The video shows a snippet of a tower form-finding process using Grasshopper, Galapagos, and Ecotect.
Custom Grasshopper components are used to send a tower mass to Ecotect and retrieve information via a DDE connection. Galapagos evaluates the tower analysis results and looks for shapes which have the lowest total radiation.
A low-poly shape is used for the purposes of speed in this video.
My lecture for the BIM Analytics symposium will demonstrate a series of methodologies for achieving a performance-driven design and collaboration process.
As a teaser... here is one technique that I will demonstrate showing an "ecology" of tools in use at once.
The tools are connected together and sharing information using inter-process communication.
More 'teasers' to come....
A change to the Rhino surface will update the connected software environments creating a dynamic design-analyze-document process.
1. Rhino (surface design)
2. Grasshopper (surface rationalization, inter-process communication control)
3. Ecotect (Solar analysis)
4. AutoCAD (2D Panel documentation)
Credit: [uto] were the first ones to figure out the process for connecting Grasshopper to Ecotect and were generous enough to provide me with information on how Ecotect could be accessed remotely using DDE. The particular components depicted in the image are custom made 'from scratch' to suit my specific needs.
For those of you interested in a similar kind of Ecotect-Grasshopper DDE link, please refer to [uto]'s Grasshopper plug-in: Geco.
For those of you interested in the COM connection to AutoCAD, you may find some sample code in my post here.
Info on my BIM Analytics lecture: Feedback Cloud
A large pitfall in any design process is the disconnect between design and analysis. Software, like Ecotect, gives the designer the ability to perform detailed environmental analysis on a design. However, it is sometimes difficult to create a useful feedback of the analysis information to inform the design.
As a strategy, it is possible to use inter-process communication to bridge the gap between design and analysis environments. A fantastic example of this are the brilliant GH to Ecotect components developed by [uto]
When Ecotect is launched, it automatically creates a Dynamic Data Exchange server which allows the program to be accessed by remote applications. By accessing the DDE server, you can send commands to Ecotect as well as request information. Ecotect must always be running in the background for this to work. While DDE is older technology (in dotNet, it was replaced by "remoting"), it works quite well in this context.
Thanks to Thomas from [uto] for cluing me in on Ecotect's use of DDE!
