ARCH 653 Final Project

Dynamo with Revit

For Project 2, I wanted to improve upon my first project by using Dynamo as a tool to manipulate the shading family that I created based on the time of day.

The shading family is the same as it was in the first project. It is created as a curtain panel family with a hinged shade that can be adjusted based on a parameter that controls the angle of the shade hinge.

As you can see, the parameter controls reference planes, on which the geometry is placed. When the angle is adjusted, it uses the angle and a trigonometric function to adjust the reference planes accordingly which then changes the shading form. In this instance, I changed the parameter from 30 degrees to 60 degrees and you can see the change that occurred.

I loaded this family into the main project and created a mass around the perimeter of my building, on which I placed a divided surface and set the surface to this shading panel family.

Here are all of the curtain panels with a different shade angle value to display how this system works along with the shape possibilities of using different angles for the parameter.

The next step was to use visual programming in Dynamo to find a way to control these panels shading angle based on the time of day for system efficiency and interior comfort.

I designed this string in Dynamo to do just that.

This string looks complicated, but it is actually very simple if you examine each major piece of the string.

The first objective was to gather information from the location of the sun in the project. For this example, I was able to find the X - Y - Z coordinates of the sun. You can see the values of each by looking at the "Watch" node.

I noticed that as I adjusted the sun location in Revit, the X-value moved from -90 in the morning, to 0 at noon, and then to -90 in the afternoon. I decided that an easy way to adapt this value to my shading parameter was to use a formula that says,

        "If the sun X-Value is in between 90 and 0 (morning sun) then the shade will be open. If that is                   false (or in between 0 and -90, which is afternoon sun), then the shade will close."

In the formula, the 80 and 40 values will be presented as the new values for the parameter "Shade Angle". In this case, since the sun is in the afternoon position, the Shade Angle will be set to 40 which will close the shading to keep the hot sun out of the building.

The value that comes out of the formula is simply a number. However, the Shade Angle parameter is actually a degree value. For this reason, it is necessary to convert this number into that angle type by using a "Degree to Radians" node.

Next, we have to select the actual panels that we want to apply this Dynamo string to.

This is where things got interesting. In order for me to edit a shading panel, I would have to open the mass editor. However, when I had the mass editor open, I could not apply the Dynamo string at the same time. The solution that was found (with a little help from Professor Yan!) was to take the mass and create a separate parameter on the mass itself (which is basically just a way to forward the parameter from the shading family to be editable on the in-place mass family). So, once this Shade Angle parameter was set to the Shade Angle Mass parameter, I could close out of the Mass Editor and continue working on my string.

Now that the shading panels are attached to the In-Place Mass, I could then select the In-Place Mass containing all of the Shading Panel instances from inside Dynamo. I used a node in Dynamo that allowed me to change the parameter of the object that I chose in Revit. Using this, I could state which Parameter I wanted to made editable, and then connect the resultant value from my sun formula into the "SetParameterByName" node to set the new parameter value.

Once this string was finished, I could apply it to my project.

As you can see here, the sun has been adjusted in Revit to be set to 8:45 AM.

Here, you can see that all of the shades opened up and the Shade Angle parameter has adjusted accordingly.

Likewise, I then set the sun in Revit to its location at 4:15 PM.

In the same fashion, the parameter has adjusted accordingly which has closed the shades.

Below is the YouTube video of my Final Presentation for Project 2

Project 1

I decided to use my architecture studio project as my project for ARCH 653. The basis of my studio project was to find out how the sound levels within a building program can help influence the form of the building.

I took the program spaces and made them into rectangular blocks based off of the square footage that was required of each space. I then determined the sound level that would be generated within each space and that is what generated the height of each program block. The taller the program block is, the louder the space is and vice versa.

From the program blocks, I was able to define floor plates for each program space and used a series of ADA compliant ramps (having no greater than a 1/12 slope) in order to connect the different floor plates.

I then used the same program blocks to help define a roof. The roof curves over the blocks as if it was a blanket being laid over the building. In order to model it, I created a flat curved mass surface using splines and extruding them in order to create one large blanket over the program spaces. I then used the in-place component tool to model roofs based off of that blanketing mass surface.

At this point, I needed to begin thinking about the structure and how that would help connect the planer elements at the floor level to the curved elements at the roof level. My solution was to create a series of curved W-Sections that followed the curves of the roofs. These would then be supported by a column-beam assembly that I would model as a parametric family which would be easily modified and replicated.

Here is the column-beam family that I created.

In elevation, you can see the reference planes that were used in order to help understand how the model is restrained and what the parameters control.

Here is a list of parameters that helped define the form. The only parameters that would typically be adjusted between instances are the Span Length and the Support Height parameters.

Once I had the floors, roofs and structure in place, I concluded the modeling by enclosing the building. I used typical walls for the exterior of the building but where there were gaps that were created between the roofs, I placed curtain walls in order to allow light to enter into the center of the building. Once can see how this works by looking at the building from a bird's eye view.

Once the building was enclosed, I wanted to create a type of shading mechanism that could follow the exterior of my building. I mass surfaces and created a shading panel within a curtain panel system.

I used reference planes to use as a reference for the shading panels. The reference plans are driven by a single angle parameter that is applied to the opposite ends of the planes. The angles are themselves driven by a formula that uses a user defined value that represents the depth that the shading system covers.

Here are the two parameters that were used and the trig formula that was created.

This is a close up of what the shading system becomes and how it is used in relation to window openings.

Here is a colored interior view to show the character of the interior of the building.

Here is a rendered view of the interior which helps show what the space would look like if it was actually built.

Here is what the building would look like if one was walking up to the entrance.

Video showing the design and modeling process.

CLICK HERE FOR THE YOUTUBE VIDEO