COMPUTER AIDED ARCHITECTURAL DESIGN

Workshop 1 Notes, Week of August 24, 2015

Initiating a drawing in Rhino and Graphics Primitives

1. Opening Rhino :

           Programs/Architecture and 3D Modeling/Rhinoceros 5.0/Rhinoceros 5.0

2. Opening and saving a new file :

Opening Rhino will automatically generate a new file. Choose File / Save and choose the directory where you want it to be saved to.

The file will open with 4 viewing windows –each show a different views of model space (Top, Perspective, Front, Right)

Use Zoom Extents (small magnifying glass icon) to see all elements of drawing. Hover over the icon to see additional options for this command.

Double click on any of the viewport titles to maximize the view. Double click again to return to the four viewing windows. Left clicking on the mouse will activate the current view. A right click will display options for each viewport.

You can also change the view type by selecting Set View here.

3. Turning on standard tool bars (should be on by default):

Select: Tools / Toolbar Layout  and each of the following should also be selected on by default: Standard, Main1, Main2.

To save a customized toolbar collection, click on the check box for each toolbar and File / SaveAs to save the .tb file to your folder.

4. Establishing scale units:

• To bring up the Rhino Options window, click on: File / Properties
• Select: Units
• Model Units pick: feet, meters, etc.
• Under Distance Display, select Feet & Inches
• Display precision by default is set to 1.00.

5. Establishing Reference Grid:Setting a Grid to scale units:

• To bring up the Rhino Options window, click on: File / Properties
• Select:Grid

6. Drawing graphic primitives (all tools in Main1 and Main2 tool palettes, screen-right)

a) COMMAND PROMPT: type in the tool in the command prompt. This will bring up additional options per tool. Click on the option or use the shorthand key (underlined) to modify the tool accordingly. To use the default dimensions/controls, use the right mouse button. NOTE: Pressing the spacebar or rightclicking is equivalent to "Press Enter".

To see a full list of all command prompts, go to Help / Command List...

b) ICONS: For any icon with a triangle in the lower right hand box ( ), click and hold down left mouse button over the icon to see tool subsets. Click/drag on this new window to tear away the linked window. Hover over any icon to see options for a left/right mouse button click.

• Polylines and lines (line through points, etc.)
• Circles (can be drawn by selecting method center, edge, etc.)
• Arcs (can be drawn using similar methods as circle)
• Polygons (can be drawn using similar methods as circle)
• Points (single, multiple, extract, etc.)
• Curves (control point curve, interpolate curve, etc.)
• Exact values may be entered in the command prompt.

TIP: You can use the spacebar or right click on the mouse to select the previously used tool. (i.e. to quickly draw points or circles successively).

7. Using the Status Bar for Snapping and Ortho controls:

• Snaping to the grid: select the grid Snap toggle pane on the status bar at the bottom of the screen to turn grid snap on [in bold] or off. The points on the grid will constrain drawing ability. F9 on the keyboard quickly turns this mode on/off.

• Snapping to other points: Select Osnap toggle pane on the status bar to turn object snap on [in bold] or off. This will bring up various options for object snapping. Check off your desired snaps. Pressing the Alt key will temporarily suspend object snaps.

An alternate and more detailed way to do this will be explored in the next workshop. is to select the icon in the standard toolbar (towards the top of your screen) to see other methods of object snapping.

• The Ortho toggle pane locks the cursor's direction of travel. Additional directional locks will be explored in the following workshops. F8 on the keyboard quickly turns this on/off.
• The Planar toggle pane limits successive picked locations to the same construction plane elevation as the previous location.

8. Deleting objects:

Select object(s) to be deleted. If objects are overlapping, the selection menu window will appear to specify object. Toggle through the menu to find the desired object. Then use the delete button on keyboard.

9. Using the view icons in the standard toolbar at the top of your screen:

Pan View (Arrow): allows view to be repositioned allow a vector.

Rotate View: may be used to move about the construction.

Zoom in , zoom out

Window Area: defines view window for zooming in

Fit view: returns to window what has been constructed in the model space.

Zoom selected objects

Undo view changes. Press and hold left mouse button to see additional tool subsets.

Change View Layout. Press and hold left mouse button to see additional tool subsets.

Set View (front, top, etc.). Press and hold left mouse button to see additional tool subsets.

10. Saving file

Rhino provides a few ways to save a file:

File / SaveAs: saves file to desired location.

SaveAs Template: saves current model as a template file.

SaveSmall: saves geometry objects without render or analysis meshes (good for reducing disk space, or for emailing, etc.)

IncrementalSave: If you would like to save iterations of model, this will save sequentially numbered versions. Edit / undo / redo will allow you return to previous work, but is of limited value.

To turn automatic Autosave on: To edit this setting, go to Tools / Options. Under Rhino Options, select Files and under Autosave, adjust accordingly. Rhino autosaves every 20 minutes, but this can be adjusted here.

11. Choosing Layers:

Click the colorful pie wedge icon on the top toolbar to bring up the layers window. You can dock it anywhere on the screen. Double click on a layer to make any layer active, and turning the lightbulb icon on/off will control visibility of that layer. Using layers allows parts of the model to be turned off or on and will be useful for assigning attributes, such as assigning colors of lines or linetypes.

12. Adjusting Colors of Viewport, Selected Objects, etc.

Go to File / Properties, or Tools / Options, and select Colors to bring up options to set background colors, selction colors, etc.

13. Aliases for the command prompt:

If you prefer to create shortkeys for the command prompt (for example, typing in"C" instead of "Circle" and "L" for "Line"), this can be done under Aliases in the same window. You can import your own .txt file to define shortkeys. Some predefined ones can be found online.

 

13. History - Associative Geometrical Modeling Preview

From the top view , move one of the curves along the negative "y" axis such that they appear as follows:



On the lower right-hand side of the Rhino application window, turn on the "Record History" button":



From within  the perspective view window, preselect the two curves and then use the loft tool with  its default settings to generate a lofted surface between the two curves:

From within the perspective view window, move either of the two curves, and the surface will be modified  accordingly. Here, the "history" of the surface is retained such that it is impacted by any modification to the original curves. In the image below, the curve along the x-axis was moved vertically, and the surface is modified accordingly:



Or, going back one step further in the construction sequence, select the curve, then select the control point tool with the left mouse button. In the front view window move one of the control points on the curve vertically. Again, the surface is modified accordingly.

 

Using "history" in a similar way, use the "rectangle: corner to corner" tool to build a square  in the "top" view:

 

Turn on the "history" button, and from the "surfaces" tool palette, create a patch surface:



From the "perspective" view, the patch surface also appears to be flat:



Now, similarly to the case of the lofted surface above, turn on the control points of the corner by corner rectangle, move them vertically upward from the "front" view, and you determine a simple saddle shape:

 

[Note: when the steps below are completed, they result in creating the Rhino file  associatedLines.3dm file and Grasshopper file  associatedlines.gh. This files are linked here for reference. However, this example is just a preview of techniques we will look at later in the semester. You do need to master the techniques involved or know Grasshopper at least at this point in the semester.]

Within Rhino create 3 corner points of an implicit triangle and a fourth point in its center.



At the command prompt, type in "Grasshopper" to open Grasshopper.



Within Grasshopper, go to menu "File/Nnew Document". Next, select a point parameter icon and with the left-mouse button drag it to the "canvas" window.




Right-click on the point parameter inside the canvas window, select the "set" menu item, and then select the lower left-hand corner point previously created  in Rhino. In the illustration below this results in the point icon in Grasshopper being associated with the point at the origin in Rhino:



Do the same by adding three additional point parameter symbolss and connecting them with the remaining thee points in Rhino.



Within Grasshopper, go the the "curve" task, and drag the "line" icon below into the "canvas" window three times as illustrated below.



Drag an arrow from the output port each of the three corner points symbols in Grasshopper to the input port "A" of a corresponding  line symbol:



Drag the output port of the centerpoint in Rhino to the input port "B" of all three line symbols.



Return to Rhino and move any of the original points and see what happens. Note that the lines are redrawn relative to the movements of each point.

Now add two points inside Rhino at locations that straddle to either side any one of the lines, such as the lower right-hand line below.



Within Grasshopper, create two additional point symbols and one line symbols using the methods described above to determine a line between the two new points.



Continuing with Grasshopper, go to the "intersect"  task, and drag an "intersect line" symbol into the "canvass" windows:



Now, drag the output ports of the two intersecting lines, to determine a point that lies at the their intersection.



Now back in Rhino, move the original points and see what happens as the result of associative connections between different elements.



Such a construction can be continued indefinitely. For example, within Rhino, add a new point, and then within Grasshopper, add a line between the new point and the intersection point as depicted below. Now back in Rhino, move the original points and see what happens once again as the result of associative connections between different elements..