Part 1 - Testing of Example
Example building forms with 650 ft height and 750 ft height:
ExporttoExcel Summary Table:
Description:
I randomly chose One WTC building which can be flexed by parameters:
- Tower Top/Mid/Base Rotations
- Tower Top/Base Side Length
- Tower Top/Mid Heights
I chose Tower Top Height as my unique flexing parameter after I adjusted other parameters so that the spatial constraints are not violated (984 ft x 328 ft x 755 ft) and the total floor area (2500000 to 3000000 SF) is satisfied. I exported the flexing parameter along with base dimensions and three objectives (Gross Floor Area, Surface Area, and Volume). Cells in green meaning they are not violating their constraints by setting up conditional formatting in Excel. In Daynomo, utilize and modify the custom node to allow more parameters go through the loop and export them to Excel. Additionally, I set up a ratio between Top and Mid heights so that the building can maintain its relative shape.
For me, as a 2 units student, I spent most of my time to explore the mass form in terms of rotations and dimensions by editing the mass family and the footprint family within the mass. Adjusting the dimensions until all alternatives satisfy the constraints. Created more nodes in Dynamo to export more data and carefully formatting the data layout so the table is easy to read.
Part 2 - Own Example
Example building forms with 700 ft height and 750 ft height:
ExporttoExcel Summary Table:
Description:
Siimilar to Part I, but with more flexible parameters:
- Top/Mid/Base Rotations
- Top/Mid/Base WIdth
- Top/Mid/Base Depth
- Top/Mid/Base Height
Again, the chosen parameter to be flexed is Top Height. The procedure is the same as Part I and all constraints are not violated. For the conceptual mass family, since I personally don’t like chevron shape, I edited the mass family and made it a twisting quadrangle. I also adjusted the fixed parameters to make all alternatives satisfying the spatial requirements.
Point to Ponder: What’s the advantage of exporting the values to Excel?
Excel is a powerful tool in data analysis. By exporting the values to Excel, we can easily analyze them. More specifically, in Module 5, we are interested in maximizing or minimizing some objectives, in Excel, we can accomplish them by GoalSeek or Solver. Moreover, similar to what I did, I can easily visualize the alternatives that don’t meet the requirements, and also visualize the data in form of charts or graphs. Lastly, Excel can help us summarize our data in a table and share this table with others.