ARCH 653 BIM Projects

Lacey Masters
ARCH 653 Final Project

BIM & Dynamo Programming

Design Intent

A major part of Project 1 was the curtain panel system used on the Shipping and Transport College by Neutelings Riedijk Architecten. Therefore I decided for Project 2 I would modify the appearance of the curtain panels. My goal was to create a pattern in the dark colored squares of the façade. You’ll remember in project 1 the curtain panels system had a checkered pattern of gray and white metal panels. I hoped to utilize the 4 metal panels in the one window panel and have each of the four in every panel of the building façade to respond to the pattern across the whole wall. I planned to create and control this pattern using the Dynamo application. Originally I thought I would create just a zigzag pattern instead of the checkered pattern, to help the viewers eyes go across the building easier. However, as I began this project I learned a lot and realized a few challenges and opportunities.

Start

To begin with I realized it was going to be difficult to utilize the four different panel of the basic window panel and to get them each individually respond to the pattern of the whole wall. So I went back to the basics. I removed my custom panel from the divided surface and replaced it with a basic rectangular panel. I then nested the material parameter of the rectangle panel into the mass and then began my work in Dynamo.

I decided to create the pattern based on a CSV file. So to begin with I selected the form whose divided surface I wanted to use. I then created a list based on the panels IDs found on that form. The using number nodes, I then extruded the lists of panel IDs that I actually wanted from all that were listed. This allowed me to edit only the walls that I wanted to.

Then, using Excel I created the CSV file that contained the zigzag pattern that I wanted expressed on the wall surface.

I have highlighted the boxes that contain 1, the rest of the boxes in the file contain 0.

This is the resulting CSV file. I had to edit it a bit to verify three were not any more empty columns or rows in the file.

Then in the dynamo string of nodes I was able to set the material parameter so that if the pattern had a 1 in it, it would appear on the wall as a dark grey panel, and if there were 0s in the pattern they would appear as white panels.

This is what the entire Dynamo program for one wall looks like.

This is the resulting appearance.

As you can see the zigzag pattern came through on the bottom of this wall, however at the top of the wall it is messed up a little bit. I was unable to figure out why, but my assumption is that something was mistranslated when the list was transposed and reversed.

Experiments

As I worked with Dynamo I realized it wasn’t hard to try out various options of patterns. In the pictures below I have highlighted the wall that I am going to edit. Then I have showed the excel file. You will notice that it has changed from the first wall’s file. I found that is important to have just as many columns and rows of information as you have rows and columns of rectangular panels in the wall that you are working in. I have also shown the CSV file in Notepad form. Finally, I had to copy and paste the first string of nodes for the first wall and then edit it to match the information needed for the second wall. I have shown the completed sting of program for the second wall.

Wall working with

Excel File

Notepad File

Complete program string for 2^nd wall

Result of 2 program strings.

For the 3^rd wall I continue the straight line around the corner. Below I have shown you which wall I’m working with as well as the string that I used to create it. You will also see that after I utilized the string to create the appearance I wanted on the 2 walls I completed first, I would then disconnect them so that the new strings would be the only active ones, and the old ones would not slow down the changes.

Wall working with

All three strings used

4^th wall experimented with

Program string used for fourth wall

Final appearance of all four strings of program in effect.

Appearance of the 4 strings of Dynamo program

Finishing Touches

After implementing the Dynamo program I was curious to know if you can go through and edit the panel even though they were controlled by program. I was pleasantly surprised to realize that you can indeed go in and edit the panel material manually, one by one. This was great in order to fix the few messed up panels that had been misinterpreted on the first wall. You will see them fixed and cleaned up in the picture below.

I was unable to figure out how to use Dynamo on the angled piece on top of the main base. My only thought on why it wouldn't work is because the angle was created by a void form. Changing the panels manually worked great to finish up the changed appearance, as the picture below shows.

Please see the embedded video for a brief synopsis of what is written above

Lacey Masters

ARCH 653 Project 1: Shipping and Transport College, Neutelings Riedijk Architecten

Rotterdam, the Netherlands, 2005

Model Description

The mass model was made in Revit using the “Create Form” function in a conceptual mass template. The form is made of 4 different solid forms and 2 void forms. Together, these make an irregular shaped base, an angled piece on top of part of the base, the tower, and a protruding volume at the top of the tower. After creating the different forms, I used two void forms in order to create the two pieces that have angles. Dimension parameters keep the geometry of the different solids working together if the mass of the model changes.

Whole Building Form

Angled Piece on top of base

Tower Form

Irregular shaped base

Protruding volume at top of tower

Parametric Building Envelope

On the actual mass I divided up the surfaces; making the horizontal lines line up with the actual floor levels, and the vertical lines line up on a grid of 10’-6”, so that the divided lines on each shape lined up with the one next to it.

Next, the parametric building envelope was created by altering the “Rectangle Surface” curtain panel family. Through the use of reference lines and rectangles, I created five rectangular forms, and a rectangular frame. This allowed each of the individual panels to have a material parameter (gray metal, white metal, glass, and an aluminum frame) that could be defined once loaded into the project. Two squares on top and two squares on the bottom of the whole panel with a glass panel and frame running through the middle of it. The goal behind this organization is to have a system of gray and white corrugated metal panels in a checkered pattern with strips of glazing in between.

However, I had some problems when I added it into the mass’s divided surface. For some reason because the first level, had different dimensions than the rest of the divided surface, the panels went in at an angle.

I decided to resolve this issue, by making the first level of the divided surface just a solid panel instead of a divided one, as I would put doors in this level of panels as well.

I also create a second similarly made parametric building panel system for the roof. It contains the ability to have the grey and white checkered pattern without the glazing.

Finishing the Massing

Once the conceptual mass was loaded into the project file, floors and roofs were added, and different materials could be assigned to the new material parameters of the curtain panel systems. Other exterior details were added as well, such as doors and a site, which is located on a dock along the coast of the North Sea.

Sample Floor Plan

The floor plan on Level 7 was modeled to illustrate how the majority of the tower of the building is used. It consists mainly of classrooms and offices with an elevator core in the middle.