Rhinoceros – Grasshopper – ARCHICAD Connections

Rhino – Grasshopper – ARCHICAD Connections

Rhino – Grasshopper – ARCHICAD Connections connect the best design tools for the different design stages. These tools fill a gap in the design process between early stage design and Building Information Modeling. They offer solutions for seamless, bi-directional geometry transfer as well as a way to translate basic geometrical shapes into full BIM elements while adding algorithmic editing functionality.

BIG and Algorithmic Design

Jakob Andreassen, BIM Manager of BIG, shares how they benefit using free-form, algorithmic design and BIM by leveraging the best that each software tool has to offer throughout the design process.

Solutions

Grasshopper — ARCHICAD Live Connection
Generate and manipulate BIM elements in ARCHICAD directly from Grasshopper

Rhinoceros Import/Export Add-ons
Exchange models in Rhinoceros native file format

Rhinoceros — GDL Converter
Create native ARCHICAD objects in Rhinoceros

Grasshopper — ARCHICAD Live Connection

Generate and manipulate BIM elements in ARCHICAD directly from Grasshopper

About algorithmic design
in layman’s terms

Grasshopper — ARCHICAD
Live Connection

This tool enables Rhino/Grasshopper and ARCHICAD to communicate directly in order to create and manipulate a BIM model in full or in parts through Grasshopper’s visual scripting interface. Designers whose work is currently based on either Rhino/Grasshopper or ARCHICAD can leverage its functionality to their advantage. The live, associative and bi-directional nature of the connection enables users to build versatile workflows and utilize the connection in multiple scenarios.
In projects where the design is primarily determined by using the Rhino-Grasshopper toolset, users can apply the GH-AC Connection to convert the design into a full BIM model and still retain some of the algorithmic editing capabilities. In other cases, Rhino/Grasshopper (or other Rhino plug-in) can be used to complement an existing BIM project with algorithmic functions or freeform modelling environment in any stage of the design process. In these situations, the framework or reference geometry for the part designed in Grasshopper can be taken directly from ARCHICAD itself.

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Grasshopper — ARCHICAD Live Connection

See ARCHICAD, Rhino and Grasshopper in Action

To see the real-time, bi-directional workflows between ARCHICAD, Rhino and Grasshopper in action, watch these videos presenting different real-life workflow scenarios!

Creating a Free-form
Shading Device

This video clip presents how to create a free-form shading device for a multi-story building using Rhinoceros, Grasshopper and ARCHICAD.

Creating a Parametric Tower
 

This workflow video presents how to create a parametric tower using Rhinoceros, Grasshopper and ARCHICAD.

Creating a Triangulated Surface with the Morph Tool in ARCHICAD

This workflow video presents how to create a free-form surface in Rhinoceros, which will subsequently be transformed to an ARCHICAD Morph element by using Rhinoceros, Grasshopper and ARCHICAD.

Rhinoceros Import/Export Add-ons

Exchange models in Rhinoceros native file format

Designers may choose to work with a "reference model workflow" by exporting and importing models between ARCHICAD and Rhinoceros using the native Rhinoceros (.3dm) file format.

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Rhinoceros Import/Export Add-ons

Rhino Export enables users to pass on the geometry — using various representation methods — of a model produced in ARCHICAD to Rhino.
Rhino Import enables users to pass on a model created in Rhino to ARCHICAD. The imported model will appear as a GDL object maintaining the logical buildup of the original Rhino model.

Rhinoceros — GDL Converter

Create native ARCHICAD objects in Rhinoceros

With this toolset, designers can save a selected part of a Rhino model in a native ARCHICAD object file (.gsm or .lcf) format. Depending on the complexity of the model and its intended use in ARCHICAD, users can choose to generate a single object (.gsm) from Rhino or library container file (.lcf) containing multiple object parts.

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Rhinoceros — GDL Converter

The "Single Object Import" workflow is recommended to import small‐sized single objects or groups of small objects in .gsm format to ARCHICAD.
The "Complex Structure Import" workflow is recommended to import — and also update — larger, complex Rhino models as a coherent set of GDL objects, using ARCHICAD's LCF (Library Container File).

To see how to import Rhinoceros models into ARCHICAD as native GSM objects (.gsm or .lcf files) please view this video.

Single Object Import

This video clip presents how to to import small‐sized single objects or groups of small objects created in Rhino to ARCHICAD in .gsm file format.

Complex Structure Import

See how to import - and also update - larger, complex Rhino models as a coherent set of GDL objects, using ARCHICAD's LCF (Library Container File).

Please visit the Learning site to watch recorded webinars about the bi-directional workflow connection presented above, as well as for more information about GRAPHISOFT products!