@JQL said:
Hi @topologic do you think we will have time, during the workshop, to deviate into possible variations of your approach?
If you mean on an individual basis, it depends how comfortable you are with it. I was planning to finish in 90 minutes and suggest to participants to do a simpler variation in the last 30 minutes where they colour-code the floor of the Cells by how much they vary from the areas specified in the CSV space programme.
Do you have something more specific in mind?
look forward to the workshop. Possible to extend your sverchok/topologic definition above by showing how one could apply a simple blenderbim ifc wall type to the exterior envelope, for example?
@topologic said:
Do you have something more specific in mind?
Not at this moment. I'm sure I'll have during the workshop.
@theoryshaw said:
look forward to the workshop. Possible to extend your sverchok/topologic definition above by showing how one could apply a simple blenderbim ifc wall type to the exterior envelope, for example?
Sadly we are not there yet. While Homemaker has the python code to convert Topologic entities to IFC, we do not yet have that as a sverchok node. Obviously, you can thicken the faces into a Cell and that can be ready to be converted to IFC using BlenderBIM itself.
No problem. Kind of figured. :) Look forward to these worlds colliding, however.
@topologic said:
I will send you files etc to get you started.
did you end up sending these?.. i might have missed it.
@theoryshaw said:
@topologic said:
I will send you files etc to get you started.
did you end up sending these?.. i might have missed it.
No not yet, sorry. Will send later tonight.
I'd very interested but unfortunately I'm traveling these hours, so I won't be able to join... Will you share a recording link afterwards here?
@LaurensJN said:
I'd very interested but unfortunately I'm traveling these hours, so I won't be able to join... Will you share a recording link afterwards here?
Yes I will. Just in case you had not registered for the webinar. Here is what I sent them:
Please find below a link to a ZIP archive containing some startup files that you will need for tomorrow’s workshop. To prepare for this workshop, you need to:
Download Blender 2.93 (http://blender.org)
Download and install the latest Sverchok (https://github.com/nortikin/sverchok) The way I do it is as I click the Green code button and download the ZIP archive. Do NOT unzip.
(Optional) Download and install the latest BlenderBIM developer build (https://github.com/IfcOpenShell/IfcOpenShell/releases). Do NOT unzip. This will not be covered in this workshop.
Download and install the latest Topologic (v0.6.0.5 as of this writing: https://github.com/wassimj/topologicsverchok/releases/). Do NOT unzip.
(Optional) Download and install the latest build of Homemaker (https://github.com/brunopostle/homemaker-addon/releases). Do NOT unzip. This will not be covered in this workshop.
If you have downloaded all add-ons, the order of activation should be:
a. Sverchok
b. BlenderBIM
c. Topologic
d. Homemaker
To install an add-on, open Blender, go to Edit->Preferences then click on Add-ons then Install… and then point to the downloaded ZIP archive. Once it appears, click the checkbox to activate it.
Test that everything works: Open the TopologicWorkshop-Start.blend file and check if you see initial geometry and initial nodes on the right. Also, check that the Topologic menu appears under “Add”
We will follow the tutorial in the included PDF file. Feel free to familiarise yourself with the steps listed in it.
The webinar will include time for Q&A after the end of the tutorial.
Download the material ZIP archive from: https://bit.ly/30zGRhw
@topologic said:
- (Optional) Download and install the latest BlenderBIM developer build (https://github.com/IfcOpenShell/IfcOpenShell/releases). Do NOT unzip. This will not be covered in this workshop.
I have a doubt in this step. There are two versions of BlenderBIM one is for python 3.7 and the other is for python 3.9.
How do I decide which one to donload? How do I know which version of python I'm using?
EDIT: No worries, tried both and only 3.9 worked.
@JQL said:
How do I decide which one to donload? How do I know which version of python I'm using?
EDIT: No worries, tried both and only 3.9 worked.
Yes I should’ve mentioned that since Blender 2.93 uses python 3.9, everything will have to use python 3.9
I'm having issues. It seems topologic didn't install correctly:
EDIT:
Again, nevermind. Strangely enough I opened it again and it now worked:
Turn it off and then on again is always good advice! ?. But seriously, it did not activate because sverchok was not activated for some reason. A restart must’ve activated it.
Now I have it inactive again: topologic nodes are highlighted red and there's no topologic under add menu.
EDIT:
Extra info
I tried disabling and enabling and the error poped up. I tried restarting blender and the error poped up again. I had to uninstal Topologic and reinstall it and now it works again... I won't close Blender again until the workshop starts. :)
@JQL said:
I tried disabling and enabling and the error poped up. I tried restarting blender and the error poped up again. I had to uninstal Topologic and reinstall it and now it works again... I won't close Blender again until the workshop starts. :)
Topologic complains if it is disabled and re-enabled in the same session, but if you installed activated Sverchok, installed and activated BlenderBIM and installed and activated Topologic then it should all work fine. You can quit Blender and restart it and all the add-ons will be activated and ready for you.
May I ask: Are you new to Blender?
Not entirely new...
I use it for some workflows that are related to the conceptual stages of our models, and I have modeled with it in the past but only for testing purposes. I didn't follow up on that as I find that accurate modeling with it is very awkward and feels cumbersome to me. There is also a couple of other features that I dislike.
Sverchok and now Topologic might change it totally for me though.
@JQL said:
Not entirely new...
I use it for some workflows that are related to the conceptual stages of our models, and I have modeled with it in the past but only for testing purposes. I didn't follow up on that as I find that accurate modeling with it is very awkward and feels cumbersome to me. There is also a couple of other features that I dislike.
Sverchok and now Topologic might change it totally for me though.
Great :) Hopefully it will hold up until the workshop. I need to look at whether the configuration files for topologicsverchok are not 100% correct. One should be able to disable and re-enable it with no issues.
Thanks a lot, it was great! Very well prepared.
Hi everyone. Here is the link to the videos of the Topologic workshop in 4 parts. The link to download the material including the final workflow is displayed inside the first video
https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLomMn11gzPwSjM3d4QVC2WBxgxOsHonNM
@topologic said:
Hi everyone. Here is the link to the videos of the Topologic workshop in 4 parts. The link to download the material including the final workflow is displayed inside the first video
Thanks for posting the video for peoples like me not at same timezone :) Very useful to understand the workflow and capabilities indeed !
First thing catch my attention is only 3 peoples use Linux VS 28 use Windows. Had not installed any Windows probably > 10 years at home, the last Windows is Vista on a laptop (broken long ago) :D Hope Topologic would be installed in Linux / FreeCAD easier in future.
Then the attempt mentioned to generate wall with thickness from 'CellComplex' and discussions at other threads. Hope some effort can work together - in FreeCAD, one can make a simple 2d Sketch of the CellComplex, and use ArchWall to make the wall with thickness. The same Sketch can also be extruded to make the 'CellComplex'.
Thanks @paullee . As far as I know, installing Topologic is exactly the same on Windows, MacOS, and Linux. You download the ZIP and install it as an add-on in Blender like all other add-ons. Just a couple of clicks. The prior difficulties are all gone since we switched to pybind11
If you want to use it in FreeCAD, you can use it as a pure python module but there isn’t a GUI workbench for it. If you are interested in that, you can grab it out of homemaker and just import it and start using it in a python script.
ArchWall etc in FreeCAD is essentially the same. We both use opencascade breps. The problem is not in thickening a generic wall. The problem is in how to create the best and most conformant representations for IFC.
Thanks for the video @topologic .
It was very difficult for me to follow up everything, while trying to find my way around Blender and also discussing with the Energy Efficiency engineer sitting next to me. The videos will be great.
@JQL said:
Thanks for the video @topologic .
It was very difficult for me to follow up everything, while trying to find my way around Blender and also discussing with the Energy Efficiency engineer sitting next to me. The videos will be great.
Yes. It is difficult to watch the webinar and actually do it at the same time. I usually listen and take notes and then do the steps later at my own pace.
Let me know if you are planning to use Topologic for Energy Analysis!
We are. I'm planning on changing my conceptual workflow so that the iteraction between architectural concept and energy analysis is streamlined enough that it can actually affect design decisions while we are designing. I feel the current process we have is a bit awkward, where we have to finish a design and then test it out, while we should be able to test it out much faster without finishing it . We should analyse while iterating as today this should be a condition for good design.
I'm also thinking, and I think we have largely discussed that already. that conceptually a building is a set of spaces that form volumes and apertures that connect them, just as Topologic is able to describe it. Dealing with that with direct modeling is very fast and easy.
It just gets more complex if the volumes are actual wall, door and window models.
It would be great if we would be capable of using topologic to deal with those building elements and thicken the best design option we have automatically without having us loosing time with doing that kind of stuff at the initial stages of the project.
If this process would be streamlined we could invest more in design thinking and less in execution at the initial stages.
At more advanced stages I'm not that worried about topologic as direct modelling is what I need in order to finetune all building elements. Design thinking is no longer that much concerned in the general idea and organization of the building but on the actual design of it's elements and topologic might overcomplicate things.
So I'm willing to see how I could have this workflow where playing around with volumes and apertures for a week would be able to pull several conceptual designs, while iterating with energy efficiency and then, at the end of the week I would click a button and present something that acually resembles a building with walls that people can understand that is able to get built, instead of a set of colored lego bricks on top of each other.
The problem I have is that I don't have much time to play with this.
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