Grasshopper API link - how to import general plates and beams

It is sometimes necessary to use plates with unusual shapes arbitrarily rotated in space in complex joints. It comes mainly with the scheme of the joint created in 3rd party software. In such a case, the following tutorial can help you understand how to import the data into IDEA StatiCa Connection.

Grasshopper - Installatie van de plugin

Je kunt een proefversie van Rhino3d en Grasshopper downloaden via de Rhino3d website. Start Rhinoceros en selecteer de template met Meters:

Voer in de command regel "Package Manager" in:

Een nieuw venster verschijnt; selecteer IDEAStatiCa en klik op Install. De plugin wordt gedownload en geïnstalleerd. Om actief te worden, is een herstart van Rhinoceros noodzakelijk.

Om Grasshopper te starten met de IDEA StatiCa plugin, selecteer Tools / Grasshopper in het Rhihoceros tabblad.

Zoals u kunt zien, is de plugin nu beschikbaar.

Leer meer over de componenten en opdrachten in de IDEA StatiCa-plugin voor Grasshopper in het artikel Beschrijving van Grasshopper-plug-incomponenten.

Rhino model

Open the attached 3dm file, which contains a column with plates. This model was created directly in Rhinoceros. All elements must be defined by their median plane or centerline axis. The thickness or shape will be determined later in Grasshopper.

Now you can start Grasshopper.

Import of the plates into Grasshopper

For the import of a plate, you need to add these components: 

Surface / Analysis / Deconstruct Brep

Surface / Freeform / Boundary Surfaces

IDEA StatiCa / Open Model Create / Create Plate(IOM)

This has to be placed six times, as we have in this example 6 plates.

Also, the material of the plates has to be defined. For this, use the following component:

IDEA StatiCa / Open Model Create / Material by Name (IOM)

Import of the column into Grasshopper

Now we can define the cross-section of the column. We choose CHS 219,1/5, and the components needed to do so are following:

IDEA StatiCa / Open Model Create / Shape by Parameters (IOM)

IDEA StatiCa / Open Model Create / Create Cross-Section (IOM)

The next step is to create a member. For this, you have to take over from Rhino the ends of the centerline of the tube using the component Params / Geometry / Point. 

Params / Geometry / Line 

IDEA StatiCa / Open Model Create / Create Member  1D (IOM)

IDEA StatiCa / Open Model Create / Create Connection Point (IOM)

To trim the column using all the plates we use this components:

IDEA StatiCa / Open Model Create / Create Cut (IOM)

IDEA StatiCa / Open Model Create / Modify Connection Point (IOM)

Creating an ideaCon file

The last step is creating the ideaCon file. For this, we need the following components:

IDEA StatiCa / Open Model / Create Open Model (IOM)

IDEA StatiCa / Open Model / Modify Open Model (IOM)

IDEA StatiCa / Connection / Create Connection from IOM

In the component File Path, you have to set the place where you want the file to be stored.

When you open the file, you get this result:

Toegevoegde downloads

• column with plates.3dm (3DM, 1,3 MB)
• import-plates-as surface.gh (GH, 39 kB)
• ConnectionPoint-1.ideaCon (IDEACON, 8 kB)