Formit & dynamo building mass options

[scott.dickson]

Hi Josh, 

I do a lot of early building option modelling, plot capacity studies, form & mass options relative to area and volume vs context etc  which formit has been a great help with particularly on iPad. The new dynamo notes about building study options look really interesting - wondered if there were some tutorials or workthroughs (like the formit primers of old) on how to start making these kind of scripts? The new updates look great - thanks again

s

[josh.goldstein]

Hi Scott,

Sorry for the delay, somehow I missed this when it was first posted.

The new building mass samples are awesome! They are, however, limited to FormIt for Windows, because they're powered by Dynamo, but you can open an existing FormIt model with one of these examples placed in it, and see the results on iPad. You just won't be able to re-run the graph on iPad.

There's no explicit documentation on these currently. They should be pretty easy to use though. Here are some simplified steps:

• Mass by Outline
  • Draw a closed loop on the ground - FormIt will create a face, and that's fine
  • Pro tip: Group that geometry
  • The Mass by Outline sample will ask you select a closed loop or face - select that Group instance
  • The results will generate with a default floor-to-floor height and number of floors, which you can tweak.
    • You can also update the outline you drew and re-run the graph by selecting the results and hitting "Run" in the Properties palette.
    • Pro tip: You can move the Group instance containing your outline to above the building, so it's easier to edit. When you re-run the graph, move the results back down to the ground, and now they won't move up again, but your outline will still be above the building. You can then put the Group instance containing the outline on a Layer to toggle it off when you're done editing.
      
      
• Multifamily Along Path
  • Draw a path - open or closed - on the ground
  • Pro tip: Group that geometry
  • The Multifamily Along Path sample will ask you to select a path - select that Group instance
  • The results will generate with a default number of floors and other options, which you can tweak.
    • You can also change the path you drew and re-run the graph by selecting the results and hitting "Run" in the Properties palette.
      • Pro tip: You can move the Group instance containing your building path to above the building, so it's easier to edit. When you re-run the graph, move the results back down to the ground, and now they won't move up again, but your path will still be above the building. You can then put the Group instance containing the path on a Layer to toggle it off when you're done editing.

Hope this helps.

[scott.dickson]

Thanks Josh - will give it a try!

enjoyed the roadmap video - reassuring to see al the hard work behind the scenes -  I’d be lost without formit now!

cheers

s