Through the Interface

Using VASA with Forma - Part 3

I was sure this series was finished - as indicated in the last post which talked about both VASA’s pathfinding and visibility from a point inside Forma, after having talked about a manual approach for connecting the two tools - but I did leave the door ajar to me finding something else to talk about on this topic. Sure enough, I got thinking about the missing “big ticket” item that VASA is able to implement with relatively low effort: visibility from a direction (as opposed to from a point) which can simulate things like shadows cast by direct sunlight.... Read more →

Using VASA with Forma - Part 2

In the first post in this series we looked at an approach for exporting Forma geometry to an STL file that can be loaded into Dynamo and analysed using VASA, our Voxel-based Architectural Space Analysis toolkit. The overall goal is to be able to use VASA for urban-scale analysis of the site context. (Later on I hope we’ll also be able to work with more detailed architectural geometry as the level of detail in Forma evolves.) In that post I also alluded to something that’s coming soon which will streamline the above workflow: you’ll hear more about that at... Read more →

Using VASA with Forma - Part 1

While preparing for one of my upcoming AU classes, I decided to explore how someone could use VASA - our Voxel-based Architectural Space Analysis toolkit - with Forma. Right now Forma is largely focused on conceptual design - taking into account the surrounding urban context - so this thinking was largely focused on how VASA might be used at the urban scale. This is something we’ve looked at before in the context of FormIt and Dynamo. While a tighter integration is likely to be possible at some point - I’ll talk a little more about our work on a... Read more →

Preparation for AU 2023

It has been a really busy but important week for our team. We had a fantastic virtual offsite where we spent a significant amount of time using LEGO to conceptualise some of our planning for the coming year. A friend of mine was all set to become a LEGO practitioner - to assist with team-building events - before the plans were de-railed by the pandemic… independently my colleague Dagmara suggested we try “Serious Play” for this offsite and I said yes before she’d finished her sentence. We’ve made great strides for our upcoming exhibition in Toronto (formal announcement coming... Read more →

AU class registrations so far

As mentioned in the last post, it’s now possible for people to sign up for their AU classes. And it’s really worth taking the time to do so, as some classes are filling up quickly. Despite being held at a ridiculously early time on the first day of the conference, my first class is already 88% full, for instance (there are 141 registered and the capacity of the room it’s currently assigned to is 160). I see that 300+ people have this session in their list of favourites, so if you do want to attend then I recommend signing... Read more →

Voxelising point clouds in Dynamo with VASA

Last week we saw a Dynamo graph that imports a point cloud from an ASCII-based format to specify the initial locations for a fun flocking simulation. This week we’re going to look at a graph that uses a similar import technique but rather creates a voxel model based on the point cloud: The main difference from the previous import code is that rather than returning a list of Point objects, we’ve tweaked the code to return 9 doubles for each point that are taken as triangle definitions. The little secret is that the triangle’s vertices are coincident: we use... Read more →

Checking whether your class proposals have been accepted for Autodesk University 2023

Just a quick note to say that you can now log in to the Autodesk University website (this guidance has changed, please see below) from today – June 23rd – to see the status of your class proposals and learn whether or not they were accepted for AU 2023 in Las Vegas. I was very happy to learn that the two proposals I submitted this year were accepted: I’m sure there’ll be an email sent very shortly, but I just thought I’d share this in case anyone’s impatient to find out their situation relative to classes at this year’s... Read more →

Flocking point clouds in Dynamo

I was thrilled to see a post by Long Nguyen over the weekend announcing his publication of a Dynamo package called WhatTheFlock – with full source code – that implements a Boids-like flocking simulation. This work is significant not because ornithologists will use Dynamo to predict or simulate murmurations (although that in itself is a fun thought) but because Long has demonstrated a valuable technique that might be used to implement other arguably more useful types of multi-agent simulation inside Dynamo. Long is using a background process to perform calculations before rendering the results into the Dynamo window. A... Read more →

Dynamo Office Hours showing Space Analysis and VASA

Last week Rhys Goldstein and I had a blast joining Sol Amour and Jacob Small during the Dynamo Office Hours session on Packages of Note, something I mentioned in a recent post. We spent some time stepping through a few samples for both Space Analysis and VASA, to give a rough sense of what’s involved in using each. Next week I’m heading over to Denmark for the first half of the week, where I’ll be attending the APS Sustainability Accelerator in Copenhagen. If you’re going to be in Copenhagen next week and want to meet up for a chat,... Read more →

An introduction to Space Analysis and VASA during the next Dynamo Office Hours

During the next Dynamo Office Hours – being held on March 9th, 2023 at 1pm EST – Rhys Goldstein and I will be joining Tiana Dame, Sol Amour and Jacob Small to talk about “Packages of Note”, which will include an introduction to the Space Analysis and VASA packages. I’m sure it’s going to be a fun event – it’s always a blast catching up with Sol and Jacob – and a good chance to learn about a few Dynamo packages developed and maintained by Autodesk. The focus will be on introducing the various packages – rather than going... Read more →

Human-centric building design

In a recent post, I mentioned that I’ve been asked to help lead our efforts in a particular area of research. I was deliberately vague at the time. Now, with Autodesk University 2022 around the corner, it seems a good time to say more about this. I hope it stimulates some interesting discussions at the event. As a company, one of Autodesk’s core interests is to enable the design and creation of healthier, safer, more resilient spaces. We want to explore tools for designers and architects that help them create buildings with more attention to the occupants. In the... Read more →

Announcing VASA for Minecraft

Followers of this blog will have seen me mention the Voxel-based Architectural Space Analysis (VASA) package (you can find all the posts about it here). VASA is a toolkit that allows you to voxelise and analyse 3D geometry, whether for pathfinding, visibility or daylight analysis. The big news of the day is that Autodesk Research has managed to port VASA across to work with the popular voxel-based creation environment, Minecraft. This actually was pretty easy, as we could completely ignore all the code needed to voxelise a 3D environment from the codebase and focus on the analysis side of... Read more →

Vote on my (and others') AU 2022 class proposals

I’ve gone ahead and submitted two class proposals for Autodesk University 2022. If you think they should be part of this year’s event, I’d certainly appreciate you voting for them: Voxel-based Architectural Space Analysis inside Dynamo Autodesk Research first created the Space Analysis toolkit - and its accompanying Dynamo package - to support 2D generative design workflows such as those used during Project Discover for the architectural layout of Autodesk's Toronto office. VASA - short for Voxel-based Architectural Space Analysis - takes these techniques to the next level, allowing the geometric exploration of architectural spaces in 3D for activities... Read more →

A video on using sample points for pathfinding and sensor placement with VASA

Rhys Goldstein has now published Part 5 in his video series on using VASA. In it, Rhys walks through the latest two samples that come with VASA 0.2.0, one of which I talked a bit about in a recent post. Both samples make use of sample points – one in the context of aggregating path information, while the other uses them (as we’ve seen) for sensor placement. Both workflows have significant potential for use in the context of generative design – something I hope to dig into at some point in another post. Hopefully you’ll find this video –... Read more →

Placing sensors and evaluating their coverage using VASA

Last week I mentioned the release of VASA 0.2.0, which includes some new nodes and samples that raise some really interesting possibilities. I couldn’t help but come back to the “sensor coverage” sample (named 12-VASA-Sensor-Coverage.dyn), in particular, as I can see so many possibilities for its use. Here’s the description Rhys Goldstein included in the sample: A demonstration of how to combine sample point generation and proximity operations to select locations on walls and ceilings using the Voxel-based Architectural Space Analysis (VASA) package. In this example, the locations are used to place sensors and approximate their coverage. First, sample... Read more →

VASA 0.2.0 is now available

Rhys Goldstein has been busy implementing some new features in the Voxel-based Architectural Space Analysis (VASA) package. I’ve just published a new version to the Dynamo Package Manager containing the following enhancements: Added "PathModel.GenerateSamplePoints" and "DistanceField.GenerateSamplePoints", which generate sample points according to an approximate spacing parameter. Added proximity operations ("NearestFilledAlongX", "NearestFilledAlongY", "NearestFilledAlongZ", and "NearestFilledHorizontally"), which find the filled voxel nearest to a point. Added special operations ("AutoCrop", "AutoSplit", "DensityMap", "DensityMapWithWeights"), which automatically crop, split, and create density maps from voxel models. Added new examples ("11-VASA-Path-Density.dyn" and "12-VASA-Sensor-Coverage.dyn"), which demonstrate the new features. Fixed a bug in the fill from... Read more →

A video on using slicing, meshes and Python with VASA

Fancy a nice slice of VASA to finish your week? Luckily Rhys Goldstein is here with Part 4 in his video series introducing VASA features. In this episode, Rhys talks about using slicing functions with voxel models, how to iterate through voxel models using Python, as well as a number of nodes that help you work with meshes inside Dynamo (and VASA). He also covers a couple of techniques that allow you to export voxel models to Dynamo geometry, and even navigates through the shell of an exported voxel model to show you what it looks like from the... Read more →

A video on visibility and daylight analysis with VASA

Rhys Goldstein has published the third part of his video series introducing capabilities of the VASA (Voxel-based Architectural Space Analysis) package for Dynamo. This part focuses on how VASA can perform visibility and daylighting analyses. Here’s an animation showing some of topics covered: And here’s the video itself: We’re taking a break from this series now until the New Year, when Rhys will be sharing a walkthrough of the remaining VASA samples. Read more →

VASA 0.1.2 is now available

The first version of VASA we posted to the Dynamo package manager was numbered 0.1.0. Yesterday we posted a new version with some interesting new features, not least of which is the lack of an error when you install it (this one was very much my fault: I’d neglected to mark a couple of DLLs as not being node libraries when I posted it). Here’s a breakdown of the new features in 0.1.2, courtesy of the package’s author, Rhys Goldstein: Added VoxelModel.ToSolid, which converts a voxel model into a Dynamo solid that can be processed using standard Dynamo operations... Read more →

Using VASA via WebAssembly for pathfinding inside FormIt

As a quick recap, here are the posts we’ve seen in recent weeks on this topic: Autodesk FormIt and its JavaScript API Introductory look at FormIt and the Maze Generator plugin. Using VASA with FormIt via Dynamo – Part 1 How VASA can be used within Dynamo for FormIt to solve mazes (etc.) in 3D. Using VASA with FormIt via Dynamo – Part 2 Applying the same principle with urban scenes imported by the 3D Context Creator plugin. In today’s post we look at the fact that VASA can also be used directly from a FormIt JavaScript plugin –... Read more →