013!

Greetings Network!
I wanted to take the time and wish you all a happy holidays and a happy New Year!

2012 was a big year for The Proving Ground...

This past year, I released LunchBox which has become a popular Grasshopper add-on for productivity, workflow, and generative techniques.  Look for this plug-in to grow in 2013!   The Revit API diary, which focuses on the use of IronPython and Vasari, has also grown in popularity and has been cited as an important resource for scripting in Revit.  The Proving Ground has also moved into the world of social media with a Facebook page that is growing daily.  In less than a year, the page has amassed 1,136 'likes'! (the memes are especially popular).

Of course, 2012 has also brought many personal and professional changes.  I left my friends at NBBJ in Los Angeles to set up an outpost for CASE here in my lifelong home in the Midwest:  Omaha, Nebraska.

And finally... 2012 has given The Proving Ground its own domain:  TheProvingGround.org.

Look for more original content from this blog/wiki/social site in the New Year!  Thank you all for visiting, liking, and supporting The Proving Ground!

Cheers!
-Nate

UNL Arch 223: Assignment 03

This is the the final of three assignments for the Fall Arch 223 undergraduate course at UNL...

This assignment transitioned the class from freeform modeling in Rhino (Assignments 01 and 02) to parametric modeling and BIM with Revit. The philosophy of the assignment was to introduce students to Revit with a selection of specific techniques and a focused design-based exploration.  The assignment itself was inspired by some of the student work found at Mark Green's ReThinking BIM Blog...

Revit is, of course, a massive program and I wanted to ensure that there was a design focus for a software that is typically associated with production and documentation. The design exercise was to design a  'bridge' by first developing parametric features such as adaptive components and pattern-based curtain systems.

They then had to document the design by developing a sheet set that fully leveraged the information they embedded into their components and families.  The final deliverable was a single DWF file containing drawings, diagrams, renderings, schedules, and a navigable 3D model.

 Great work students! 

 ... and, once again, fantastic lab instruction by the course TAs Matt Neaderhiser and Dan Williamson!

Student:  Charles Weak

Student:  Greg Preston

Student:  Sarah Schlegelmilch

Student:  Jati Zunaibi