hyp hop

Don't know what set me off on this.  Was getting a bit bogged down at work so after hours I started playing with Hypars.  It's all a bit messy at the moment, so I just have a few screenshots to share.

This is four copies of a nested family ... and there are parameters in there that work moderately well.

But it's not yet fully coordinated.  I need to understand the geometry a bit better to get the void cuts to flex in harmony with the shell.  The goal of course is to end up with a family with just 3 or 4 parameters that give effective control.

It's tricky though.  So I'm calling it a day at 10pm and maybe come back to it fresh over the weekend.

JUST PARKING

I'm having difficulty finishing off my posts at the moment.  Lots of stuff that is almost ready, but between catching flu and multiple deadlines at GAJ I can't quite get them on to the blog.  So this is a quick one based on something I've cobbled together recently.

This is the bog-standard parking bay that comes with Revit, but I've added in the simplified car family that I made a while back, plus a wheelchair symbol, given these visibility controls (instance parameters) and also linked the car material to an instance parameter.

All simple stuff, but it gives you a parking bay that schedules in a completely regular way, while having a more random look in 3d and on plan ... like real parking bays.  Recently I added an extrusion to represent the paving surface in a masterplanning study.  This is OK, but it doesn't respond to the angle parameters built in to the original family at the moment.

Judicious use of visibility controls at coarse, medium and fine scales can allow you to vary the amount of information shown in plan views eg. no car at all, car outline, detailed car.

WINNING WAYS

Exciting day today.  I treated all the Revit Lunch regulars at GAJ to Biryani in place of my usual Revit presentation ... this to celebrate winning the prestigious Pumpkin Award.  Needless to say I am indebted to all the Revit enthusiasts here at Godwin Austen Johnson who have supported & motivated me over the past 6 years or so,  not least Brian Johnson himself.

A great big thankyou to Zach for hosting the competition and for running his inspirational BUILDZ website.  FOLLOW THIS LINK

The other two winners were serious pieces of work and I am honoured to be in such company.  I took the "Goodest" award, the other 2 categories being "Baddest" & "Most Parametric".  Lots of high-powered formulas on show, not to mention gnashing of teeth.  Well done guys.

You can see my entry by reading the 6 previous posts in this blog.  I went through quite a journey of exploration, reflecting on the digital tools we use to design buildings today and how they present us with many of the same issues that architects have been pondering for generations: order & disorder, image & reality ... but read the posts.

Eid Al Adha coming up here in the UAE, so that will give me time to prepare some more blog posts.  Lots of ideas bubbling around in what's left of my brain cells, so come back and have a look about 8 days from now.