Mass timber is a relatively new type of construction that’s becoming more and more popular all around the world. Many of these buildings are built using a “post and panel” method that includes only structural columns and panels making them incredibly quick to construct. Regulations are still in development for this type of construction, so I wanted to build a tool to assist in the design process.

Mass Timber Suite is a tool that helps designers and general contractors pick the best dimensions for their mass timber building based on their individual needs. This Dynamo program is able to take numerous user inputs such as:

The program is then able to provide feedback on the design, including the carbon footprint, construction time, number of unique prefabricated parts, square footage, and more! Using the Generative Design tool in Dynamo, the user can choose to optimize the structure in whichever way they choose. Results could include minimizing the carbon footprint and cost while maximizing square footage. An example of one of these studies can be seen below.

Once the user has made their choice, the program also has a useful built-in Revit modeling component that automatically generates the desired design in a Revit project. This has the capabilities to drastically cut down on modeling and design time, leading to a more cost effective process.

All of the calculations and dynamo modelling is done in a custom node which makes the UI very user friendly.

Underneath the custom node, the user can decide to load the design into Revit by simply connecting the floors, walls, and columns outputs to their respective build nodes.

Inside the Custom Node you can see how the outputs are calculated and the geometry is formed.