Link to Student
Journal Entry For
Module 5 - Flex Your Form
Part 1
Step 1
- The “Parametric Tower - Twisting Rounded Triangular Mass” from the CEE 220c shared library was imported.
- I then divided the floor into 70 levels, with 10’ each level. Thus, the total height of the building is 700’.
- The location is set to San Francisco by changing the “Project Location” in the Manage tab.
- Two of the instance parameters are related with other parameters. “Mid Rotation” was set to half of the top rotation, and “Mid Height” was set to 2/3 of the top height. These two parameters are constrained and cannot be changed from the properties tab.
- The initial parameters are adjusted to the following values so that the gross floor area is in the range of 1.2 - 1.5 million SF.
Step 2 & 3
- First, we select the model in Revit, and set “Top Rotation” is the parameter that we will change and evaluate. There are three report parameters we look into, as shown in the report table below, all three report parameters are positively related, a larger gross floor area corresponds to a larger gross surface area and gross volume.
- 6 test cases that are evaluated are top rotations from 80 to 130 degrees.
- A custom node is created using “BuildingForm.EvaluateSingleInput”. It takes in each of the top rotation values and calculate the three report parameters correspondingly.
- Export the result to csv file.
The report is showing that the a larger top rotation angle leads larger report parameters. All gross floor area are within the constraint of 1.2 - 1.5 million SF, while as we want to minimize the surface area, the top rotation of 80 degrees is the preferable design in this case.
Part 2
Step 1: Define a new building form
I changed “Parametric Tower - Twisted Rounded Triangle”.
- The base was changed to a rectangle, which is a new mass profile that I created. Both of its sides are flexible to be changed.
- The middle layers were changed to simple triangle.
- Another middle layer of simple triangle was added to add some aesthetic benefits.
Step 2:
- Load the new family, “A5 d6 Parametric Tower - Twisting Rounded Triangular Mass”.
- Several parameters are related with other parameters as shown below.
- The location is set to San Francisco.
Step 2: Build Dynamo Logic
- The two parameters to change are the “Top Height” of the building, and one side length of the base rectangle, “Base Height”.
- A combination of 9 scenarios were tested. To make sure the gross floor area is within 1.2 - 1.5 million SF, the “Base Height” is set from 250 to 270 and “Building Height” from 700 to 720.
- The same as Step 2 in Part 1, a custom node was created to evaluate 3 outputs.
- As shown below, a smaller “Base Height” and lower building height, “Top Height” leads to all 3 reported parameters. This will also leads to a lower cost.