Stage 1

Part 1

First, I set up a building model on Revit and set the parameters so that the total floor area would be roughly 2.5M to 3M SF within the site development limits. Then, using the custom node (EvaluateSingleInput), I input the building height as a variable, from 500 to 750 feet, with 6 values, and output results for gross floor area, surface area, and volume. The test results were exported to Excel using Data.ExportExcel node. Using this node, I was able to see a list of results for the input parameters and see which parameters were affecting the results. I did not expected that the gross floor area was not proportional to the building height, due to the effect of the rotating middle and top floor footprints. (The largest floor area was at 500 feet of height.)

Part 2

In Part 2, I first created triangle and circle profiles representing the floor footprints. I defined the triangle by base and height (‘length’ and ‘depth’ in properties), and the circle by radius. I created a conceptual mass by lofting the circle profile to the base and the triangle profile to the top and middle. I set the height of the middle to half of the top. Then, I evaluate it in the same way as in Part 1, with the building height as a variable.

Stage 2

In Stage 2, I created nodes based on polygon profiles for the base, middle, and top. I set up the nodes so that I could change the shape of the building by changing the height, radius, and rotation degree of each. Based on those profiles, I created the surfaces and placed the panels. I also set rectangular surfaces for each floor, and calculated the floor area by the intersection of the rectangular surfaces and the building model. In addition, I created a solid based on the surfaces surrounding the building model to calculate the gross volume. As in Stage 1, I input variables to the custom node and output the results to Excel. Although the effect of building height on floor area was the most significant, I recognized that building twist must also be taken into account.