This movie presents a real-life workflow scenario using the ARCHICAD - Grasshopper Live Connection Tool.
A series of earthquakes destroyed the historic center of Grisciano,
a small town in the centre of Italy in August 2016.
The town municipalities needed a solution to acquire the digital models of those buildings that were destroyed during these seismic events.
After the disaster, Sapienza University formed a wide group of multidisciplinary researchers
to focus on different aspects of the reconstruction.
The department of History Drawing and Restoration of Architecture of the Sapienza University in Roma
was committed to create digital model survey of the destroyed buildings.
Michele Calvano architect and researcher at Sapienza University, together with Mario Sacco architect and BIM expert from ArchiRADAR,
created a workflow that is applicable to an urban scale reconstruction.
These are the main steps of the workflow.
Their process can be used to generate the BIM project of buildings that no longer exist,
and where only photographs, laser-scanned point clouds and certain GIS data is available.
The BIM database of the destroyed buildings could be created by using the new features of the ARCHICAD - Grasshopper Live Connection Tool
and the data extrapolated from the point-clouds and GIS files.
QGIS, a free and open source GIS application is at the top left side of the screen.
GIS stands for Geographic Information System.
This is used to open and display the available GIS data of the urban area that was destroyed in the Earthquake.
Grasshopper is visible at the lower left side of the screen.
Grasshopper can read the GIS information, vectors and other meta-data provided by QGIS.
ARCHICAD is open on the right side of the screen.
The Grasshopper algorithms are using the GIS data for input.
Then using the Grasshopper-ARCHICAD live connection, we can create terrain mesh and mass building volumes in ARCHICAD.
Let's select one of the visible terrain contour lines in QGIS.
We can see that this line is at 710 meters above sea level.
This data is one of the inputs in the Grasshopper code.
The Grasshopper canvas displays various input data as well as algorithmic operations used to generate a model for the terrain in ARCHICAD.
Similarly, the mass building volumes may also be created as real BIM components in ARCHICAD.
Here is the geometry data of a building volume acquired from the GIS file in QGIS.
This also serves as input data for the Grasshopper code.
Finally, the mass building volume located on the terrain is visible in the ARCHICAD project.
Once the Grasshopper code is created,
the entire terrain and all the building volumes can be acquired and automatically transferred to ARCHICAD as real BIM components.
In other words: the GIS data of an entire settlement may be processed by the algorithmic definition of Grasshopper
which will generate the BIM-based master plan in ARCHICAD as an output, automatically.
The ARCHICAD 3D window on the right side of the screen
displays the terrain as well as all the building volumes that were acquired from the GIS database.
Let's continue and see how to fine-tune the mass building volumes generated earlier.
Rhinoceros is visible at the top left side of the screen.
The terrain contour lines and mass building volumes are displayed by red lines and surfaces.
Let's switch to ARCHICAD and show the layer that contains the point-cloud data.
This was imported to ARCHICAD earlier.
The point cloud data can be displayed in the 3D view of ARCHICAD.
Here you can see the streets, trees as well as details of the elevation and roof surfaces of the destroyed buildings.
The point cloud data is used as an "overlay", as a visual reference to help our work when breaking up the mass volumes to individual buildings.
The information received from the GIS data contains information about the orientation
and location of the mass volumes of the destroyed buildings only.
The point cloud provides additional information about the individual building and roof shapes,
colors, materials and textures, as well as story characteristics and openings.
First, we define the simplified shapes of the individual buildings using the Morph tool.
The simplified mass volume is now divided into multiple buildings along the street thanks to the point-cloud information.
The position of the external openings - windows and doors - can also be allocated using a simple planar object created in ARCHICAD
and then deconstructed in Grasshopper.
The ARCHICAD building model is starting to take shape,
the external building envelope is created using the colors, roof-shapes and opening positions taken from the point-cloud reference.
Let's continue by adding additional properties to the ARCHICAD Morphs.
This information will be used later to generate wall, slab and roof elements.
We will hide the layer containing the point cloud data, so the ARCHICAD project is more visible.
Please notice that all the individual buildings are created as Morph objects, defined by the code in Grasshopper.
The properties of the ARCHICAD Morphs are extended.
The additional Morph properties contain information about story-heights, wall and slab thicknesses.
This information can also be presented on Interactive Schedules.
Let's open the corresponding schedule sheet that displays all such data.
Let's select any of the schematic openings in the ARCHICAD model.
These openings are created in ARCHICAD using the point-cloud reference.
These planar surfaces are simple, custom-made ARCHICAD library parts to indicate the position and geometry of the openings.
These will be "deconstructed" later in Grasshopper to create real window and door objects.
Let's display the building shapes, colors and schematic openings in the 3D view.
Please notice that a Grasshopper component was used to define the size and the position of the external windows and doors in ARCHICAD,
based on the parameters of the planar reference openings placed earlier.
By selecting the corresponding Grasshopper components, all openings in the 3D window can be highlighted with one click.
Let's have a closer look at other parts of the Grasshopper code.
Here you can see how the story heights, wall and slab thicknesses as well as roof shapes are defined.
Now, for the last step in the workflow we'll create walls, floors, roofs and openings in the ARCHICAD BIM project.
Please note: first we used ARCHICAD's Morph tool to create the mass volumes of the buildings,
and we used simple, planar objects to indicate openings.
Then we added new properties to the ARCHICAD Morphs to define walls, slabs and roofs geometry.
Now, thanks to the new Grasshopper - ARCHICAD live connection feature
we will "deconstruct" the Morphs and extract their settings in Grasshopper.
In other words: we will acquire the ARCHICAD Morph properties in Grasshopper
and use the acquired information as input for further Grasshopper operations
which will generate real walls, slabs and roofs in the ARCHICAD project.
Let's add a Mesh component to the Grasshopper canvas, and connect it with the existing Morph component.
In practice, this means that we have "transformed" the entire project into a Mesh surface.
You can see the results in the 3D window of Rhino.
Now we will split this Mesh surface to create Slabs, Walls and Roofs.
We will also create ARCHICAD doors and windows using the properties of the planar surfaces created earlier.
Here are all the schematics, planar opening locations and geometry, selected in Grasshopper.
Both the 3D window of ARCHICAD and Rhino highlight these openings.
We extracted the properties of ARCHICAD elements in Grasshopper
and used this acquired element property data as input in Grasshopper to generate "real" openings in the ARHICAD project.
Here you can see the results in the 3D window of ARCHICAD.
The external openings are not schematic surfaces, but real ARCHICAD window and door elements that are placed into real ARCHICAD walls.
The possibility of deconstructing existing ARCHICAD elements and as a result,
having access to their parameter as well as property values in Grasshopper, is a new feature of the ARCHICAD-Grasshopper Live Connection Tool.
Let's select the code in Grasshopper that is responsible for creating slabs in ARCHICAD.
Thanks to the live connection, all corresponding slabs are highlighted in the 3D views.
We can also preview and highlight all the external walls or the roofs.
These elements were also created using components of the Grasshopper- ARCHICAD Live Connection tool.
Please note, that the creation of ARCHICAD BIM elements (walls, slabs, roofs and openings) are NOT a manual process,
but rather a fully automated one.
Thanks to the live connection between Grasshopper and ARCHICAD,
any changes in the mass volumes of the buildings will automatically update the entire, detailed ARCHICAD BIM project as well!
The upper right side of the screen displays the 3D view of the reconstructed BIM project.
The lower right side of the screen displays an elevation view of the project.
Let's display the simplified building model, created using Morph elements.
Please remember that we used these Morph elements to create the initial ARCHICAD model.
Let's select this initial building shape created as an ARCHICAD Morph.
We will change the height of the ridge line of this shape.
Please note that the geometry of the "final" Roof element - visible in the section view below - is automatically updated.
There was no need for any manual change or interaction.
The same change is also visible in the 3D view as soon as we display the layer combination that contains the wall, slab, and roof elements.
Here you can see the entire 3D model of the terrain and the building shapes in the ARCHICAD 3D window.
Now you can see the simple mass volumes we created using Morphs, while the point-cloud data is also visible as an overlay.
We are free to create sections, elevations, quantity estimations, etc. using the ARCHICAD BIM project.
Here you can see various floor plans of the destroyed buildings.
Please remember that the ARCHICAD BIM project was "automatically" generated from the GIS and point-cloud data using Grasshopper.
There was no need for any manual re-work or adjustments.
Thanks to the Grasshopper-ARCHICAD live connection the final, detailed ARCHICAD BIM project is now available.
