Brad805
Structural
- Oct 26, 2010
- 1,514
Over the past many months I have been learning how to use Grasshopper. If you are not familiar with this, it is a graphical programming tool. You can link this with Revit, Tekla and several other software packages. Most modeling software in the AEC world extrude defined shapes along lines. By creating linework that is related mathematically in Grasshopper you can drive your models with very simple inputs. Once you have mathematical relationships you can easily update the geometry of all elements by changing a few variables. There are lots of steel frame building examples you can find online using this tool.
I decided recently to see if I could use grasshopper to create all the section cuts in SAP2000. There is a package called Geometry Gym that will link your SAP2000 model with grasshopper. It works with several other packages as well. Below is a simple test case for a small number of panels. I extracted the surfaces I wanted from our Tekla model, and imported those into grasshopper. I added the structural elements needed in grasshopper and then defined 174 section cuts with simple scripts. After defining the loads and model in grasshopper you can export the model to SAP2000, run the analysis, and import the results into grasshopper. A little more simple scripting and I was able to create a moment, shear, axial diagram for this wall line. Yesterday I disabled all of the connections and in 5min I had re-run the model and found the forces. Since the data is all inside grasshopper you can easily add the design steps using all the forces, or just the max/min values. Now I need to go back thru the script and see what can be programmed to make the process faster.
This is just a simple test case I thought I would share. Anything you can define mathematically can be solved in a similar manner. Another way I plan to use this is to create software input files. If you have any software where the input is a simple text file you can easily create new input files by replacing the lines of text with the new code you need. I have seen many using this for that and it is much easier than learning the API interface if you are not a skilled programmer. We have had many discussions where people are trying to perform carry down forces. This will do that much better than excel. There is a company in Austraila that is doing just that.
I will be honest, learning grasshopper is a bit of an undertaking. It takes a lot of effort to learn how to work with its data trees. For months I was plodding along using google searches and AI. I strongly suggest a course if you are see any interest in this.
I thought I would share something a little different.
I decided recently to see if I could use grasshopper to create all the section cuts in SAP2000. There is a package called Geometry Gym that will link your SAP2000 model with grasshopper. It works with several other packages as well. Below is a simple test case for a small number of panels. I extracted the surfaces I wanted from our Tekla model, and imported those into grasshopper. I added the structural elements needed in grasshopper and then defined 174 section cuts with simple scripts. After defining the loads and model in grasshopper you can export the model to SAP2000, run the analysis, and import the results into grasshopper. A little more simple scripting and I was able to create a moment, shear, axial diagram for this wall line. Yesterday I disabled all of the connections and in 5min I had re-run the model and found the forces. Since the data is all inside grasshopper you can easily add the design steps using all the forces, or just the max/min values. Now I need to go back thru the script and see what can be programmed to make the process faster.
This is just a simple test case I thought I would share. Anything you can define mathematically can be solved in a similar manner. Another way I plan to use this is to create software input files. If you have any software where the input is a simple text file you can easily create new input files by replacing the lines of text with the new code you need. I have seen many using this for that and it is much easier than learning the API interface if you are not a skilled programmer. We have had many discussions where people are trying to perform carry down forces. This will do that much better than excel. There is a company in Austraila that is doing just that.
I will be honest, learning grasshopper is a bit of an undertaking. It takes a lot of effort to learn how to work with its data trees. For months I was plodding along using google searches and AI. I strongly suggest a course if you are see any interest in this.
I thought I would share something a little different.
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