It’s common. It’s also one of the fastest ways to create security risk and support overhead, while delivering a poor user experience.

Below is a practical breakdown of the main problems and which ShapeDiver features address each one.

1) You are handing over your intellectual property

A Grasshopper definition is not “just a file”. It contains:

Once you share the file, you lose control over how it is copied, modified, reused, or forwarded.

How ShapeDiver fixes this

Practical example: instead of sending a.gh to a client to “try options”, you publish a secure app where they can explore a controlled parameter set, while your definition remains protected.

2) “Why is it red?” - file sharing turns you into tech support

A Grasshopper file is not a self-contained deliverable. When you send it, you’re also sending an invisible checklist of requirements:

That’s why the most common response to a shared.gh file is some variation of:

At that point, you’re no longer delivering design value — you’re debugging someone else’s setup. And the more stakeholders you add, the more that support load compounds.

How ShapeDiver fixes this

Practical example: instead of onboarding a client into Rhino + plugins + licenses, you publish a link to a web app. They get outcomes; you avoid becoming the IT department.

3) Grasshopper is not a user interface

Grasshopper is a development environment. It’s excellent for building parametric logic. It is not designed for end users.

Tools like Human UI (and similar approaches) can improve the experience of using a definition by wrapping parameters into a cleaner interface. However, this doesn’t solve the rest of what makes file-sharing painful in real projects: secure distribution, controlled access, and a consistent “just works” delivery to stakeholders.

Even technical users struggle with:

So you end up anyway doing “ Human middleware” (pun intended): tutorials, Zoom calls, and long messages explaining what not to touch.

How ShapeDiver fixes this

Practical example: instead of sending a definition with 60 sliders, you publish an app with 8–12 meaningful controls, grouped logically (“Geometry”, “Performance”, “Output”), with sensible 

defaults.

4) Collaboration does not scale when the.gh file is the deliverable

Direct file sharing works for: 

It breaks down when:

At that point, the work shifts away from design and towards operational support: troubleshooting installs, answering UI questions, and re-explaining the same process.

How ShapeDiver fixes this

Practical example: instead of “email me the inputs and I’ll run it”, stakeholders can run approved variations themselves through a web interface, and you stay focused on improving the model, not operating it.

The better mental model: ship an app, not a file

A Grasshopper definition is a powerful engine. But most people don’t need the engine — they need a steering wheel.

If you want:

…then the.gh file should not be your deliverable.

ShapeDiver lets you keep the definition under your control and deliver a web application experience instead.

Conclusion

Sharing Grasshopper files feels fast because it avoids a “proper delivery step”. In practice, it creates the exact problems that slow projects down later: IP exposure, fragile dependencies, a UI that only the author understands, and a support burden that scales with every new stakeholder.

If you are currently sending.gh files to clients, colleagues, or partners, you don’t need to rebuild your process from scratch. You usually need one thing: a way to keep the definition under your control while letting others use it safely through a clean interface. That’s what ShapeDiver is for.

Book a cost-free evaluation call

If you want to sanity-check whether your workflow is a good fit, contact our sales team for a cost-free evaluation call. We’ll look at:

You’ll leave the call with a clear recommendation whether ShapeDiver is the right tool for your case, and what the path would look like if it is.

For nearly two centuries, CD Peacock has been part of Chicago’s story; over the past year, it has also become part of ShapeDiver’s. Together, we’ve been developing a new generation of bridal ring configurators that connect a 19th-century heritage with 21st-century tools: Rhino, Grasshopper, ShapeDiver, and iJewel. In this interview, we talk with Kelly Jacobson, Jewelry Creative Director at CD Peacock, about how a heritage brand approaches digital customization, why this moment felt right to rethink the ring-buying process, and what it really takes to align technology with a brand rooted in craftsmanship.

Throughout the conversation, Kelly guides us through the full stack behind CD Peacock’s new “Love and Celebration” configurable collection: why Rhino continues to be the foundation of modern jewelry design, how their team simplified complex bridal designs into elegant Grasshopper systems, and how ShapeDiver and iJewel collaborate to transform those parametric models into an interactive experience. She explains why CD Peacock chose to test these configurators first inside The CD Peacock Mansion in Oakbrook, in a guided, high-touch environment, before launching a new e-commerce platform with the same UI and complete online purchasing. Along the way, she describes how each configuration is transformed into a physical ring, from CAD inspections to 3D-printed wax, to lost-wax casting, and hand-finishing by their in-house jewelers.

This interview will be especially valuable for jewelry brands, design and product leaders, and computational designers exploring serious investments in customization. If you’re responsible for CAD pipelines, parametric modeling, digital retail, or the future of client experience, you’ll gain clear, practical insights: how to use Grasshopper without disrupting manufacturing, how to make configurators feel like sitting with a designer rather than clicking through options, and how a historic brand like CD Peacock perceives personalization, technology, and craftsmanship shaping the future of fine jewelry. Let's dive in!

1. Hi Kelly, thank you for taking the time to talk to us! Could you briefly introduce yourself? What’s your background? What’s your role at CD Peacock?

I am the Jewelry Creative Director at CD Peacock and work alongside a talented team of jewelry designers and manufacturers. I started with the company in 2009. My background is rooted in fine arts, but I have always been drawn to the intersection of storytelling, craftsmanship, and beauty.

At CD Peacock, I help guide the development of our private-label collections, custom design projects, and overall creative direction; everything from design concepts and bench collaboration to visual storytelling and client experience. Our team is passionate about honoring CD Peacock’s history while also pushing the brand forward. We blend artistry with innovation to create meaningful, lasting pieces that truly reflect the people who wear them.

2. CD Peacock's roots date back to 1837. How does that heritage shape the way you design for today’s customers, and why is this the right moment to modernize the online ring-buying experience?

CD Peacock’s heritage is woven into everything we create. Our history isn’t just a story we tell - it’s a design language we build upon. The brand has been part of Chicago’s fabric for nearly two centuries, and that sense of legacy is a reminder that jewelry should always carry meaning, whether it’s a bespoke engagement ring or a new signature collection.

When we design, we think about merging tradition with innovation. For us, that means honoring craftsmanship while embracing the tools and technology that make today’s experiences more personal and intuitive. Modernizing the online ring-buying journey is part of that evolution. It allows us to meet clients where they are, while still giving them the beauty, detail, and human connection that defines CD Peacock.

This moment feels right because clients today want both the ease of digital and the soul of something handcrafted. We’re blending those worlds so that our heritage becomes a foundation for innovation, not a boundary.

3. What was the precise catalyst for investing in 3D configurators (vs. more traditional product pages and photo sets)? Was it a growth goal, a customer pain point, or a competitive gap?

At CD Peacock, we take pride in the elevated experience we’ve created in our flagship location, The Mansion at Oakbrook Center. This is a space designed to feel personal, luxurious, and inspiring. The introduction of 3D configurators was driven by the desire to translate that same unique experience into the digital realm.

Our goal isn’t simply to display jewelry online but to invite clients into the creative process. With this new 3D technology, they can explore, personalize, and visualize their piece in a way that feels immersive and human.

This also represents an exciting opportunity to lead innovation in an industry that’s still discovering how digital tools can enhance emotional connection. For us, it’s about extending our heritage of craftsmanship into the future and hopefully making custom design more accessible.

4. Who is the core buyer for configurable rings, and how do Gen Z and Millennials differ from Gen X and older generations in expectations, device use, and price sensitivity?

The younger generations are certainly more comfortable navigating the digital world, but I’d never underestimate Gen X’s ability to get exactly what they want quickly. What’s interesting is that across all generations, we’re seeing a renewed appreciation for the in-person experience.

Online tools like configurators are an entry point. They allow clients to explore, experiment, and express their taste with confidence. But more and more, both Gen Z and Millennials are discovering the magic that happens when they step into a store, feel the craftsmanship, and collaborate on a design that’s uniquely theirs.

So while digital engagement remains essential, we see it as a bridge to something deeper: helping every generation, regardless of device or budget, connect personally with their jewelry and the story behind it.

5. Why did you choose Rhino to design the ring models initially? What about Rhino’s ecosystem or workflows made it the right foundation compared with the alternatives you considered?

Rhino has been at the core of fine jewelry design for decades. The industry standard for over 20 years was Gemvision’s Matrix, which is a Rhino-based platform built specifically for jewelers. So in many ways Rhino was the natural evolution rather than a new direction.

The parametric framework inside Rhino allows for precision, flexibility, and seamless customization. This is essential for making subtle design alterations such as adjusting a stone shape or finger size without rebuilding the entire model from scratch.

In truth, there really wasn’t an alternative. Rhino’s ecosystem is deeply integrated into how modern jewelry is conceived and built, making it the right foundation for both our design process and our 3D configurator experience.

6. Why did you choose Grasshopper for the configuration logic? Which constraints (stone size, prong geometry, shank thickness, minimum tolerances) matter most to keep designs beautiful yet manufacturable?

One of the most exciting parts of this project has been uncovering how each of our bridal designs can be distilled to its purest form. Working with your team to translate complex Rhino models into simple and elegant parametric systems in Grasshopper has been eye-opening. What once required countless steps can now be defined by just a few thoughtful base curves.

Grasshopper gives us the power to embed beauty and precision at the same time. We’ve built manufacturing tolerances directly into the parameters. Behind-the-scenes details like stone spacing, prong geometry, and shank thickness ensure that what you see on screen isn’t just visually refined, but fully manufacturable.

It’s been a fascinating process of simplifying without compromise and finding that sweet spot where artistry meets engineering.

7. How is ShapeDiver contributing to this project?

The ShapeDiver Team has been an incredible partner in bringing our vision to life. The ShapeDiver platform enables us to convert the parametric models we’ve developed in Rhino and Grasshopper into an interactive, client-facing experience.

This tool is the bridge between our design studio and the customer’s screen by translating the artistry and precision of fine jewelry into a seamless, responsive digital tool. ShapeDiver’s technology makes it possible for clients to explore, personalize, and visualize their ring designs in real time, all while maintaining the design integrity and manufacturing accuracy we expect at CD Peacock.

It’s been a true collaboration between design and engineering - using innovation to make craftsmanship more accessible, without losing any of the magic that comes from creating something truly personal.

8. What rendering engine are you using for the online configurator, and why?

We’re using iJewel as our rendering engine because it was built specifically for the jewelry industry. It also gives us the flexibility to integrate our 3D configurators seamlessly into ShapeDiver’s client-friendly interface, while maintaining the precision and craftsmanship standards that define CD Peacock.

What we love about iJewel is that it understands the nuances of fine jewelry, providing gemstone data and metal pricing and understanding the way customers want to explore a design. It allows us to showcase our collections beautifully while giving clients real customization options in a clean, intuitive way.

9. Can you guide us through the different ring options/families clients can choose from in this new configurable collection?

Our configurable collection was designed to bring the essence of CD Peacock’s bridal aesthetic to life while allowing clients to personalize each detail. Within our “Love and Celebration” collection, we’ve organized the rings into three distinct families: River North , Lincoln Park , and Gold Coast , each inspired by distinct neighborhoods that define Chicago’s character.

River North is sleek and modern, reflecting the clean lines and contemporary energy of the city’s art and design district. Lincoln Park is more romantic and organic, with soft curves and nature-inspired details that capture a sense of intimacy and warmth. Gold Coast embodies timeless elegance with classic silhouettes and balanced proportions that nod to Chicago’s historic architecture and enduring sophistication.

Each collection draws subtle design cues from its namesake neighborhood, to create a tangible connection between place, design, and emotion. Together, they offer a cohesive yet customizable experience where clients can explore different styles, choose their center stone, metal, and proportions, and create a ring that feels uniquely their own.

Our goal was to make the process feel like sitting down with a designer even if you’re doing it from home. Every collection is distinct, but they all share the same DNA: craftsmanship, intentionality, and the unmistakable elegance of CD Peacock.

10. How are these rings manufactured? Can you give us a rough overview?

Each ring configured through ShapeDiver follows the same process for our in-house collections. Once a client customizes their ring through the configurator, the digital model moves into our production workflow, where every detail is reviewed by our CAD team for precision, structure, and comfort.

From there, we proceed into 3D printing a high-resolution wax model, which is then transformed into metal by lost wax casting. The pieces are then refined and finished by our incredible in-house CD Peacock jewelers. Every setting, polish, and refinement is done by hand, ensuring each ring meets our exacting standards of beauty and durability.

Manufacturing jewelry in 2025 is truly a fusion of innovation and tradition. Technology guides the blueprint, and human hands bring it to life. That combination allows us to maintain full creative control and preserve the artistry at the core of our designs.

11. Initially, these configurators will launch on your flagship store. Why was this decision made? What is the next step after this validation stage?

We chose to launch the configurators first in our flagship location, The CD Peacock Mansion , because it’s where the CD Peacock experience is at its most complete. The Mansion allows us to introduce this new technology in a guided, high-touch environment where our sales team and designers can walk clients through the customization process, gather feedback, and refine the flow in real time.

This first stage is really about validation through experience, making sure the digital tool enhances the emotional and tactile elements that make jewelry design so special. By observing how clients interact with the configurator in person, we can fine-tune both the interface and the storytelling before rolling it out online.

The next step is to expand the experience across a new e-commerce platform, so clients can enjoy the same level of creative freedom and precision wherever they connect with us. Ultimately, this pilot phase at The Mansion will ensure that when we scale, every interaction, whether in-store or online, feels equally personal, seamless, and true to CD Peacock’s exacting standards.

12. What’s the future of jewelry, especially for brands with such a heritage as CD Peacock?

The future of jewelry is personalization. For thousands of years, jewelry has symbolized meaning, emotion, and identity. That hasn’t changed. What has evolved is how we are able to invite clients into the creative process.

Technology now allows us to make customization more accessible and intuitive, empowering people to design pieces that reflect their individual stories. That’s where we see the future heading - toward experiences that merge the timelessness of fine jewelry with the interactivity of modern tools.

For a historic brand like CD Peacock, this moment is about honoring our craftsmanship while reimagining how people connect with it. The artistry will always remain at the heart, but the way we share it — through innovation, storytelling, and digital design — is what will carry our legacy forward.

- Thank you very much, Kelly. This has been very inspiring!

Thank you as well for the opportunity to share our story with your community.

Andrés Roppa is an industrial designer who has spent more than a decade working at the intersection of eyewear, parametric design, and digital fabrication. This combination has shaped the tools and ideas behind his company: Frame Stock. His path began in Uruguay, where early work with Rhino, Grasshopper, and 3D printing opened the door to remote projects and revealed the untapped potential of customization in eyewear. Over time, this niche focus became his full-time domain, blending the precision of CAD with the craft and aesthetics of frame design.

At the center of our conversation is Frame Maker, his evolving system for transforming 2D outlines into ready-to-prototype 3D frames. Andrés breaks down what it means to automate a process that traditionally relies on a designer’s intuition, explaining both the opportunities and the limits of parametric modeling in a highly artistic industry. He walks through the technical challenges, such as inconsistent curves, hand-drawn variations, and the need to maintain creative flexibility, and how the tool focuses on automating the repetitive mechanics while preserving the designer’s intent.

The interview also explores how ShapeDiver enabled him to transform these parametric workflows into accessible tools for non-technical designers, the role the App Builder plays in building intuitive user experiences, and how bespoke collaborations, such as Vision Now, demonstrate the commercial potential of tailored, on-demand eyewear systems. We close by looking ahead: in-store customization, new materials, evolving 3D printing technologies, and the slowly forming place of AI within the design process. It’s a view into a traditional industry quietly evolving through computation. Let’s dive in!

1. Hi Andrés, Thank you for agreeing to this interview. Could you please share some of your background (education, early professional steps) and hobbies?

Hello, thanks for the opportunity to share. I´m an industrial designer working independently since graduating from design school in Montevideo, Uruguay. I began using Rhino during my studies and continued to develop my 3D modeling skills in the years that followed. This was a big asset in my early product design projects, which were mostly local.

By 2010, I saw 3D printing as the perfect match for my work, because I could now work remotely on bigger, more complex product design projects. Back then, I began to learn more about the industry through a few European eyewear design projects that I was commissioned. I was learning Grasshopper on the side and understood that I could leverage parametric thinking to further develop that synergy between eyewear, parametrics, and additive manufacturing, in search of customization. Fifteen years and many projects later, my attention is fully focused on this niche.

Besides design work, I spend time working on my home and garden, which are part of my other passion: bio-architecture. I live four blocks from the beach and enjoy surfing, swimming, and paddleboarding.

2. What first inspired you to apply parametric design to eyewear? Was there a specific project or frustration that sparked the idea for Frame Maker?

Around 2012, I started experimenting with Grasshopper and designing frames for 3D printing. Back then, frames were already seen as an ideal product for additive manufacturing. I understood that pairing this versatile production method with parametric design would create opportunities for mass customization down the road. Frame Maker evolved as a solution based on these previous experiences, which taught me a great deal about the eyewear industry, which was new to me.  

3. Eyewear design blends aesthetics, ergonomics, and engineering. How did your background as an industrial designer shape your approach to automating such a craft-driven process?

This is a complex topic. By trying to automate a design process for a product with such an artistic intent, you are always on the edge of oversimplification. This can lead to everything seeming alike. This is why Frame Maker is a prototyping tool, a geometry template for the early stages of design, which demand further design iteration and modeling.   

My custom client projects are more complex because they are not just basic geometry; they require a specific brand aesthetic to be kept.

4. Can you describe how Frame Maker simplifies the process of generating 3D frame models from the designer’s perspective?

The idea behind Frame Maker is to automate the mechanical or repetitive parts of the modeling process. It creates a 3D mock-up (printed or virtual) on the fly, based on 2D outlines, which is the usual design approach within the industry.

5. What were the most complex technical hurdles when developing Frame Maker, especially around handling diverse 2D input styles?

The biggest challenge was creating a Grasshopper script that would be versatile enough to achieve the desired 3D frame geometry, parting from curves with different drawing techniques. This means addressing point distribution, drawing errors, overlapping curves, etc. I came up with simple methods for discarding or subtly adapting geometry that would “break” the workflow.

After that was working satisfactorily, I could start adding other frame features, such as changing size, thickness, or adding features like nose pads. My goal was to avoid plugins as much as possible and rely on Grasshopper's native components. I learned a lot from this process. Now it’s time to revisit the entire script and organize.

6. How do you decide what level of customization to automate versus leaving creative freedom to the designer?

Based on conversations with experienced designers about their process and needs, I decided to develop and market Frame Maker as a prototyping tool to create accurate CAD files for prototyping during the early stages of design. From that point on, the variation in each design is infinite and would be impossible to manage. This was the key trade-off decision if I wanted to deliver a consistent 3D model for the brand or designer to download and continue working on. Trying to automate too much would be less flexible and hinder any further creative process by the designer.

7. ShapeDiver allows you to distribute Frame Maker without requiring Rhino or Grasshopper knowledge. How did that shift your strategy in terms of accessibility and scalability?

ShapeDiver opened the door to a wider design audience, not just the 3D modeling experts. I tried to see it from the perspective of a designer using 2D only, building the 3D model in simple steps that could be easily understood. I know that acetate manufacturing design and techniques are most common, so this became my primary reference.

8. Which ShapeDiver features have had the biggest impact on your users — and are there specific updates or tools you’re excited to integrate next?

App Builder for sure, as it makes the interface so friendly, and it forces me to rethink how to integrate new features and make them as user-friendly as possible. I also see a lot of potential in saving model states that the user can come back to and continue editing.

9. Vision Now sounds like a fascinating example of tailoring parametric tools to a brand’s specific needs. Can you walk us through the collaboration process — from understanding their requirements to deploying the final app?

When I was first approached by Vision Now, they already understood that 3D printing could be the ideal production method to complement their frame inventory in specific ways. This is crucial because they had a clear direction and knew how it would impact their business.

Together, we arrived at a proper solution involving a small collection of five frames for kids and a digital interface where the frames could be visualized, tweaked for size, and sent to production. This is an attractive offer, different from the traditional products in the store. Moreover, it’s a flexible solution that can be easily adapted to suit different opportunities, such as replacing styles that don’t sell with new ones by updating the digital stock inside the application. Since the collection is parametric, introducing new styles is quite quick. In terms of production, VN had already decided on the Genera G1/F1 3D printer. The workflow was now established.

Vision Now was new to 3D printing, so setting up the print files and post-processing the frames would surely be a challenge. In view of this, I proposed a geometry optimized for the G1/F1, thanks to previous experience with the material. I also proposed a hinge model that is quick and easy to install.

At this point, prototypes were made, along with tweaks and iterations to achieve a proper hinge fit and refine surface features. With approval from VN on the frame results and assembly, I developed the parametric tool with all five models. With access to the tool on the App Builder interface, it’s now time for testing in the store. Kicking off takes time and adjustment, but once this system is running, the app can be replicated in their other stores, centralizing production in the original one.

10. How does Frame-Stock balance between developing universal tools like Frame Maker and bespoke solutions for brands?

Frame Maker is an ongoing project. It demands a lot of attention when introducing something new or addressing user feedback, which usually generates a version update. My custom client projects are challenges that arise as a brand understands the business potential of leveraging parametric designs that are exclusive to them. Some of these projects are not related to eyewear.

11. Do you see a future where most eyewear design and production happens through parametric systems and in-store customization like Vision Now?

It will certainly play a big role. Parametric systems can be implemented differently, depending on the business goal, product, and manufacturing method. So I see a range of possible parametric solutions, where some may take the stage in the store experience, while others may choose to focus on customization and production in the shop's “back end” only.

12. How might emerging technologies — AI design assistants, 3D scanning, or new materials — intersect with your current workflow?

3D scanning is already common with footwear, and there are similar projects for frames. I am not pursuing that direction for now, but it’s another path to customization. New materials already influence how I develop a certain solution. I constantly test new 3D technologies, collaborating with hardware providers to create optimized collections for those specific requirements. Materials and technologies are becoming increasingly diverse, with options growing and quality improving for consumer-ready prints.

Finally, conceptualization and idea generation with AI assistants is amazing. I’m still catching up and learning how it might best integrate with my work. My current focus is on delivering CAD files in a controlled or predictable manner, 2D to 3D, but I’m sure that AI will inevitably play a part at some point.

13. Looking ahead, what’s your long-term vision for Frame-Stock? A design studio, a software platform, or a bridge between both worlds?

That’s a big vision question that I am currently working on. A mix of things is the most likely answer. As an independent, I have always been used to pivoting and changing directions with my work. Developing a serious software platform would require absolute full focus and another level of investment. I developed Frame Maker as an industrial designer, not as a software developer. A design studio? mmm not sure … I’ll leave this one open.

- This has been great. Thank you very much for your time, Andrés!

Thank you as well for this opportunity to share what I'm doing with ShapeDiver.

That's it for this new edition of Getting to know... Don't forget to visit the Frame-Stock website!

Would you like to get featured in this space? Please email us at contact@shapediver.com and tell us about your project or brand! We'd love to start a conversation.

We had not done this in far too long, and I felt it was important for the team to take some time off from our busy daily work to focus on where ShapeDiver stands on its journey, how we got here, and all the exciting opportunities ahead of us.

We had time to get to know each other better through learning from one another, brainstorming, cooking, rowing, and generally having a great time.

To me, this trip was special in many ways. First and foremost, because of the people I got to spend time with.

Our team is, without any doubt, the aspect of ShapeDiver that makes me proudest. To run something as complex as ShapeDiver with a team of this size is only possible if everyone in it is truly dedicated to the group's success, thinks for themselves, and contributes not only hard work but also creativity, ideas, and constructive feedback wherever needed.

The best evidence for the team’s dedication is that they tend to stick with us for the long term.

Until quite recently, our Vienna team's “rookie” was Matthias Reisacher , who joined pretty much exactly 5 years ago and is the main reason our backend infrastructure is second to none when it comes to executing computational design apps in the cloud.

Michael Oppitz joined ShapeDiver right out of university in 2018 and built our 3d viewer from the ground up to the versatile tool it is today, powering thousands of engineering automation tools, e-commerce configurators, and scan-to-print applications.

Edwin Santiago Hernandez Gomez got drawn to us, also in 2018, when he couldn’t realize his vision for beautiful and functional 3d configurators with other technologies, and has over the years become one of the most accomplished Grasshopper developers there is.

Dmitry Rumiantsev has implemented a huge chunk of the frontend code we have (other than the viewer) and handles the ever-expanding feature requests from all sides with calm and precision.
He’s also playing an essential role in the development of App Builder and our platform backend.

And then there are, of course, my partners, each of whom has been indispensable for the development of ShapeDiver: ​Ezequiel Lopez​, who carries our sales and marketing efforts in his own bare hands and never tires of improving and updating them to new ideas and strategies.

Mathieu Huard who has the difficult job of distilling the gems from a neverending stream of exciting feature ideas for platform, Grasshopper plugin, backend everything in between and somehow forge a consistent product out of them. And @Alexander Schiftner, who is the brains behind all of our technology and whose breadth and depth of technical knowledge impress me every day.

All of this experience and skill is a robust and stable basis for ShapeDiver to grow on - but this growth, bringing in new perspectives and ideas, is crucial for our continued success as well. That’s why I’m excited that we were able to start hiring again this year, adding Agnieszka Nowacka and Sakshi Jinturkar , two wonderful new colleagues to the team who are strengthening our computational design expertise and are already contributing their unique skills to various aspects of our company.

A second reason for me to cherish this retreat is the fact that we were able to spend it at Ferienhort am Wolfgangsee . I spent five wonderful summers there as a kid and went on to work as a counselor and camp leader until I couldn’t spend all summer with other people’s kids anymore, as I had become a father myself.
I met my wife here, got married on the other side of the lake, and still come back whenever I can. So the fact that I could invite my “work family” to this special place was a real treat. Fortunately, it presented itself in spectacular fashion - the fall colors were amazing, and we even got some sun!

ShapeDiver has had numerous successes to celebrate over the past few years. Still, we’ve also faced our fair share of challenges and had to make some hard and uncomfortable decisions. I am incredibly grateful to everyone who continued to believe in us and contributed their time, work, advice, and insights to bring us to where we are today, especially my team, as well as alumni, partners, customers, advisors, investors, and many other well-meaning individuals we met along the way.

I’m excited to build the future of computational design with all of you and look forward to seeing where this journey takes us!

However, it is the best solution for high-complexity, highly configurable 3D configurators that need to automate real engineering work. Let us explain.

Most businesses don’t need advanced CAD logic or to output manufacturing files from their 3D configurators. What do we mean? If your product can be sold with a few images or a basic 3D viewer that spins a chair or swaps a color, then dozens of cheaper tools can do the job.

But when your 3D configurator has many variables, requires millimeter precision, and must produce DXFs, STLs, G-code, PDFs, or bill of materials, essential for your production pipeline, the ShapeDiver + Grasshopper combo is in a category of its own.

What Makes a Configurator “High-Complexity”?

Low-complexity or "visual" configurators are image-based or rely on basic, static 3D models. They’re great for switching colors, textures, or swapping components online, but end at visualization. When the user completes configuring a product, the business behind that product receives simple data, such as color choices, accessories, modules, etc.

High-complexity configurators are fundamentally different:

This difference is why ShapeDiver stands out: we run a full CAD system in the cloud, accessible from any browser.

👉 Example : We recently integrated the SheepMetal plugin into ShapeDiver, which opened the door for sheet metal fabrication workflows online. Users can now flatten, unfold, and generate production-ready files directly from a configurator, which is impossible with visual-only tools.

Why ShapeDiver + Grasshopper Shines

Grasshopper is already the go-to tool for parametric modeling. If you don't know what Grasshopper is, we recommend watching this video. Connecting it to ShapeDiver brings that parametric power to the web, making it instantly accessible to your team and/or customers. Here are some benefits of this combo:

But don't just take our word for it. There are plenty of case studies you can explore on our blog. However, in this article, we'll focus on some of the most interesting ones, such as:

Industries Where ShapeDiver Excels

Some industries can get away with just visuals. Others can’t. When projects involve specific engineering rules like structural logic, ergonomic fits, or fabrication constraints, a 3D product configurator must generate production-ready data , not just previews. That’s where ShapeDiver and Grasshopper excel.

In the Architecture, Engineering, and Construction (AEC) industries, configurators must balance design freedom with buildability. Type Five uses ShapeDiver to streamline modular housing, CyBe integrates it into 3D concrete printing, and Wood-Skin brings complex panel systems from parametric logic to fabrication files.

For medical devices, outputs are critical because every patient is unique. OrthoSolid shows how orthoses and prostheses can move from scans to ready-to-print files, replacing weeks of manual CAD work.

In jewelry, artistry meets precision. Simple rings may not need CAD outputs, but complex pieces do. Nove25 cut production time by 95% while giving customers freedom to configure gemstone bridal rings.

Finally, in manufacturing and supply chains, companies like Dampere use ShapeDiver to fully automate production workflows, from on-demand 3D printing to custom perforated metal parts.

Across these fields, the value is the same: turning customer inputs into automated engineering outputs.

ROI Through Automation

For many businesses, the true cost of manual engineering work isn’t always obvious. Highly skilled engineers often spend countless hours on repetitive CAD tasks, which add little creative value but are essential for production. After all, this is just how it's always been, right? Over time, this translates into millions of dollars spent on labor that could be automated . For example, every year, companies dedicate engineering resources to:

But what if one configurator could automate those tasks forever and at scale ? With ShapeDiver, that’s exactly what happens. Instead of re-drawing parts or re-calculating outputs, the logic is defined once in Grasshopper and runs automatically in the cloud, 24/7, at scale. Here's a great example in the furniture industry:

As you can see, the ROI is clear: automation saves money and unlocks capacity. By shifting repetitive work to a configurator, businesses free their engineers to focus on innovation, product development, and solving new challenges instead of redrawing the same parts over and over.

When ShapeDiver Might Be Overkill

We’ll be blunt: We know ShapeDiver isn’t for everyone. And, that’s ok.

If you’re a startup selling simple products and do not need manufacturing outputs, ShapeDiver probably isn’t for you. There are plenty of simpler and cheaper configurator services that are easier to set up.

If your product is simple but you do need CAD data as output , then ShapeDiver can make sense. In this case, the key is keeping costs down either by learning Grasshopper yourself or working with a low-cost freelancer to build the file. Paired with our Starter plan and App Builder, you can create a custom application that can output manufacturing files that many visual-only platforms simply can’t deliver.

Finally, if you’re a larger company that sells highly complex and configurable products and are already paying engineers to generate CAD files, drawings, or BOMs manually, Grasshopper and ShapeDiver are a clear win. Here, the ROI quickly reverses: instead of paying for repetitive engineering hours, you make a one-time investment in a configurator that automates those tasks for years to come. If you’re unfamiliar with Grasshopper, our world-class team can help you with this development.

Conclusion: The Best Choice for High-Complexity Configurators

ShapeDiver is not meant to be the universal answer for all 3D configurators, and that’s by design. Every ShapeDiver configurator requires a Grasshopper definition at its core, and while this unlocks enormous power, it also means there’s a learning curve. For simple products that only need color changes or a handful of options, creating a Grasshopper file might not be worth the effort for a startup with limited resources.

However, ShapeDiver shines in highly complex 3D configurators that demand engineering outputs like CAD files, BOMs, or CNC data. At that level of complexity, investing the time to build the right Grasshopper definition makes sense because delivering those outputs simply isn’t possible without it.

👉 Enterprises: Contact our professional services team to build your production-ready configurator.

👉 Startups: Learn Grasshopper or hire a low-cost freelancer and try our Starter plan.

What's next?

Want to learn how using ShapeDiver and Grasshopper compares to coding an entire configurator from scratch? Then, we recommend reading the following article.

FAQs

Q1: Can a 3D configurator export manufacturing files like DXF, STL, or G-code?

Yes. A ShapeDiver configurator operates a parametric CAD engine in the cloud, enabling the output of technical files for CNC, 3D printing, or documentation.

Q2: Do I need to know Grasshopper to use ShapeDiver?

Not necessarily. If you do, costs are lower since you can build definitions yourself. If not, our project team or any other Grasshopper experts can create the right files for you.

Q3: Which industries benefit most from a high-complexity 3D configurator?

Any industry that requires engineering outputs can benefit from a high-complexity configurator.

Q4: How does ShapeDiver compare to building a custom configurator from scratch?

Hand-coded configurators can cost hundreds of thousands of dollars, especially once you budget for infrastructure, scaling, and maintenance.

Thornton Tomasetti’s CORE studio is widely recognized as one of the most forward-looking technology groups in the AEC industry. At its center are computational designers like Eesha Jain, whose journey began at Pratt Institute and quickly led her to this influential team.

With a background that bridges architecture, coding, and electronics, she now develops tools that sit at the intersection of design and engineering — building systems that turn complex Grasshopper definitions into polished, usable applications. At CORE, her work goes beyond geometry; it’s about creating workflows and platforms that directly impact how engineers and project teams work on some of the world’s most ambitious projects.

In this interview, Eesha shares how CORE studio balances immediate project needs with long-term innovation, what it takes to successfully introduce new tools across a global engineering firm, and how platforms like ShapeDiver are reshaping their ability to deliver automation at scale. She reveals the internal challenges of adoption, the speed gains unlocked by ShapeDiver, and how Thornton Tomasetti engineers are already deploying more than 30 ShapeDiver-powered tools in their daily practice.

This conversation is especially relevant for engineering teams worldwide that rely on computational design groups to develop tools but struggle with bottlenecks: cumbersome file sharing, license management, and the need for specialized software to deploy their work. If you’re exploring ways to unlock automation across your design and engineering workflows, this interview offers a rare inside look at how one of the industry’s leading firms has done just that.

Section 1: Background

1. Hi Eesha, thank you for joining us today! Could you please share a bit of your background (education, early professional steps) and hobbies?

Hi, thank you for taking the time to interview me. I’m excited to answer these questions! My name is Eesha Jain. I was born and brought up in Mumbai, India, where I also did my schooling. In 2018, I moved to New York to study architecture at Pratt Institute.

In my second year, the pandemic paused everything, and I used the downtime to learn to code. I learned Arduino, Electronics, Circuitry, Grasshopper, and advanced tools in most of the software I used in the studio. When I got back to NYC, I landed an internship at a construction tech company called Avvir (now Hexagon), where I was introduced to BIM and reality capture. I worked with processing 360 LiDAR (Light Detection and Ranging) scans, scanning data, and checking the construction process to track for clashes, design changes, and deviations. This really exposed me to how the construction industry was leveraging cutting-edge technology to make its processes more efficient.

Soon after, in 2023, I graduated with a Bachelor of Architecture and a double minor in morphology and sustainability. For the last 1.5 years, I have had the incredible opportunity to work as a computational designer in CORE studio at Thornton Tomasetti. This role has expanded my understanding of technology’s impact on the AEC industry — from maintaining CORE’s C#-based plugins to building web applications with ShapeDiver. I work closely with engineers, modelers, and developers to create tools that empower project teams across the firm.

Outside of work, in my free time, I like to play tennis, go to concerts, and watch whale documentaries.

2. What attracted you to Computational Design as a career?

Honestly, I’m happiest when design has a rule set. In my design studios at Pratt Institute, I gravitated to a lot of grids, curvilinear form, and morphology, but my ideas outpaced what I could model until I found Grasshopper. Encoding intent, iterating fast, and seeing options instantly hooked me.

While getting a minor in Morphology, I was also able to be a Research Assistant to professors who encouraged me to work with Arduino, electronic circuitry, and Grasshopper to build out systems that I enjoyed working on. Since then, it’s grown beyond geometry into building tools and workflows using many plugins like ShapeDiver. For me, computational design is a pragmatic toolset for getting dependable outcomes—not a philosophy. It's the straightforward way to turn ideas into repeatable, reliable results.

Section 2: Team & Tools

3. What is CORE studio, and how does the CORE studio team fit within Thornton Tomasetti’s activities?

CORE studio is Thornton Tomasetti’s R&D and Technology group. We mix computational designers, software engineers, BIM specialists, and data folks to build tools and workflows that help our project teams design faster and with more certainty.

We have 7 subgroups within CORE studio:

I work in the application development team and help create UI’s for web-based tools, maintaining Grasshopper plugins and other computational workflows.

Because CORE studio is a central resource within Thornton Tomasetti, we’re brought into projects across disciplines — from structures and façades to sustainability and forensics — wherever there’s a need for complex geometry, high-stakes coordination, or workflow automation.

4. What drives innovation at CORE studio? What is the balance between the concrete needs of current projects versus software projects attempting to improve or disrupt existing workflows in the long term?

Innovation in our work comes from two primary sources:

1. Immediate project needs : Addressing high-value challenges that directly impact ongoing projects. This might mean building a custom Grasshopper definition to automate repetitive geometry tasks, creating plugins for structural design software to accelerate project work, or developing a computational workflow to automate something time-consuming.

2. Long-term vision : Prototyping tools and workflows that will serve the firm, clients, and the greater AEC Tech community well into the future. This includes developing reusable Grasshopper plugins, shaping project visualization and analysis tools like Ellipse, and structural sketching tools like ForceSketch. 

We balance these by directly embedding ourselves with project teams, understanding their unique constraints, and identifying opportunities for technology to unlock efficiency or insight. From there, we design solutions that meet the immediate brief while also considering reusability, scalability, and integration into CORE’s larger ecosystem of tools—ensuring each innovation has both an immediate and lasting impact.

5. What is the balance between developing tools for internal purposes versus the delivery of tools to clients and external stakeholders?

We balance internal tools that improve our own workflows with external tools that serve the wider AEC community.

Internal tools help our teams work faster and more accurately. Many of these evolve into external tools that share those benefits more broadly, such as TT Toolbox (a collection of Rhino/Grasshopper utilities), Ellipse (a web-based structural design platform), and ForceSketch (an interactive force diagramming tool).

By publicly releasing selected tools, we contribute to the community, foster collaboration, and help advance industry-wide capabilities beyond our own projects.

6. In practice, how does it translate into the delivery schedule of new tools? What is a typical development time frame for the tools developed at CORE studio?

Timelines vary widely depending on the scale, complexity, and integration requirements of the tool.

Smaller automations : Often built directly in Grasshopper or as lightweight scripts — can be prototyped, tested, and deployed in just a few days to a couple of weeks. These are typically focused, task-specific solutions such as automating a modeling workflow, extracting project data for reports, or generating quick visualizations. Their speed comes from using existing project geometry, minimal UI, and direct deployment to the project team without large-scale dependencies.

Larger platforms : Especially those that require input from multiple teams, dedicated UI/UX design, integration with external systems, and rigorous QA — may take 3–9 months or more to reach a stable release.

The introduction of ShapeDiver has significantly accelerated our production timeline for Grasshopper-based tools. By allowing us to package complex Grasshopper definitions into accessible web applications, we can bypass the need for local Rhino/Grasshopper installations or a timeline for complex web development. We can streamline deployment and shorten the time from prototype to usable tool.

7. Can you tell us about the challenges associated with tool adoption, particularly within the Thornton Tomasetti offices? What drives the adoption of new tools, both at the individual employee level and company-wide?

In a large, distributed company like Thornton Tomasetti, tool adoption is not automatic — it depends on visibility, trust, and ease of use. Even the most technically advanced solution can struggle to gain traction if it feels disconnected from day-to-day work or requires too steep a learning curve.

Some common challenges we face include:

We address these challenges by:

When users can see immediate benefits, understand how the tool improves their own workflow, and feel confident that support is available, adoption spreads organically. Over time, tools that started as niche project solutions often become firm-wide standards.

Section 3: ShapeDiver

8. How does ShapeDiver fit in the context of CORE’s activities?

ShapeDiver is part of our delivery layer — the bridge that turns dense, highly complex Grasshopper scripts into clean, customized web tools. With it, our project teams, partners, and clients can explore design options right in their browser, no Rhino or Grasshopper required.

This platform powers our AI micro-apps , trained on Thornton Tomasetti’s deep knowledge base — decades of project experience, proven calculations, and design techniques from our structural engineering experts. The AI team builds the models, the modeling team shapes the geometry, and the app dev team designs the UI — all within Grasshopper. Because these scripts pass through many hands and evolve daily, their native output can be messy. ShapeDiver lets us wrap that complexity in a tailored interface, delivering results as clear tables, charts, and diagrams. We can even push silent updates, fix bugs, or add features without disrupting the user experience.

These applications let users quickly calibrate trusses, shear walls, column stacks , and more — simply by adjusting parameters and instantly seeing updated outputs. Used primarily in the early design stages, they provide rapid quantity takeoffs and clear visualizations that help project teams make informed decisions and give clients the confidence to move forward. What once required manual recalculations and hours of modeling can now be done in seconds, streamlining design iteration and strengthening our ability to validate/test several designs early on.

It’s also a great testament to the ShapeDiver team for creating such an adaptable and transformable plugin. We can take advantage of their robust building blocks while still developing our own plugins and following our own dev schedule — tailoring features specifically for the needs of a structural engineering firm without being locked into a single workflow.

Our ecosystem is strengthened by tools developed both in-house and by colleagues from other practices and the overall Grasshopper community. These integrate seamlessly into ShapeDiver, giving us autonomy to create features specific to TT. We can also connect to the Grasshopper plugin ecosystem, including our own custom plugins. Our applications can communicate with external APIs, export PDFs, Excel files, create custom bitmaps, and generate custom charts — elevating our product and UI experience. CORE studio has also built backend scripts that export SAP and ETABS models so that structural engineers can validate ShapeDiver results against trusted analysis tools.

In short: ShapeDiver transforms our internal AI innovation into accessible, polished, and continuously improving tools.

9. For you personally, how has the adoption of ShapeDiver changed the way you work?

ShapeDiver has fundamentally changed the way I approach Grasshopper scripts. What was once “just a definition” is now a full-fledged product — complete with its own UI, audience, branding, and lifecycle. I now think beyond mere functionality and also consider how someone will interact with the tool, their first impression, and how we’ll maintain and develop it over time.

This shift has pulled me deeper into the realm of UI/UX design, where I’ve learned to think critically about hierarchy, button placement, visual clarity, and the pacing of user interactions. I now approach each build with the same care a product designer would — defining the audience, tailoring the interface to their needs, and balancing aesthetics with speed and precision.

It’s also made me more conscious of the economics and audience demographics of every tool we release. Who will use it? How much time will it save them? What value does it add to a project or client relationship? ShapeDiver has turned every Grasshopper project into an opportunity to create something polished, purposeful, and sustainable — not just for today’s task, but for the long run.

10. Has ShapeDiver helped computational designers release production tools with minimal or no involvement from software developers in CORE studio?

ShapeDiver drastically lowers the barrier to publishing tools.

Before, turning a Grasshopper definition into something shareable often required front-end development skills, hosting infrastructure, and custom integration — a process that could take weeks or months. With ShapeDiver, we’ve been able to bypass most of that complexity.

For example, a glass designer tool idea came from a team in the facades practice, and we were able to help them release a fully customized AI tool with several layers of automation and complexity using ShapeDiver’s App Builder plugin components.. With the AI tool integrated into the Grasshopper geometry generation script, we could instantly publish it as a ShapeDiver application. For further customization, we used our App Builder templates, and it only took a few days to create the entire app. From there, it was a process of understanding what kind of post-processing outputs users would want and adding more features before we launched it on our intranet. Even with only basic front-end experience, users have been able to release multiple complex UI applications in a fraction of the time it used to take.

The accessibility extends beyond our development team. Structural engineers with no prior ShapeDiver plugin experience have successfully published simple tools directly from Grasshopper, instantly making them usable across the firm. This ease of deployment means ideas can be tested, shared, and iterated on quickly, without waiting for a dedicated dev cycle. The result is a more collaborative and experimental culture, where anyone with a good idea and a Grasshopper script can get their work into the hands of users.

11. How many tools built on ShapeDiver are currently actively used at Thornton Tomasetti?

We have over 30 AI/ML tools published to our ShapeDiver organization page, along with about a half dozen more from other TT practices outside CORE studio. These tools range from early-stage prototypes to fully mature applications, and we work continuously to refine, update, and scale them based on feedback and evolving project needs.

12. How many users in Thornton Tomasetti benefit from those tools?

We embed our ShapeDiver applications directly into the company intranet using iframes, making them instantly accessible to all Thornton Tomasetti employees. This means any engineer — regardless of software expertise — can use these tools in the early stages of structural design.

If a client simply wants to know which material performs best, how much load a wall can bear, or needs preliminary quantity estimates, our engineers no longer have to spend days or weeks running manual calculations. Instead, they can open a ShapeDiver-powered tool, input a few parameters, and have clear, reliable answers in minutes. This speed not only improves efficiency but also allows us to engage clients earlier in the decision-making process with data-backed insights.

13. Can you tell us more about one of the ShapeDiver Apps your team has worked on and successfully deployed? How does it serve the execution of projects and other activities at Thornton Tomasetti? Do you have an estimation of the time saved, either for specific tasks or globally in the context of a specific project phase?

Asterisk is the second generation of CORE studio–developed structural design and optimization tools that use custom ML and generative AI models to help our engineers explore design options quickly and efficiently. The first-generation platform was developed in 2017 as a stand-alone tall-building ML application.

Since then, the CORE.AI team has developed predictive ML models for every major structural component in steel, concrete and mass-timber buildings, allowing users to apply specific design parameters to generate a wide variety of structural concepts with rapid member sizing, quantity takeoffs and embodied-carbon computations.

These options can be iterated and compared in real time, enabling faster decision-making during the early design stages. The CORE.AI team has leveraged generative AI to predict many design options for various structural components.

One of the ways the full Asterisk application is delivered to Thornton Tomasetti is through ShapeDiver, which serves as the platform for deploying our tools as interactive, browser-based apps. ShapeDiver enables fast cloud-based computation for multiple building elements, along with custom charts and a Grasshopper UI that makes complex output easy to interpret.

Users can export the entire processed building model—including attributes—directly as breps, meshes, or centerlines, ready for analysis in other CORE studio-powered software such as Konstru or other structural analysis software. Each ML model within Asterisk—such as truss designers, shear walls, concrete slabs, and other structural systems is also hosted as its own micro-app on ShapeDiver. These micro-apps are embedded directly into TT’s internal platforms via iFrames, making them accessible firmwide without requiring users to open Rhino or Grasshopper. This integration streamlines workflows, reduces computation time from days to hours, and allows engineers to test more design options in less time.

Asterisk is designed for tasks like structural optioneering , which involves adjusting and testing structural parameters to optimize designs. Its AI enables it to automate much of this process, significantly reducing time spent on tasks that traditionally required manual calculation and coordination meetings, and providing fast, smart design options for our clients.

14. What are your goals for the next Apps you are developing?

We’ve developed a suite of AI App Builder applications for use across Thornton Tomasetti. Each has a custom UI that allows users to input project-specific information and instantly receive outputs such as quantity takeoffs and load capacity calculations. These micro-applications can be deployed firm-wide to streamline the design of structural elements like columns, beams, slabs, and more — enabling consistent, fast, and accurate early-stage design decisions.

Looking ahead, a powerful next step would be the ability to use ShapeDiver’s compute components directly inside Grasshopper. This would let us call ShapeDiver applications from the web within a Grasshopper script, allowing modelers to incorporate real-world engineering data into their geometry from the very start. Imagine designing a structural model where each beam and column is automatically sized, verified, and optimized using ShapeDiver’s data-driven systems — all without leaving the Grasshopper environment. This integration would bridge conceptual modeling and engineering precision, resulting in faster workflows and more reliable design outputs.

Section 4: Future of AEC & Computational Design

15. As a member of CORE studio, you have the chance to both learn and experiment with new technologies, while also driving change yourself within the AEC industry. Which trends are you currently witnessing, and which ones do you think are relevant?

Right now, the biggest trends we’re seeing are the integration of AI/ML into design workflows, cloud-based computation for accessibility, and the push toward real-time collaboration tools. Another important trend is the convergence of design and analysis — architects, engineers, and fabricators are increasingly working from shared, live data environments, which shortens feedback loops and reduces errors.

16. Where do you see the role of computational design going in the future, and how does CORE studio position itself within the upcoming challenges facing the industry?

Computational design is moving from being a specialist skill to a core part of everyday practice. In the future, I see it becoming more about building interconnected ecosystems rather than one-off scripts — systems where geometry, data, and analysis flow seamlessly between disciplines, platforms, and even companies. CORE studio is positioned at the center of this shift. By embedding with project teams, developing reusable toolkits, and leveraging platforms like ShapeDiver, we’re able to test, deploy, and scale solutions quickly across the firm. This adaptability is key as the industry faces challenges like compressed project timelines, increasing sustainability requirements, and the demand for greater transparency in design decisions.

17. Do you see AI as an alternative to computationally-driven algorithms, or simply as a new element in your toolbox?

For me, AI isn’t a replacement for computational design — it’s a powerful new layer on top of existing tools. Computational algorithms excel at solving well-defined problems with precise rules, while AI thrives in identifying patterns, making predictions, and generating options from complex, less structured data. In our work, the most exciting outcomes come from combining the two — using AI to inform or guide computational workflows, and computational logic to validate and refine AI-generated results. This hybrid approach not only speeds up iteration but also makes outputs more accurate, explainable, and directly applicable to real-world projects.

- Thank you very much for your time, Eesha!

Thank you as well for this opportunity to share our work at CORE studio!

That's it for this new edition of Getting to know... Don't forget to visit CORE studio's website and  LinkedIn account!

Would you like to get featured in this space? Please email us at contact@shapediver.com and tell us about your project or brand! We'd love to start a conversation.

Hi! My name is Alex Schiftner, and I'm the CTO at ShapeDiver. In this article, you will get to know useful background information about ShapeDiver’s App Builder features. We are answering questions such as:

Let’s dive right in.

The reason for App Builder

Back in 2023, our users had only two options for embedding ShapeDiver models in their web applications: 

Iframe embedding: Think of this like embedding a YouTube video. You will get a 3D view of your model and a plain UI for interacting with it (sliders, dropdown menus, color pickers, text inputs, but no 3D viewer interaction options). Styling options are also minimal. Here's one example.

Direct embedding: In this case, our 3D viewer is embedded directly into your web application. You have complete control over the UI and 3D viewer for advanced interactions, but you need design skills to conceive it and web development skills to create it. Here's one example.

The options we were offering were on the extreme sides of a scale: Either take what you can get at minimal effort (the iframe) or develop your web app from scratch. Since most platform users and clients are purely computational designers, we had to find some middle ground.

In autumn 2023, we developed a best practice code example for using ShapeDiver with React, a popular framework for building modern web applications, addressing regular requests from our users. We quickly realized that we needed to do more than just a minimal React app showing a 3D view and some UI controls connected to parameters of the ShapeDiver model. React has a steep learning curve, and one of the biggest challenges is developing stable state management.

For example, consider a parameter (an input) of a ShapeDiver model. The parameter has a definition (what type of parameter it is, what the min/max values are, etc.), and a current value is shown in the UI. It also has a value corresponding to what’s visible in the 3D scene, which sometimes differs from the value shown in the UI. If so, the change of the parameter value might be pending and waiting for the user’s confirmation, or the execution of the change might currently be going on (involving API interactions with ShapeDiver). This example barely scratches the surface, but shows that state management can get pretty intricate.

We didn’t want our users to deal with these complications, so we implemented a properly abstracted state management into the React code example. This involves the inputs and the outputs of ShapeDiver models, the 3D viewports, and the possibility of using multiple ShapeDiver models from a single React app. From there, it was a relatively small step to link a JSON data output of a ShapeDiver model with React components representing various UI elements, like parameter controls, text, and image widgets. This enabled parametric control of a web app directly from Grasshopper without coding. That’s how App Builder was born.

Once the principle was proven to work, we went on to implement:

The App Builder principles, combined with ShapeDiver’s unprecedented capabilities of turning Grasshopper models into APIs, unleashed our creativity and productivity. So much so that we are lagging behind in getting the Grasshopper components implemented to allow simple use of all the features implemented in the React code. Three notable hints of what is coming:

How else can App Builder be helpful to you? 

In addition to simplifying the process of developing a 3D web app, making it as easy as authoring a Grasshopper model, App Builder offers various other benefits:

How far can you go using App Builder? 

The features offered by App Builder are extensive and steadily growing. Before starting to code a 3D web app from scratch, we recommend reviewing whether App Builder can do most of what you need for your project. Still, depending on your requirements, you might run into limitations. Luckily, we provide various ways to mitigate them: 

What’s in for web developers? 

As explained above, we conceived App Builder as a best practice codebase for using ShapeDiver with React. That’s still the case, and the App Builder SDK (the code of the App Builder web application) is open source. It’s a perfect starting point, should you create a custom React application using ShapeDiver. We have purposefully split the code into two repositories: 

This provides you with several possibilities: 

Why the name App Builder might disappear soon

While we like the term App Builder, we concluded that integrating all the capabilities of App Builder directly into our platform would provide the best experience for our users. As we are writing this blog post, we are getting closer and closer to completing all the features required for that.

Once we get there, there won’t be a difference anymore between viewing a model on the platform and opening the corresponding app - the model and its app will simply be one. At that point, there will not be a need to call it App Builder; it will just be how ShapeDiver is used. Hurray! 

Are you missing a feature in App Builder? Let us know on our Support Forum .

SheepMetal is a highly specialized Grasshopper plugin for designing and preparing sheet metal parts. It converts complex BREPs into valid sheet geometry, detects features like reliefs and hems, and unrolls parts with precise control over bend parameters such as K-factor. Built for performance and production-readiness, SheepMetal includes tools for classification, production, validation, and visualization to streamline sheet metal workflows directly in Grasshopper.

1. Who is the plugin developer?

Felix Brunold developed this plugin. He is based in Zürich, Switzerland, and studied industrial design before focusing on process optimization and data-driven design. Fascinated by the intersection of design and logic, he co-founded VektorNode to offer computational design services for the AEC industry.

Through projects involving metal facades and sheet metal workflows, he encountered Grasshopper's limitations but also saw its potential. This experience led to the creation of SheepMetal.

2. Who is this plugin for?

SheepMetal is built for professionals working with sheet metal in creative and technical fields, such as metal fabricators, engineers, industrial designers, and façade manufacturers. Whether developing highly parametrized products, optimizing fabrication workflows, or exploring complex geometries, SheepMetal offers tools to help streamline and enhance your process.

3. What does SheepMetal do?

SheepMetal is a Grasshopper plugin designed to make working with sheet metal more accessible, efficient, and production-ready. It enables users to create accurate 3D models and flat patterns for fabrication, streamlining the design of parametric sheet metal parts that would otherwise require significant time and specialized expertise.

SheepMetal focuses on simplifying everyday sheet metal tasks, making routine work faster, more consistent, and easier to automate. Its applications span industries such as server rack construction, metal façades, shipbuilding, and more.

The plugin supports the creation of valid sheet metal parts from non-manifold Breps, performs detailed sheet analysis, and easily generates flat patterns and production-ready output files.

4. How does it work on ShapeDiver?

SheepMetal works with all our paid plans but requires a €199/year add-on. The developer also agreed to offer a 3-month trial license for €25 if users enroll in our Developer Program.

Are you interested in testing SheepMetal on your ShapeDiver account? Use the contact request form on  our website to tell us about your project!

In essence, the free version of ShapeDiver becomes a more useful product with tighter monthly usage limits.

I know that some of you may have strong opinions on changes like this, so let me take a minute to explain our thinking here. The other founders and I have been enthusiastic supporters of the open culture of the Rhino and Grasshopper community since we started working on our first Rhino plugin back in 2010-ish, and it was always clear that our company culture should reflect this. So while we obviously wanted to build a business, it was clear that we wanted to have some version of Grasshopper in the cloud accessible to students, enthusiasts, and others with big ideas and a low budget.

Our initial approach, which was reflected in our free version until last year, was to define a set of features and make them completely free without any usage restrictions. Back then, we imagined our platform as a place where users freely exchanged their designs and where even users of the free versions might publish models that many others would find useful. So we created a plan that would allow free models to go “viral” without punishing their authors by shutting down their accounts, but we limited the strain these models could put on our infrastructure.

Over time, we realized this was not the scenario that played out. Most of our users publish models on ShapeDiver for one of two reasons:

- To be used in design workflows by themselves or a group of colleagues and collaborators

- To publish them on a public website or shop as a configuration tool

Our previous free plan made the first case frustrating for many users because its restrictions on computation time and scripts, among other things, made it hard to get models to work out of the box. Publishing models on the web wasn’t possible at all.

Our new approach aims to solve this. We learned that most people don’t want their models to go viral; they want them to work seamlessly on ShapeDiver. So we lifted many of the roadblocks that commonly led to models being rejected on upload. And we paired that with an amount of credits that won’t allow you to work full-time on ShapeDiver every day (if you want to do that, we have various other plans for you), but is enough to get some meaningful work done if you need ShapeDiver occasionally.

We’re also thinking about ways to add some form of web publishing to our new free plan. We’re not quite there yet, as this has some additional implications for our product, but we’re open to suggestions.

To finish up, here’s a detailed list of changes introduced for the users of ShapeDiver’s free version. If you created a ShapeDiver account in the past but couldn’t get your models to run properly, I encourage you to try again and give us feedback on whether you noticed an improvement on forum.shapediver.com.

An online 3D configurator is a tool that lets anyone tweak a product’s size, material, or colour and see the change instantly, sometimes even in AR, right in a web browser. Whether picking the perfect ring size and design or designing a garden shed, interactive 3D has shifted from nice‑to‑have to must‑have.

That shift pays off: Shopify reports that adding 3D/AR to a product page lifts conversions by 94 % and persuades 40 % of shoppers to pay more. Outside eCommerce, McKinsey finds that digitally enabled supply chains using 3D digital twins and AI technology can "increase their decision-making speed by up to 90 percent."

So, how do you build a slick 3D configurator that powers all this? Consider this effort as a project divided into three main categories: human costs, running costs, and maintenance/debugging and scaling costs.

In this article, we’ll explore two possible paths for building an online 3D configurator and how these three categories influence its total cost of ownership. Path A will hand-code a configurator using WebGL , and Path B will use Grasshopper and ShapeDiver. Let’s dive in!

Category 1: Human Costs

This first category involves the team developing the online tool. Since a modern 3D configurator requires multiple technologies to operate, it's crucial that your team can skillfully and efficiently manage all of them. As a rule of thumb, the more people and time needed to launch your tool, the higher the cost for this first category.

Path A (Hand-coded): You’ll need at least three specialists working together: a WebGL Developer, a Frontend Engineer, and a DevOps/Security Engineer. They’ll handle the 3D engine, the UI, and infrastructure, so the cost starts at three specialists' salaries (or freelance day rates). You’ll probably also need a UI/UX Designer, Project Manager, and QA Tester, but we want to keep the comparison slightly fair!

Path B (ShapeDiver): Using Grasshopper, one computational designer can handle modelling, UI/UX (via ShapeDiver's App Builder ), and deployment entirely. Since ShapeDiver handles hosting and security, payroll starts at one salary.

- For simplicity’s sake, we’ll assume that the product's 3D assets already exist. Otherwise, a 3D artist would also be required in both cases.

Winner: Path B (ShapeDiver). Even if we assume all professionals charge the same rate (which they do not), path B offers a minimum three-for-one headcount savings and significantly reduces project management.

Category 2: Running Costs

This second category includes the costs of keeping your online configurator running 24/7. After all, the main goal of a self-service tool is for it to be accessible whenever your end users need it, without requiring any involvement from your team.

This category covers essential services such as your cloud costs (storage, CDN, etc.), cybersecurity, and system monitoring and troubleshooting (when needed). Small companies often skip important parts, like having a DevOps on-call and conducting regular pen-tests, to save money, considering them non-essential. However, this approach is very risky, as it exposes them to frequent breaches (with 43% of cyberattacks targeting SMBs and 60% failing within six months after an incident), costly downtime, damage to reputation from data leaks, and legal fines under regulations like GDPR.

Path A (Hand-coded): A modest workload of 10,000 sessions per month with 100 MB assets burns about 1 TB of CDN egress. CloudFront (€0.08/GB) is ≈ €80/month; S3 storage adds ≈ €5/month; a t3.small EC2 for APIs ≈ €18/month; monitoring/logging ≈ €25/month; TLS, domains, backups ≈ €15/month. Baseline cloud = €140–160/mo. Add a 10‑hour on‑call DevOps retainer (at €75–90/h) and you’re near €900/month before optional pen‑tests (€400/month amortised).

Path B (ShapeDiver): ShapeDiver’s Business plan is €499/month and covers the same 10,000 sessions and every service needed to power your online 3D configurator. Extra sessions cost a flat €0.04 each. In fact, every ShapeDiver subscription covers infrastructure, monitoring, and cybersecurity. No surprise AWS bills or DevOps retainers.

Winner: Path B (ShapeDiver). In this 10,000 monthly sessions scenario, about half the monthly spend, and zero hidden Ops headaches. Even if fewer sessions are needed, ShapeDiver offers the Starter plan with up to 2,000 monthly sessions from €149/month .

Category 3: Maintenance, Debugging & Scaling Costs

This final category includes everything that occurs after you've launched your online 3D configurator.Usually, the journey doesn't end there; instead, it's just getting started.

Path A (Hand-coded): Found a bug? It could be anywhere, so you'll likely need your three (or more) experts lending a hand (and they’ll happily charge you for it). New product or products? Cue another sprint of 3D adjustments, UI changes, QA, and infra tuning. Costs scale almost linearly.

Need CAD outputs (PDF, STEP, STL)? Integrating the free OpenCascade library absorbs 80–120 dev hours; switching to a commercial kernel like Parasolid costs anywhere from several hundred euros per month to several thousands per year, so you’ll ask yourself, “Do I really need to automate my manufacturing files that badly?”.

Path B (ShapeDiver): One computational designer still runs the show. Spot a bug? Open the Grasshopper file, tweak the model, and reupload. ShapeDiver pushes the fix live in minutes. No three‑person (or more) dance. Ongoing maintenance, patches, uptime, and security are baked into the subscription and covered by the ShapeDiver team (so your weekends stay quiet).

Need a new product, say switching from a table to a chair? The same computational designer starts a fresh Grasshopper model and publishes it; no extra hires required. And when manufacturing needs production files, Rhino’s CAD engine inside ShapeDiver spits out STEP, DXF, STL, or PDF at the press of a button. Each export costs around €0.04 in credits. Loose change compared with another developer sprint.

Winner: Path B (ShapeDiver) . No comparison. The flexibility of needing only one computational designer and ShapeDiver taking care of the rest provides another clear victory. Plus, the versatility of having the Rhino CAD engine powering CAD outputs is game-changing.

Across all three categories, human costs, running costs, and maintenance & scaling, Path A (hand‑coded) grows line‑for‑line with complexity: every extra feature or SKU demands more specialist hours, bigger cloud bills, and fresh DevOps overhead.

On the other hand, Path B (ShapeDiver) flips that equation. One computational designer covers modelling, UI, and deployment; a single subscription caps infrastructure spend; and updates are as simple as editing a Grasshopper file. The variables that explode in Path A (head‑count, server hours, security patches, etc.) stay flat or scale in cents under Path B.

Bottom line

Skip the multi‑role payroll, surprise AWS invoices, and never‑ending hot‑fixes. Learn Grasshopper or hire a computational designer, lean on ShapeDiver, and ship while your competition’s DevOps team is still triple-checking why ‘npm run deploy’ triggered a fire drill.

If you're interested in learning more, please send us a contact request through our website . We'd love to discuss your project!

Introduction

A few weeks ago, Orthobroker , a renowned Belgian supplier of prefabricated orthopedic products, launched OrthoSolid®. This ShapeDiver-powered online platform lets clinicians design and order fully custom orthoses and prostheses in a matter of minutes. By replacing plaster casts and labor-intensive hand-layups with a simple scan-or-measurement workflow, the cloud service guides users through annotation, automatic fit optimization, and accessory placement, all before a single part is printed. The result is a fast, repeatable process that preserves the craft knowledge of orthotists while unlocking the geometric freedom of additive manufacturing.

At the heart of this transformation is a Grasshopper-driven design engine. OrthoSolid’s product-specific scripts capture every clinical parameter of splints like Volar, Carpi, and the upcoming upper-limb line. Thanks to ShapeDiver, those Grasshopper scripts run in the cloud, feeding real-time 3D to any browser so technicians can instantly see the impact of their decisions without installing CAD or writing code.

Once a patient’s order is approved, designs go straight to OrthoSolid’s in‑house HP Multi Jet Fusion printers. The process produces lightweight, ventilated lattices that stay strong under daily load, shed moisture, and clean easily, advantages difficult to match with laminated thermoplastics. ISO‑certified workflows and step‑by‑step quality checks keep every print consistent, whether the order is for a single paediatric splint or a thousand units for a national provider.

For hospitals, O&P chains, and independent CPOs alike, the result is shorter lead times, fewer appointments, and a growth path that does not require hiring linearly with demand. With encrypted European hosting, role‑based permissions, and optional links to existing patient‑management systems, the fully online platform seamlessly integrates into current operations while opening the door to new, data‑driven services.  And this is only the beginning: upper‑limb additions, new materials, and continuous UX refinements are already on the roadmap, ensuring that OrthoSolid stays a step ahead as digital orthotics becomes the standard of care.

This case study explores how the team behind OrthoSolid wove together custom medical-device know-how, parametric design, industrial 3D printing, and ShapeDiver’s scalable computing layer to deliver a platform that helps clinics treat more patients, with better outcomes and lower overhead. Whether you’re a medical professional evaluating digital workflows, a 3D-printing specialist seeking high-value applications, or a Grasshopper power-user curious about the medical field, the following interview reveals the possibilities and the lessons learned of taking orthotics online at scale. Let’s dive in!

1. Can you introduce the team behind OrthoSolid? What are their backgrounds, and how did their expertise in orthotics, computational design, and 3D printing shape the platform’s development?

Our team at OrthoSolid brings together a strong mix of expertise in orthotics, design, and technology. The company is led by founder Patrick Garmyn, who has many years of experience in orthopedic rehabilitation and the orthopedic medical device industry. He works closely with our sales and product management team, which includes orthopedic specialists.

Our product design engineers focus on creating effective solutions by combining their knowledge of product design, parametric modeling (using Grasshopper), and user experience design for the platform.

Meanwhile, our software developers turn these ideas into a reliable and user-friendly platform.

Together, this blend of expertise and continuous feedback from our clients drives OrthoSolid's ongoing development and improvement.

2. What’s the story behind Orthobroker’s transition from a traditional prefab orthopedic supplier to launching OrthoSolid? How did the company identify the need to disrupt itself and embrace a digital-first approach?

Orthobroker has a history as a supplier of prefabricated orthopedic products, with its successful BraceID® brand. When Orthobroker hired its first product developer, interest in 3D printing followed.

This shift opened new possibilities for customized, patient-specific solutions that conventional manufacturing methods couldn’t fully address. OrthoSolid was developed to bridge the gap between traditional workflows and digital manufacturing, offering a more accessible, scalable platform for custom product creation.

The OrthoSolid® brand now exists in parallel with BraceID®, giving it a secure foundation to enter the market.

3. How does OrthoSolid leverage computational design to streamline the creation of custom orthotics like Volar, Mino, and Carpi? What specific advantages does this offer over traditional manual methods?

Digital product designs offer a great way to create complex designs with minimal effort. Starting with a 3D scan instead of a cast (which in itself is a remarkable improvement), clients can achieve precise and repeatable results with minimal time investment, a crucial factor in a market where trained professionals are becoming more scarce.

Real-time feedback allows clients to adjust and see results immediately, meaning they can fine-tune designs more effectively without time penalties.

The platform also allows our and our customers' businesses to grow without having to increase employee count linearly, meaning scale will be to our advantage.

4. Why was Grasshopper chosen for OrthoSolid’s design scripts? How does it enhance precision and flexibility in tailoring orthotics to individual patient measurements?

Having tried (and failed) to create products with morphing technology, a more precise and flexible option was needed.

As we have a product-first vision, we did not want to create a general ‘CAD’ system. We need precise control of product features and custom controllable features for clients.

Grasshopper allows this quite well, and it allows us to quickly iterate without complex software overhead.

5. How does 3D printing improve the production of orthotics compared to conventional manufacturing? What benefits stand out, like durability, lightweight design, or customization?

HP Multi Jet Fusion printing's main enabler is its design freedom. We can design complex features that improve patient experience without adding complexity to the production process. This means we and our clients can focus more on the patient.

Our materials are durable, skin-safe, and look good when printed.

6. How does ShapeDiver support OrthoSolid’s online customization platform? What role does it play in making the process intuitive for orthopedic technicians adjusting features like trimlines or joint angles?

ShapeDiver is the crucial link between our designs and our clients.  We cannot see OrthoSolid working without the real-time feedback that ShapeDiver allows us to provide for our clients.

We can and do create custom product flows easily, only limited by what is possible in Grasshopper.

7. Your end-to-end digital platform integrates 3D scanning, cloud-based design, and direct manufacturing. How does this improve efficiency for orthopedic technicians and clinics?

In the right business cases, our services save considerable time.

Saving time on casting and a complex traditional product creation reveals the opportunity to serve more patients while keeping quality consistent due to our validated flow.

Clients can increase the number of patients they serve without investing in more personnel or workshop equipment.

Win, win.

8. What are the impacts on lead times, costs, and scalability for larger healthcare providers?

Scale will bring the cost of our products down considerably. These savings can also eventually be passed on to our clients.

Thus, larger companies are a great fit for OrthoSolid since they only need a training investment to expand their business with quality devices at a good price and short lead times.

9. How does OrthoSolid ensure a smooth shift for technicians moving from traditional workflows to digital tools, especially with products like Volar requiring only measurements instead of casts or scans?

Transferring years of knowledge and experience into the digital world requires time and effort. Just as it did to learn their current workflows.

We know this and offer ample training and support for as long as our clients need it.

While initially steep, the learning curve quickly plateaus. Users start to notice the control they have over the product design, and they begin to apply it with confidence.

10. How does OrthoSolid maintain ISO-certified quality and safety standards with in-house 3D printing? What specific controls are in place to ensure consistency across high-volume production?

Our ISO certificates tell our clients that we have validated reliable processes during production.  Our scripts are validated, and the production flow is set up with fixed procedures, with quality inspection at every step.

11. Can OrthoSolid scale to meet the needs of large medical companies producing thousands of orthotics?

Yes. In fact, OrthoSolid enables a new magnitude in scale and efficiency, which was previously impossible to achieve.

Due to the guided product flows with fail saves, both large and small teams can now achieve higher output while spending less time per product.

12. How does the platform handle increased demand without compromising quality?

Product quality remains consistent due to our ISO production flow, which is set up for large-scale operation.

13. How does OrthoSolid integrate with existing workflows in large organizations? Is it compatible with common industry tools for patient management or manufacturing?

OrthoSolid aims to lower the threshold to digitalization, but simply providing an intuitive platform isn’t enough.

True integration means adapting to existing workflows through versatility. We created a system of configurable roles and permissions that aligns with diverse organizational structures and while the platform includes a patient management system, its use is optional.

OrthoSolid also includes robust scan cleaning tools so that we can allow 3D-scans from all 3D scanners on the market.

14. What safeguards does OrthoSolid implement to protect patient data in its cloud-based platform, especially given the sensitivity of medical information for large-scale clients?

First off, we minimise the data required to create a product. Data that is needed, is encrypted in a way so that only the professional has access to it. Only when support from our side is needed, client give explicit confirmation for us to see their data.

Built from scratch, OrthoSolid uses the latest authentication and storage services together with European servers.

15. What’s next for OrthoSolid? Are there plans to expand features, like new materials, additional orthotic designs, or enhanced cloud capabilities, to further serve the industry?

While the platform is launched and being used as it is, we’re not planning on standing still.

Product range expansion is key for the success of OrthoSolid. First up is to complete our upper limb solutions.Next, we’ll move on to other product groups.

While working on those, ongoing user feedback will translate to smaller updates, improving the ease of use.

- Excellent! Congratulations on the launch, and thank you for your time during this interview.

Thank you as well for the opportunity to share our story.

That's it for this new edition of Getting to know... Don't forget to visit OrthoSolid's website!

Would you like to get featured in this space? Please email us at contact@shapediver.com and tell us about your project or brand! We'd love to start a conversation.

Meet the team behind CODA, a forward-thinking collective of architects, engineers, and computer scientists dedicated to creating adaptable architectural systems. With roots in early visual programming tools and a passion for bridging geometry, construction, and structure, the team developed PENTAURA, a timber shell configurator powered by ShapeDiver’s App Builder, designed to bring sustainable design to a broader audience.

In this interview, you’ll learn how PENTAURA leverages Grasshopper to power a generative system that balances user input with engineering constraints, Kangaroo2 for form-finding, and Karamba3D for structural validation. Once a design is finalized, automated workflows generate CNC- and laser-ready fabrication files, enabling fast and precise manufacturing through a distributed European network of robotic timber workshops.

By integrating with ShapeDiver, CODA enabled access to complex parametric design tools through a user-friendly online experience made with App Builder. This expands the reach of computational design to municipalities and small studios and aligns with CODA's broader mission of democratizing technology, fostering sustainability, and empowering local fabrication. Let’s dive in!

NOTES: This project has indirectly received funding from the European Innovation Council and EISMEA, European Commission COSME-SMP-2021- CLUSTER. FRIEND CCI PROJECT.

The system was first developed in an academic setting at MPDA with a group of students for a local school. It was later used as the first of many building systems to be implemented in ShapeDiver.

1. Please tell us about CODA and its team members. What’s everyone’s background? When did you get started?

Before finishing our architecture studies, a group of friends was united by a special interest in the relationship between geometry, construction, and structures. In 2007, we found Generative Components, a visual programming CAD software similar to Grasshopper, and started a process of self-learning through small tutorials on the nascent internet and attending conferences while testing all this gained insight in design competitions.

In 2011, we founded CODA on the occasion of a couple of small research grants. Although it was hard to create a niche, we have been growing at a slow but steady pace, with the vision of designing not just architectural solutions for a site or a specific client, but systems that can be tailored and implemented while creating a greater family of solutions.

2. For someone new to Grasshopper, how would you describe its role in creating PENTAURA?

PENTAURA is not a closed product but rather a tailored adaptation of a building system to client and site needs. Designing the final solution while keeping the shape within a certain range of different hard constraints is at the core of this generative system. In this regard, Grasshopper is the perfect language to rationalize building systems, making them easily adaptable and efficient.

3. What were some of the most complex design parameters you had to manage, and how did parametric modeling help resolve them?

One of the key aspects is that the form-finding is purely driven by the fantastic kangaroo2 solver from Daniel Piker. Without it, we could approximate efficient forms, but this dynamic relaxation implementation is flexible and fast, making it perfect for shells. Additionally, numerous optimizations have been implemented to enhance the configurator's responsiveness.

4. How does structural feedback, via Karamba3D, influence the real-time configurator experience for end users?

In the ShapeDiver configurator, the material thickness is retrieved directly from a pre-calculated table. Karamba3D is not used in this online version to save computation time. Once a project is agreed upon, we conduct a thorough Karamba3D analysis for verification and reporting.

5. In what ways did automation contribute to reducing the time from concept to fabrication-ready output?

In our design projects, automation facilitates several feedback loops with manufacturers and builders, so we don’t need to redraw; instead, we adapt and refine based on their needs. In these projects, we don’t reduce time.

In contrast, in projects where we provide automation as a service, or where we replicate the building system, like in PENTAURA, and the automatic redraw is for the same design, the impact can be drastically reduced. Our best case is a 3-minute workflow versus a 3-week manual drawing of a complex membrane system for pressurized tanks.

6. What role does local fabrication across Europe play in making timber construction more sustainable and resilient?

In the PENTAURA business model, we will rely on an international network of small robotic timber workshops across Europe, where we only need to send fabrication files.

7. How do you envision timber and modular systems shaping future urban landscapes, especially for temporary and adaptable spaces? 

PENTAURA is a dry-tech solution that is fully reversible. With the early prototypes, we have calibrated assembly time to make the system appealing to clients eager to create a space to share and play.

We are based in Spain, and from the beginning, we have aimed to create climate shelters that can host different activities in public spaces. Protecting public spaces in Europe against the climate and isolation crises is a fundamental concern. We need to extend the life and usability of these spaces by introducing more shade in central public areas, as this is at the core of the fundamental principles of communication, sharing, reunion, and activities that have shaped European culture.

8. Can you walk us through the digital-to-fabrication workflow that takes place once a user finalizes a design on the configurator?

Once the design is set, we run a Karamba3D validation process and a fabrication workflow. This latter process runs through labeling and basic geometry operations to directly output two CAD files with manufacturing layers for CNC timber milling, laser metal cutting, and folding. The nesting is created in a manner that is finished and packaged for assembly to minimize the spread of pieces on site.

9. How important was ShapeDiver's web-based platform in making the configurator accessible to a broader audience, including public authorities and urban planners?

ShapeDiver makes it very easy for Grasshopper users with no experience or time to train in web development. The workflow is straightforward because, from the very beginning, you feel confident using the tools. Additionally, the forum and support are quite user-friendly.

10. One of PENTAURA’s goals is to democratize access to advanced design technologies. How do you see this impacting education, municipalities, and smaller architectural studios?

ShapeDiver and similar tools will enable adaptable parametric projects in offices to become accessible to a much broader audience. This can allow useful, rational, sustainable computational design to transcend offices and reach more traditional clients.

11. What lessons did you learn through your collaboration with CODA, ShapeDiver, and Karamba3D that might apply to other interdisciplinary projects?

It has been very fruitful to discuss a wide range of technical questions early on so that the development can be better framed. It can happen that you do not entirely know each part, so the earlier you start having technical meetings, the better.

12. What are your plans for the next evolution of PENTAURA? Are there new features or use cases you are excited about (e.g. structural feedback, cost estimation, AI-assisted design)? 

We are definitely interested in the assistance AI can provide to a user to better define the parameters according to a basic description of their specific demands. Additionally, we aim to find good trade-offs and effective combinations.

13. Finally, what advice would you give to architects or designers looking to embrace computational design tools in their own practice? 

Yes! Enroll in the master MPDA that we direct!

- Excellent! Thank you very much for all of your time.

Thank you as well for this chance to share our work.

That's it for this new edition of Getting to know... Don't forget to visit CODA's website and follow them on their social media channels!

Would you like to get featured in this space? Please email us at contact@shapediver.com and tell us about your project or brand! We'd love to start a conversation.

In this interview, we speak with Swiss industrial designer Yves Ebnöther, who combines parametric design, sustainability, and digital fabrication to create innovative furniture solutions. Yves, who researches and teaches at ZHAW Zürich University of Applied Sciences and runs his own design studio, discusses how his early inspiration from iconic designs like Hans Coray's Landi chair shaped his approach to material optimization.

We dive into Yves' notable project, "Stool around the MAK," exploring how parametric tools like Grasshopper and ShapeDiver facilitate rapid customization and user-friendly manufacturing workflows. Yves emphasizes the transformative potential of technologies such as Shaper Origin, a handheld CNC router that combines traditional manual woodworking with computer-controlled precision, highlighting their role in making precision craftsmanship accessible to beginners and experts alike.

This interview is particularly valuable for designers, architects, and makers interested in understanding how parametric design and digital fabrication tools can drive sustainability and adaptability in furniture production. Yves also shares his vision for integrating artificial intelligence into the design process, paving the way for broader accessibility and innovation within the industry. Let’s dive in!

1. Hi Yves. Thank you for joining us. Please tell us a bit about yourself.

I'm an industrial designer in Switzerland with a strong interest in digital fabrication. I studied in the UK and now live in Zürich with my wife and son. I teach at ZHAW Zürich University of Applied Sciences at the new Institute for Building Technology and Processes and run an independent office for industrial design and product development.

2. What first attracted you to furniture design, especially within the context of material optimization?

One of my first icons of Design was the Landi chair by Hans Coray, made from aluminum in 1939. Like many designs of that time, it used material cleverly, which sparked my interest in achieving a maximum effect with the least amount of material possible.

3. Can you explain the process behind the "Stool around the MAK" project and how parametric design influenced it?

"Stool Around the World" started as a demonstrator project in Addis Ababa for the university's prototyping laboratory. We used recycled material from the local market. It quickly became clear that it would be beneficial to have a configurator for the design to adapt it to changing material and need parameters. The search for an openly accessible parametric file format led me back in 2010 to the parametric SVG format, then hosted by a FabLab in the Netherlands.

4. Your MAK workshop used an online application powered by ShapeDiver to translate user inputs into CNC cutting plans. How did Grasshopper parameters balance user customization with manufacturing constraints in this project?

For us, it was very important to be able to adapt the design of a stool or a bench quickly to changing material parameters and user needs. We didn't go very deep into embedding manufacturing-related constraints but integrated some aesthetic considerations into the design definition. Grasshopper was crucial to achieving this.

5. Tell us about Shaper and why their Origin machine was also crucial for this stool project.

Shaper Origin, for us, is a game-changer technology. It combines manual work like a traditional router with computer-controlled added precision. The process is very easy and safe to learn. It's inexpensive, and even novices can use it competently after half an hour of training, enabling them to create parts with a precision of a 10th of a millimeter.

6. How do platforms like ShapeDiver help you connect with clients and other experts?

ShapeDiver is a key ingredient because it allows us to publish our parametric designs online and make them accessible to our workshop participants via their smartphones. Furthermore, it allows us to share designs with students, clients, and collaborators regardless of the platform they work on.

7. When designing parametric systems for non-experts, what safeguards do you implement to prevent invalid inputs while maintaining creative freedom?

In the context of research and artistic exploration, we actually welcome invalid inputs and quirky outcomes, as they illustrate the current limitations of technology and sometimes even lead to new insights.

8. Your research focuses on mass-producing reuse furniture. How do you bridge the gap between one-off prototypes and scalable production pipelines?

This is a very good question! The honest answer is, we are working on it. It's in the nature of reusing and upgrading furniture to work with smaller production batches than in serial mass manufacture but of course our aim is to apply our findings and methods on a large scale.

9. Looking ahead, where do you see the intersection of parametric design, Grasshopper, and online platforms like ShapeDiver taking the furniture and construction industries, and how do you plan to contribute to that evolution?

Developing intelligent parametric designs in Grasshopper still requires specific knowledge and is quite an investment, especially in working with reused components and recycled materials. A huge thanks to my colleague Edurne Morales, who set up the configurator for our latest projects. In parallel, we are exploring how artificial intelligence can help create parametric designs more easily and in a shorter amount of time, thus enabling more people to harness the incredible power of the technology, especially regarding sustainability.

- Thank you for taking some time to answer these questions!

Thank you for the interesting questions and the opportunity to share some thoughts!

That's it for this new edition of Designers Corner. Don't forget to visit Yves's portfolio and follow him on LinkedIn!

Would you like to get featured in this space? Please email us at contact@shapediver.com and tell us about your project or brand! We'd love to start a conversation.

In 2022, we first sat down with Winston Ferguson, the innovative mind behind Saw & Sew, a UK-based made-to-order furniture platform that leverages Grasshopper and ShapeDiver to bring custom designs to life.

Back then, Ferguson shared how his Canadian roots and entrepreneurial spirit converged to create a business that empowers users to craft bespoke furniture through parametric design. Fast forward to today, and Saw & Sew has evolved significantly, integrating cutting-edge advancements like AI into its workflow. In this latest interview, we explore how these changes have refined the platform's usability and opened new doors for personalization—key priorities for businesses looking to offer powerful online configurators to their users.

Ferguson walks us through Saw & Sew’s journey since 2022, highlighting a leaner frontend, a reimagined backend, and the strategic addition of AI to simplify the user experience. For Grasshopper enthusiasts and entrepreneurs alike, this conversation offers a front-row seat to the practical lessons of integrating AI with parametric design tools. Expect insights into how AI bridges complex design options and everyday users, streamlining customization without sacrificing creativity. From generating input values to envisioning a future of sustainable, made-to-order furniture, Ferguson reveals how Saw & Sew balances innovation with the human touch—a must-read for anyone aiming to harness technology for their own business ventures.

What stands out in this interview is Ferguson’s candid take on AI’s role: a powerful assistant, not a replacement for human ingenuity or coding expertise. He shares actionable advice for entrepreneurs building configurators, emphasizing the importance of understanding user needs and planning for AI’s scalability. Whether you’re a Grasshopper power user or a business owner exploring parametric design, this discussion promises a blend of technical evolution, creative exploration, and forward-thinking strategy—offering a glimpse into how tools like AI can shape the future of personalized production. Let's dive in!

1. It’s been a couple of years since we last spoke. What key technological advancements has Saw & Sew implemented, and how have they shaped your platform’s evolution?

I believe we last spoke end of 2022. Since then, key advancements include adopting a leaner frontend with import maps instead of React.js and bundling, redesigning the backend to better integrate how Grasshopper components relate to our models, and integrating AI.

These changes have made the platform far more usable and maintainable. They provide a stronger foundation for new features, and it’s how we were able to add AI.

2. What gaps in your original Grasshopper/ShapeDiver workflow led you to integrate AI, and how does it uniquely enhance the user’s design process?

The workflow can quickly overwhelm users with options. Many inputs may be irrelevant to them, or as non-designers, they may not fully understand their importance. This is where AI comes in - an intermediary gathering the necessary data to customize the product effectively.

3. Walk us through a user’s journey with the AI-powered configurator. How does it simplify or innovate compared to traditional parametric design tools?

The journey starts with a greeting, followed by an AI interaction to generate values, and ends with the user selecting the AI-generated option to apply to the definition.

Customization is a personal process, and parametric design tools are often too complex for most users. AI simplifies the process by reducing friction through a more intuitive interface, and it innovates by streamlining decisions with deeper insights.

4. How does AI complement—rather than replace—creative input in your workflow? Are there design decisions you’d never fully automate?

I find it a powerful tool for discovery and exploration. Creative workflows involve many ideas and iterations, requiring time and resources. Incorporating AI can speed up the process and reduce the resources needed. It’s like using an incredibly fast but inexperienced designer—it’s impressive, and the work has merit, but it’s not yet deliverable.

5. Has AI reduced dependency on manual coding or developer input in your Grasshopper-based pipeline?

No, it has not. I think using AI to write code is very risky. It can get enough right to lower your guard, but closer inspection often reveals serious flaws. Improving code documentation and comments has been helpful.

6. How does your AI editor interact with Grasshopper definitions? Are there specific parameters or datasets where AI adds the most value?

We use AI to generate input values for Grasshopper definitions, but it doesn’t interact with them directly. Instead, it assists users in creating their designs. Since AI can generate images and text and assist with numerical values, it adds value to interactions that rely on these data types.

Currently, we use AI for images, but we plan to extend it to numerical values. For example, AI could suggest armchair dimensions based on a user's height and waist size.

7. What lessons from integrating AI into Saw & Sew would you share with entrepreneurs building parametric design tools?

If you're building parametric design tools, you've already addressed the most difficult part - you just need to integrate AI into your application so it can interact with users and your design. The algorithms in your definition will still shape the final outcome.

I believe AI works best as a support tool for interacting with parametric design. To reap its value, you need to understand your users and identify where AI can help. For example, for experienced designers, it enables exploration, while for less experienced users, AI may be their primary way of engaging with your definition.

Make sure you don’t leave yourself too exposed if usage exceeds expectations. The experience is novel and easily repeatable, so plan for sufficient interactions before seeing a return.

8. How do you see AI shaping your industry in the years ahead, and what should new businesses be prepared for?

I believe AI can drive mass customization and made-to-order production, reducing inefficiencies and waste in the furniture industry. By bridging the gap between consumers and producers, it can lower carbon footprints and create more sustainable products. This personalization could also make products less disposable - imagine a resurgence of heirloom pieces, like keeping your dad’s chair because it was a one-of-a-kind representation of him.

Be prepared to adapt. This is still a new technology, and how it’s adopted may surprise us

- Again, thank you very much for your time, Winston!

Thank you as well for this opportunity.

That's it for this first edition of Revisiting... Don't forget to visit Saw & Sew's new website !

Would you like to get featured in this space? Please email us at contact@shapediver.com and tell us about your project or brand! We'd love to start a conversation.

Join us for the ShapeDiver Spring ‘25 Update Webinar, where we'll showcase our latest major integrations with Speckle and Shopify, plus many of the other newest ShapeDiver developments, such as our AI Agent component for App Builder.

This webinar, which is scheduled to last approximately 60 to 75 minutes, not including Q&A, is aimed at computational designers and/or business leaders who want to learn more about our platform's latest features.

Webinar Overview

> CLICK HERE TO REGISTER

Agenda:

Part 1: Speckle Optimization Workflow

We'll officially introduce our Speckle integration, enabling seamless bidirectional data exchange between Speckle and ShapeDiver Apps. Through this use case, we'll demonstrate several key developments:

Part 2: Shopify Product Configurator (No Code, Just Grasshopper)

We'll introduce the new ShapeDiver App for Shopify, allowing you to create a fully functional product configurator using only a Grasshopper definition. We'll demonstrate:

Part 3 : Upcoming Features & Enhancements

Besides these core integrations, our team has been working on exciting new features that build upon our previous releases. During this part, we'll cover:

Part 4: Q&A

Last but not least, it's Q&A time! For anyone sticking with us until the very end, this will be your chance to ask us any questions about what we just presented or even things we didn't discuss.

About ShapeDiver

ShapeDiver is an online platform that simplifies hosting and sharing Grasshopper files online. It provides the tools and scalable infrastructure to help users transform their library of Grasshopper files into powerful and shareable web applications.

With ShapeDiver, users can:

- Share the full power of their parametric design files with partners, clients, and other non-technical stakeholders wherever they are while protecting their IP.

- Create online applications that help automate sales, design, and manufacturing processes.

The performance of rendering the Text Tag 3D component has been something we’ve wanted to improve for a long time. While we knew our solution wasn’t optimal in terms of performance, it worked well enough that we pushed the issue into our backlog. However, with large amounts of text, the performance, both in creating the text and rendering it, became noticeably slow, particularly on lower-end devices. When one of our clients brought up this issue while trying to render a large number of text tags, we knew it was time to find a better solution. We developed an approach that’s relatively simple and works really well, and we’re excited to share it with you!

The Problem: Creating 3D Text (fast)

To understand why our new approach was necessary, let me briefly explain the kind of data we transfer, how our old approach worked, and where the bottlenecks were. This will help make our new approach clearer.

When the Text Tag 3D component is used in Grasshopper, the ShapeDiver Plugin doesn't do much with the data provided as input. It gathers all that data into an output, and the content of that output is then interpreted by our viewer. This means that the text provided to the Text Tag 3D component is transferred simply as a string, without any geometry created in the Plugin. The advantage of this approach is that the data sent can be kept to a minimum, just the text itself and metadata for positioning, color, etc.

While this approach is efficient for transferring data, the 3D geometry of these tags must be created within the viewer. In our old approach, we used three.js functionality to generate this 3D geometry. Three.js includes a TextGeometry class that can create 3D text from a previously loaded font and some provided options. While this approach works well for many applications, we encountered a few issues that affected performance.

One issue was the creation of the geometry itself. Characters in a font are defined as vector paths, which mathematically describe curves and lines. In three.js, these vector paths are combined into a single shape per character and then extruded. This process can take some time, as some characters are defined by many vector paths. An additional problem arises because curves must be approximated. WebGL only supports primitives like points, lines, or triangles, so any round or curved shape must be approximated using these primitives. Curves are approximated through tessellation, which uses line segments to simulate a curve. These issues impacted the initial loading performance of models.

In addition to the creation of these 3D objects being performance-intensive during loading, the rendering of them can also be affected. As most characters have rounded shapes, these characters, when turned into 3D geometry, become meshes with a high number of triangles. With a lot of text geometry, this can result in a large number of triangles in the scene, which negatively affects rendering performance. This is why some models experienced low FPS while rendering, even though the models themselves, without the 3D text tags, were well-optimized.

To summarize, there are two main problems with the approach we were using:

- The creation of 3D text can be slow, as generating 3D characters takes time.

- The rendering of 3D text can be slow, as the created geometry may contain a high number of triangles.

The Solution - Part 1: Pre-Computing 3D Characters

Now that I’ve explained the two issues we faced with our previous approach, let me explain how we solved the first one: the slow initial loading of 3D geometry. The solution was fairly simple, we pre-computed the 3D geometry and loaded the characters as needed.

We accomplished this by creating a small internal program that allows us to generate multiple GLB files for all characters defined in a font. This process takes some time, but we only had to do it once, and now those GLB files are uploaded to our servers. In addition to the 3D geometry for each character, we also stored some metadata (such as height, width, horizontal advance, etc.) within the GLBs, which we can later read to construct words and sentences based on the rules of the fon

One thing we noticed right away was that a single GLB for all characters could become quite large. So, we decided to split the characters into two separate GLBs: one containing all printable ASCII characters, and the other containing the rest of the characters defined in the font. We only load the larger GLB on demand, when a character is defined in the original font but not part of the printable ASCII set.

With this change, the loading of the 3D geometry became much faster. We only need to download the GLB once, search for the required characters, and combine them into the specified text. This solves the first problem, the slow initial loading, and also sets the stage for solving the second problem, which is the rendering performance.

The Solution - Part 2: Instancing of Characters

Now that we’ve loaded all the characters we need in the first step, rendering each character separately results in the same performance as before. Once again, for large amounts of text, the rendering performance slowed down significantly.

This is where the concept of instancing comes in. Instancing allows us to use the geometry of a unique character just once and then instance it as many times as needed. The key is that you can supply separate transformation matrices and colors for each instance. This means you can adjust the position, scale, rotation, and color of each instance individually. Instancing works by loading the geometry onto the GPU only once, and then re-using it with the corresponding instance transformation and color. This means that even though the same geometry appears multiple times in the scene, the GPU only needs to store it once, which drastically reduces memory usage and improves rendering efficiency.

Let’s consider an example. Suppose we want to render the sentence, "Hello, this is Michael from ShapeDiver!" If we were to render each character separately, we’d have 35 characters. However, with instancing, we can reduce this to 19 characters, as, for instance, the character “e” appears 4 times in the sentence.

What you can already see from this small example is that the more characters have been processed, the higher the chance that a character has already been used. This is particularly effective when rendering model data that includes numbers. For example, the 10 possible digits are each used once and then instanced multiple times.

Limitations and Future Work

While this approach works very well in general, there is one simple limitation. The best performance is achieved when a single Text Tag 3D component is used in Grasshopper, which contains all the data that needs to be displayed. Using trees in Grasshopper makes it easy to achieve this. Aside from that, there are no downsides to using 3D text.

For instancing, there are more limitations that don’t affect 3D text tags. Since instancing only allows for changes in transformation (position, scale, rotation) and color, its use is quite restricted. While we are considering performance improvements with instancing in other areas of our system, we must keep these limitations in mind.

A potential future improvement could be the implementation of different fonts. Currently, we use the font in Grasshopper to ensure an identical representation in our viewer. However, for other projects, you might want to use a different font. If that’s the case, feel free to reach out, we might be able to find a solution for you in the form of a small project.

Conclusion

To sum up, we’ve implemented a new solution for rendering 3D text tags. We pre-compute the text tags and only load the pre-computed geometry on demand. Once loaded, we use instancing to reduce the number of meshes to an absolute minimum. While none of these approaches are new or groundbreaking, they significantly improve the performance of loading and rendering 3D text tags.

WAZP is redefining the possibilities of 3D printing by seamlessly combining sustainability, innovation, and customization. Founded with a vision to integrate 3D printing into everyday life, WAZP is on a mission to create high-quality, locally manufactured products that are accessible and ethically produced. From the scenic west coast of Ireland, the team at WAZP is transforming traditional supply chains, offering custom-made solutions to tackle some of the biggest challenges in the industry, from overproduction to the demand for more sustainable manufacturing.

In this interview, WAZP shares its journey from a small Irish company founded in 2015 to an international leader in distributed manufacturing. Key milestones include groundbreaking partnerships with industry giants like IKEA and Vivobarefoot, as well as their integration of cutting-edge technology like Grasshopper and ShapeDiver. These collaborations and tools have enhanced their efficiency and expanded their ability to deliver highly customized products, ensuring customers receive exactly what they envision.

This conversation is a must-read for those interested in the intersection of technology, sustainability, and next-generation manufacturing. Let’s dive in!

1. Can you give us a brief overview of WAZP and its mission in 3D printing and additive manufacturing?

WAZP was founded with the vision of integrating 3D printing into people’s everyday lives. Our approach focuses on creating useful, affordable products, supported by platforms and tools that ensure accessibility. Sustainability is a core value for us; we prioritize ethically sourced materials and durable designs to ensure that our products stand the test of time. Ultimately, WAZP's mission is to provide high-quality, customized, and locally manufactured products that blend innovation with sustainability, making 3D printing a key part of modern living.

Our team at WAZP consists of passionate experts in supply, sourcing, quality control, product design, software development, and operations. Together, we have tackled some of the most significant challenges in consumer 3D printing, consistently delivering excellence. Being based on the west coast of Ireland provides daily inspiration for our mission—to transform supply chains through 3D printing for a more sustainable future. This location reminds us of the importance of creating solutions that are environmentally conscious while pushing the boundaries of innovation.

2. How has WAZP evolved since its founding in 2015, and what milestones have shaped the company’s growth?

WAZP has thrived in a rapidly evolving industry marked by continuous innovations and challenges, both from within and from established companies looking to integrate 3D printing into their operations. Key milestones in our journey include partnerships with VivoBarefoot and IKEA. With IKEA, we successfully produced on-demand products while maintaining the cost expectations of their customers. Our collaboration with VivoBarefoot pushed the boundaries further by enabling the production of fully customized goods.

These achievements, along with our unwavering commitment to innovation, sustainability and our founding vision, have positioned us to offer custom, on-demand products using cutting-edge technology.

3. What are the main industries WAZP serves, and what makes your approach to 3D printing unique in those markets?

WAZP’s core market is consumer goods, and we have a proven track record of delivering excellence, including supplying companies like IKEA with 3D printed products—a world-first in on-demand 3D printing. Our ambition is to make 3D printing accessible to as many people as possible. What sets us apart is our focus on designing not only products but also affordable solutions tailored to the needs of the end consumer.

4. WAZP positions itself as offering a “distributed manufacturing footprint” and “Supply Chain as a Service.” Could you explain how these features benefit your clients, especially regarding sustainability and scalability?

WAZP’s distributed manufacturing footprint allows us to produce products closer to the point of need, reducing transportation costs and carbon emissions. By designing for and leveraging a global network of manufacturing sites, we can offer clients a more sustainable supply chain, minimizing environmental impact while ensuring fast delivery.

By viewing elements of what we do at WAZP in the framework of Supply Chain as a Service mode it enables our clients to scale efficiently without the burden of managing complex logistics. We can handle everything from design and production to fulfillment, allowing businesses to focus on innovation and growth. This approach provides flexibility to respond to demand in real time, ensuring scalability and sustainability as core benefits.

5. What would you say are WAZP’s top three competitive advantages over traditional manufacturing methods? 

WAZP’s competitive advantages over traditional manufacturing methods are:

- On-Demand Production & Reduced Waste:

Unlike traditional manufacturing, which often requires large upfront production runs and can lead to excess inventory, WAZP’s on-demand 3D printing allows for flexible production and production that responds to actual sales. This minimizes waste, as products are only made when needed, contributing to both cost savings and environmental sustainability.

- Design Freedom & Customization:

Our 3D printing capabilities enable greater design flexibility, allowing clients to create complex geometries and customized products that would be costly or impossible to achieve using traditional methods. This opens up new possibilities for innovation and product differentiation.

- Local Manufacturing & Faster Time to Market:

By committing our belief in local manufacturing, we can produce closer to the end consumer, reducing lead times and shipping costs. This model also enables clients to scale globally without investing in costly manufacturing infrastructure, providing greater agility and responsiveness to market demands.

6. You’ve been collaborating with Vivobarefoot on the VivoBiome project, which leverages 3D printing to create custom footwear. Could you tell us about your role in the VivoBiome initiative and how it aligns with your values?

WAZP has been involved in this project with Vivobarefoot from the very beginning, choosing to participate because it aligns perfectly with our core values—creating unique, bespoke products that are made locally and with minimal environmental impact. From the outset, we saw a shared vision in Vivobarefoot's commitment to sustainability and innovation, which gave us confidence that together we could tackle some of the major challenges facing the footwear and fashion industries, such as waste and overproduction.

By leveraging our distributed manufacturing model and on-demand 3D printing capabilities, we’ve been able to help Vivobarefoot explore more sustainable, efficient production methods. This collaboration enables us to significantly reduce waste, minimize excess inventory, and produce products that are not only tailored to consumers but also better for the planet. Together, we’re setting a new standard for how footwear can be designed and manufactured with sustainability at its core.

7. WAZP has recently started working with the Rhino/Grasshopper/ShapeDiver tech stack. How did you come across these tools, and what made you decide to adopt them for your projects?

We discovered Rhino/Grasshopper/ShapeDiver as part of our work with one of our partners who use the same toolchain to generate shoes based on user scans as well as a fit visualiser.

8. What specific challenges has ShapeDiver helped you solve, and how has parametric design improved your workflows?

ShapeDiver has helped us with three specific challenges.

Firstly, it allows our customers to visualise the final product in real-time based on the parameters they choose. This feature enables us to offer more complex customisation options and provide a richer customer experience. Secondly, once we receive an order with customer parameters, we use Rhino/Grasshopper to significantly reduce the time needed to generate the STL files for 3D printing. Finally, using the same tech stack to visualise our product for our customers and generate our print files allows us to ensure that the product they receive matches what they ordered on our web page.

9. Can you give us some examples of projects where you’ve successfully used the Rhino/Grasshopper/ShapeDiver combination?

Our current project where we’ve used Rhino/Grasshopper/ShapeDiver is a website focused on selling customisable 3D printed consumer products. We spent about a month getting familiar with Rhino/Grasshopper, followed by three weeks integrating ShapeDiver into a web app to manage sales.

10. Looking ahead, how do you envision WAZP’s role in the future of additive manufacturing and distributed production?

Looking ahead, WAZP envisions a future where additive manufacturing and distributed production redefine the way products are made and delivered. Our vision is to become a local producer on a global scale, using local materials to manufacture products as close to the customer as possible. This approach not only reduces environmental impact but also enhances efficiency, enabling faster, more sustainable delivery of goods.

We also see the future of additive manufacturing as one where personal products take center stage—where every individual has the ability to create bespoke consumer goods that perfectly fit their needs. By empowering consumers with the capability to customize and personalize, we’re moving toward a world of true product individualization.

Moreover, we are committed to democratizing manufacturing by making cutting-edge production technologies, products, and supply chain solutions accessible to businesses of all sizes. Whether a small startup or a large enterprise, we aim to provide everyone with the tools and technologies needed to compete in an increasingly complex global market. In this way, WAZP is not only shaping the future of manufacturing but also driving a shift toward more sustainable, efficient, and personalized production processes.

11. What innovations or new technologies are you most excited about in the 3D printing space, and how is WAZP planning to incorporate them?

At WAZP, some of the most exciting innovations are coming from beyond the traditional 3D printing industry. One standout example is our partnership with Shapediver, which combines a highly flexible supply chain with cutting-edge customization solutions. This collaboration opens up new possibilities for creating fully customized, on-demand products while maintaining efficiency and scalability—something that’s increasingly important in today’s market.

We’re particularly excited about how our growing relationship with Shapediver can integrate the best of both platforms to create truly modern supply chain solutions, offering the flexibility to adapt to changing demands while delivering personalized products. By leveraging this technology, we envision creating supply chains that are not only more efficient but also capable of offering unique, bespoke products to customers on a mass scale.

WAZP plans to continue incorporating such innovations to stay at the forefront of the 3D printing space, ensuring we’re delivering solutions that are relevant for the 21st century—both for businesses seeking sustainable supply chains and for consumers demanding more personalized products.

- Thank you for this great interview!

Thank you as well for this opportunity to share our story.

That's it for this new edition of Getting to know... Don't forget to visit WAZP's website and follow them on their social media channels!

Would you like to get featured in this space? Please email us at contact@shapediver.com and tell us about your project or brand! We'd love to start a conversation.

The RE:Ukraine Villages project by balbek bureau, an award-winning interior design and architecture practice from Kyiv, is more than just an architecture tool—it’s a bridge to Ukraine’s cultural identity, built for a country in recovery. Using Grasshopper and leveraging ShapeDiver’s platform for interactive online experiences, this initiative lets users recreate traditional Ukrainian homes while preserving their architectural roots.

The balbek team developed the project after witnessing the devastation in villages across Ukraine, driven by a desire to honor regional heritage in the rebuilding process. The platform combines field research with modern parametric tools, providing detailed digital models of Ukrainian homes that reflect each region’s unique design traditions. From intricate decorative elements to structural variations, users can explore countless configurations designed to keep cultural history at the forefront.

The collaboration between balbek bureau, Entire Framework, and ShapeDiver has turned RE:Ukraine Villages into a one-of-a-kind configurator that is as accessible as it is impactful. This interview dives into how each partner contributed to the project, the challenges they overcame, and the strategies they used to create an intuitive, meaningful, and uniquely Ukrainian digital tool. We hope you enjoy it!

1. Can you tell us a bit about your team and your company's overall vision?

RE:Ukraine Villages project is initiated and powered by balbek bureau , an award-winning interior design and architecture practice from Kyiv, Ukraine. Our bureau designs commercial, residential and cultural spaces in Europe, America and Asia.

Our team is known for thinking outside the box: we turned a church in San Francisco into an event venue, created a movable art space , and transformed a former military arsenal into a teeming food hall . Our CEO, Slava Balbek, has even traveled to Antarctica to create an art installation .

Before Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, the bureau mostly focused on hospitality and corporate projects; now, we juggle our work and volunteering. Since March 2022, we have been developing a series of social initiatives titled RE:Ukraine System , and we are proud to have ShapeDiver as our partner.

2. How did the RE:Ukraine Villages project originate, and what was its inspiration?

Our CEO came up with this idea after seeing the aftermath of the Russian occupation in the liberated part of the Kyiv region. The Russian forces damaged thousands of private residential buildings, and witnessing this damage made us think about the future of Ukrainian villages. Our team gathered that the rebuilding would happen promptly and with no regard for local design traditions, and this is something we, as architects, wanted to prevent.

RE:Ukraine Villages tool is based on thorough research of each region's design code. Our team examines structural and decorative patterns and presents them in an accessible digital format for people to discover and consider when (re)building their homes.

3. Could you explain Grasshopper's role in the RE:Ukraine Villages project and its importance to its success?

RE:Ukraine Villages wouldn’t be possible without Grasshopper. The number of unique house configurations available just for the Kyiv region reached over 200 million. Producing this number of models and drawings manually would be simply not feasible. Even the slightest change in the design would mean we’d have to start from scratch and do so for every new region.

Parametric modeling lets us construct the house using algorithms, patterns, dependencies, functions, and formulas. This makes all the elements of the model interdependent and interchangeable, producing a vast field for variation with just a few clicks.

Grasshopper allows us to be extremely flexible and fast. This tool is not only useful for our users but also aids our design process and helps us test and refine the dimensions of the elements and their combinations, as we frequently notice conflicts between different geometries in the early stages.

4. Were any specific Grasshopper plugins or tools particularly useful during the project?

One of the biggest bottlenecks in our development process was importing all the necessary geometry from Rhino into Grasshopper, meshing, and internalizing it. For every new region, that is hundreds of breps, their respective 2D projections, and anchor points. For the first region, we manually set all these geometries to separate nodes (ouch), but this method quickly became very painful and tiring.

The greatest optimization happened when we discovered the ”Dynamic Geometry Pipeline” from the plugin “Human,” which imported all our volumes, curves, and points into Grasshopper in one click and let us store them in just one node, which in turn, significantly simplified the task of internalization. Now, any slightest change in the Rhino geometry could be instantaneously updated in Grasshopper. That feels really good! What doesn’t feel good is not being able to find a specific element in an enormous list of flattened data.

For this reason, we started augmenting all the geometry in Rhino with Key/Value attributes describing its category (porch, window, etc), material (timber, brick), size, variation, etc. Then, having imported the geometry into Grasshopper and reading its attributes using Human’s “Object Attributes,” we constructed a data tree where every data tree path to some particular geometry was composed of its enumerated attribute values. Read: hash table in Grasshopper.

Finding the right element became as easy as listing the desired values of the geometry attributes, turning them into a path, and extracting the right branch from the data tree. We constantly have to keep in mind that our application has to run on the web and it has to run fast. Being able to efficiently import, store, retrieve the selected elements, and quickly combine them into a house drastically improved the user experience.

5. Can you describe the workflow, starting from the initial field research to the digital modeling phase?

First, our researchers would go on field trips to take photos and measurements and talk to locals. At the same time, another group of researchers would make the most out of online resources, such as marketplaces, where they might come across house-for-sale ads containing photos and floor plans. We’re also glad when local experts and academics take the initiative to guide us through the region's historical background. Once all the materials find their way to Google Drive, our architects switch to the Miro board and start the analysis and pattern identification.

The final selection of decorative elements for every region is usually composed not of the most vibrant or sophisticated but of the most prevalent and characteristic elements in the respective area. 5 is usually the limit on the number of element variations we include in each step to make the configurator as millennial-friendly as possible. Gradually, the final elements materialize from photos to 2D drawings and then 3D models, which are later imported into Grasshopper and combined by pure computational magic into a traditional Ukrainian village house.

The last move before taking it online is to describe the available steps in the configurator and the restrictions on possible element combinations to our team of web developers, Entire Framework , to ensure the right structure of steps and available buttons.

6. What role does ShapeDiver play in the RE:Ukraine Villages project, and how does it enhance the user experience?

In all fairness, we haven’t ever encountered any alternative to ShapeDiver. It’s an absolutely unique and incredible tool. We wouldn’t know how to bring our project to life without it.

When we talk about culture, it’s all about the story and the feelings, especially during the war when Russia is actively trying to annihilate our identity. By building this online configurator, we wanted to give people an opportunity to rediscover a part of their lives that may have been forgotten, unnoticed, or never closely analyzed because of how habitual and mundane it has become. The objects around us have so much beauty and history behind them only if we stop and pay attention.

The magic lies in the very interactive experience that ShapeDiver provides. You feel like you’re not only observing a static image or drawing as if you were in a museum but actively participating, almost joining a game. By making a conscious choice on every step, experimenting, looking at the building from different angles, you’re paying way more attention to the details than you would if you were merely passing by another stand or turning another page of a book. You’re in a discover mode.

Apart from fun, ShapeDiver also enables us to provide a tangible result – a PDF with custom drawings for your specific house and complete documentation on every element in the region's selection for further examination (and even some easter eggs in the end). The newly customized house now feels closer to reality than ever. You designed it! Now, it’s part of you!

We’ve received multiple messages on our Instagram profile from people sharing their emotions after assembling a house reminiscent of their grandmother's dwelling from childhood. Some of them even went on to repaint their houses inspired by our selections of color palettes.

7. How does ShapeDiver contribute to making parametric design accessible to a broader audience beyond just architects and designers? What strategies ensured non-experts can easily use the RE:Ukraine Villages tool?

Our mission was to create a tool accessible to users from various backgrounds regardless of their technical proficiency, familiarity with architectural terminology, or artistic skills. Needless to say, we expected our interest group to largely consist of elderly people living in villages.

Architects should make all the tough decisions and then present the solutions in the simplest way possible. First, we ensured that the selection of elements was large enough to satisfy the need for variety but not too broad to overwhelm and demotivate. Clearly defined intuitive steps, big buttons with easily distinguishable visuals, color accents, and clarifying notes where necessary are designed to make the process as smooth and natural as possible.

On every step, the geometry that’s being selected is accentuated in dark grey to avoid any ambiguity in naming for people who haven’t casually taken a class on building components in ancient Greek architecture. The camera zooms in and out as well. The flexibility of Grasshopper and the broad capabilities of ShapeDiver made realizing these ideas not just easy but also enjoyable.

8. Did you face any particular challenges during the development phase? If so, how did you overcome them?

We started with little to no knowledge or skills in coding and made way more unintelligent mistakes than we’d like to admit. Apart from figuring out how to code the entire application in Grasshopper, we also had to find the most optimized method to do so while taking into the account the ShapeDiver rules and capabilities.

It wouldn’t be an overstatement to say we owe our success to ShapeDiver’s YouTube channel. There, we learned pretty much everything we needed to know about modeling, optimization, meshing, PDF generation, and much more. These materials provided solutions to some of our most pressing issues, especially regarding PDF formation.

Initially, we used to send dozens of fairly complex elements through the Make2D function to create our facade drawings, which sent our computing times into the stratosphere for what usually ended up not being the highest quality result. The suffering was eased when we found the ShapeDiver tutorial on keeping the respective 2D projections in a separate list and retrieving the ones to be seen in the selected configuration. This way, we increased our control over the resulting drawings and drastically cut the computing times.

9. How did Balbek Bureau, ShapeDiver, and Entire Framework collaborate? What strategies were used to manage communication and ensure seamless design and technology integration? 

It’s safe to say we were on the same page regarding the design concept from the start, so all communication leading to design decisions involved just a couple of Figma iterations. We knew we wanted a simple yet catchy interface that different age groups could use.

Internally, we used messengers for instant communication, held weekly meetings to sync on the timeline and discuss blockers, and relied on simple management software to align teams. Specs-wise, our configurators have a lot of related logic, such as 'don't display parameter Y if parameter X was selected in the previous step', so for each region, we compose a specification document to describe these limitations for the frontend team.

Because our configurators are quite complex in terms of logic and contain different parameter types, the main strategy for integrating the configurator was to get it in front of humans for testing as fast as possible, allowing us to iterate quickly. We gathered groups of testers through messengers, both from the professional field and outside of it, which allowed us to gather feedback based on real use cases and predict almost any potential future bug.

We also added a bug report contact and a feedback form on the site to collect any additional input.

The ShapeDiver team helped us significantly during the model optimization stage, resulting in a drastic reduction in computational time. We primarily communicated via email and held several dedicated calls to share ideas for making the configurator as smooth as possible. We also used the ShapeDiver forum to pass knowledge to future builders.

10. How scalable is the RE:Ukraine Villages project, and do you have plans to expand it to other regions or architectural styles?

We made a great effort to automate and optimize all the possible steps in the region's development to process and release them faster without losing quality or depth. The plan is of course to cover the entire territory of Ukraine and to make it fast. While we’re looking for funding and new partnerships for the RE:Ukraine Villages project, we’re simultaneously employing our newly gained skills and expertise to build a different configurator, this time for prefabricated modular buildings inspired by our RE:Ukraine Housing project.

11. What do you see as the future of computational design in architecture, especially in projects focused on cultural heritage and preservation?

Everything that concerns cultural heritage and preservation should be very personal and addressed in a case-to-case manner. Computational design is something we came to naturally from how our goal was formulated, but it might not be the best solution for a different problem.

Yet, there are many technological developments that look promising but need a fair amount of testing. Currently, we’re collaborating with some technical universities in Ukraine that develop custom LoRA models for Stable Diffusion so that we can generate images in the style of our studio. At the same time, we’ve been working on an R&D project called RE:Ukraine Vision, which would allow a user to take a photo of a destroyed building and generate a vision of its reconstruction. Such tools could potentially be used in the early stages of communicating with the customer or the stakeholders to rapidly and effortlessly test a batch of ideas.

A bit further away from culture, equally exciting innovations are happening in the development realm with projects like Finch, Delve from Google’s Sidewalk Lab, Space Syntax, Bonava, and many others. They all are developing generative design tools that allow architects to focus less on designing to comply with building regulations and more on planning to achieve the necessary metrics that actually improve and simplify our lives.

- This truly an amazing project. Thank you very much for your time!

Thank you very much to the ShapeDiver team for helping us throughout this process.

That's it for this new edition of Getting to know... Don't forget to visit RE:Ukraine Villages and follow balbek bureau on their social media channels!

Would you like to get featured in this space? Please email us at contact@shapediver.com and tell us about your project or brand! We'd love to start a conversation.

In footwear design, innovation rarely comes from following the beaten path. Pete Davis, Vivobarefoot's Computational Systems Lead, has crafted an incredible journey—from professional breakdancing to pioneering breakthroughs in computational design for footwear. In this interview, Pete shares how his unconventional background has shaped his fresh perspective on footwear, leading to groundbreaking projects at Vivobarefoot's innovation hub, BIOME.

With the introduction of the VivoBiome line, Vivobarefoot is pushing the limits of what custom-fit shoes can be. By leveraging advanced 3D scanning, AI, and parametric modeling, they are rewriting how shoes are designed, manufactured, and fitted. Pete dives deep into the computational tools and systems driving this revolution, from Grasshopper scripting to ShapeDiver's powerful scalability, as well as Volumental's advanced 3D scanning technology and Balena's innovative compostable materials, giving a behind-the-scenes look at the new frontier of personalized footwear.

This conversation with Pete Davis is a must-read for anyone interested in computational design, 3D printing, or the power of rethinking traditional industries. His insights highlight not only the challenges but also the immense opportunities in applying advanced digital tools to solve very human problems—like making a pair of shoes that fits just right.

1. What’s your role in the company? Can you tell us about your background and how it led you to innovate footwear design?

My name is Pete Davis, and I’m Computational Systems Lead at Vivobarefoot.

My career path has been quite unconventional. I left school to become a professional breakdancer, representing England for 17 years. After that, I transitioned into model making for architects and eventually founded my second company, specializing in computational design for 3D printing, AR, and VR. I sold the company to a client, ECCO Shoes, and helped establish their in-house innovation lab, ILE.

Not having any prior knowledge of footwear design actually worked in my favour, allowing me to approach the challenges with fresh eyes. Footwear is a fascinating field due to the deceptive complexity of designing around such malleable, force-dynamic, double-curved objects in multiple environments.

Unlike explaining the depth of computational design projects in architecture or aerospace, footwear is something everyone can relate to because we've all experienced discomfort from ill-fitting shoes. This makes the problem space instantly accessible and a fun problem to work on.  

Fell in love, married, and moved to Germany. I then focused on automating bespoke products through AI-based engineering, working for some leading companies that were working on new geometry kernels. This, with my past, caught the attention of VIVO, who was a client at the time. They brought me on board to lead their Computational Systems at BIOME (innovation department), where we’re pushing the boundaries of what footwear can be by leveraging parametric modeling and questioning traditional design norms. I'm excited to share more about our latest project today, which exemplifies this approach.

2. Can you tell us a bit about Vivobarefoot and the philosophy behind your minimalist footwear? How does Vivobarefoot's approach to footwear differ from other brands?

Vivobarefoot is a pioneering brand in the minimalist footwear industry. It is known for its commitment to creating shoes that promote natural foot movement and improve overall foot health. The philosophy behind Vivobarefoot's footwear is rooted in the belief that the human foot is inherently strong and capable and that traditional footwear, with its thick soles and restrictive designs, often hinders rather than helps the natural function of the feet. This thinking ensures its shoes enhance mobility, strength, and natural movement by incorporating several key design principles:

1. Thin, flexible soles for enhanced ground feel and natural flexibility.

2. A wide toe box that allows natural toe splay and improves mobility.

3. Zero-drop design that promotes natural foot positioning and reduces joint impact.

4. Lightweight construction that reduces fatigue and increases agility.

5. The absence of arch support or excessive padding to encourage foot strengthening and natural foot function.

6. Use of durable and responsive materials that are sustainable and adaptable to various terrains.

7. Educational resources to guide users in transitioning safely to minimalist footwear.

8. Continuous innovation based on biomechanical research and testing to refine shoe designs in alignment with natural foot function and the latest scientific findings.

3. How has introducing the VivoBiome line revolutionized the concept of custom-fit footwear? What did you improve compared to previous approaches?

The introduction of the VivoBiome line has revolutionized custom-fit footwear by utilizing three key pillars that are not normal in current footwear production.

1. Advanced 3D scanning technology,

2. Developments in manufacturing

3. A systems-driven computational approach to each foot.

If we start with just the traditional industrial production of shoes, every shoe is built around a Last. This shoe-shaped object is usually design or product-centric, leading to some aesthetically pleasing forms but functionally detrimental mechanics for the health of your feet.

This is evident in most sports shoes, with narrow toe boxes leading to toe compression problems later in life. Bunions are especially prevalent in women's feet due to their extremely high heel-toe shapes.

Vivo's main range of Lasts aims to address this with larger toe boxes and many other fit-form functions of the shape. At VivoBiome, we take this a little further, leveraging the data we can capture from thousands of foot scans and how we analyze and parse all the data.

For example, each person after scanning now has a VIVO foot health score. Within this score is an array of metadata we can filter from our data centers. We can pull up all scans within a certain heel-to-toe length and filter out if these people have low arches, bent toes, and minimal angle roll. We are left with a subset of scans that we use to build a new data-driven Last shape.

All of the Lasts made at VivoBiome are foot-centric shapes first. This is simple but exceptionally different for the footwear industry.

We aim to eradicate the use of Last altogether, which is unheard of. The computational system we have built allows us to do this, and I will elaborate on it later.

4. What role do advanced scanning and AI technology play in creating the VivoBiome shoes?

We have designed all workflows to be foot-centric, so the core of all algorithms needs to be the most accurate and user-friendly process. After evaluating the market for potential partners, we found that Volumental excels in many areas. They specialize in developing technology for 3D scanning and custom fitting solutions in footwear. Their seamless integration of fast, precise 3D foot scanning with AI-powered recommendations and insightful data sets them apart.

We have two ways to scan your feet: an in-store experience with bespoke hardware for us or software utilizing the latest in photogrammetry.

In both cases, the result is a mesh representation of each foot derived from thousands of scans using machine learning. We then orient and analyze the scan with our proprietary software.

5. How has using Grasshopper and ShapeDiver contributed to the innovation and customization of Vivobarefoot products?

As mentioned above, all analytics and foot health scores are parsed and processed using Grasshopper. This can all be done on a local machine if we are making custom lasts for a subset of people, but if we want to address making footwear for every foot, we need to think of a system that is so far removed from Last and human bottlenecks. Essentially, we need to automate the whole creative approach and democratize the creation process for our designers and, in turn, our clients. A great quote from Oren Harari is:

"The electric light did not come from the continuous improvement of candles."

The amendment of the Last was a new candle. The electric light bulb moment for VivoBiome was the creation of our patented process, which removes all human elements and automates fit for a digitally foot-centric approach. It all starts with how humans break down the workflow in traditional manufacturing.

Design intent comes first, and then a CAD engineer usually needs to realize this intent. The CAD engineer needs to talk next to manufacturing. The machinist will usually want amendments due to reality's limitations, and last, the material scientist's idea of what we can pump into the machines. Each stage creates human feedback loops in how they want to optimize or amend the true intent of the product. We start by distilling all the knowledge and opinions into code and flipping this hierarchy backward. Material, Hardware, Software, and Design.

We start with the constraints of how the material and hardware work in synergy, then feed these into robust software that the designer can always play in. The result is always a manufacturable product exported in native code for the chosen hardware. If we focus more on one of the workflows for the compostable Biome Moccs.

- Material: Balena BioCir

- Hardware: FDM

- Software: GH + enhanced dependencies

- Design: Browser with ShapeDiver

The intent is an environment where the designer at vivo or client can analyze their foot and make design amendments without breaking the system. Export native gcode, never boundary representations. If you look closer, you will notice that for Balena, we use no Last but use data that the user can control to infer fit. Localized deformation that doesn't break the wall thickness of the constraints listed in material and hardware parameters. This equals almost shrink-wrapped footwear (not the Rhino 8 function) to your deformed fitted digital scan.

All of our shoes at Biome are created from just three images. These images affect elements like tread algorithms. This is majorly important to us, as accessibility allows all users to create, even our clients.

Again, extract the human element out of the process. The computational designer or CAD engineer can sometimes be the issue. They are so deep in understanding 3D that we can't bring every client up to speed on 3D design changes, but everyone can do 2D and draw on templates to make their perfect shoe.

As mentioned in my experience above, I've worked on many geo kernels in the past, and sometimes, it feels like your hands are tied to the functions and environment in which you can work.

Grasshopper's development and maturity of functions are unmatched compared to other software. This allows us to think more deeply about what geometry we want to manipulate and transition between established geo types to achieve our goal, always keeping in mind the speed of execution of the script, as this can hinder a user's workflow.

Nodes are a great start, but they can slow all workflows down. We tend to program headless and incorporate multiple libraries to create an unbreakable workflow. Then, port this back to GH to leverage ShapeDiver for the front-end accessibility. With this new system thinking, the code we have written over the last few years has greatly affected Vivo. We can make design amendments in browsers via images or get clients to analyze their fit preferences and update the show around their feet in seconds.

6. What benefits did ShapeDiver's technology provide in developing the VivoBiome line?

We benchmarked many SaaS services for porting the workflow online. Three elements were really needed to ensure we could rely on letting our customers interact with the code we had created.

Security 

If you dare imagine the transition and protection of user data between multiple APIs and data centers, all our data is encrypted until the physical product is delivered. However, many SaaS offerings break this by keeping data on their end. With our ShapeDiver dedicated system, we are fully in control of how we utilize this cloud infrastructure.

Isolated environments for each user, minimizing the risk of data breaches and ensuring that proprietary designs and parameters remain confidential.

Computational Speed

We found that ShapeDiver significantly enhances computational speed by utilizing cloud-based processing to handle the complex calculations involved in running our scripts. Resulting in faster performance and the ability to manage more intricate and resource-intensive designs. The cloud instance can scale computational resources dynamically, ensuring that models run efficiently even when dealing with large data sets or complex vivo designs. A great example of this we used for our SaaS benchmark was a visual representation of marching cube iso meshes. These can usually result in slow render times, but I have no idea how SD has ported this so well to OpenGL.

Scalability

This is a big one. There was a limit to using our own servers or changing Rhinos Hops, and I didn't want to sink time into coding SD's offering. Queuing management spreads the processing of multiple scripts efficiently, ensuring that computational resources are used effectively while maintaining reliable performance. This is key if we have multiple users analyzing scans all at the same time. Load balancing and support of asynchronous processing are major bonuses for us. In short, ShapeDiver sped up our product to market.

7. Apart from VivoBiome, was ShapeDiver useful for tackling other challenges at Vivobarefoot?

The products we have released are really the tip of the iceberg. Many I can't talk about yet, but all are ported to SD and accessible via an online script for in-house and Vivo customers.

One story that SD really impacted is the development of the Last production.

Normally, footwear is more of an art than a science, so all last measurements are done using physical methods that can result in mixed results due to the non-planar nature or rotation of the Last shape. Biome’s task was a simple script: take two lasts and compare the differences between them, measurements, etc. This could be a great little script on a local machine, but really, I, along with the ego of CAD/computational engineers, was the issue.

I'm the experienced bottleneck for vivo colleagues and the Last manufacturer to make sure we are getting what we want.The script was ported to a test website and used SD Iframe for all the parameters. It was exported as a PDF with cut-throughs and multiple key data points. The result was that non-3D people scrutinized our Lasts and accelerated the process of getting to the best Last for normal business at Vivo.

8. Can you describe the customer experience from scanning their feet to receiving their custom-fit VivoBiome shoes?

After signing up at our store or from the comfort of your own home, you will be guided seamlessly on one website through each stage we need to get your custom Biomes.

First, scan. If you are scanning from home, all you need is an A4 sheet of paper. This data is then stored on our back-end system and linked with our next step.

We did all web development UI in-house but linked it to ShapeDiver's back-end power. We call this stage the fit visualizer. Here, you can see your scans and assess the health measurements of your feet. Then, you can flick between different pre-made designs or traditional footwear that we sell.

With each choice, you can see how your foot fits in the shoe in full 3D. We also use Grasshopper to deform the shoe to fit the foot scan based on the material of each part of the shoe, something I've not seen before.

From here, users can choose what design or parameters they want to be changed on the bespoke footwear, such as tread types, logo design, or localized fit amendments.If the user has chosen Balena or our conformal offerings that are fully 3D printed, then the user can amend all elements on their foot. If you want to make a sandal, amend the input image template, and bang, you have it. Clients' cost calculations and environmental impact scores all update accordingly. Finish, and all files will be sent in native code to our data center and then to localized production.

9. How do you ensure that the 3D-printed shoes maintain both performance and appearance? Can you discuss the materials and technology used in creating your compostable shoes?

I will jump back to the Material, Hardware, Software, and Design philosophy.

Once all deformation changes have been made to the scan, we build the shoe from there using multiple techniques.

Material offsets concerning Balenas bio material BioCir are always multiples of the FDM nozzle diameter used, and some changes that I won't go into.

As we are working at such a low level in regards to geometry linked to open vdb fields, we can manipulate the temperature of the nozzle in Gaussian local transitions across one slice of the build. Higher temperatures create a more rigid area; lower temperatures, for example, are used on the upper of the shoe.

The result is a uniformly offset wall thickness from the foot with meta changes that affect the performance of the footwear. Balena’s BioCir is a groundbreaking bio-based material designed to degrade naturally in soil, providing an eco-friendly alternative to traditional plastics. Made from renewable, non-toxic ingredients, BioCir breaks down quickly under natural conditions, converting into carbon dioxide, water, and biomass without leaving harmful residues.

This allows Vivo to create new business models to leverage the product's life cycles. We also have the option to send the shoes back, and we can remake the new pair or design one from the same material.

At vivo we started to think and implement, “Made to be Remade”.

10. What impact do you hope the compostable shoe will have on the footwear industry and environmental sustainability?

The compostable shoe made with Balena’s BioCir material has the potential to revolutionize the footwear industry by setting new standards for sustainability and innovation. By replacing traditional, long-lasting plastics with BioCir’s compostable, bio-based material, the industry can significantly reduce plastic waste and lower its carbon footprint. Footwear being one of the largest contributors to waste in the design industry.

This shift supports the transition to a circular economy, where products are designed to return to the environment safely and efficiently. Additionally, BioCir's use encourages broader adoption of eco-friendly materials, appeals to environmentally conscious consumers, and helps preserve ecosystems by preventing soil and water pollution. These long-chain polymers are really prevalent across materials for 3d printing, so to see companies like Balena spearhead this movement is great. Overall, this advancement could drive meaningful change in how footwear is designed and manufactured but also inform the customer that this is possible and affect change for customer-driven demand. Vivos clientele are usually environmentally minded, so this has already affected the intent of what we want to achieve and amend with this product.

11. How do you see the future of footwear evolving with the integration of 3D printing and custom-fit technology?

We are one of many people trying to crack this problem. People have been really failing fast since the mid-2000s for 3D printed products for footwear. This knowledge has really shaped our approach, but many of the core pillars of our patented process have been from failing in very granular areas of the workflows that unlock light bulb moments that make everything else easier.

A good example of this is the orientation of the foot scan before all other functions. Seems simple, but usually, the simplest things for humans to do are the hardest in code. We now have a robust methodology that was inspired mainly by shoemaker patents from the 17th century. A lot of companies are offering 3D printed elements, inlays to a full shoe. The majority of these are pre-designed objects in a range of foot sizes, again all human-driven problems that the design has to jump through to make it printable. Mostly made in CAD/VR iteration until it's printable. This is kinda like the traditional method of making footwear anyway, but just printed. So when mentioning a company does fit, it's just fit on a small premade range level. it’s never linked or built just from a foot scan. If a foot scan its just matching your dimensions to work that's been done before. In my opinion, custom fit should be tailor-made for you, with every stitch calculated and every tread component linked to your data. Biome, in my opinion, is this now! Such an exciting time.

The best part is our method is only strengthened by the software paradigm. When we amend each update, all fits will only get more accurate.

We are agnostic to the input scans or the output for the native code, so quickly changing how the new material will act to fit with design changes is achieved at a rapid pace in contrast to normal production. In essence, every element in our hierarchy is linked to the best barefoot fit you can achieve with your data.

12. What’s the future of the Grasshopper ecosystem in the 3D printing space?

Grasshopper has so many good plugins for 3D printing but a Design for Additive Manufacturing mindset is more what's needed. This can really shape how you create your products and software that relates to it.

Really, if you are using most geometry software, you are bending what it was initially designed for. You are manipulating boundary representations, but real-world objects aren't made of boundaries; they're volumetric. 3D printing allows us to make volumetric objects, but the kernels we all tend to use don’t even support this.

Grasshopper has some great implicit and SDF libraries, but they are never linked to the machine's native code creation. So there is always the step of exporting to a mesh for slicing, or some subtractive machinists will insist on a.stp or.iges file as this is what they are used to, and they want to amend the file. This breaks most workflows for custom products and can never be automated. What we are doing at Biome is always linked to other constraints of how the machine makes the product, which in turn makes the design space a certain way. Plus, sending native code to the printer means no human interaction with the customer's file. We have floated the idea of making a Vivo plugin for Grasshopper to address some of these problems. GH is widely used in footwear, but I would love to see McNeel keep pace with some of the new SDF / Implicit kernels that are on the market or the work that Fusion360 has done on design-to-print.

Shrinkwrap is a great function in the latest update of Rhino, and it already uses OpenVDBs to make it work. So, is this a hint that Voxel could be in Rhino 8? If so, linking native code would only be a stone's throw away.

- This has been fantastic. Thank you very much for your time!

Thank you very much as well, and thank you to the ShapeDiver team for helping us throughout this process.

That's it for this new edition of Getting to know... Don't forget to visit VivoBiome's page and follow Vivobarefoot on all social media channels!

Would you like to get featured in this space? Please email us at contact@shapediver.com and tell us about your project or brand! We'd love to start a conversation.

In 2024, we heavily focused on allowing computational designers to build more complex web applications without any need for web development, thus furthering ShapeDiver’s position as a low-code / no-code way to build visually driven web applications based on Grasshopper files for eCommerce, the AEC industry, and beyond.

On the one hand, we released App Builder , a feature that allows the creation of advanced online application layouts based on Grasshopper definitions. 

On the other hand, the new interaction components in our Grasshopper plugin open up more intuitive, flexible ways to control ShapeDiver models. In addition to the traditional parameters, users can now select, transform, and draw geometry directly in the online viewer .

Our Fall Update ‘24 webinar will introduce these crucial new features and show how to combine them into powerful, end-to-end online applications that were previously unimaginable without advanced web and 3D development.

At the end of the webinar, and before our Q&A section, we will have a Lightning Round where our Head of Product, Mathieu Huard, will introduce as many as possible of the other exciting new features we released in the last 6 months, among which:

- A new " teams feature" for Organizations,

- Model tagging and filtering,

- Multiple file export,

- Performance boosts left and right,

- … and many more (if time allows!)

Webinar Overview:

- Date: Tuesday, October 8th, 2024

- Time : 8am Pacific, 11am Eastern, 5pm CEST

- Duration: ~1 hour (without Q&A)

> CLICK HERE TO REGISTER

Meet Your Hosts:

Mathieu Huard

Mathieu is the Head of Product and co-founder at ShapeDiver. He focuses on expanding the ShapeDiver product to cater to various industries leveraging parametric design in their workflows. In the context of the AEC industry, he helped push the collaboration and interoperability functionalities of ShapeDiver, such as bridging the online platform with various design software suites, including Autodesk Forma.

He holds a Ph.D. in Applied Mathematics. Before founding ShapeDiver, he spent several years with the Vienna-based company Evolute, developing software and consulting for architects and engineering firms. He also gained experience building tools for Rhino and Grasshopper.

Edwin Hernández

Edwin Hernandez is Head of Projects and Senior Computational Designer at ShapeDiver. He studied Architecture at Andes University in Bogotá, Colombia, and Computer Animation at the SAE Institute in Melbourne, Australia.

While he was still studying, he began working as a "solopreneur" with clients in Australia and New Zealand. These clients provided projects that allowed him to gain experience using BIM software, parametric design, and web coding. His experience enabled him to join the ShapeDiver team in Vienna, Austria, in 2017. He has managed multiple projects across more than 15 different industries. During this time, he has learned how to create highly optimized and complex parametric models using C#, custom plugins for Grasshopper, and cloud applications based on Grasshopper.

In this case study, we sat down with João, Marcio, and Renan, the minds behind Beaver, to explore the journey from academic research to a tool now used by industry leaders across the globe. We discussed the inspiration behind focusing on timber engineering, the specific market needs that Beaver addresses, and the significant role that Eurocode 5 plays in shaping the tool’s core functionalities. Our conversation also dives into the challenges faced by professionals in the field and how Beaver’s open-source nature fosters collaboration and innovation. We also explore how companies like ITA Engenharia em Madeira are using Beaver, alongside ShapeDiver, to push the boundaries of what’s possible in timber construction.

Through this case study, you'll gain insights into how Beaver allows engineers to transition from being safety-checking specialists to becoming integral parts of the design process and how integration with tools like Karamba3D and ShapeDiver simplifies complex tasks into manageable workflows. Let’s dive in!

1. Could you share a bit about your background and how your experiences led you to develop Beaver for timber engineering?

We come from a research background in membrane structures, where the geometry design depends on the applied force on the structural system. Hence, multiple geometries must be considered before arriving at a final design; this is called the form-finding process. We saw that we could apply this same concept to more conventional engineering problems if we could verify multiple solutions.

In that context, Beaver started in 2018 as a bachelor's thesis at the University of São Paulo, Brazil, and has been developing since then.

2. What inspired you to focus specifically on timber engineering within computational design workflows?

Timber engineering was experiencing rapid growth in terms of novel structures at the time because of its advantages as a sustainable material. However, there was (and still is) a gap between engineering knowledge and tools that allow bolder designs to be realized.

3. What specific gaps or unmet needs did you identify in the market that led to the development of Beaver?

The typical work at engineering firms consists of building a geometry model, exporting that geometry to FE software, analyzing it, making design proposals, and then restarting the loop.

We wanted to bring the design and engineering disciplines closer together by having an integrated workflow. A few tools already existed then, but none specifically for timber engineering.

4. How did Eurocode 5 shape the core functionality of Beaver, and why was it a crucial reference?

It was the basic requirement for guaranteeing building approval for whatever you’re designing. Many design codes use the same analysis methods, and even different methods are commonly benchmarked against the Eurocode.

5. What are some of the primary challenges Beaver solves for professionals in the timber engineering field?

Our project aims to have two major impacts: (a) Beaver offers educational guidance. The live-fed analysis builds up to the engineer's intuition much faster than normal workflows, and (b) it allows engineers to transition more easily from safety-checking specialists to active parts of the building design process.

6. In what ways does Beaver’s open-source architecture enable collaboration and innovation for research and professional purposes?

We’ve identified that most engineering professionals avoid exploring other tools when they encounter the "black box” feeling, that is, when they’re unable to discern what happened inside the algorithm. Open-sourcing tackles that and allows the community to collaborate by continuously making our tool more reliable.

Regarding research, we had several requests for students to write theses at different levels of the academy, but we’re not yet able to tell what their future products will be.

We are always looking for people to collaborate with us, as our roadmap still has many features to develop.

7. How does Beaver help designers overcome data exchange and workflow integration difficulties between CAD/CAE models?

Having an integrated workflow between geometry, analysis, and post-processing allows many other disciplines to participate in the design process, such as evolutionary solvers, multi-objective optimizations, machine learning, and other form-finding processes.

8. Why is ShapeDiver's support for Beaver important, and what unique advantages does it bring to your users?

With a fast-growing market for timber structures worldwide, pushed by a need for renewable and low-carbon construction methods, Beaver is presented as an alternative for fast and straightforward analysis of timber structures. Along with ShapeDiver and Karamba3D, this combination may be a great tool that can be presented to clients very straightforwardly without needing to access complex grasshopper definitions on the go.

ITA Engenharia em Madeira, for example, has recently developed a tropical hardwood concept design tool with ShapeDiver for the South American context. It will soon be available for architects and engineers on a web platform with a very simple user interface. This would not be possible without ShapeDiver.

9. Could you explain how Beaver's integration with Karamba3D improves users' workflow?

The integration converts native Karamba3D objects into Beaver objects. So, to get the analysis up and running, any user with some experience on Karamba3D just needs to add about four more Beaver components.

10. What types of projects are ideally suited for Beaver, and why do your clients prefer it over other tools?

Typically, these are projects that demand computational design workflows or when some sort of geometry optimization is needed. Otherwise, modularity is also an important aspect since a reliable model can be built with very little time and effort.

11. Could you share some examples of clients currently using Beaver and how they benefit from the plugin in their projects?

Beaver is currently used by known timber engineering companies in North and South America, Europe, and Asia, especially for parametric concept designs. We are reaching a milestone of 1000 licenses distributed, some of which belong to companies we consider world leaders.

ITA Engenharia em Madeira has recently developed an active-bending timber beam string that spans over 20 meters for boat hangar structures. This structure was developed using Karamba3D, Beaver, and genetic algorithms available in Grasshopper. It has achieved a remarkably low timber consumption and was selected to be presented at the IASS2024 (International Association of Spatial Structures) in ETH Zurich.

12. What are the most important components of Beaver, and how do they contribute to the overall effectiveness of the plugin?

The easiest way to use Beaver is to benefit from its seamless integration with Karamba3D. Hence, by simply connecting the Karamba3D model to the “Karamba to Beaver” component, all finite element analysis data from Karamba will be automatically analyzed by Beaver according to Eurocode 5 standards. Also, the visualization components allow users to easily understand the Beaver evaluations along the structure in the Rhino 3D model.

13. How do the calculation reports generated by Beaver provide users with a transparent and educational overview of their timber design decisions?

The Beaver report showcases each calculation coefficient and intermediate results, along with the final results for each analysis. This allows the user to understand if any configurations must be redefined and follow the eurocode procedures done by Beaver in a transparent and reliable way.

14. What makes Beaver's calculation reports particularly valuable in benchmarking and educational contexts?

Beaver is an open-source project that is growing with the help of the community. The calculation reports have been very important for users to report bugs and also allow them to compare Beaver to more traditional software to check its reliability.

Beaver was primarily created for concept design since the parametric environment is great for that. Once the geometry is defined, a double check is always recommended with traditional non-parametric FEA software. Thankfully, due to the community that has helped us find inaccuracies, Beaver is now showing accurate evaluations that match other software evaluations.

15. What features are you planning to add to Beaver in the near future, and how do you envision these new features expanding Beaver’s capabilities for timber engineering professionals?

In the near future, we intend to make the calculations much faster so that coupling Beaver with generative design and multi-objective optimizations runs faster.

In the medium term, we intend to create an integrated model where connections can be assigned to the structure and calculated in real-time. We should also develop a feature that includes CLT analysis soon.

16. What challenges or trends in timber engineering are you preparing Beaver to address moving forward?

There is still a lot to be explored in terms of interesting geometries that can be derived from full-computational workflows. The existing examples are already producing interesting designs, and we believe there is much more to come. Some of our partners are currently working on their PhD’s, and although the dissertations are not related to this project, there is certainly some overlap in the fields of research.

- Thank you very much for your time!

Thank you for letting us tell our story as well!

That's it for this new edition of Getting to know... Don't forget to visit Beaver on Food4Rhino and follow  their company on LinkedIn.

Would you like to get featured in this space? Please email us at contact@shapediver.com and tell us about your project or brand! We'd love to start a conversation.

In this interview, Max and Yannik share their journey, including the market needs that inspired 1x1 and the challenges they overcame to develop their unique production system. They discuss the role of Grasshopper and ShapeDiver in bringing their designs online and the importance of an easy-to-use online configurator. They also highlight how their products support sustainable living through modular design and community collaboration.

Join us as we learn about 1x1's mission, their work with other designers, and their plans for future growth. This case study offers an interesting look at how 1x1 makes sustainable, modular design accessible to everyone, paving the way for a more eco-friendly lifestyle. Let’s dive in!

1. How did your team at 1x1 come together, and what backgrounds do you bring to the company?

We grew up in the same village and have been friends for over twenty years. Max studied design in Cologne and worked at Meire und Meire, Meta Design, and Random Studio. Yannik is a trained carpenter and product designer with deep expertise in 3D printing and algorithm programming. We both love design systems and are passionate about solving current problems in design and production. 1x1 has been in the making for the past five years.

2. What specific needs did you identify in the market that drove you to create 1x1 and its products?

We created 1x1 to address several critical needs: reducing the high CO2 emissions from global supply chains, improving the repairability of products to combat the throwaway culture, and enhancing the resilience of production systems against disruptions.

We also aim to reconnect consumers with the manufacturing process by offering high-quality, customizable products that can be locally produced. By overcoming the low design standards and technical complexities of existing 3D-printing solutions, 1x1 empowers individuals to create sustainable, modular items, promoting a more sustainable and engaged way of living.

3. What key challenges did you encounter while developing your circular production system and modular design philosophy?

A major challenge was creating modular, highly customizable products while maintaining a clear identity and consistent design language. Another hurdle was ensuring our 3D-printed parts were produced with high accuracy and managing tolerances for both printed and non-printed parts. Additionally, realizing complex and physically demanding components, like ball joints, using 3D printing technology presented its own difficulties.

4. Why did you choose Grasshopper as a platform for your parametric designs, and how does it help you achieve your goals?

We chose Grasshopper for its powerful integration with Rhino, which we and other designers have used to create static products. It was natural to use a familiar tool that connects seamlessly. Grasshopper allows us to create highly customizable components that can be easily adjusted to meet user needs. Its algorithm-driven components ensure adaptable and precise designs, aligning with our modular and circular production principles.

5. How does ShapeDiver help you create your online configurations and bring your parametric designs to life?

ShapeDiver is essential for bringing our parametric designs online. It allows users to interact with and customize products in real time, enhancing the user experience and ensuring each product meets individual needs. Its real-time rendering and AR functionality make our complex designs accessible and user-friendly, helping users visualize their creations before purchasing print files and manuals.

6. How important is UI and UX in building a successful online configurator for your users?

UI and UX are crucial for a successful online configurator, ensuring easy navigation and visualization of products. We focus on making our configurator accessible, user-friendly, and visually appealing to drive adoption and promote our sustainable offerings, empowering users to create custom products confidently.

7. Can you elaborate on how your products embrace the principles of circular production and how this benefits your customers?

Our products are designed with circular production principles at their core, meaning every component can be easily disassembled, repaired, or recycled. By using locally sourced materials and 3D-printed connectors, we reduce waste and encourage the reuse of parts. This modular approach extends the lifecycle of our products and empowers customers to engage in sustainable practices, reducing their environmental impact and fostering a sense of ownership and responsibility.

8. How does fostering a community-driven approach at 1x1 contribute to better products and sustainable living?

Fostering a community-driven approach is central to our mission. By enabling users to connect, share resources, and collaborate on projects, we create a support network that enhances the overall experience and encourages sustainable practices. This community aspect helps users achieve their goals more effectively and builds a collective commitment to sustainability.

9. Could you share your vision for unifying the configurator, marketplace, and production facilitation into a cohesive online platform?

Our vision involves integrating the configurator, marketplace, and production facilitation into a seamless user experience. Users will be able to customize products through the configurator, source materials and components via the marketplace, and receive guidance on local production options. Currently, we split these aspects between our website and Discord channel, but we aim to unify them.

10. What viable end-of-life strategies do you plan to include to ensure a truly circular product lifecycle?

We plan to implement several end-of-life strategies, including take-back programs for recycling or repurposing components, detailed disassembly instructions, and a marketplace for second-hand parts. By facilitating these options, we aim to minimize waste and ensure that materials are continuously cycled back into use. Additionally, we encourage upcycling and provide resources for users to repurpose parts creatively.

11. How do your parametric designs ensure custom parts are compatible with various locally sourced materials?

Our parametric designs are highly adaptable, allowing precise adjustments to fit a wide range of locally sourced materials. By using parametric algorithms, we create components that adjust their dimensions and specifications based on the input materials. We continuously improve our parts, like software, based on testing and user feedback.

12. How do collaborations with designers like Christoph Hauf and Studio Πenhance the diversity and creativity of your product lineup?

We see ourselves as a label for DIY products with a very high design standard, and working with the best in the field was logically the only way to create an offering that can compete with the Vitras and Ikeas of this world.

13. What are your goals for future growth in expanding your online presence and product range?

Our goals include expanding our online presence to reach a broader audience and diversifying our product range. We plan to enhance our digital marketing efforts, leverage social media, and form strategic partnerships. We also aim to introduce new product categories and collaborate with more designers to keep our offerings fresh and innovative. Ultimately, we strive to establish 1x1 as a leading name in sustainable, modular design, significantly impacting how people create and consume products in an environmentally conscious manner.

- Thank you very much for both of your time!

Thank you for sharing this space with us as well!

That's it for this new edition of Getting to know... Don't forget to visit 1x1's website and I nstagram page!

Would you like to get featured in this space? Please email us at contact@shapediver.com and tell us about your project or brand! We'd love to start a conversation.

Throughout the conversation, we explore how Movêu stands out in a competitive market by offering true customization options catering to individual needs and styles. The founders highlight the advantages of their online configurators, the impact of recent funding on their growth, and their vision for the future of the furniture industry. Additionally, they provide valuable insights for other entrepreneurs looking to leverage digital tools to enhance customer experience and satisfaction. Join us as we uncover the journey of Moveis Moveu and its ambitious plans to become Latin America's most beloved custom furniture brand.

1. Can you introduce yourself and your team? What diverse backgrounds do you bring to Movêu?

Movêu has 3 partners, each with a distinct background that adds value to our operation. Our CEO, Guilherme, has worked in the furniture sector for over seven years and has always been dissatisfied with the buying experience. Rodrigo, our COO, has experience in finance and operations, has been working with startups for 5 years, and joined the team to ensure that operations are flawless. Eduardo, our CPO, has worked in the furniture sector for 5 years, always in technology and digital products. He joined the team to ensure that the online experience for Movêu customers is seamless and easy.

2. What inspired you to start Movêu, and how/when did your journey begin?

The experience of buying customized furniture in Brazil has been the same forever. Deadlines not met, prices accessible only to a small minority, and service levels that leave much to be desired. Movêu was born to ensure that Brazilians can have personalized furniture without worrying about receiving it on time and at a fair price, providing the individuality everyone wants for their homes, with furniture made especially for their needs and style.

3. How does Movêu stand out in the competitive furniture industry?

We are the first company in Latin America where the customer can truly customize furniture. The solutions available in the market are either expensive or false customization, where the customer can only customize according to some available blocks. Movêu is the only affordable option with impeccable service quality for customers to customize all aspects of their furniture.

4. Can you explain how customization in the furniture industry can improve customer experience and satisfaction?

People's homes are unique; each has a specific space to place their furniture. Every centimeter, style, and color matters when it comes to having the perfect piece of furniture to make the house just the way customers dream. The Brazilian furniture market is practically 100% based on one size fits all, and the companies that truly offer customization are offline and have unsatisfactory service levels and prices or are exclusive to a minority. Because of these factors, customers cannot buy the furniture they dream of for their homes, having to adapt to what the market delivers.

5. What were some of your biggest challenges while starting and scaling your business?

At first, our main challenge was to deliver to our customers a fully digital customization experience, where not only would the furniture be customized in real-time, but they could also have their budget available instantly. With the help of tools like Grasshopper, ShapeDiver and a highly engaged team committed to solving our customers' pain points, we managed to overcome these barriers and today deliver what no other company in Latin America has been able to achieve.

6. What advantages does Grasshopper offer to your developers and designers that other programming environments might not provide?

Besides the possibility of integrating with ShapeDiver, the ability to generate DXF files to ensure customization is viable for our customers. Our industry needs DXF files to cut all parts according to each customer's orders. For our developers and designers, the tool perfectly meets the technical requirements, ensuring perfect parameterization of the furniture and all design aspects that were visualized by our team at the beginning of the project.

7. In what ways has ShapeDiver been critical to your success with online configurators?

Without ShapeDiver, the journey would have been much longer and harder. In other words, without this platform, Movêu would not have been able to achieve its dream of delivering personalized customization at scale to Brazilians so quickly.

8. Can you describe the different configuration options your online configurators provide?

With Movêu's furniture configurator, our customers can customize the furniture measurements (height, width, and depth), style, and colors.

9. You recently got funding; how has this changed the course of your company’s growth?

Our latest investment round has provided Movêu with the necessary funds to improve the digital customization experience, expand our team to ensure more expertise in essential areas, and pursue margin optimization projects. Now, our customers have a much faster website, and the journey has been completely revamped. This has ensured that more customers choose Movêu to purchase personalized pieces of furniture for their homes. Additionally, we are greatly improving our margin, ensuring that we offer the best service in the market and are a healthy and long-lasting company.

10. How will the furniture industry evolve over the next five years?

We believe that the industry will focus on the individuality of each customer, placing much more emphasis on delivering an individual experience rather than mass-produced. This ensures that companies that are able to do this will see increased sales and loyalty. Today, the market has a very low LTV, which we believe is because no company can deliver an experience worthy of being remembered for decades. This is exactly where Movêu comes in, delivering the best products, personalized for each customer and with an experience worthy of a beloved brand.

11. Finally, what is the ultimate vision for Moveis Moveu, and how do you plan to achieve it?

Movêu will be Latin America's largest and most beloved custom furniture brand in the next 10 years. We will achieve this by ensuring that customers in the locations where we are present know the brand and experience the feeling of buying furniture in a completely revamped way.

We believe that the more customers have an experience they have never seen in the market, they won't hesitate to talk about Movêu with others and help spread the word. Additionally, we are not limited by operational aspects; we can utilize the existing industry throughout Latin America to produce our furniture. We have considered this since the beginning to ensure that scalability is not a problem and that everyone can have the Movêu experience.

12. What advice would you give to other entrepreneurs who want to start businesses using Grasshopper and ShapeDiver?

With ShapeDiver, using parameterization as a strategic differential is quick and easy, ensuring an excellent final customer experience.

- Thank you very much for your time!

Thank you as well for this chance to share our story.

That's it for this new edition of Getting to know... Don't forget to visit Movêus's website and  Instagram page.

Would you like to get featured in this space? Please email us at contact@shapediver.com and tell us about your project or brand! We'd love to start a conversation.

Among the tools available, Grasshopper, a graphical algorithm editor part of the CAD software Rhinoceros 3D, stands out for its innovative, explicit way of defining a parametric design space and its vibrant ecosystem of users and developers who constantly broaden its capabilities.

However, Grasshopper's benefits are confined to a technical user interface and the need for a Rhino license, making it challenging for non-technical decision-makers to analyze and explore design iterations.

Furthermore, protecting intellectual property is a common concern when sharing such files, as each Grasshopper file contains the business logic to compute its output. This article explores how ShapeDiver addresses these issues, reshaping how AEC professionals share and manage their parametric designs.

The Rise of Parametric Design in AEC

Parametric design is defined by its ability to adapt results based on user input or external data, allowing for convenient and rapid design iterations. Within the AEC industry, this means that designs are inherently flexible and capable of evolution throughout the project lifecycle.

For instance, a building's massing can adapt to local climate conditions, optimizing energy efficiency and indoor comfort. Similarly, materials that respond to environmental stimuli can ensure structural integrity under varying loads and conditions. The ability to quickly cycle through different design iterations enables architects to explore multiple options at crucial points in a project's lifecycle, finding the best solution based on changing requirements or constraints.

Most importantly, companies can create libraries of reusable Grasshopper tools from previous projects, capture valuable insights, and apply them to future designs. This allows automation of repetitive workflows, freeing up time and mental bandwidth for more creative tasks. By combining these tools to streamline internal workflows, organizations can standardize processes, reduce errors, and ensure consistent output quality across projects.

Furthermore, Grasshopper's vast library of third-party plugins enhances its application in the AEC industry, providing tools for environmental analysis, energy modeling, and structural analysis, such as Karamba 3D. These plugins support a data-driven approach to architectural and structural design, enabling a more informed and efficient design process.

Overall, Grasshopper's role in the AEC industry is increasingly significant as firms push for greater innovation and efficiency in their design workflows , making it a crucial tool in the digital transformation trends within the sector.

Challenges with integrating Grasshopper workflows

Despite its clear advantages and growth in adoption, sharing Grasshopper files within a project team or with clients often involves significant hurdles. The primary challenge is the need for a Rhino license to open and manipulate Grasshopper files. This software requirement can be a barrier for those not regularly using Rhino, such as project managers or clients who may only need to view a model or provide feedback.

Further complicating the integration are the complex networks of data and logic within Grasshopper files, often referred to as a "spaghetti monster" due to their convoluted and intertwined data flows. This complexity can make it extremely difficult for anyone unfamiliar with Grasshopper to understand or even navigate the design logic, leading to communication barriers within teams.

The protection of intellectual property is another critical concern. These scripts often contain the detailed methodology of a design, which can be proprietary and sensitive. The widespread sharing of such files can inadvertently expose a company's unique design approaches to competitors or unauthorized users. This risk makes securing these files and controlling who has access to them an essential consideration for firms that rely on maintaining their competitive edge through innovative practices.

Additionally, the manual process of updating and distributing Grasshopper files presents significant challenges. Without a streamlined way to manage version control, ensuring that every team member is working with the latest file version is difficult. This can lead to inconsistencies and errors in the design process. Furthermore, traditional file-sharing methods are not equipped to handle the frequent updates that parametric designs often require, complicating collaboration and increasing the risk of project delays due to outdated or incorrect data.

ShapeDiver: The Solution for Securely Sharing Access to Grasshopper Workflows Online

ShapeDiver addresses these challenges directly by providing tools that allow AEC professionals to upload, manage, and securely share their Grasshopper-based tools through the cloud. Our platform eliminates the need for each stakeholder to own a Rhino license, enabling viewing and interaction with Grasshopper models directly within a web browser.

Secure and Simplified Sharing on an Online Platform

ShapeDiver includes a comprehensive sharing and permission system designed to protect a user’s intellectual property. This system ensures that sensitive design data is only accessible to authorized users, safeguarding critical IPs from exposure to unintended parties.

"Public" ShapeDiver models can be shared globally through a standard URL generated when a Grasshopper file is uploaded to our system. This allows only an online application to be exposed while ensuring that the original Grasshopper file and its IP are securely hosted on distant servers.

“Private” models can be kept out of anyone’s reach or shared via obfuscated URLs that can be revoked and nullified on demand, allowing external access to the online application for a specified duration.

ShapeDiver also offers the option of sharing models with other individual ShapeDiver users. This feature allows for greater control and enables higher restrictions on what the recipient can view and do with the model compared to simply sharing it as a URL. These restrictions range from simple interaction with the online application to accessing exports, model analytics, or downloading the original Grasshopper file for further modifications.

Embedding Models into External Websites

Beyond our online platform, ShapeDiver supports three main methods of embedding models into external websites:

The first method is iframe embedding, a straightforward copy/paste process requiring no web development knowledge. This method is easy and powerful, offering several customization options and built-in Augmented Reality.

For users with advanced web and software development skills, ShapeDiver offers various APIs and SDKs that enable the creation of sophisticated online applications. These tools support enhanced user experiences by allowing for interactive elements such as clickable and draggable components within the viewer and multi-layered, custom user interfaces that guide users through a step-by-step navigation process. Furthermore, these APIs facilitate integration with enterprise resource planning (ERP) and customer relationship management (CRM) systems, ensuring seamless data flow and enhancing overall operational efficiency.

Lastly, there’s App Builder. This third embedding methodology aims to democratize many of our API features by making them available and programmable via Grasshopper. This means that computational designers can define dynamic and advanced UIs for their online applications by using specific Grasshopper components without needing web development knowledge (or very minimal).

Robust & Modern Infrastructure

Since releasing the first version of our product in 2016, we’ve been relentlessly refining our technology stack, allowing AEC professionals to concentrate on the unique aspects of their projects while we handle the complexities of maintaining a reliable, secure, and high-performing server system built on Rhinoceros 3D. Some key features include:

-  Resilient Grasshopper Servers: Our servers are designed to automatically respawn in the event of a failure. This redundancy ensures zero downtime for updates, supporting continuous deployment and providing a seamless experience for users.

-  Efficient Dispatching Algorithms: To optimize performance and user experience, our dispatch algorithms manage quick response times and balanced workload distribution across the server system. This means faster processing and reduced waiting times for complex computational tasks. It also creates economies of scale as a single Rhino instance can simultaneously serve many users.

-  Advanced Caching System: Our caching system enhances efficiency by storing geometric results, preventing the need for recomputation. This speeds up the process and significantly reduces the load on our servers during high-demand periods.

-  Scalable System Architecture:   Our systems' auto-scaling capabilities ensure they adapt based on user demand, maintaining optimal performance and availability during peak usage times.

These technological enhancements form the backbone of ShapeDiver, making it not just a platform for sharing and viewing parametric designs but a dependable partner in the AEC sector's ongoing digital transformation.

Real-World Success Stories Using ShapeDiver

The practical benefits of ShapeDiver are best illustrated through the following client case studies, covering modular construction, 3D printing, 4D models, production automation, and advanced online applications featuring carbon footprint calculation and structural analysis. Explore some of the top use cases from which current ShapeDiver clients in the AEC industry benefit.

Type Five | USA

Type Five uses Grasshopper to develop an innovative site-built modular construction approach, creating efficient, client-tailored building designs. Through ShapeDiver, they offer an online configurator that makes this powerful design system accessible and user-friendly, enabling clients to participate directly in the home design process. This has significantly streamlined the design-to-construction cycle, reducing time and cost. You can read more about them here.

WASP | Italy

WASP integrates Grasshopper and ShapeDiver to create enhanced 3D printing experiences through online configurators. This integration is pivotal in the construction sector where WASP's architectural 3D printers, such as the Crane WASP, are used. This setup allows users to design and print with advanced customization, boosting productivity and making 3D printing accessible to those without deep technical knowledge. You can read more about them here.

Interstice | USA

Interstice relies on Grasshopper to manipulate data and create detailed 4D models that enhance planning and decision-making. With ShapeDiver, these models are turned into interactive web apps, improving client engagement and streamlining project delivery by making complex data accessible to all stakeholders. You can read more about them here.

Dampere | France

Dampere uses Grasshopper and ShapeDiver to transform their design and production process for perforated metal sheets, shifting from manual to automated workflows. This integration enhances customer interaction through real-time visualizations and customizations, significantly improving the efficiency of both sales and manufacturing processes. You can read more about them here.

Webb Yates Engineers | United Kingdom

At Webb Yates Engineers, Grasshopper's parametric capabilities are essential for managing complex geometries and tasks, facilitated by ShapeDiver's web environment, which democratizes access to computational design tools. Their 'Cactus' tool, an online tool used to calculate the embodied carbon of any structure, exemplifies how ShapeDiver enhances design and engineering processes by enabling rapid prototyping and analysis. You can read more about them here.

Construsoft | Spain

Construsoft's Optinave, powered by Grasshopper and hosted on ShapeDiver, is a sophisticated online tool for designing and optimizing industrial metal structures. This platform allows for intricate structural calculations and visualizations, accessible directly through the web, enhancing both design accuracy and efficiency. You can read more about them here.

Conclusion

The integration of Grasshopper in the AEC industry represents a significant shift towards powerful, data-driven processes and more efficient design iterations among teams and collaborators. However, the challenges of leveraging complex parametric files and exchanging data between Grasshopper and other design contexts are non-trivial.

ShapeDiver emerges as a powerful solution that simplifies the sharing of Grasshopper-based online tools and enhances collaboration, efficiency, and accessibility across diverse AEC projects. Through real-world applications, it's clear that ShapeDiver is not just solving technical problems; it's reshaping how the AEC industry operates, bringing forth a new standard in design and collaboration.

Until now, we have offered our clients two main ways to integrate their online applications on their websites: iframe and direct embedding. Our iframes offer a convenient and easy way to embed a ShapeDiver model, including a basic UI, on any website, but they lack some flexibility when creating more refined UIs. Direct embedding gives full flexibility to create any UI but requires users to deal with our APIs, which limits its adoption as many computational designers do not have web development expertise.

App Builder aims to democratize many of our API features by making them available and programmable via Grasshopper. This means that computational designers can now easily define more advanced and contextual UIs for their online applications by just using components from our Grasshopper plugin.

Join us on Tuesday, July 9th, during this live webinar in collaboration with Food4Rhino to learn firsthand how this new feature works and what exciting plans we have for it!

Webinar Overview:

Date: Tuesday, July 9th, 2024

Time: 8am Pacific, 11am Easterm, 5pm CEST

Duration: 1 hour

> REGISTER NOW

Agenda:

1. Introduction and goals

We will start by providing an overview of the App Builder feature, including some background, and then taking a first look at examples of Apps built with this new feature.

2. New Grasshopper Components

We introduce the new components we added to our Grasshopper plugin that make App Builder possible. We will build a complete web application in real time, including parametric images, charts, and custom logic.

3. App Builder on ShapeDiver

We will then break down the process of uploading and interacting with the App from the ShapeDiver platform.

4. Embedding App Builder models

We will finally explain how to embed an App Builder model on an external website and which plans are suitable for this.

5. Next steps

We have many plans to improve the App Builder in the near future! We will use the last segment of the webinar to discuss our plans and welcome feedback from the audience on where we should be taking this new feature further.

6. Q&A

During this section, you’ll be able to ask our team any questions related to App Builder.

Meet Your Hosts:

Mathieu Huard

Mathieu is the Head of Product, as well as one of the founders of ShapeDiver. He focuses on expanding the ShapeDiver product to cater to various industries leveraging parametric design in their workflows. In the context of the AEC industry, he helped push the collaboration and interoperability functionalities of ShapeDiver, such as bridging the online platform with various design software suites, including Autodesk Forma.

He holds a Ph.D. in Applied Mathematics. Before founding ShapeDiver, he spent several years with the Vienna-based company Evolute, developing software and consulting for architects and engineering firms, all along gaining experience with building tools for Rhino and Grasshopper.

Edwin Hernández

Edwin Hernandez is Head of Projects and Senior Computational Designer at ShapeDiver. He studied Architecture at Andes University in Bogotá, Colombia, and Computer Animation at the SAE Institute in Melbourne, Australia.

While he was still studying, he began working as a "solopreneur" with clients in Australia and New Zealand. These clients provided projects that allowed him to gain experience in using BIM software, parametric design, and web coding. His experience enabled him to join the ShapeDiver team in Vienna, Austria in 2017. He has been responsible for managing multiple projects across more than 15 different industries. During this time, he has learned how to create highly optimized and complex parametric models using C#, custom plugins for Grasshopper, and cloud applications based on Grasshopper.

Among the tools available, Grasshopper, a graphical algorithm editor part of the CAD software Rhinoceros 3D, stands out for its innovative, explicit way of defining a parametric design space and its vibrant ecosystem of users and developers who constantly broaden its capabilities.

However, Grasshopper's benefits are confined to a technical user interface and the need for a Rhino license, making it challenging for non-technical decision-makers to analyze and explore design iterations.

Furthermore, protecting intellectual property is a common concern when sharing such files, as each Grasshopper file contains the business logic to compute its output. This article explores how ShapeDiver addresses these issues, reshaping how AEC professionals share and manage their parametric designs.

The Rise of Parametric Design in AEC

Parametric design is defined by its ability to adapt results based on user input or external data, allowing for convenient and rapid design iterations. Within the AEC industry, this means that designs are inherently flexible and capable of evolution throughout the project lifecycle.

For instance, a building's massing can adapt to local climate conditions, optimizing energy efficiency and indoor comfort. Similarly, materials that respond to environmental stimuli can ensure structural integrity under varying loads and conditions. The ability to quickly cycle through different design iterations enables architects to explore multiple options at crucial points in a project's lifecycle, finding the best solution based on changing requirements or constraints.

Most importantly, companies can create libraries of reusable Grasshopper tools from previous projects, capture valuable insights, and apply them to future designs. This allows automation of repetitive workflows, freeing up time and mental bandwidth for more creative tasks. By combining these tools to streamline internal workflows, organizations can standardize processes, reduce errors, and ensure consistent output quality across projects.

Furthermore, Grasshopper's vast library of third-party plugins enhances its application in the AEC industry, providing tools for environmental analysis, energy modeling, and structural analysis, such as Karamba 3D. These plugins support a data-driven approach to architectural and structural design, enabling a more informed and efficient design process.

Overall, Grasshopper's role in the AEC industry is increasingly significant as firms push for greater innovation and efficiency in their design workflows , making it a crucial tool in the digital transformation trends within the sector.

Challenges with integrating Grasshopper workflows

Despite its clear advantages and growth in adoption, sharing Grasshopper files within a project team or with clients often involves significant hurdles. The primary challenge is the need for a Rhino license to open and manipulate Grasshopper files. This software requirement can be a barrier for those not regularly using Rhino, such as project managers or clients who may only need to view a model or provide feedback.

Further complicating the integration are the complex networks of data and logic within Grasshopper files, often referred to as a "spaghetti monster" due to their convoluted and intertwined data flows. This complexity can make it extremely difficult for anyone unfamiliar with Grasshopper to understand or even navigate the design logic, leading to communication barriers within teams.

The protection of intellectual property is another critical concern. These scripts often contain the detailed methodology of a design, which can be proprietary and sensitive. The widespread sharing of such files can inadvertently expose a company's unique design approaches to competitors or unauthorized users. This risk makes securing these files and controlling who has access to them an essential consideration for firms that rely on maintaining their competitive edge through innovative practices.

Additionally, the manual process of updating and distributing Grasshopper files presents significant challenges. Without a streamlined way to manage version control, ensuring that every team member is working with the latest file version is difficult. This can lead to inconsistencies and errors in the design process. Furthermore, traditional file-sharing methods are not equipped to handle the frequent updates that parametric designs often require, complicating collaboration and increasing the risk of project delays due to outdated or incorrect data.

ShapeDiver: The Solution for Securely Sharing Access to Grasshopper Workflows Online

ShapeDiver addresses these challenges directly by providing tools that allow AEC professionals to upload, manage, and securely share their Grasshopper-based tools through the cloud. Our platform eliminates the need for each stakeholder to own a Rhino license, enabling viewing and interaction with Grasshopper models directly within a web browser.

Secure and Simplified Sharing on an Online Platform

ShapeDiver includes a comprehensive sharing and permission system designed to protect a user’s intellectual property. This system ensures that sensitive design data is only accessible to authorized users, safeguarding critical IPs from exposure to unintended parties.

"Public" ShapeDiver models can be shared globally through a standard URL generated when a Grasshopper file is uploaded to our system. This allows only an online application to be exposed while ensuring that the original Grasshopper file and its IP are securely hosted on distant servers.

“Private” models can be kept out of anyone’s reach or shared via obfuscated URLs that can be revoked and nullified on demand, allowing external access to the online application for a specified duration.

ShapeDiver also offers the option of sharing models with other individual ShapeDiver users. This feature allows for greater control and enables higher restrictions on what the recipient can view and do with the model compared to simply sharing it as a URL. These restrictions range from simple interaction with the online application to accessing exports, model analytics, or downloading the original Grasshopper file for further modifications.

Embedding Models into External Websites

Beyond our online platform, ShapeDiver supports three main methods of embedding models into external websites:

The first method is iframe embedding, a straightforward copy/paste process requiring no web development knowledge. This method is easy and powerful, offering several customization options and built-in Augmented Reality.

For users with advanced web and software development skills, ShapeDiver offers various APIs and SDKs that enable the creation of sophisticated online applications. These tools support enhanced user experiences by allowing for interactive elements such as clickable and draggable components within the viewer and multi-layered, custom user interfaces that guide users through a step-by-step navigation process. Furthermore, these APIs facilitate integration with enterprise resource planning (ERP) and customer relationship management (CRM) systems, ensuring seamless data flow and enhancing overall operational efficiency.

Lastly, there’s App Builder. This third embedding methodology aims to democratize many of our API features by making them available and programmable via Grasshopper. This means that computational designers can define dynamic and advanced UIs for their online applications by using specific Grasshopper components without needing web development knowledge (or very minimal).

Robust & Modern Infrastructure

Since releasing the first version of our product in 2016, we’ve been relentlessly refining our technology stack, allowing AEC professionals to concentrate on the unique aspects of their projects while we handle the complexities of maintaining a reliable, secure, and high-performing server system built on Rhinoceros 3D. Some key features include:

-  Resilient Grasshopper Servers: Our servers are designed to automatically respawn in the event of a failure. This redundancy ensures zero downtime for updates, supporting continuous deployment and providing a seamless experience for users.

-  Efficient Dispatching Algorithms: To optimize performance and user experience, our dispatch algorithms manage quick response times and balanced workload distribution across the server system. This means faster processing and reduced waiting times for complex computational tasks. It also creates economies of scale as a single Rhino instance can simultaneously serve many users.

-  Advanced Caching System: Our caching system enhances efficiency by storing geometric results, preventing the need for recomputation. This speeds up the process and significantly reduces the load on our servers during high-demand periods.

-  Scalable System Architecture:   Our systems' auto-scaling capabilities ensure they adapt based on user demand, maintaining optimal performance and availability during peak usage times.

These technological enhancements form the backbone of ShapeDiver, making it not just a platform for sharing and viewing parametric designs but a dependable partner in the AEC sector's ongoing digital transformation.

Real-World Success Stories Using ShapeDiver

The practical benefits of ShapeDiver are best illustrated through the following client case studies, covering modular construction, 3D printing, 4D models, production automation, and advanced online applications featuring carbon footprint calculation and structural analysis. Explore some of the top use cases from which current ShapeDiver clients in the AEC industry benefit.

Type Five | USA

Type Five uses Grasshopper to develop an innovative site-built modular construction approach, creating efficient, client-tailored building designs. Through ShapeDiver, they offer an online configurator that makes this powerful design system accessible and user-friendly, enabling clients to participate directly in the home design process. This has significantly streamlined the design-to-construction cycle, reducing time and cost. You can read more about them here.

WASP | Italy

WASP integrates Grasshopper and ShapeDiver to create enhanced 3D printing experiences through online configurators. This integration is pivotal in the construction sector where WASP's architectural 3D printers, such as the Crane WASP, are used. This setup allows users to design and print with advanced customization, boosting productivity and making 3D printing accessible to those without deep technical knowledge. You can read more about them here.

Interstice | USA

Interstice relies on Grasshopper to manipulate data and create detailed 4D models that enhance planning and decision-making. With ShapeDiver, these models are turned into interactive web apps, improving client engagement and streamlining project delivery by making complex data accessible to all stakeholders. You can read more about them here.

Dampere | France

Dampere uses Grasshopper and ShapeDiver to transform their design and production process for perforated metal sheets, shifting from manual to automated workflows. This integration enhances customer interaction through real-time visualizations and customizations, significantly improving the efficiency of both sales and manufacturing processes. You can read more about them here.

Webb Yates Engineers | United Kingdom

At Webb Yates Engineers, Grasshopper's parametric capabilities are essential for managing complex geometries and tasks, facilitated by ShapeDiver's web environment, which democratizes access to computational design tools. Their 'Cactus' tool, an online tool used to calculate the embodied carbon of any structure, exemplifies how ShapeDiver enhances design and engineering processes by enabling rapid prototyping and analysis. You can read more about them here.

Construsoft | Spain

Construsoft's Optinave, powered by Grasshopper and hosted on ShapeDiver, is a sophisticated online tool for designing and optimizing industrial metal structures. This platform allows for intricate structural calculations and visualizations, accessible directly through the web, enhancing both design accuracy and efficiency. You can read more about them here.

Conclusion

The integration of Grasshopper in the AEC industry represents a significant shift towards powerful, data-driven processes and more efficient design iterations among teams and collaborators. However, the challenges of leveraging complex parametric files and exchanging data between Grasshopper and other design contexts are non-trivial.

ShapeDiver emerges as a powerful solution that simplifies the sharing of Grasshopper-based online tools and enhances collaboration, efficiency, and accessibility across diverse AEC projects. Through real-world applications, it's clear that ShapeDiver is not just solving technical problems; it's reshaping how the AEC industry operates, bringing forth a new standard in design and collaboration.

On March 5th, we organized a webinar to showcase some of the ShapeDiver feature highlights from the last few months, such as Rhino 8 support, new online platform features, and viewer post-processing effects, to name a few.

If you joined us and enjoyed the discussion, thank you! You will also be happy to know we plan to make this a bi-annual event. We look forward to seeing you again in the fall later this year, so make sure you are subscribed to our newsletter to get the event invite. On the other hand, if you missed the meeting or want a refresher, you are in the right place for a quick catchup on the topics we discussed.

1. Rhino 8 support on ShapeDiver

Since late 2023, we launched a new Rhino 8 backend infrastructure, available to most ShapeDiver clients as a Beta feature. From day 1, the Rhino 8 system came with many of the advantages built-in this new version of Rhino :

- The new ShrinkWrap component enables powerful new mesh workflows, especially for ShapeDiver users working with 3d printing. Export clean, watertight meshes directly from your ShapeDiver applications!

- Rhino 8 supports importing new file formats, among which (finally!) glTF 2.0. As a result, the ShapeDiver Import Geometry component can also import glTF files.

- On the file export side, the new components from the Rhino category now allow easy creation and manipulation of annotation objects, dimensions, and hatches, which can all be included in exported documents using the ShapeDiver Export components.

- Many operations, such as offsets and mesh boolean operations, became more reliable and much faster, both crucial in web applications built with ShapeDiver!

And that’s not all! My colleague Edwin has explored the possibilities of Rhino 8 in-depth in a series of LinkedIn posts. If you want to learn more about them and how they enhance the experience of ShapeDiver users, follow him for many other insights!

However, arguably, the most important feature shipping with Grasshopper in Rhino 8 is the new scripting component . Both C# and Python versions support external libraries (through Nuget and PyPI packages), allowing for powerful new extensions of Grasshopper's possibilities.

Support for the new scripting component took much effort from our team in collaboration with McNeel. Downloading and installing remote packages on the ShapeDiver servers comes with performance, security, and reliability considerations.

In February, we were happy to finally support scripting on our Rhino 8 system! In the next section, we give a first few application examples.

There is even more potential for ShapeDiver to deeply integrate everything Rhino 8 offers. In particular, stay posted for extended file I/O features and formats, as well as native block support for exported files.

2. Stream I/O

As a solution to many user requests regarding file I/O with ShapeDiver, we added new stream import/export components to the plugin. Those allow users to work with virtually any file format stored in memory stream objects. In practice, this opens up many new I/O possibilities, especially when combined with the new Rhino 8 scripting component. Here are two first examples:

- Using the NPOI Nuget package and a few lines of code, one can extract all the data needed from Excel files and, on the other hand, also create Excel worksheets to be exported from Grasshopper.

- Using the standard compression libraries, one can parse and build Zip files as memory streams, effectively allowing importing and exporting multiple files at once.

Read more about the Import Stream component and the Stream Export Options and see a quick demonstration of those workflows here .

Bonus I/O feature: As a small but much-requested feature, we added support for nested layers in files imported and exported through the ShapeDiver I/O components. The full layer path (for file formats supporting layer hierarchy) is mapped to the nestedlayer attribute. Read more about this feature here .

3. Online platform features

Among the many additions and improvements from the last few months, the following highlights are worth mentioning:

- New options are available when sharing models with ShapeDiver users . While it has been long possible to share various permissions (viewing, exporting, seeing analytics…), it is now also possible to share the ability to download the Grasshopper definition , as well as to consume the model using desktop clients .

- Our classic feature to import and export model parameter values as JSON files got a significant upgrade: it is now possible to import directly in Grasshopper the JSON files exported from the platform. This gives model owners a convenient way to communicate with their audience, as well as a powerful debugging tool.

- It is also possible to import Saved States directly in Grasshopper!

- A wide range of new options allow you to customize the layout of the model view and iframe pages of your models. Several sections (Saved States, Attribute Visualization, Desktop clients) can now be hidden if desired. Additionally, the Export section can be merged with the parameters section, where all parameters and export buttons can be re-ordered and grouped together.

- The behavior of the parameters panel can also be influenced, with such options as disabling parameters during parameter updates, providing a better user experience for models with heavy computations.

The online viewer now lets you choose between different post-processing effects to improve the visualization of your models. In particular, two ambient occlusion algorithms are available to cover a wide range of use cases, from housing to furniture models, as well as a bloom effect that shines especially in the context of jewelry.

In this LinkedIn post , my colleague Michael presents those effects and more niche ones, such as Depth of Field, Tilt-shift, or Pixelation.

5. List of new supported plugins

The list of third-party plugins supported on ShapeDiver is always growing, with now more than 40 plugins up and running on our servers! Among the recent additions, we strongly recommend taking a look at some of them:

- Takeaways

We're very excited to finally share this news with you. We're looking forward to receiving your feedback via our forum or by joining our newly announced Community Standups .

Dampere, a company with a decade-long specialization in perforated metal sheets, has made a name for itself in the architectural materials sector. It operates out of Paris and Lille and serves a broad European market, offering custom-made metal sheets for various building applications.

During our conversation, Olivia explains the pivotal role that Grasshopper and ShapeDiver have played in transforming Dampere's design and production processes. She will discuss the initial challenges of adapting to these tools, the journey towards integrating them into Dampere's workflow, and how they've enabled the company to offer customizable online configurators to their clients. Olivia's perspective will highlight the significant efficiencies and customer engagement improvements these digital tools have brought to Dampere, illustrating the evolving landscape of digital technology in the architectural materials industry. Let’s dive in!

1. Please start by telling us about yourself and your role at Dampere.

My name is Olivia Theilliere, and I have been working with Dampere for 4 years. As the head of Digital Strategy, I assist customers in finding Dampere online and facilitate their purchase through various digital platforms, such as our websites, webshops, and social networks. I also help our team effectively communicate, organize their work, and ensure the use of best practices, workflows, and digital tools.

2. What is Dampere, and which core products or services do you offer?

For the last 10 years, Dampere has specialized in perforated metal sheets. Although we are a small team, we are young and brimming with modern ideas, always ready to take on new challenges! Our passion is to create beautiful patterns, and we sell metal sheets for various building applications, such as facades, railings, fences, and more. We initiate production exclusively upon receiving a new order, which means we can cater to specific requests for each customer.

Our offices are in Paris and Lille, and we primarily deliver to customers in France and Belgium. However, we also serve customers in Germany, Luxembourg, Spain, and other countries. The only limitation we have is the shipping cost for pallets.

3. How did your journey with ShapeDiver begin, and what were your initial expectations?

Initially, every order required manual drawing using AutoCAD, and each hole in the sheet had to be adjusted on every DXF file delivered to the machine. As an IT professional, I found this approach outdated and impractical. Therefore, I started looking on the internet for a solution. For about six months, I tried several solutions, from cropping SVG online to working with a Swedish team that could develop our patterns. After extensive research, I finally came across a ShapeDiver and Grasshopper solution, which I found promising. However, I had no idea about the journey ahead of us.

4. What led Dampere to choose Grasshopper as a tool for your designs? Were there specific features or capabilities that stood out?

The magic of Grasshopper was the ability to read, transform, and produce DXF files.

5. How do ShapeDiver and Grasshopper work together in your workflow?

We use ShapeDiver for 98% of our work in Grasshopper. This lets us quickly show the results to our customers, who can order their specific metal sheet online. The remaining 2% of the work is carried out in Grasshopper only when the response time is too long, or the drawing is too heavy to be done online.

6. Could you describe the online configurators you've developed using ShapeDiver? What makes them unique or innovative?

We created several webshops using PHP that are fully connected to ShapeDiver via APIs. Each webshop is dedicated to one product type and connected to a specific ShapeDiver model. By utilizing the front-end API, we are able to connect our models to a custom user interface and dynamically change all parameters. This way we can display results in just one minute. Once the customer is satisfied with the result, they can conveniently pay online and proceed with their order. Additionally, the backend API allows us to generate all necessary factory documents.

7. How have your clients responded to the online configurators? Do you have any memorable feedback or stories?

We noticed two types of customers when it comes to providing feedback.

Some customers find it challenging to adapt to our modern and innovative solutions as they are used to requesting a quote via email, engaging in prolonged discussions with our team, and eventually placing an order weeks later. This is particularly true for construction workers.

On the other hand, some customers are convinced by our solution within a matter of minutes. Most of these customers can place their orders independently, even outside regular business hours, and we often don't even know who they are.

We have also found that our online chat feature has helped to improve the customer experience for both types of customers.

8. In what ways have the configurators impacted your sales and manufacturing processes?

It has changed everything. We are convinced this online shop and overall eCommerce are the future. So, we are adapting Dampere’s strategy to this new way of selling.

9. What challenges did you face while creating your Grasshopper files for ShapeDiver, and how did you overcome them?

We have been facing issues with long computation times while processing some of our drawings, which contain numerous tiny holes. This often pushed us to the limit of the response time allowed by our ShapeDiver plan. To resolve this, we upgraded to a 30-second computation time plan a few months ago, which allowed us to expand our library. However, we still have some projects that require more time; we use Grasshopper offline for those. We may consider upgrading to a higher ShapeDiver plan in the future to enable these files to be processed online, but presently, we are satisfied with our current settings.

10. How can offering highly customizable products affect your market positioning and customer satisfaction?

We provided personalized products even before ShapeDiver, but now we can display the outcome to the customer and allow them to modify each parameter as much as they desire.

Additionally, our established online store enables us to indicate the production constraints. In other words, if a particular set of parameters is not feasible, the customer is instantly notified when attempting to make the change.

11. What insights or advice would you give to other companies considering ShapeDiver for their configurable products?

Be ready to learn and discover some magic! Be ready to spend a lot of time playing with it.

12. Looking ahead, how do you plan to evolve or expand your use of ShapeDiver and Grasshopper inside Dampere?

After successfully launching 5 webshops, we are working on improving their functionalities and exploring ways to merge their capabilities.

13. How do you see the role of tools like ShapeDiver and Grasshopper evolving with industry trends?

Why draw yourself when an online tool can do it faster and better?

14. What advice would you give companies in your industry about embracing digital transformation and tools like ShapeDiver and Grasshopper?

Good luck!

- Thank you, Olivia, for your time today!

Thank you as well for sharing our story.

That's it for this new edition of Getting to know... Don't forget to visit  Dampere's website  and  LinkedIn page.

Would you like to get featured in this space? Please email us at  contact@shapediver.com  and tell us about your project or brand! We'd love to start a conversation.

Recently, Modern Metal has been committed to innovation and, most importantly, automation, which is evident in its use of digital tools like CraftOS and ShapeDiver. CraftOS is a turn-key solution that combines the creative freedom of Grasshopper and ShapeDiver with the operational efficiency of custom order management. (We'll have an interview with their team soon, so stay tuned!) These tools allow the company to refine its design process and customer interaction, resulting in high-quality products that meet the needs of their clients.

In this interview, you will discover the journey of Modern Metal and their decision to integrate CraftOS into their platform. As Annie discusses their operational challenges, she highlights how CraftOS has become a cornerstone in simplifying the process from design to order fulfillment. This conversation will provide insight into automated design customization, real-time quoting, and the future of customer-centric digital interactions for Modern Metal. Let’s dive in!

1. Can you tell us about the journey of Modern Metal from its inception to where it is now? What drove you to transition from a background in textiles to specializing in metal panels?

It has been an unexpected adventure from its inception! This all started because I was in the midst of remodeling my Oakland home, and I was attentive to every detail. We had a huge duct opening in the entryway to our home. I scoured antique markets for a beautiful brass floor grille that would suit the aesthetic of our home. I couldn’t find anything the right size. I remembered a jacquard woven textile I had designed years ago, ironically inspired by a metal elevator shaft extracted from the Chicago Stock Exchange, a Louis Sullivan building. I thought it would be interesting to translate my woven into metal.  Our architect saw this and said, “Hey, this is really cool you could sell these”.  And just like that, a business was born.

Today, I use a Textile Design program, Pointcarre, to design all of my patterns in metal.  It’s comfortable for me to think and work as a textile designer, to think in repeating patterns. This enables me to push the limits of what can be done in metal, creating more textile-like designs with more movement and fluidity.

Thus, the core of what I started with remains the same as I’m designing repeating patterns, but instead of using layers of yarn for dimension and structure, I’m using metal. The business has evolved significantly from that beginning point.

Now, I’m running a company, wearing lots of hats, and very little of my time is spent on pure design work. We’re officially a Women-owned Small Business, and  I work closely with my core team of women, production manager, and operations manager to keep the flow of our business running smoothly. It’s a lot of work!

2. Who are your primary clients, and in what ways do Modern Metal’s products cater to their specific needs?

Primary clients are architects and interior designers in the residential and commercial spaces. We do sell directly to homeowners, but our primary focus is business-to-business. Modern Metal enables our clients to customize and make a unique piece for their space.

Most often, almost always, a designer needs a very specific size and wants to develop a custom pattern with us. My goal is to make the custom process easy, fun, and efficient so that they can incorporate Modern Metal into their projects. The result is a long-lasting bespoke design element personal to their customer/project.

3. Your products, especially the large format custom frame panels and vent covers, uniquely blend aesthetic appeal and functional value. How do you manage to balance these aspects in every project you undertake?

I’m all about form and function; one doesn’t happen without the other. Whenever I develop a pattern, for instance, I think of the end use. Actually, I develop the pattern BEFORE I think of end use so that I’m less inhibited. Then, I start the questions and make appropriate edits. How much opening space does it have for airflow?  How sturdy will this design be if cut in a large panel?  Depending on the application, we consider many factors, such as the scale of pattern, thickness of material, type of metal, and finish for various climates.  Our products are designed to be forever products in timeless designs.

4. When it comes to customizing vent covers and panels for your clients, what are the most common customizations requested, and how do you accommodate them in your design process?

The most common custom requests are the size of the duct opening.  Sometimes, clients also need a certain outer dimension to cover up something unsightly on the wall.  It can be a technical challenge to adjust these parameters as the pattern area is dictated by flange welding, and screw sizes may dictate the outer edge, etc.  In cases like this, I have to have the technical dictate my design direction, and I work within those confines.  I don’t mind this because I welcome a design challenge.  When I worked as a Textile Designer at Maharam, we designed commercial fabrics that had to meet standards, such as double rubs, etc.  I love the challenge of creating something beautiful that meets the guidelines.  Again, form and function!

5. Over the years, what were some significant challenges Modern Metal faced, especially in terms of design customization and order fulfillment?

Challenges–yes, there have been many. I still feel like I learn something with every single job.  Right now, we’re designing a gate in collaboration with Creative Gates.  My design is intended to span across hopping from one gate side to the next, and I have to consider the gate frame and hardware. That’s new for me and a challenge.

We’ve learned everything the hard way! We don’t ship until payment is received. We have strict proof of packing in case an item gets damaged in shipping.  We insure everything.  We double-check all quotes and drawings through a rigorous internal check system to ensure we don’t miss details. We bubble close-ups of our drawings so customers understand the pattern's scale. We make sure to write that our designs are strictly copyrighted and may not be reproduced or fabricated without our written consent. We give conservative lead times to have some extra time built in should something need more time.

Mostly, we have implemented a very formal process for sign-off of drawings, estimates, and shipping to ensure we communicate clearly with our customers. Metal is not forgiving, so it needs to be accurate the first time!

6. What motivated you to integrate CraftOS into your operations, and how has this decision impacted your handling of custom orders?

I had been outsourcing all of our technical drawings to CAD engineers. I still do that, but now, with CraftOS, we can do most drawings in-house and don’t need to wait days to receive them.  We can revise on the spot! The process is integral to quoting and providing our customers with accurate technical drawings.

7. Before creating this online automation tool, were there alternative solutions you considered for handling these automation tasks? What sets this new tool apart in terms of cost and value?

Before, we only outsourced to CAD engineers. What sets this tool apart for us is the ability to customize to our needs. We spent hours with their team so that they could understand the nuances of our product and build it into their model.

8. How have the capabilities of this tool in handling multiple quantities, material choices, and different finishes streamlined the product customization process at Modern Metal?

This hasn’t really changed anything for us in this regard, but we are able to specify finishes, material choices, and quantity in the program, which is important.

9. How has it simplified creating custom product configurations and affected lead times and productivity?

We can now draw our products in custom sizes very quickly, which enables us to receive quotes from our fabricators faster and get our estimates to the customer faster. I’d say this has decreased our lead times by 1-2 weeks.

10. How can automatically generating and managing quotes and processing orders through this tool enhance your customer interactions and sales process?

Sometimes, when I feel a customer needs a visual, I just create a drawing for them in CraftOS to look at. This was not possible for me previously and is certainly a great selling tool.

11. How does the tool alert the designer about potential fabrication issues? Can you share how this feature has helped minimize errors or rework in the design phase?

There are what CraftOS calls “rules” in our customized program, which make designing our products a dream and easily accessible for anyone on my team to develop. Here are two examples of how these rules minimize errors in the design phase:

12. What kind of feedback have you received from your clients or fabricators regarding the automated schematics and cut files generated by this tool?

Our fabricators appreciate DXF files, and we can now work with fabricators who may not have been able to quote for us previously without the DXF file. This tool has opened new doors.

13. How do you envision the evolution of the configurator tool, especially in terms of customer-facing interactions and direct ordering?

Right now, we’re not using it to its full capacity. I’d like to get to the point where pricing is instantly generated. At some point, we’d like our customers to be able to customize our existing Signature design on our website, get a price, click, and order!

14. As Modern Metal continues to evolve, are there new product lines or design innovations you are exploring to enhance your product portfolio?

Yes, we are about to formally introduce a new product, a very engineered and customized piece that opens and shuts to accommodate changing an air filter. Also, we plan to introduce a semi-custom value-engineered option for cabinetry inserts in our most popular pattern, Square Squared. Lastly, I have a new collection of designs on the horizon!

15. Based on your experience, what recommendations would you give similar businesses looking to automate their design and order fulfillment processes?

I’d say it’s a necessary step to streamline production and stay at the forefront of technical innovation. Just like buying the most recent software, we must keep up with what technology has to offer!

- Thank you very much for your time today, Annie!

Thank you as well for this opportunity.

That's it for this new edition of Getting to know... Don't forget to visit  Modern Metal’s website  and   Instagram page .

Would you like to get featured in this space? Please email us at  contact@shapediver.com  and tell us about your project or brand! We'd love to start a conversation.

Mathieu Huard, Head of Product, and Edwin Hernández, Head of Projects, will take you through a guided tour of the latest features added to the ShapeDiver platform, such as full support for Rhino 8.

This webinar is scheduled to last approximately 1 hour and is aimed at computational designers and/or business leaders wanting to learn more about the latest features on our platform.

For those interested in getting started with or upgrading their current ShapeDiver plan, we'll give away 10 discount coupons at the end of the presentation (before Q&A).

Webinar Overview

Date: Tuesday, March 5th, 2024.

Time: 8am Pacific Time, 11am Eastern Time, 5pm Central European Time.

Duration: approximately 1 hour, not including Q&A.

> CLICK HERE TO REGISTER

Agenda:

Part 1: Rhino 8 support and other new plugin features.

Part 2: New sharing, embedding and layout features on the platform.

Part 3: Advanced post-processing effects in the ShapeDiver viewer.

Part 4: Outro and special announcements.

Part 5: Q&A.

About ShapeDiver

ShapeDiver is an online platform that simplifies hosting and sharing Grasshopper files online. It provides the tools and scalable infrastructure to help users transform their library of Grasshopper files into powerful and shareable web applications.

With ShapeDiver, users can:

- Share the full power of their parametric design files with partners, clients, and other non-technical stakeholders wherever they are while protecting their IP.

- Create online applications that help automate sales, design, and manufacturing processes.

Meet Your Hosts

Mathieu Huard

Mathieu is the Head of Product, as well as one of the founders of ShapeDiver. He focuses on expanding the ShapeDiver product to cater to various industries leveraging parametric design in their workflows. In the context of the AEC industry, he helped push the collaboration and interoperability functionalities of ShapeDiver, such as bridging the online platform with various design software suites, including Autodesk Forma.

He holds a Ph.D. in Applied Mathematics. Before founding ShapeDiver, he spent several years with the Vienna-based company Evolute, developing software and consulting for architects and engineering firms, all along gaining experience with building tools for Rhino and Grasshopper.

Edwin Hernández

Edwin Hernandez is Head of Projects and Senior Computational Designer at ShapeDiver. He studied Architecture at Andes University in Bogotá, Colombia, and Computer Animation at the SAE Institute in Melbourne, Australia.

While he was still studying, he began working as a "solopreneur" with clients in Australia and New Zealand. These clients provided projects that allowed him to gain experience in using BIM software, parametric design, and web coding. His experience enabled him to join the ShapeDiver team in Vienna, Austria in 2017. He has been responsible for managing multiple projects across more than 15 different industries. During this time, he has learned how to create highly optimized and complex parametric models using C#, custom plugins for Grasshopper, and cloud applications based on Grasshopper.

In this exclusive interview, Eric talks about the origin of Interstice, and how their desire to explore beyond traditional structural engineering led to the formation of the company. He discusses the potential of Mass Timber, highlighting its sustainability, aesthetic appeal, and cost-effectiveness. He also talks about the challenges of specialization and siloing in the AEC industry and explains how Interstice aims to create innovative solutions that span across various domains, bringing cohesiveness to the industry.

Eric emphasizes the importance of computational tools in today's design and engineering processes. He explains how he uses Rhino, Grasshopper, Python, and Revit in his workflow. Furthermore, he believes that integrating ShapeDiver into his process revolutionizes client engagement and project delivery. Guenther's insights provide a glimpse into the future of architectural engineering, where technology not only enhances design capabilities but also fosters collaborative and interactive client relationships.

1. Please introduce yourself and share a bit about your professional background, particularly concerning the AEC industry.

My name is Eric Guenther. I’m Co-Founder and Principal of Interstice and Digital Practice Manager at Forefront Structural Engineers (FSE). I’ve spent most of my career practicing as a structural engineer, but I’ve always focused on the AEC industry's broader aspects. I attribute much of that to my education in architecture, where I learned about design, integration, and systems thinking. Those concepts led me to pick up computational design, which initially served as a creative outlet but now underscores much of my work.

2. What was the key motivation or triggering event that inspired you to start your business in the AEC sector, specifically within Mass Timber?

My partner, Josh Dortzbach, and I founded Interstice to explore new ideas and expand into areas outside of pure structural engineering. We are particularly interested in spaces where we see opportunities for innovation. The triggering moment was when we found a client asking us to help them do just that.

Mass timber is in its relative infancy in the U.S. There is a real opportunity to help shape its future. The opportunity extends well beyond material-specific technologies and into the broader aspects of the industry. We saw this as an ideal opportunity to take on new challenges and help our clients navigate an evolving market.

3. Mass Timber has recently gained significant attention in the AEC industry. What do you think are the key factors driving its popularity?

We haven’t seen many disruptions in structural materials over the past century. While timber itself is nothing new, mass timber offers the potential to balance the elusive trio of quality, speed, and cost. Most would agree that timber is beautiful and offers a promise of sustainability. It can be built quickly with small crews, and modern manufacturing capabilities have made it competitive from a cost perspective. Achieving all three is difficult, but the potential drives the popularity.

4. Looking at the AEC industry, what main challenges and opportunities do you aim to address with Interstice?

Throughout my experience in the AEC industry, I’ve seen a continuing trend toward hyper-specialization. Industry members are encouraged, if not required, to become experts in a smaller and smaller niche. This brings a lot of siloing between designers, suppliers, builders, etc. We started Interstice to fill the gaps between these silos. Rather than narrowing our focus, we’re choosing to broaden it. We work closely with our clients to identify their unique challenges and build custom solutions.

Specifically, within mass timber, we’ve looked at the entire project delivery method and identified opportunities for improvement. We’re focused on empowering early decision-making, streamlining the digital workflow between diverse teams, and simplifying the construction logistics process.

5. What is your current workflow/framework involving Rhino, Grasshopper, Python, Revit, etc.? At what point does ShapeDiver come into play?

I’m drawn to many of these tools because they offer relative simplicity and a high degree of flexibility. Python provides a flexible but powerful environment for our raw engineering algorithms and data processing. Rhino and Grasshopper offer an intuitive way to work within a 3D environment that is not necessarily encumbered with building information. Therefore, most of my workflow centers around those tools, pushing and pulling information to other software as needed. By controlling the whole workflow, we’re able to minimize data loss, collaborate seamlessly, and explore meaningful information at the earliest stages of a project.

ShapeDiver enters the picture when we need to share interactive parts of this process with clients and collaborators. Often, the limitation of computational design tools is that they aren’t readily accessible to those not familiar with a programming environment. With ShapeDiver, we can quickly turn our solutions into interactive web apps that our clients and collaborators can explore without any programming knowledge.

6. Could you describe how you use ShapeDiver as part of your workflow?

We primarily use ShapeDiver to put 4D models into the hands of the team. Adding the extra dimension of time to a model is powerful on its own. The ability to open that same model on a browser flips the script on accessibility. Because our workflow is primarily structured around Grasshopper, ShapeDiver integrates seamlessly. We can generate detailed 4D models of our earliest concepts, allowing team members easy access to critical information.

7. What are the specific challenges in mass timber projects that ShapeDiver helps to address?

One of the biggest challenges facing mass timber is capitalizing on schedule. On large-scale projects, it must be built fast to be successful. The problem is that capitalizing on the potential speed requires both a detailed plan and buy-in from multiple trades.

In traditional projects, the information required to develop the plan would come in the later stages of the project. With ShapeDiver, we’re able to put this information into anyone’s hands on day one. We can then collaborate with stakeholders and refine the plan collectively. This benefits not just the mass timber trades but every trade that needs to capitalize on its speed.

8. How does ShapeDiver enhance your interaction with clients and partners?

One of the most important parts of our business, and one of the biggest challenges facing our industry, is understanding our collaborator’s and client’s needs. ShapeDiver allows us to give clients direct access to valuable information, but more importantly, it promotes a better level of understanding. It’s pretty powerful to build out a tool and, within minutes, have your clients or partners explore it on a web app. It’s even more powerful when they can give you live feedback on how that tool applies to their problem. This level of engagement multiplies the tool's value in a way that is hard to achieve otherwise.

9. Are there any plans or improvements you're considering for ShapeDiver's integration into your workflow?

In the early optimization phase of our workflow, we generate thousands of framing configurations. Representing a select few of these configurations has always been one of the more static parts of an otherwise fluid process. We’re currently exploring ways to package this entire model in ShapeDiver. This would allow us to recommend a few configurations while still giving access to all of them. We hope this will dramatically increase engagement and promote more exploration at this critical stage.

10. Are there any specific features of ShapeDiver that you find particularly beneficial or unique compared to other tools?

I look for tools that are simple to use and get you up and running quickly. I probably spent less than 30 minutes getting my first functional script deployed. I didn’t have to learn web development or how to host my own server; I barely had to modify my Grasshopper script. ShapeDiver is no-nonsense for users like me but offers the potential to build something more powerful when needed.

11. What advice would you give to other professionals in your industry considering integrating ShapeDiver into their workflow?

Keep it simple. Building a highly effective and powerful script that only you understand is relatively easy. It’s much harder to put that in someone else's hands and have them understand it intuitively. We’re dozens of iterations into one of our tools and still simplifying it. The simplest version that conveys the idea is all you need.

- Well, this has been great, Eric. Thank you very much for your time today!

Thank you as well for this opportunity.

That's it for this new edition of Getting to know... Don't forget to visit Insterstice's website and LinkedIn page.

Would you like to get featured in this space? Please email us at  contact@shapediver.com  and tell us about your project or brand! We'd love to start a conversation.

In this interview, we learn what drove Alexander and Jennifer to start Gemme Jewelry (recently rebranded to NonExamples.io ), the unique concept they are presenting with this brand, and the different technologies powering this online store, such as Grasshopper, ShapeDiver, and Shopify. We also cover the different aspects of his design workflow and his vision regarding the future of his brand and the Jewelry industry.

--

1. Hello and welcome! Please tell us about yourself.

Hi, I’m Alexander, and I am the co-founder of Gemme Jewelry. I’m an architect by training and trade, having worked with some of the best architecture and design offices worldwide.

Over the years, I understood that I could extend my passion and skills beyond just architecture. While experimenting with the rapidly evolving 3D technology I used in my day-to-day job, I realized I could explore new ways to express my design vision. Since then, my passion has been blending design and technology, with jewelry being one manifestation of this.

2. Which one is your software of choice and why?

I use a combination of Rhino and Grasshopper in most of my work. Rhino gives you endless possibilities to design and model anything you can imagine. Using Grasshopper as an additional tool enables me to automate processes in several stages of the design, but also gives me a set of tools that allow me to experiment with complex ideas.

3. How did you get interested in Parametric/Product Design?

The first time I encountered parametric design was at university. Since then, I have worked on many large-scale architectural projects worldwide involving parametric designs, such as FOUR in Frankfurt and The Cradle in Düsseldorf. A few years ago, I began testing ideas on smaller-scale objects, such as jewelry, which led me to further explore the world of product design.

4. How has Grasshopper changed the way products are developed/designed?

As a result of using Grasshopper, one can iteratively design products. The user can modify any product through simple inputs, while the products' logic prevents remodeling repeatedly. As a result, it opens up a new set of experimental tools that would not be feasible if done manually or non-parametrically.

5. What does your design workflow look like?

Most of my ideas start bold but abstract, which I first evaluate with simple digital massings. If the idea seems promising, I set up a parametric model with Grasshopper. The model allows me to keep adding layers of complexity while evolving the overall design.

Once I have reached a state where I think the design is close to being final, I take some time away from it. It helps me to focus on other projects and neutralizes my opinion about the design. If I look back at it after a couple of days and I still like it, I continue working on it.

This process might happen several times until it reaches its final stage. Although, often, a design or an idea never successfully makes it to the end of this process.  

6. How did parametric design and 3D printing influence your go-to-market strategy?

Customization has revolutionized product design. More and more, customers expect to be able to personalize their accessories. However, brands currently offer few options for this. Real-time online customization is set to change this. We already see this being done in the clothing, automotive, and furniture space, where customers can easily configure their desired item in a matter of minutes and place an order online.

Parametric design, combined with 3D Printing, allows us to expand this to jewelry and brings customized, detailed, and intricate designs to life in a way that would be otherwise impossible using traditional manufacturing techniques.

7. What is Gemme?

Gemme is a brand that focuses on iconic, fully customizable jewelry creations. Using the latest 3D printing technology, we create designs and details that can’t be achieved using traditional manufacturing methods.

While searching for unconventional and experimental jewelry, my co-founder Jennifer and I realized that no brand offered us the opportunity to fully personalize jewelry the way we wanted. That’s how we came up with Gemme. For us, this is a way to democratize self-expression through jewelry.

Precious accessories should be unique and purposeful. Currently, the market can’t deliver this in a digital-first manner. It has many options, but has no accessible way for people to create a truly original piece online.

At Gemme, we let anyone select or design a piece that perfectly matches their taste. Our tools allow customers to change the style, size, shape, detailing, and materials so that anyone can wear a piece that is fully customized and entirely theirs.

8. Tell us about the different models available at Gemme.

Gemme offers our customers the option to choose from models available in the  “Collection” or “Design Your Own” sections.

In “ Collection ” we have a selection of curated pieces designed by us. The main inspiration for this jewelry is creating experimental, iconic statement pieces. Here you can find a range of rings, bracelets, earrings, and necklaces.

With “Design Your Own” we allow our customers to create their own personalized and fully customized jewelry online.

9. Which one is your favorite and why?

Personally, I get excited the most about the Gemme Designer. This is because it represents the perfect mixture of uniqueness, personalization, and design. The Gemme Designer is powered by complex Grasshopper algorithms, which we customized into a user-friendly interface. A few simple sliders and inputs allow you to generate almost endless jewelry designs.

10. Why did you choose to use Shopify for your store?

Shopify covers all important integrations and services we need, like marketing automation, customer service, and security. In addition, we built an app with our partner New Branch Ltd, which allows us to easily integrate our ShapeDiver models into our store. It enables us to experiment with different product models and configuration options, without having to depend on web developers. This reduces our operational costs and risk, and we can focus on our products instead.

11. What's the future of eCommerce for the Jewelry Industry?

I believe e-commerce is the future of jewelry. We know that since the pandemic, customers increasingly want to shop online and have the same level of experience as in real life, wherever they are and whenever. Many consumers nowadays are looking to access bespoke jewelry from the comfort of their sofa without going through the lengthy and often expensive process of looking for a traditional jewelry maker. Accessibility, affordability, and options are what e-commerce has enabled in the jewelry space.

Finally, new and exciting trends are emerging, which we are following closely. Visual commerce is one of them. We believe that to truly deliver a superior shopping experience for our customers, jewelry brands need to leverage more than just static pictures. That’s why interactive videos, animated models, augmented reality and user-generated content are top of mind for us.

12. What is next for Gemme?

Our focus is to continue expanding our current designs and experience for our customers. We are also experimenting with new design ideas to add to our “Collection” and our” Design Your Own” section. Finally, we are also exploring releasing a Metaverse collection and a line of digital collectibles as fashion expands beyond the physical world.

- This has been great! Thank you for sharing your story.

Thank you for having us here! For anyone wanting to get in touch, please visit either gemmestore.com or drachenberg.io.

That's it for this new edition of  Getting to know...  Don't forget to visit Gemme Jewelry's website and Instagram account. You can also follow them on LinkedIn and Twitter.

Would you like to get featured in this space? Please email us at  contact@shapediver.com  and tell us about your project or brand! We'd love to start a conversation.

This interview covers the fundamental aspects of WASP's journey, such as the company's origins and its team, to the practical applications of their technology across industries. We explore the functionalities of the online configurators, including their capabilities for users to export G-code compatible with DeltaWASP printers. The decision to use Grasshopper and ShapeDiver, shedding light on how these tools enhance the user experience and open up new design possibilities. Furthermore, we delve into the team's insights on the future of 3D printing and the challenges faced during the development of large-scale printers. This interview will help you understand WASP's expertise and their groundbreaking contributions to the 3D printing landscape.

1. Can you tell us about the origins of WASP and how the company came to specialize in the development of 3D printers?

WASP- World’s Advanced Saving Project is a company born in 2012 in Massa Lombarda (Ravenna- Italy) that designs, produces, and sells 3D printers made in Italy all over the world.

The wide range of WASP 3D printers has been developed to answer human needs: food, housing, health, energy, work, art, and culture. Inspired by the Potter Wasp, which builds its own nest with material recovered from the surrounding environment, WASP was born with the aim of developing large-scale 3D printers to build houses with natural materials available on the territory. The main company's target is to provide effective benefits to humans through technological innovation and research.

2. How many people are currently part of the 3D Wasp team, and what are their primary areas of expertise?

Currently, the WASP team consists of 40 to 50 people who primarily focus on research and development, sales, and warehousing.

3. Which industries have shown the most interest in utilizing WASP's 3D printers, and what specific applications have they found in those industries? 

Having various technologies in our catalog, it’s important to make a distinction before diving into it. WASP operates in 3 sectors: Clay, Industrial, and Architectural 3D printing. Each sector has its own line of 3D printers that cater to different industries and customers.

Our Clay line is often used in both artistic and research/academic fields. Being an open system, allowing for the experimentation of different materials, it meets the needs of both designers and researchers, allowing them space between various applications, from 3D printed furniture and design vases to the development of new bio-based materials for 3D printing.

Our Industrial line caters to different industries, from the medical field, developing customized braces and prosthetics, to the automotive one. Our largest 3D printer and top-of-the-line WASP 3MT HDP prints directly from pellets with huge advantages in terms of speed and cost-effectiveness. It is often used to create customized artistic installations in a short time, but also furniture and design 3D printing, even with textiles.

Our Architectural 3D printer, Crane WASP, is most famous for being able to print construction materials different from concrete, such as raw earth. Its versatility makes it a viable solution in many different situations, from printing two pop-up stores on the beach of Dubai to creating a customized art installation for Triennalo Milano by bringing the machine inside the museum’s corridors and printing on the spot. Starting this year, we have started selling the machine worldwide, and we’re already up to a great start!

4. Could you elaborate on the online configurators that WASP has created with Grasshopper and ShapeDiver? What features and capabilities do these configurators offer to users?

WASP has created a 3D parametric modeling application that enables users to design and print objects using our product line's clay printers. Through WASP's digital factory, users are empowered to mass-produce their own designs. The application offers the flexibility of including multiple prints within a single g-code, optimizing the printing workflow and enhancing productivity.

5. What advantages do the online configurators bring to users compared to traditional methods of configuring and designing structures for 3D printing?

This tool aims to make 3D printing accessible to everyone, even those without technical expertise in 3D modeling. We want to give everyone the chance to use our technology and enjoy 3D printing.

6. What are some learnings from creating this online configurator's user interface and user experience?

While developing this application, we realized the importance of distinguishing processes. Our goal was to establish a linear workflow that guides users seamlessly through various design stages, ensuring a smooth and intuitive experience.

7. What does the future hold for 3D printing in various industries, and how do you see WASP contributing to that future?

3D printing is set to shift from being primarily used for creating prototypes to becoming a tool for large-scale custom manufacturing. This will lead to the replacement of industrial plants in favor of real-time production systems, resulting in reduced issues related to warehouse inventories, transportation, and storage. The advantage of 3D printing lies in its ability to respond to customer needs faster and in a personalized manner, surpassing the current system's capabilities.

WASP is actively working to generate this shift; our newly launched line for customized production through digital fabrication seems to respond to an oxymoron: mass production of unique parts.

8. Can you share any notable success stories or projects where WASP's printers were used to create innovative structures or solutions?

The term "success" holds different meanings depending on the context. There can be technological successes, market successes, and image successes. For instance, the creation of the first 3D printed store on the beaches of Dubai for a renowned brand like Dior can be regarded as a notable success.

9. Agreed! How does WASP ensure the quality and reliability of their 3D printers, particularly in large-scale construction projects?

Printers are the result of a continuous process of evolution involving rigorous testing, constant improvements, and certification. The act of printing introduces additional variables into the equation. It's crucial to consider not only the printing machine itself but also the materials being used and the design of the object intended for printing.

Achieving a good result relies on a series of interconnected choices, from choosing the right material to a well-suited design and a machine that is able to execute it.  To ensure the integrity of large-scale constructions, we established a well-defined process. Finished components, including walls or sections of walls, are produced according to a series of procedures. These components are subsequently subjected to stress tests, where they are intentionally put under pressure to evaluate whether they meet the expected standards.

10. Are there any unique features or technologies incorporated into WASP's printers that differentiate them from other 3D printing solutions in the market?

WASP has always pushed itself to explore new fields of application. Each application meets specific needs, and for each of these requests, WASP has developed an answer.

We have developed the "Firecap" system for plastic polymers, which applies heat to the printed material to enhance adhesion. Additionally, we have implemented vacuum-based systems to ensure proper adhesion of the printed object to the printing surface. These systems offer versatility by enabling the inclusion of fibers in the materials, increasing stiffness, or introducing colored lines.

As for the ceramics field, we were the first to create continuous feeding systems that enable industrial-scale printing of diverse objects. Our company holds patents for unique solutions like the CFS, which supplies the printer with ceramic materials and eliminates any remaining air from the material itself. These innovations contribute to enhanced efficiency and quality in ceramic printing processes.

11. What kind of support and training options does WASP provide to its customers to help them optimize the use of their printers and achieve the desired results?

Our collaborative work starts by identifying the right material and printer for the desired applications. Our team of technicians provides online and live training, supplemented by helpful online tutorials to ensure proper customer training.

12. Are there any specific sustainability aspects that WASP focuses on in their 3D printing processes or materials?

Sustainability has always been the focus of our research. Back in 2018, we created Gaia : the first 3D printed building that was created using natural materials from the surrounding area. More specifically, raw soil taken directly from the ground of the construction site. Our focus on sustainability has also driven our exploration of printing with recycled materials, utilizing our large-scale industrial printers.

For architectural 3D printing, the research is continuous: recycled materials, powders from marble processing, tuff, waste from the agri-food chain such as straw or rice husk and hemp. These are just a few of the materials that are being tested with our machines on a daily basis. Our goal is to make negative-impact objects thanks to our technology.

13. Lastly, what upcoming developments, innovations, or projects can we expect from WASP in the near future?

In addition to creating and selling 3D printers, WASP is expanding its offerings to include certified 3D printed house models, a project that started as a vision and is now turning into reality. As for our line of 3D printers, we will continue focusing on Digital Factories, creating a new paradigm in the world of additive manufacturing.

- This has been great. Thank you for taking some time to share your story with us.

Thank you as well and the ShapeDiver for providing your support and feedback during this process.

That's it for this new edition of Getting to know... Don't forget to visit WASP's website and Instagram account.

Would you like to get featured in this space? Please email us at  contact@shapediver.com  and tell us about your project or brand! We'd love to start a conversation.

ShapeDiver had to put out multiple fires over the past year, often simultaneously. Covid was tough, yes, but we had this excuse no more. It was time to ask more profound questions. Every single decision, every feature we had worked on, and every short and long-term goal were put to the test. In the process, I recalled many crucial times for the company since its inception, and how they led us to where we are now.

I tell some of these stories here. I attempt to trace our restless path through the prism of my experience. And behold, as words give shape to stories, the apparent chaos starts to resemble a more comforting dialectic. We made mistakes and got stuck in corners, no doubt. But we patiently carved our way to renewed focus and clarity.

These stories are not all comfortable to share. I hope they provide minor insights about the industry. At best, they should clarify the focus of ShapeDiver as a company and how we position ourselves in a space that becomes more saturated daily. At the very least, you will find some reasonably entertaining bites below. Undoubtedly, some loveable albeit incorrect turns of phrases from a non-native writer who violently refuses any assistance from ChatGPT.

Finding a place - Are we not cute?

Every two years, the Shape To Fabrication conference in London gathers a large panel of architects, engineers, designers, and artists around technology-focused innovations in the AEC field and beyond. Unofficially, a large chunk of the audience is well aware that much of the content will revolve around McNeel, including the latest developments in Rhinoceros, Grasshopper, and how companies and designers use these tools to push the industry forward. This bothers precisely no one: after all, McNeel has proven over and over again its commitment to the community. It did so through pricing, yes, but also by genuinely lending a listening ear to its users while providing vital support to developers. McNeel might be the cute , indie version of other not-to-be-named CAD behemoths, but the company is also reliable and, in many cases, the best at what it is doing.

During this year's edition of the event, Chuck Driesler, creator of the much-beloved nodepen , presented the following slide:

Nodepen is a beautiful passion project where Chuck used Rhino Compute to recreate a stripped-down version of Grasshopper online. It works great! As he shared his experience at the conference, Chuck pointed out that Nodepen should not try to become a "cute, indie version of ShapeDiver." Cue the audience's laughs, which all seemed to agree that those qualificatives certainly do not apply to ShapeDiver. As for me, I retracted my head like a turtle in its shell and attempted to make myself as close to invisible as possible for the rest of the session.

That day, I realized we had successfully presented our company as a professional, relevant presence in the AEC community. Sure, I still meet everyday users of Rhino and Grasshopper who have no idea what ShapeDiver is, but I accepted then that we are, at least, part of the picture. At the same time, the slide and the audience's reactions also made it clear that the image we had projected in the process did not quite correspond to our culture and that our communication so far had perhaps hurt as much as it had helped.

When did that happen? Initially, we eagerly and candidly shared our progress, and we could feel the community's excitement. At which point did we stop sharing and start projecting instead? Did our small team of nerds, eager to learn and create something useful, lose its way to become unapproachable and steer away curious and innovative community members? As it turns out from one of our earliest stories, that might have been an issue from the start.

It's all in the name already.

Logos interrupted - How vision shifted faster than communication

Depending on how long you have been familiar with ShapeDiver, there is a good chance that you have read, said, and written the name of the company incorrectly in the not-so-distant past. You might still be doing it.

The first time someone called us ShapeDriver, we all found it funny. A few months down the line, it could be borderline irritating. Several years later, it became evidence: ShapeDriver is probably a better name. At least one that makes more sense.

After ShapeDiver became an official company, we spent several weeks applying for public funding from the city of Vienna, and we were successful. Since we all kept working full-time in our day jobs, we could use the money to fund external help, mainly in the areas where we lacked expertise. We quickly took the route of working with a branding agency.

Naturally, our vision was not fully formed, and it was way too early to work on branding. Sure, the idea to let designers "dive in a sea of shapes" was poetic, but thinking of ShapeDiver as a content platform (the "youtube for parametric design") proved to be a mistake, at least at the time. And we might have gotten too literal with the metaphor…

We kept our goals and efforts lean as a team, but communication did not keep up with our learnings. After a couple of years, all that remained from our sea of shapes were a cute logo and a name no one could understand anymore. People were not diving, but they sure felt that they could be driving shapes.

The name of a company has arguably little importance, but the discrepancy between our activities and the external communication we produced extended further. We acted as a product configurator company when we were already powering the backend of international design companies through big-scale projects. We boasted about the UI of our platform when many of our customers were already using ShapeDiver entirely through APIs. We looked like a pure browser-based product when data was already flowing between ShapeDiver and multiple desktop clients and cloud applications.

After his presentation, I went to have a quick chat with Chuck during the STF conference. Chuck shared his appreciation for ShapeDiver, which I believe was genuine, but quickly showed some confusion as well. "Oh, and what was that with the Illustrator connection? Wow, I did not see this one coming." I fear that, at the time, many more community members were feeling the same way.

The irony, of course, is that the desktop client for Adobe Illustrator is very much in line with our current focus and vision. We will come back to this topic in one of the stories below. But after years of exploration and diverse experiences with the Grasshopper community, what had become clear to us had not yet made its way to the outside world. Opacity had not been a major issue as long as the field of parametric cloud computation was relatively empty. However, the status quo was about to change significantly, and with it, a need to cut some weeds and make our path visible to the outside world.

Grasshoppers in the cloud - A swarm, but not a plague.

In 2016, my colleague Alex and I first discussed our plans online with the McNeel team. Bob himself honoured us with his presence, along with many of the key developers who turned Rhino into the essential CAD software it is today.

Our official goal was to clear licensing issues: core-hour billing was still far in the future (folks, we are talking about Rhino 5!). Moreover, there was no known attempt at running Rhinoceros remotely yet. We had, however, a second goal, perhaps not as critical to our way forward but close to our hearts. Like insecure teenagers, we were eager to get a stamp of approval and, god (i.e Bob) allowing, maybe a few words of praise for our project.

As you might have guessed, we reached our main goal without trouble: If not for Rhino's flexible licensing terms and their explicit approval of the usage we had in mind, I would likely not be telling this story. It would be an understatement to say that we are deeply grateful for the initial and continuous support we received all these years.

As for our second goal, we still recall this meeting with a smile and remember the sweat pearling down our chins. We looked at each other with the shadow of a doubt: either we did not sell our vision very well, or we had missed something big. Thankfully, we are just not very good salesmen.

We decommissioned our first Rhino 5 server system during summer 2023. No tears were shed, although this was likely the first and last cloud infrastructure based on this legacy version of Rhino. Our Rhino 6 backend is still very much in activity, and to our knowledge, it is also unique in its category. Rhino 7, however, is another story.

Since McNeel rolled out Rhino Compute, our hunch from years ago was confirmed on an unprecedented scale: many users in the AEC industry and beyond are craving a Rhino/Grasshopper backend, from internal applications to innovative products such as Hypar , Packhunt , Viktor and many more. In 2020, ShapeDiver merged with Swarm , the CORE studio attempt at a marketplace for cloud parametric apps (but this story is for another day). In different places, talented developers get started with their own Grasshopper-based configurator offerings.

Seeing the industry pick up on the intuition we nurtured and expanded over the years was (and is) exciting! At the same time, most of these applications have a clear focus and target users in mind, prompting us to position ourselves more precisely. The path forward came organically when we took the time to refocus on our strengths as a team. All we had to do was agree on the obvious. Ultimately, what had we spent years building, iterating, and perfecting?

The most efficient swarm of Grasshoppers.

Finding clarity - The rise of the definitive Grasshopper backend

ShapeDiver is eight years old. Eight years. Eight. Mind you, as I repeat this mantra, I am not solely attempting to remember the absence of white hair in my beard. I am also subtly challenging McNeel historians to a fun arithmetics problem: Can you guess how many years our team spent building a Grasshopper-based cloud infrastructure before the release of Rhino Compute? The answer lies at the bottom of this article, along with a coupon code for a drink of your choice.

A few years ago, our client Nove25 , a successful Italian jewelry company, sent us an exciting email: they were launching a collaboration with Inter Milan, the prestigious football club. They wanted to ensure our servers would hold down the fort on the launch day. We confidently replied and kept an eye on their system that Tuesday morning. Everything went well for about an hour until our servers went into full panic: Nove had shared the news on Instagram, and tens of thousands of people had opened the product link, all triggering sessions to Grasshopper models on our servers simultaneously. The team quickly came out of its collective foetal position and went to work with three goals.

First, fix the issue. That took about thirty minutes.

Second, understand the issue. All was clear by the end of the same day.

Third, make sure it never happens again. We are still working on this one.

I am exaggerating, of course. We then updated our infrastructure to handle this particular issue, but many more challenges were to come, and many more crashes—years of learning by failing, understanding, and improving again. I have already told several stories explaining how often and quickly our focus shifted throughout the years. However, those eight years have shown one clear line of focus: We have consistently worked at thinking, implementing, and improving the optimal architecture to run Grasshopper in the cloud, regardless of the end applications our users needed.

Since then, the hunger for parametric backends has never dried up, and we are firmly convinced that it will keep growing! Moreover, we love to see how, throughout the years, our users have successfully built many applications that we could not even imagine ahead of time. It speaks volumes to the strength of a backend that can accommodate such diverse contexts as efficient product configurators for end users and architectural optioneering tools that require very long computation times.

Here is where our effort to improve our communication kicks in. We recently wrote a detailed account of what ShapeDiver and Rhino Compute are and how they provide different tools to get started on a cloud application based on Grasshopper. We want to bring this expertise not only through our product but also through clear messaging and documentation that benefits the whole community.

By now, our vision for the definitive Grasshopper backend is our primary drive. However, the perfect infrastructure only goes a long way if it does not provide helpful, flexible interfaces where our users need them.

We talked about the brains. Let's have a look at the muscles.

Portals and bridges - If you don't come to Grasshopper, 

Grasshopper will come to you .

When Mathias and Alex had the initial idea for ShapeDiver, they had a precise application in mind: taking 3D printing platforms to the next level by letting them propose parametric products. We had a potential partner then, but soon also started pitching to the big players in the field. From those platforms, the reaction was unanimous. Or rather, the lack thereof... Today, most major 3D printing marketplaces have yet to move on from their outdated catalog of STL files towards online offerings that match the flexibility of their manufacturing technology; what is the point in printing over and over again the same object with a machine that could, at no additional cost, print infinite variations of the same?

In that regard, it is with the bittersweet taste of missed opportunities, topped with a sprinkle of nostalgia, that I dug out our 2017 announcement of "The Shapeways Bridge"—a revolutionary way to customize designs in ShapeDiver and seamlessly get them printed on the famous platform. You can still read this archeological artefact on the ShapeDiver blog in all its glory .

The Shapeways bridge was retired years ago, first and foremost because of an unreliable API that forced us to update our plugin components constantly. Still, in hindsight, this was the first time we tried to interface ShapeDiver models conveniently with another user-facing product through a seamless, file-less data exchange. Shapeways might have been too much of a stretch (although I still believe they would benefit from parametric 3D-printed models). But we did not need to look so far. And we needed to make the experience much, much better.

The bridge metaphor had not worked the first time. That might be why we used the code name Stargate for our new attempt. This time, it would be really seamless. As a matter of fact, our first released desktop clients allow the exchange of data with models on the ShapeDiver platform with virtually no additional interface and no further preparation. This is already possible between ShapeDiver and Rhino, as well as Adobe Illustrator. In parallel, we worked with the Autodesk Forma team on another integration to their new AI-driven planning software.

You might be wondering what comes next. Does ShapeDiver plan to build portals for an ever-growing number of desktop software clients? Well... the sky is the limit. At the moment, we are focusing on optimal strategies to reach design teams.

On the one hand, in the process of implementing those new features, we have carefully maintained and released extensive developer tools that allow our users to quickly and painlessly implement their own desktop clients.

On the other hand, we are actively working on a webhook approach that, as a first use case, will permit a direct connection with Speckle , allowing our users to include automation steps in their Speckle streams and enjoy the multiple connectors that the outstanding Speckle team has already made available.

Indeed, building portals and bridges has clearly shown how important it is that our toolbox integrates smoothly with the fast-moving ecosystem of tools used by the AEC community. In that spirit, beyond the tools we already provide, we are always waiting to hear from you and your needs.

And, of course, we are here to help you get started.

An implementation partner - The joys of losing focus, a little

In the years when we worked almost exclusively on product configurators, focus was not our forte . It might or might not have been because, as a team, we were struggling to make ends meet only with subscription-based revenue. As a consequence, no customer request was out of line, and we spent much time learning and working on projects that would prove to be distractions in the long run. This dialectical process, however, came with many valuable and occasionally crucial insights.

In 2017, I worked on a furniture configurator for Munson Furniture , a company based in California. They had already full-fledged Grasshopper files with the whole parametric logic of their table and shelf collections. However, Paul Munson had a precise vision and was not entirely happy with the cloud processing step of the configurator. He wanted real-time interactions. I worked several weeks implementing a configurator, which, though based on geometry coming from a Grasshopper definition, ended up following logical and geometrical deformations that were purely generated and rendered in the web browser. I was quite proud of the result.

After we released the configurator, we shared it profusely with the community and got much positive feedback. Andrew Heumann , who had kept an eye on our adventure from early on, contacted me on Twitter with genuine curiosity. "Is this still running Grasshopper in the back?" It was not. It could not. Still, my insecure teen self could finally revel in a sweet feeling of validation.

Munson Furniture waited about a year before giving up the enhanced configurator and switching to a traditional, ShapeDiver-based backend. The benefits of creating and uploading parametric definitions alone and plugging them seamlessly into a website far outweighed the user experience bonus of a more reactive configurator. The Grasshopper-powered configurator still runs to this day.

It will likely not be a surprise that we no longer spend time developing custom configurators. But we would never say it was a mistake. The numerous learnings we reaped shaped our path for years to come. While hard-coded WebGL configurators are no longer a topic we are considering, providing development services is still an integral part of our processes, at least in those areas where we are eager to learn more and integrate those learnings into our products. Naturally, one of the integration services we offer covers everything related to a cloud infrastructure running Rhinoceros and Grasshopper, whether ShapeDiver as a backend is involved... or not.

People are always slightly surprised to hear that ShapeDiver does not rely on Rhino Compute. This is the consequence of carefully weighed decisions regarding the architecture of our software, its performance, and the use cases we want to cover. Naturally, that also means we have built strong expertise using Rhino Compute in the process, exploring its many advantages and the challenges of a Rhino Compute implementation. Alex posts regularly about the topic. Follow him if this is relevant for you! McNeel provides many tools and tips to get started. Still, there is too little information yet that gets computational design professionals from building a POC to turning their application into a full-fledged professional tool for their teams and beyond.

Epilogue - Where stories give way to a shameless plug

It is unclear whether anyone needed a deep dive into ShapeDiver's history as much as I did. I might have gotten a little carried away. However, those mistakes and moments of clarity reveal a coherent narrative under the chaotic path that led us to where we are. They should answer many of the questions we frequently receive.

In the meanwhile, I ran out of stories and started fearing that the more practical aspects of my message might have gotten lost in some of the twists and turns we went through. Before releasing the bravest readers who made it this far, let me have a go at a more down-to-earth picture of where ShapeDiver is today.

First, we are more than ever committed to building the definitive Grasshopper backend, an infrastructure ready to power any use case one can imagine in a reliable, scalable and secure way.

Second, we are striving to provide diverse and flexible ways to interface with other environments, from web applications and websites to desktop software. A Grasshopper-based cloud system's automation and generative power only make sense if data flows freely and conveniently to and from the servers where the magic happens.

Finally, we look forward to sharing our expertise and learning through new projects, whether directly based on our technology or featuring new challenges we still need to solve.

We are ready to make many more mistakes. We will just try and stick to the kind we can learn from.

Rhino Compute was launched along Rhino 7 in November 2020, 5 years after ShapeDiver was founded. I don't really have drink coupons, but if you come to Vienna and shoot me a message on LinkedIn , I will definitely get you this free drink, as well as a chat that might start off awkward but soon turn out to be somewhat enjoyable. Like my stories?

DIVE's expertise lies in helping businesses integrate and leverage the benefits of 3D printing and assisting 3D printing companies in reaching new audiences through customer success storytelling. With a strong focus on industrial design related to additive manufacturing, DIVE is at the forefront of this innovative manufacturing technology.

Today, we will explore their mission, team members, the industries that can benefit from 3D printing, the significance of 3D printing in today's world, and their journey into consulting with companies about additive manufacturing.

During our conversation, we understood DIVE’s unique approach to helping businesses navigate the complex landscape of 3D printing. We delved into case studies that showcase their expertise, examining how they have successfully partnered with clients to bring their visions to life. Furthermore, we discussed the impact of DIVE’s own pet brand, 3DPets, and its collaboration with ShapeDiver in spreading awareness of the benefits of parametric design and additive manufacturing, including a small project involving Grasshopper and ShapeDiver, used to create an online configurator for 3D-printed dog tags.

Lastly, we learned about DIVE’s passion for working with companies in the 3D printing space and their commitment to staying up-to-date with the latest advancements in production technologies and workflows. Let’s DIVE in!

______________

1. Can you provide an overview of DIVE and its mission to accelerate the adoption of 3D printing across industries?

Our backgrounds are rooted in industrial design and the development/manufacturing of consumer goods. That industry was very saturated and becoming very undervalued. We wanted to make a name for ourselves and be a leader in a specific industry while sticking with our creative roots. We pivoted in 2021 as our pet prosthetic brand, 3DPets, was starting to grow and exemplify unique ways 3D printing can be used for production.

We started offering consulting with companies wanting to implement 3D technologies. What we realized is that the 3D companies (both hardware and software) were struggling to explain and show how their technologies could benefit different consumers. It felt as though they were trapped in a bubble and needed someone to help pop it; that's where we stepped in. Alongside the consulting, we are also heavily rooted in marketing for Additive Manufacturing companies and showing how combinations of technologies can transform archaic ways of making products.

2. Who are the key members of the DIVE team, and what are their areas of expertise in relation to additive manufacturing?

Adam Hecht and Alex Tholl are the co-founders and come from Industrial Design, Medical, and Business backgrounds. Adam is the director of AM Marketing. He not only understands and uses these technologies, he helps our clients talk about them as well as implement them. Alex is our CEO and oversees operations as well as our pet prosthetics business, 3DPets. Vincent Zigarelli is our Lead Industrial Designer. He brings ideas to life through conceptualization, CAD, and prototyping through AM. 

3. Which industries can most effectively leverage the benefits of AM, and how does DIVE help businesses in these industries navigate and access those benefits?

To some extent, any business could potentially benefit from using AM, whether it be a jig/fixture for assembly, prosthetics/orthotics, physical prototypes/models, or end-use products. There are big opportunities with one-off custom products that a company makes many of. Take shoe insoles, for instance. Every foot is different. If you want the perfect fit, you need to take a mold of that person's foot. Now, this is where the power of combining technologies takes place. You can leverage 3D scanning to scan the foot, a custom software tool like ShapeDiver to auto-trim the scan, and then a 3DPrinter to print the insoles.

4. Why do you believe 3D printing is essential for many industries?

3D printing greatly reduces the barrier to entry for innovation and product development. You can have an end-use product in a matter of hours now. With speeds increasing and material options advancing, we see it as a powerful force against more traditional manufacturing processes like milling or injection molding.

5. What are some of the main challenges holding businesses from adopting this manufacturing technology?

This is an easy one, the lack of understanding. This is unlike a paper printer, which you can set up at home and click print on your screen. There are hundreds of types of 3D printers, compatible materials, price points, etc. It's too overwhelming for many. That’s why the consulting arm of DIVE is so critical. We want to help as many businesses understand the benefits and make an educated, unbiased choice when it comes to implementation.

6. Can you share a specific example or case study where DIVE helped a company integrate and leverage the benefits of 3D printing?

There is a company in Pennsylvania that builds waste treatment valves. It’s a unique business that currently spends a great deal of money on cast metal valves. Over the course of a set of months, we were able to work with them, test materials, modify geometries, and help them reduce costs significantly by printing the valves.

7. How did DIVE realize the potential of consulting with different companies about additive manufacturing? Was there a specific moment or realization that led to this focus?

As mentioned earlier, it was catalyzed by 3DPets. People were enamored that such a device could be built using 3D printing. We also saw the opportunity for the AM companies to use some of these unique uses in their own case studies and marketing. It helped people wrap their heads around the technologies in simple yet profound ways.

8. How do you use customer success storytelling to help 3D printing companies accelerate adoption and reach new audiences?

Many companies that are already using AM are under strict NDA with the manufacturers, so it makes it very difficult for them to talk about some of the cool ways the tech is being used. We found that many of the companies we are working with since they are more design-driven than engineering-driven, are open to sharing their stories.

9. What is 3DPets, and why did you feel the need to start this brand?

3DPets stemmed from a consulting job that DIVE did years back. The product came to life and was worlds better than the hand-fabricated version that was being made. In fact, that was the only way they could be made, by hand over the course of 15 hours.

We reduced waste significantly and brought the process down to 5 hours. The client ended up going in a different direction, so we decided to partner up with some amazing orthotists/prosthetists and bring it to life. 2 years later, the brand is one of the leaders in the space and the only one utilizing AM technologies.

10. Can you tell us more about the name tag online configurator created for 3DPets? How can this contribute to explaining the benefits of parametric design and additive manufacturing to more companies in other industries?

Many families reach out wanting to support 3DPets, and while we have shirts for sale, we didn't feel like that exemplified what the technologies we were using could do. We had the backend component but needed software to bring it to the web for anyone to use while keeping great UX/UI. That’s where ShapeDiver came in.

11. Why were Grasshopper and ShapeDiver the right choice for creating this online tool?

Grasshopper gave us the ability to create the name tag generator, allowing people to see their pet's name tag being generated in seconds and eventually get 3D printed. The problem was none of our clients would have Grasshopper, so we needed a tool to bring it to the web and create a unique customer experience at the same time. ShapeDiver was the only company we trusted to do that.

12. What are some unique challenges DIVE faces when working with companies in different industries to integrate 3D printing?

The biggest challenge is always figuring out which AM technologies to combine. It’s very seldom just “finding a printer” or “finding software”. It's a combination, and you have to help your client understand what their options are, how to design for them, and most importantly, implement and benefit from them.

13. What do you like the most about working with companies related to 3D printing and helping them explore the possibilities of additive manufacturing?

It’s always a unique opportunity. Every company has a different problem they are looking to solve using AM, and that keeps things interesting and always forces us to stay on top of new developments and releases of AM tech.

14. How does DIVE stay current with the latest advancements in production technologies and workflows related to 3D printing?

Being a marketing agency in AM gives us a leg up, but also, being present at all of the related trade shows has been tremendously impactful. We recommend this to all people in the AM industry. Lastly is LinkedIn. We are so involved in the community that we always see the latest and greatest.

15. What’s the best way to get in touch with your team?

The best way to reach DIVE is by email, info@divedesignco.com , or head over to our website, check out our work, and fill out a form!

- This has been great! Thank you for sharing your story with us.

Thank you as well for this opportunity!

That's it for this new edition of  Getting to know....  Don't forget to visit DIVE's website and Instagram account.

Would you like to get featured in this space? Please email us at  contact@shapediver.com  and tell us about your project or brand! We'd love to start a conversation.

As 3D modeling and design become increasingly complex, many designers and engineers turn to cloud-based solutions to streamline their workflows and collaborate more effectively with colleagues, clients, and other stakeholders.

Such modern workflows are increasingly adopting parametric models, with Rhino and Grasshopper being particularly popular choices. These models embed logic directly into the CAD design, making it accessible via user-friendly parameters. When these models are shared online, it opens up fresh collaboration opportunities, speeding up design iterations and decision-making processes.

Two popular options for solving geometric operations remotely using Rhino and Grasshopper in the cloud are Rhino Compute and ShapeDiver. Many teams and companies relying on parametric design come to wonder which of these solutions is right for them, considering various factors such as costs, performance, security, and various key aspects they should consider during the implementation of their applications.

This blog article explores the differences between relying on Rhino Compute and ShapeDiver for your applications and help you determine which solution best fits your needs. We attempt here to give an exhaustive but high-level overview of the two solutions; in case you’d like to get into more technical details, we have prepared a separate article in our help center.

Whether you are a startup looking to create online configurators based on your Grasshopper files, or a company looking to share proprietary Grasshopper plugins and scripts with whole teams of designers, architects, and engineers, understanding the differences between these two approaches is essential to making informed decisions about your cloud-based workflow.

What is Rhino Compute?

Rhino Compute is a solution powered by McNeel’s Rhino.Inside technology, which essentially allows you to run Rhino and Grasshopper in headless mode, in other words, without a graphical user interface. It provides an API for geometry calculations using Rhino’s geometry library instead of launching a desktop application. This makes Rhino usable as a remote computation endpoint on a web server.

Rhino Compute can be configured to run locally for testing and development purposes. However, as a project eventually becomes more mature, users may need to deploy Rhino Compute in a production environment, for example, using a cloud service provider (AWS, Azure, Google Cloud, etc.).

This also means that users are responsible for managing their own cyber security measures, including setting up firewalls, securing data transfers and storage, and protecting their cloud resources against unauthorized access. While Rhino Compute provides guidance and resources for securing cloud infrastructure, the responsibility ultimately falls on the user to ensure their setup is secure. We will expand in a section below on some details of what is needed within such a setup.

What is ShapeDiver?

ShapeDiver, on the other hand, is a fully managed and secure cloud-based platform specifically designed for hosting and sharing parametric 3D models. With this solution, the infrastructure is completely taken care of, with not only a set of secure web servers (AWS), but also a load balancing mechanism and caching system: in other words, a powerful, secure backend ready for productive use.

Additionally, ShapeDiver provides a range of features such as an online platform for managing your Grasshopper library, a WebGL viewer, a set of well-documented APIs, and built-in security features, including SSL encryption, data backup and recovery, and access controls for managing user permissions.

Last, ShapeDiver also regularly updates its security protocols to ensure its platform remains secure against the latest threats.

Apples & Oranges: What are we comparing exactly?

As introduced in the above paragraphs, Rhino Compute and ShapeDiver are not equivalent and live in very different contexts: Rhino Compute is a technology, while ShapeDiver is a SaaS (Software as a Service). In some cases, Rhino Compute and ShapeDiver both provide an adequate way to implement cloud applications based on parametric design, but they are not really comparable at a fundamental level.

As a consequence, the comparisons we make in the following section of this article should be understood in the context of building an application. For each key aspect of a professional cloud application, we describe the following:

- On the one hand, which technical and practical challenges one must solve when using Rhino Compute to build a cloud application.

- On the other hand, in which way many of those challenges are already solved in the context of ShapeDiver, as part of the services included in the ShapeDiver SaaS platform.

Comparison Through 5 Common Use Cases

Let's explore some scenarios where Grasshopper definitions are solved in the cloud. For each, we'll outline the key steps and considerations with Rhino Compute and see how they stack up against ShapeDiver's built-in features.

Case 1: Calling a single Rhino/Grasshopper functionality as part of a wider web application.

Remote solving a geometrical operation (or even a full Grasshopper definition) might not be the core of your project but rather a small link in a broader web application involving other technologies.

If such an application is meant to be used internally by your team, and if it is not meant for intensive usage (resulting in a few remote calls to Rhino/Grasshopper per day), the required infrastructure is limited. Still, there are a few things to consider, as we cover in the comparison table below: at the very minimum, your team will need to know how to set up and maintain a web server and provide a minimal level of security measures. Depending on the usage, some load balancing to ensure the performance of the setup might be needed as well.

Case 2: Self-contained Model-as-a-Service

Your targeted application might entirely rely on the expertise of your parametric design team and consist of a single Grasshopper file: a set of inputs (which might include file inputs) are processed and result in visualized geometry and possibly file exports as well, such as geometry to be further used in the team, technical drawings or presentation PDFs.

This is essentially the basic use case for ShapeDiver: upload a Grasshopper file, including some of the ShapeDiver plugin components, and get an autonomous 3d web application on the ShapeDiver platform, which you can share with your team and beyond in a secure manner.

To set this use case up with Rhino Compute, on top of the points mentioned for case 1 above, a 3d viewer to display results is necessary. Additionally, a secure infrastructure to control who can access the application and eventually export files from it will need to be in place.

Case 3: Building Online Product Configurators

There is a wide range of applications for product configurators, from internal tools with limited audiences to full-blown marketplaces. We distinguish between the 3 following categories:

3.1 Technical configurators, which are only used internally by a limited number of people in your team.

3.2 Public-facing configurator (e-Commerce, optioneering tool) based on one or a few Grasshopper definitions.

3.3 Marketplace including an ever-growing number of configurators and, therefore, new Grasshopper definitions over time.

The first category of configurators (3.1) is similar to case 2 above. However, with category 3.2, questions of availability and performance arise when many users need to access the application simultaneously. Your web server will likely need to be interfaced through a load-balancing mechanism and possibly a caching layer. In case 3.3, an entirely new set of issues will arise from the need to frequently update the set of parametric definitions as well as regularly upload and include new ones to the online system: such a system will involve an administration dashboard for the content creators in the team, similar to the ShapeDiver dashboard.

Case 4: Sharing Grasshopper Applications

The goal of a cloud application based on Grasshopper is not always the development of a web application. Storing and managing parametric definitions online is a good way to share functionalities with a team of architects, engineers, and designers who do not have any Grasshopper knowledge or a limited one. Such a setup helps eliminate insecure and cumbersome file exchanges in favor of a centralized system.

Grasshopper now includes the Hops component, which allows triggering computations of remote definitions, which can, for example, be stored in the cloud. One question (introduced with case 3.3 above) remains: how do the Grasshopper experts in your team securely and conveniently deploy, manage and update the definitions which are accessed throughout the team? Furthermore, how to control which members of the team have access to which tools, potentially including external partners and clients for periods of time?

Finally, how do team leads and managers track the usage of the tools in place in order to make further decisions? Depending on the usage and security requirements of the company, permission systems and tracking processes might need to be developed along with the core centralized Rhino Compute server storing and granting access to the Grasshopper definitions.

Case 5: Building a software service on top of Grasshopper definitions

Building a public online service that includes letting users upload, manage, update, and access their own Grasshopper files, is, of course, always possible using Rhino Compute. It involves all of the points mentioned in the cases above in the most critical way possible if the goal is to scale the service to many users and offer features up to industry standards. In such cases, the Rhino Compute interface ends up being a small part of a much larger infrastructure, answering questions of security, scalability, and performance.

Infrastructure-Related Requirements

Additional Features

Takeaways

In our table, we highlighted essential factors to weigh when developing a cloud system with Rhino and Grasshopper. These include setting up a web server, licensing, service interruptions, intellectual property protection, user management, performance optimization, using developer tools, visualization, software integration, and handling plugins. By considering these, decision-makers can confidently choose the right cloud solution.

For Rhino Compute, the architecture and implementation of software measures and systems that address the above points is open; the responsibility for many of these rests heavily on the user, with the costs hinging on cloud providers, licensing fees, and the potential need for in-depth technical know-how.

Meanwhile, ShapeDiver offers a streamlined, comprehensive platform around the parametric computation core based on Grasshopper. For many of the key implementation aspects listed above, the platform proposes a specific solution as part of ShapeDiver’s subscription plans. Additionally, the platform goes through regular updates for its security protocols, offers load balancing and caching mechanisms, and provides a suite of developer tools, with cost considerations integrated into its tiered subscription plans.

Conclusion

In this article, we aimed to deliver a comprehensive comparison between choosing Rhino Compute or ShapeDiver when building cloud applications based on parametric design algorithms. We first introduced both Rhino Compute and ShapeDiver, having emphasized the fundamental difference between the two. Rhino Compute is a technology, which can be used in the process of building a custom cloud application relying on solving Grasshopper definitions. ShapeDiver, on the other hand, is a fully managed cloud platform that already solves many key implementation aspects relevant to any cloud application.

With this in-depth comparison, our intention was to provide a valuable resource that aids in your decision-making process, regardless of whether you are an individual designer, a startup, or a larger enterprise. Ultimately, the choice between Rhino Compute and ShapeDiver depends on the specific requirements of your project and the internal and external resources you have access to.

In a nutshell, if your resources include significant expertise in building secure and performant cloud applications, and if your use case involves challenges that are not solved by ShapeDiver’s infrastructure and services, your team might find Rhino Compute more flexible as a basis for your project. In many other cases, ShapeDiver generally offers a cost-effective, secure, and comprehensive solution, allowing you to focus on the core functionalities of your application and not worry about infrastructure, security, and performance.

<< Are you thinking of or currently working on a project that requires running parametric CAD models on the cloud? We’re here to help! Our team has gathered significant expertise when it comes to building cloud applications based on Rhino and Grasshopper with Rhino Compute or ShapeDiver. We’ll be happy to schedule a cost-free consultation call with your team and help you decide what is the best way forward with your current and future projects. >>

Mathieu Huard , Head of Product at ShapeDiver, and Krzysztof Jedrzejewski , Senior Product Manager at Autodesk Forma, will guide this one-hour session where they’ll give an introduction to both software and demonstrate various workflows for this new extension.

This webinar is perfect for architects, urban planners, and/or design professionals interested in leveraging their Grasshopper files inside Autodesk Forma via ShapeDiver.

This extension can prove particularly useful to iterate over design propositions and shines when used alongside Forma’s automation and predictive analytics to compare the performance between variations of the same design.

Webinar Overview

Date:   Tuesday, July 11th, 2023

Time: 9am PT, 12pm ET, 6pm CEST

Duration: 1 hour

Part 1: Quick Introductions to Autodesk Forma & ShapeDiver (5 to 10 minutes)

Part 2:   Demonstration (20 to 25 minutes)

- A quick tour through Forma features

Part 3:   Q&A (25 to 30 minutes)

> Watch the recording

About Autodesk Forma

Autodesk Forma (formerly Spacemaker) helps planning and design teams deliver projects digitally from day one. Use conceptual design capabilities, predictive analytics, and automations to make solid foundations for your projects.

- Unlock efficiencies with intuitive project setup, design automations, and fluid connectivity with Revit

- Use data-driven insights in real-time to make fast, smart design decisions that reduce risk and improve business and sustainability outcomes

- Improve collaboration and secure buy-in by using data and visuals to tell a compelling design story that can help you win more bids

About ShapeDiver

ShapeDiver is an online platform that simplifies hosting and sharing Grasshopper files online. It provides the tools and scalable infrastructure to help users transform their library of Grasshopper files into powerful and shareable web applications.

With ShapeDiver, users can:

- Share the full power of their parametric design files with partners, clients, and other non-technical stakeholders wherever they are while protecting their IP.

- Create online applications that help automate sales, design, and manufacturing processes.

Meet Your Hosts

Mathieu Huard

Mathieu is the Head of Product, as well as one of the founders of ShapeDiver. He focuses on expanding the ShapeDiver product to cater to various industries leveraging parametric design in their workflows. In the context of the AEC industry, he helped push the collaboration and interoperability functionalities of ShapeDiver, such as bridging the online platform with various design software suites, including Autodesk Forma.

He holds a Ph.D. in Applied Mathematics. Before founding ShapeDiver, he spent several years with the Vienna-based company Evolute, developing software and consulting for architects and engineering firms, all along gaining experience with building tools for Rhino and Grasshopper.

Krzysztof Jedrzejewski

Krzysztof is a Senior Product Manager with the Unified Design product group in Autodesk. He leads one of the Autodesk Forma teams focused on interoperability, open APIs, and realizing the vision of an open AEC platform of interlocked 3rd party solutions.

He holds a Bachelor's and master's degree in architecture and has several years of working experience as an architect and computational designer. Prior to joining Autodesk he was a project manager for consultancy Reope (Bad Monkeys Norway), introducing custom products and complex software workflows into architectural offices.

Takeaways

Whether you’re a seasoned ShapeDiver or Autodesk Forma user or looking to learn more about these platforms, this webinar will give you a glimpse into the robust ecosystem that Autodesk Forma is creating, starting with this ShapeDiver extension.

Attendees will learn first-hand about the vision and main features of Autodesk Forma, plus practical use cases for the newly released ShapeDiver extension (BETA). By the end of this webinar, guests will also have the chance to interact with our hosts and ask questions during the Q&A session, gaining a deeper understanding of how these technologies work and how you could leverage them in your projects.

Register for the webinar today and join us in exploring the future of architectural design and urban planning. We look forward to seeing you on July 11th!

> Watch the recording

Autodesk, the Autodesk logo, and Forma are registered trademarks or trademarks of Autodesk, Inc., and/or its subsidiaries and/or affiliates in the USA and/or other countries. All other brand names, product names, or trademarks belong to their respective holders. Autodesk reserves the right to alter product and service offerings, specifications, and pricing at any time without notice and is not responsible for typographical or graphical errors that may appear in this document. © 2023 Autodesk, Inc. All rights reserved.

Rhinoceros, Rhino, and Grasshopper are registered trademarks of Robert McNeel & Associates.

With a career that has taken him from Chile to Holland and now Germany, he shares his journey from being inspired by Italian ads as an '80s child to becoming a leading expert in footwear design and production technology.

Today, he's part of the Innovation department at framas, a leading producer of plastic components for the shoe industry. Learn about the role of Grasshopper and parametric design in footwear creation, the impact of additive manufacturing, the revolutionary use of lattice structures, and the future of the footwear industry as shaped by artificial intelligence, 3D printing, and sustainability.

Whether you're a designer, a technologist, or a footwear enthusiast, this interview offers fascinating insights into the intricate world of shoe design and the transformative power of technology in shaping the industry. Let's dive in!

1. Welcome, René! Please give us a brief introduction of yourself.

My name is René Medel. I am an industrial designer, and I come from Chile. I have been a Rhino user for many years and have been an authorized trainer since 2004. After doing a Master of Footwear Innovation (SLEM Holland), I came to Germany to work in footwear-related companies. I’ve always liked technology and computers, besides shoes, architecture, and design.

2. What are your first memories related to footwear design?

I remember a powerful ad on TV from an Italian brand that promoted the use of new soles made out of Polyurethane. As an 80’s child, it was easy to believe in the benefits of using those sneakers.

Same thing for those black school shoes with a traditional “commando” rubber outsole. As kids, we felt like we really got superpowers!

I clearly remember my sneakers with pegs on the heel. Interchangeable cylinders with different densities.  And, of course, my first pair with that waffle outsole and its grip feeling. Many years after, I was lucky to meet Mike Friton, one of the innovators from that legendary innovation Kitchen where the waffles came from.

Another amazing and inspiring designer is Charles Bergman, who I met in the Netherlands to collaborate at the Dutch Design Week.  Jan Jensen is another Dutch shoe designer who has made the most incredible and mind-blowing shoes. Another brand doing great shoe designs is United Nude, in collaboration with known architects and designers.

Nowadays, I am amazed by the talent and creation of Aldanondo y Fernandez, both architects, and shoemakers based in Barcelona.  Ignacio and Catuxa make wonderful leather bespoke shoes with a carefully crafted technique.

3. When did you decide to start a career in footwear design, and why?

Shoes. It was my first thought when I searched for a subject for my bachelor's degree.  Not only because it is an industrial product with several materials and fabrication processes but mainly because footwear is a dynamic industry that needs to be updated and improved using new technologies.

4. What is framas?

framas is the company I work for. It was founded in 1948 in Pirmasens, Germany. The first product framas produced were shoe lasts, which are still developed today at our German site. The company quickly expanded in the plastic processing industry and is nowadays one of the leading producers when it comes to plastic components for the shoe industry.

5. What are shoe lasts, and how are they traditionally manufactured?

A shoe last is a shape with a volume that represents the foot inside the shoe.  It has the form of a shoe design and follows many dimensions and measures to ensure good fit and biomechanical features.

The base model (Master) is still made out of wood, but nowadays, the production is based on injected plastic which takes the shape after removing (CNC lathe) all the excess material.

6. What are your major responsibilities at framas?

My role in the Innovation department is to create workflows and 3D models to get the geometry of the products to be prototyped, analyzed, and produced among the group in our locations in Asia, besides our HQ in Germany.

7. When were you first introduced to Grasshopper?

I know it since the "Explicit History" days when David Rutten was still studying architecture, and he came up with these unusual visual algorithms, like worms, and shared them with the active Rhino community.  At that moment, I couldn't see the enormous potential of this tool and how it would become the Grasshopper we know now.

8. Why is Grasshopper so important for multiple industries worldwide?

Grasshopper has become a great generative design tool because of the excellent McNeel development, always open to the community and third parties developing their plugins for growing this algorithmic modeler.

Several industries get the benefits because it is about parametric design, not only for engineering but for real creative ways of form-finding, iteration, and customization.

9. What’s your vision for how Grasshopper can be used in the footwear industry?

I think Grasshopper could be used in several stages.  Obviously, the most direct is for sharing designs inside creation teams and with development teams.  Internally is easier to share some ideas and concepts with other team members not using Rhino actively. Nonetheless, we can share some definitions with customers or partners for evaluation and feedback.

10. What are the status quo and the main challenges for Grasshopper (or parametric design) to be widely adopted in the footwear industry?

Actually, 3D modeling is widely used in the footwear industry, but generative design is still not mature enough.  We, designers, need to move forward to keep on creating generative yet.

11. Can you share any examples of how your use of computational design has led to an increase in efficiency or cost savings for your clients?

Since I work in Innovation, we are dealing with projects for 3-5 years ahead. So I can't disclose actual projects. However, I could say that we are optimizing not only products or what we do but also production/productivity or how we do it.

12. How can additive manufacturing potentially improve processes in the footwear industry?

Additive Manufacturing is part of Industry 4.0, and now we are integrating it into production, not only for rapid prototyping as usual.

AM supports the traditional manufacturing processes giving more freedom for complex geometry fabrication, not only for final products but mainly for optimizing actual existing machinery.  Automation and robotics are present in the factories, and AM helps to supply effectively spare parts, jigs, fixtures, and molds.

13. What are lattice structures, and why are they so important and revolutionary?

Lattices are structures that conform to cellular patterns.  These could be periodic or not. In this last case, a stochastic lattice looks a bit chaotic because we can not find a cell repeating. The periodic lattices are mainly these 3 types:

a) Honeycombs or prismatic b) TPMS or Minimal Surfaces

c) Beam

Lattices are important because they could replace solid parts, saving material/time/costs but keeping or even improving the mechanical properties of the parts. These could not be fabricated with traditional processes, so that is why AM is the key.

14. What’s the main challenge behind calculating lattice structures?

The challenge is to keep the mechanical properties when the lattices become conformal.  In other words, when it fits inside the given volume.

A second challenge is to define the purpose of the lattice.  It could be just weight saving, thermal dissipation, foaming/cushioning, energy absorption/rebound, osseointegration (medical), or simply aesthetic design.

15. How do you stay current with advancements in technology and design trends in the footwear industry?

By being aware of the new developments from software providers, material suppliers, manufacturers, startups, academic research, visiting trade fairs, and partners.

16. In your opinion, what is the most exciting or innovative use of computational design in the footwear industry that you have seen or been a part of?

I think the most interesting so far is to see the software improvement and 3rd parties development. Some algorithms created more than 40 years ago, like Polygon Subdivision (SubD), now integrated into Rhino to work together with NURBS and Meshes, are amazing.

When you can show and share this using Augmented Reality, makes your work much easier to be seen and understood.

17. What’s the future of the footwear industry?

I believe that, like in many other industries, footwear will be affected by Artificial Intelligence (AI).  That’s why I asked ChatGPT about this future, and I can only agree because it matches with the previously mentioned :

"The future of footwear is likely to involve a combination of new technologies, materials, and design approaches. Some potential developments in the field include:

- 3D printing: This technology could be used to create customized, lightweight, and durable footwear that can be produced on-demand.

- Smart features: Footwear with built-in sensors and connectivity could track activity, monitor health, and adjust to the wearer's needs.

- Sustainable materials: As consumers become more conscious of the environmental impact of their purchases, footwear made from recycled, biodegradable, or plant-based materials is likely to become more common.

- Augmented reality: Footwear with augmented reality features could display information or enhance the wearer's physical experience.

- Performance-enhancing: Advancements in materials and manufacturing techniques could lead to footwear that enhances the wearer's performance, such as by providing extra support, cushioning, or propulsion.

It's also worth noting that there is a growing interest in minimalistic and natural movement footwear that mimics the feel and movement of being barefoot, as well as the use of natural and renewable materials.

Overall, the future of footwear is likely to be defined by a focus on customization, sustainability, and technology.”

- We couldn't agree more as well! Thank you, René, for your time today!

You are welcome. Thank you for the opportunity to share my work at framas.

That's it for this new edition of  Designers Corner.  Don't forget to visit framas blog and follow them on Instagram !

Would you like to get featured in this space? Please email us at  contact@shapediver.com and tell us about your project or brand! We'd love to start a conversation.

Sybren de Graaf, CEO and founder of Sfered, created an innovative solution for the eyewear industry using Grasshopper and ShapeDiver's infrastructure. With a background in architecture, Sybren discovered the potential of Grasshopper and used his design knowledge to create a revolutionary online service for opticians. Sfered's service allows for the customization of frames using a 3D parametric model placed on the client's scanned face. The result is a personalized and comfortable fit unique to each individual.

In this interview, we dive into Sybren's early beginnings, his early design influences, and how he discovered Grasshopper. We also discussed how his architectural background influenced his current path and when he realized the concept behind Sfered could be a good business idea. Furthermore, we explore how ShapeDiver helped him create this iOS application, the challenges he's faced so far, and what opticians say about the tool.

We also touch on the future of Sfered, the possibility of licensing this tech stack, and the future of product design and digital fabrication. Join us as we discover the story behind one of the most innovative solutions in the eyewear industry.

1. Hello, Sybren! Please introduce yourself and tell us about your background.

Hi my name is Sybren de Graaf. I was born in 1977 in Surinam and moved to the Netherlands when I was five. In 2006, I graduated from TU Delft and started working as an architect and inventor in Amsterdam.

I am fascinated by design, geometry, making things in all kinds of ways, programming, and then creating something unique out of these combinations.

For years I have been working as an architect on tools to support my design trajectories and explore new fields in architecture and design. This has evolved into craftsmanship, where algorithms, design, and making come together in realized buildings and objects.

Then, in search of my own self-made spectacle frame, I started the development of custom-fit frames on a whole new level that didn't exist yet.

2. Can you tell us about your early design influences and how they shaped your career path?

As a kid, I used to take apart, repair and modify things. In the process of altering my own living space, I made lamps and fixtures from strange objects I found and even removed parts of the wooden walls to make the somewhat tiny bedroom more efficient. Later on, these skills matured when I studied architecture and started working on things that influence other people's living spaces as well.

During a lecture from Marcos Novak around 1999, the architectural digital world came to life for me, and I started reading Gilles Deleuze and working with Virtools at the Hyperbody research group. Layering concepts, needs, and ideas together with computational design, for me, became an integrated process from start to finish.

3. How did you discover Grasshopper, and what made you interested in learning it?

In 2009 a good friend of mine recommended it as a then-new upcoming tool to combine design and programming without coding knowledge to create objects and architectural models with my 3D printer. We saw it as the link between the design process and reality. Constant alterations of drawings and prototypes are tedious, and implementing programming in the drawing process makes it much more integrated.

As society gets more and more complex and intertwined, the spatial requirements that are needed can become reality with reactive components that behave controllable in relation to space and function, therefore creating exciting new possibilities and results.

4. How has your background in architecture influenced your approach to design and innovation in the eyewear industry?

In contemporary architecture, geometry design, programming, and the parametric revolution is already up to speed; in eyewear, not so much.

When I started working on my own spectacles in 2011, I slowly understood the level of complexity of design and eyewear was closely related to architecture, and computational design was a perfect way of both learning the trade and not needing to redo all the work continuously.

5. What is Sfered, and how is Grasshopper making it possible?

We are an independent Dutch software company specializing in eyewear customization and virtual try-on (VTO) based in Amsterdam.

The technology that Sfered built is unique and patented. We were the first to introduce a working customization platform for eyewear in the market. We developed a completely integrated system that positions a frame correctly on a 3D-scanned face and can select a frame based on facial characteristics. Combined with lens prescription, it’s offering a totally customized frame automatically to create a perfect fit.

For opticians in the Netherlands, we have the iOS app " Frametric ", the most comprehensive digital solution for fitting eyewear with happy customers.

We use Grasshopper in parts of our workflow. Integrating our own code, the design possibilities of Rhino, and bringing the parametric design to a new level with 7 billion custom fits.  

6. How has ShapeDiver helped bring your idea to life?

ShapeDiver is an essential part of our backend flow. With their system, our scripts and custom plugins run as quickly as possible, reliably, and safely 24hr a day for customers all over the world. The experienced people at ShapeDiver have been a great help in making this integration work.

7. When did you realize that the concept behind Sfered could be a viable business idea?

The concept itself, custom-made frames, is certainly not new and dates back many centuries, so the business case itself was already there. But it was at a Dutch optical fair in 2015 during the prototype launch that we solved the complex puzzle and could offer a custom frame and 3D-printed on the spot.

8. What were some of the challenges you faced during the development of the Sfered platform, and how did you overcome them?

Getting the complete technology stack working: scanning, user-friendly app, backed systems, and happy clients are difficult beasts to get in line and working.

These challenges can be overcome with the right mindset, team members, and partners like ShapeDiver, who understand the complexity and are intrinsically set up to handle the intricacy that comes with linking different technologies from multiple disciplines.

9. How have opticians responded to using the Sfered tool, and what kind of feedback have you received?

In the beginning, they loved it, and they saw the potential and need in their shop for this technology. Then, it took a long time actually to integrate it on a technical and sales level.

This solution is not for every optician, though. Each shop has its own expertise and methods to reach a good fit. We had several iterations of the whole backend and scan technology before we could match the needs and wishes of the opticians and manufacturers.

10. Can you speak to the importance of user experience in the design and development of the Sfered platform?

Having complex technology is one thing. Getting it to work in a shop environment is something different. It needs to be both simple and advanced, always ready and without any effort transferrable to the manufacturer’s production pipeline. This is something often overlooked. But getting the whole trajectory right every time is a tough job.

11. In your opinion, how is the eyewear industry evolving, and what role do you see custom design playing in its future?

We need to be more careful with our resources, materials (acetate, aluminum, titanium), the attention span of customers, time, and money. They are all limited. Auto customization and made-to-order production are inevitable if we want to keep our planet and our lives nice.

12. How do you envision the future of product design and digital fabrication, and what kind of impact will it have on the eyewear industry?

As far as I can see, the eyewear industry will see more differentiations in design and customization due to the speeding up of the design process and the ease of getting complex geometries under control.

Cheaper eyewear will be less affected by this than high-end brands, where uniqueness and personification are core requirements. High-end collections will be realized more quickly, and brands will be able to create more styles within one season due to the lowering of minimum production quantities.

13. What advice would you give to aspiring entrepreneurs and designers looking to break into the eyewear industry?

Look at the whole trajectory from design to production, from fulfilling the needs and the wearing of the product itself.

14. How do you see technology continuing to shape the future of the eyewear industry, and what kind of developments are you most excited about?

The biggest catch for me is that there will be more complexity and personification available. Hopefully, with this, we can leave the single-face type fit designs and create eyewear that is more fitting and styled for all of humanity.

15. How do you approach balancing the need for customization with the desire for scalability in your business model?

The whole setup is scalable until it hits manufacturing. Each custom frame is made to order. The production process needs to be set up for this with the right production preparation, labeling, monitoring, quality control, and instructions for finishing.

Next to that, the logistics need to be quick and efficient. We take great care in finding manufacturers who are able to do the next level and understand the implications of made-to-order. We now are at the point where we can confidently scale up with regard to preparation for production.

16. What motivated you to offer your technology stack for licensing, and what kind of companies do you see benefiting from it?

I like diversity and more options, and so do many of us. We want to be able to offer end users a perfect fit without compromising on their choice of materials, brands, and looks.

There is so much that goes into a perfect fit; creating eyewear that is comfortable and fitted correctly, getting the production up and running, and setting up the whole flow from scan to result. This takes years and a lot of resources to develop. The good news is we did the hard work and are willing to share this and help others develop their own brand based on our technology.

17. Can you speak to the future of Sfered and what kind of developments we can expect to see in the coming years?

We are working on an even more integrated flow from scan to production. Getting new manufacturing methods and expanding the look and feel of the offer sales and brands.  This will help to optimize the user experience and get more functionality based on requests from users.

- Amazing! Thank you very much for your time, Sybren. It's been a pleasure!

Likewise! Thank you for this opportunity as well.

That's it for this new edition of Getting to know... Don't forget to visit  Sfered  and   Frametic  websites to learn more about their iOS application.

Would you like to get featured in this space? Please email us at  contact@shapediver.com  and tell us about your project or brand! We'd love to start a conversation.

You'll also learn about the different types of printers they offer and how their proprietary software tools streamline the printing process. We also dive into how they're using Grasshopper and ShapeDiver to create online configurators that any client can easily use.

1. Welcome, and thank you for taking the time to chat with us! Let’s start with the basics. Who is CyBe?

Thank you for having us here. Sure! CyBe is a technology company for the construction industry with an emphasis on process innovation and social prosperity. We mainly sell 3D concrete printers worldwide and are the leading 3D printing contractor in the Netherlands.

In addition to 3D concrete printers, we produce high-quality proprietary tools, including our slicing software Chysel and Artysan, to operate the printer, CyBe Mortar, and the CyBe Lybrary learning platform. We also develop custom printing materials and parametric design software tools to ensure that our printers operate at the highest efficiency possible.

Our holistic building solution draws from the full range of construction expertise and enables sustainable growth for individuals and businesses alike.

Our mission is to create a better society. That begins with homes and other built structures and extends to a community’s natural environment and socioeconomic opportunities. It is founded on our affordable and sustainable approach to construction and home ownership, which offers long-term security to an increasingly broader range of citizens worldwide.

Our efforts begin with how we build. We invest heavily in research and development and use advanced tools and technologies emphasizing quality performance and outcome.

This unique combination of technologically advanced hardware, software, and materials is essential to achieving our overarching goal: to empower our construction partners and customers to enact sustainable business models and to bring global citizens the opportunity for affordable housing and rightful human dignity.

2. That’s great. We’ll touch on affordable housing in a bit. Before we do that, could you explain what 3D Concrete Printing is? What are its core benefits?

3D concrete printing is a process that involves depositing layers of material, typically a mixture of concrete and other additives, one on top of the other, to create three-dimensional objects.

It’s an efficient method of building that minimizes materials and labor costs and maximizes production. 3D concrete printers bring incredible value to the construction industry, particularly in a housing shortage period.

3. Why is this manufacturing process so crucial for CyBe?

Technology and, therefore, these manufacturing processes are just a means to an end. Consequently, it is crucial to CyBe because it allows affordable housing to be delivered faster and more sustainable with Co2-poor cementitious materials and soon even Co2-free. This is a significant advantage for addressing the global housing crisis.

4. Which regions are your primary target markets?

We sell printers worldwide, and we have partners in every continent (except for Antarctica). Our partners focus on building faster and cheaper and are mostly innovative companies. In addition, our partners are also research institutions, such as universities.  

5. Can you expand your comment on the current worldwide housing shortage? How is CyBe positioning itself to tackle this problem?

Costs of homes are rising. Rents are rising. The number of low-income housing units is decreasing. Around the world, around four billion people lack access to decent housing, including 150 million in developed countries, and more than 800 million live in slums.

To meet this requirement, CyBe is focusing on innovation to offer 3D concrete printing as an innovative, affordable housing solution. This enables cheaper, faster, and more sustainable construction.

6. What does “Affordable Housing” mean for CyBe?

For CyBe, affordable housing means creating housing solutions for low-income populations so they can gain access to housing at the most affordable price. Affordable housing is a business activity with a major social impact. We offer a wide range of innovative building solutions tailored to the local challenges and needs of individuals, NGOs, and public organizations responsible for housing.

7. That’s a great purpose! Let’s jump back to your products. What types of 3D Concrete Printers do you offer, and what are their main characteristics?

We offer five different types of printers. These range from robotic arms to gantry systems.

- The CyBe R  is an entry-level fixed 3D concrete printer ideal for research institutes, universities, and suppliers performing in-house testing, prototyping, or precast production.

- The CyBe RC is a mobile 3D concrete printer suitable for construction companies printing on-site or in precast factories.

- The CyBe RT is a 3D printer that moves across a stationary track setup and is suitable for precast factories building prefab homes.

- The CyBe G is a 3D concrete printer that can print anywhere within an established three-dimensional zone and is best suited for printing large modules in a factory setting, such as finished apartments.

- The CyBe GR is similar to the CyBe G but has a robot attached to the X-beam for a wider and more precise range.

All printers use an ABB robotic arm and an ABB-controlled printhead and nozzle for printing. The printers vary in their mobility, stability, and printable height, making them suitable for different applications, from research and prototyping to on-site construction and precast production.

8. What type of projects do your clients build with 3D Concrete Printers, and what advantages have they seen?

We are receiving a wide variety of inquiries, from furniture to planters to 4-story apartment buildings.  Sometimes clients will approach us with a design we need to engineer to make it printable, while others will ask us to design from scratch.

Either way or any scale that can be required, our clients will benefit in terms of time, cost, more sustainable solutions, less waste during construction, and more flexibility and potential on the design that cannot be achieved with conventional construction in an equally efficient way.

9. Grasshopper has become an integral part of CyBe’s design team. When was Grasshopper first introduced inside the company, and why?

We have used Rhino and Grasshopper since 2013. Our “Design & Engineering” team uses Grasshopper to develop several tools and projects. Parametric Design was introduced during the technical/operational phase of projects since it is important to automate several procedures regarding designing for printing and printability checks.  

Grasshopper is also a powerful tool during the conceptual phase when the team needs to design more complex geometries with repetitive structures or develop wall textures that can be applied to multiple surfaces.

Later, we came up with the idea of letting our clients adjust our designs according to their preferences. Therefore, creating a layout that could be easily used by any person, relevant to Grasshopper or not, was crucial for our company.

10. How is Parametric Design influencing the way CyBe tackles new projects?

There are many advantages to using parametric design when constructing a building. One major reason to use parametric design is to save time in the design process.

The early design phase is a fluid, exploratory process in which design concepts and drawings are built up at the same time. This eventually leads to a blueprint, a 3D model visualization, and data documentation about the design.

But changes or adjustments are inevitable, and that’s why parametric design is so efficient. Unlike traditional design methods, parametric design uses algorithms to implement the impact of one adjusted component on an entire design.

Existing designs can be easily altered or customized for new client projects using parametric design. This means less time is spent on the initial design phase, and customization can be fast and easy. This is particularly useful in housing development projects where a standard template can be adjusted to serve different client needs and create varied aesthetics.

Every new project is unique and different. Nonetheless, some general variables such as room functions, construction principles, codes, and 3D printing guidelines have to be always met. Instead of going through this rationalization phase with every new project, we can create dynamic housing concepts where their feasibility is already considered. Then, we can allow our partners and customers to explore their ideas and make decisions through their input while generating realizable and efficient designs that meet their unique needs.

11. How is ShapeDiver helping you reach your goals?

ShapeDiver has become a very powerful tool, especially for creating online configurators that can be reached and used by any possible client. We have already implemented ShapeDiver on both our websites, Lybrary and Lyve. The simplicity of the grasshopper implementation, the minimal layout, the control we can have on the parameters, and the adaptability with many plugins are only a few characteristics that benefit our time and improve our workflow.

12. That’s great to hear! Finally, what’s the future of 3D Concrete Printing?

Several limitations still need to be overcome in 3D concrete printing construction. Our company makes significant steps to address those, develop new concepts in terms of printers and printable elements, and constantly increase capabilities.

We are currently achieving the first 3D-printed 4-story building, and we anticipate reaching even higher goals in the upcoming years!

- That sounds like a great and ambitious project! Thank you for taking the time to talk to us today and share more about your company.

Thank you for having us here. To all the readers, please visit our website for more information: https://cybe.eu/3d-concrete-printing/printers/.

That's it for this new edition of Getting to know... Don't forget to visit  their website  and  LinkedIn profile  to learn more about their company.

Would you like to get featured in this space? Please email us at  contact@shapediver.com  and tell us about your project or brand! We'd love to start a conversation.

Join us on Tuesday, March 21st, for a webinar that will showcase the latest innovations in computational design for the Architecture, Engineering, and Construction (AEC) industry.

Hear from a panel of experts, including Thornton Tomasetti | CORE Studio (USA), Webb Yates Engineers (UK), Construsoft (Spain), and Cake Houses (Czech Republic), as they share how they are driving efficiency gains by leveraging Grasshopper and ShapeDiver in their respective projects.

Whether you are an architect, engineer, builder, or designer, this event is the perfect opportunity to learn from four of the most innovative companies in the AEC space. You will also have the chance to interact with our panelists and ask questions during the Q&A session, gaining a deeper understanding of how these technologies work and how you could leverage them in your projects.

> REGISTER NOW

Webinar Overview

Date:   Tuesday, March 21st, 2023

Time:  9am PDT, 12am EDT, 5pm CET

Duration: Approximately 2 hours

Part 1: Cake Houses |  Matyas Svejdik

About Matyas:

Matyas was born in 1988 in Jeseník, Czech Republic. He is an architect and a self-taught programmer. He studied architecture and urbanism at the Technical University of Liberec and the Academy of Arts, Architecture, and Design in Prague. He is one of the co-founders of studio Detektivní Kancelář and also one of the co-founders of the Cake Houses company.

About this presentation:

Cake Houses is a startup based in Prague that specializes in designing configurable and modular architecture. Learn how they drastically reduce design and construction times by using parametric design and CNC machines.

Part 2: Construsoft |  Manuel Amicone  &   David Acevedo

About Manuel and David:

David Acevedo is a   civil engineer from Venezuela, specializing in seismic design of structures, parametric design, and computation modeling of structures.

Manuel Amicone is a civil engineer from Argentina specializing in structures and computational design.

About this presentation:

Learn how Construsoft, a leading supplier and developer of BIM software, built two powerful online tools: StarModul, an online configurator used for quoting steel structures, and Optinave, a warehouse calculation tool that includes automatic wind load generation, FEM analysis, and section optimization.

Part 3: Webb Yates Engineers |  Dan Cole

About Dan:

Dan is a Senior Structural Engineer at Webb Yates Engineers and has gained experience in various projects, from residential refurbishments to large-scale infrastructure projects. He also leads an internal computational design group within the company.

About this presentation:

Introducing ‘Cactus’, a new parametric tool developed by Webb Yates Engineers to rapidly calculate structural member sizes and embodied carbon. Learn how this tool was made and how it’s used to offer sustainable structural solutions to design teams.

Part 4: Thornton Tomasetti's CORE Studio |  Benjamin Howes

About Benjamin:

Benjamin W. Howes is a Vice President at Thornton Tomasetti and is the Director of Application Development for CORE studio. He oversees software applications design and product development, leading a global team of 15+ full-time computational designers, web developers, and application engineers.

Benjamin has specialized computational design, software development, and creative direction experience focused on developing novel computational solutions to contemporary design and engineering problems. He received a Bachelor's degree in Architecture from Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, N.Y. and a Master's degree in Product Architecture and Engineering from Stevens Institute of Technology in Hoboken, N.J. Currently, he is teaching a course called “Parametrics” at Pratt Institute that introduces graduate students to parametric modeling and computational design in Grasshopper.

About this presentation:

Benjamin will share how CORE studio uses ShapeDiver for different Application Development projects. Some use ShapeDiver as a compute microservice behind a custom UI, while others use a custom Enterprise ShapeDiver system to call into Engineering APIs within the Grasshopper definition running on the cloud.

> REGISTER NOW

Would you like to learn more about ShapeDiver and how it's used to create powerful automation tools across multiple industries? Then reach out to us by sending us an email to  contact@shapediver.com  or by using the 'Talk To Sales' button on  our website , and we will gladly schedule a one-on-one call with you and your team!

ShapeDiver is an online platform used by businesses and design professionals across various industries, including AEC, Automotive, Furniture, and Jewelry. It helps them create online tools such as 3D product configurators that automate their sales, design, or manufacturing workflows.

Our platform requires a specific type of parametric 3D file called Grasshopper. By using this file type rather than traditional static ones, we leverage the power of parametric design to make creating and maintaining a library of 3D product configurators simple and cost-effective.

We do this by automatically translating Grasshopper files into online applications that can be embedded into any external website and connected to external systems such as eCommerce platforms, like WooCommerce and Shopify, inventory systems, or databases.

When clients place orders via a ShapeDiver configurator, not only do they see in real-time an accurate visualization of the product, but the configurator can also generate the right production file or technical drawing because Grasshopper files can generate other file types such as PDF, STL, DXF, and GCODE, etc.

While ShapeDiver can be used to create more than just 3D product configurators, the process in all cases is very similar to the steps presented in this guide.

Grasshopp... what?

To emphasize the point above. ShapeDiver can only accept Grasshopper files, which are a specific type of 3D file created with software called Grasshopper.

Grasshopper is a visual programming software that runs within Rhinoceros 3D, a computer-aided design (CAD) application. It allows users to create algorithmic designs (basically, rules) and automate repetitive tasks without having to write code in a traditional text-based language.

Grasshopper files have traditionally been difficult to share or operate for non-technical stakeholders. Therefore, ShapeDiver was created with the goal of making them easier to share online and even to embed them on websites. This results in powerful yet cost-efficient 2D and 3D online applications that have traditionally been very expensive and complex to build, as they require geometric logic to be hard-coded using libraries such as three.js.

You can think of ShapeDiver as the "YouTube for Grasshopper files." Just like you'd upload a video to YouTube to easily share it with a wide audience via the Internet, the same way you can upload your Grasshopper files to ShapeDiver. This way, instead of sending files via email and risking your intellectual property, you can have them securely hosted online while we handle the rest. Then, just like countless people can watch a YouTube video simultaneously, multiple users can interact with your Grasshopper files at the same time, all without needing specialized software or expertise in Grasshopper.

If you're new to Grasshopper, we recommend taking a look at this section to get a better understanding.

Who is this guide for?

This guide is intended for businesses in any industry looking to solve various challenges by creating online 3D configurators with ShapeDiver. Whether you aim to streamline time-consuming sales processes or automate the generation of production files for custom orders, ShapeDiver could be the solution for you. We'll walk you through the three steps needed to launch your first online tool. Let's get started!

Step 1: Creating the Right Grasshopper File

As mentioned above, ShapeDiver operates only with Grasshopper files. Therefore, the first step for creating 3D product configurators using ShapeDiver is to create the right Grasshopper files according to the products you want to offer on your website. These files will be the foundation of your online configurators, powering all their geometry and production logic. Therefore, they must follow the guidelines and best practices shared in our documentation and video tutorials for the best results.

Grasshopper files are created by computational designers. If you don't know how to create a Grasshopper file, or your company doesn't have access to computational designers, don't worry! You have several options to get started:

a) You can learn Grasshopper yourself by watching tutorials on YouTube or searching for guided online courses. This is by far the most “affordable” way of creating your Grasshopper files. However, depending on your CAD design experience, it could take some time to master Grasshopper to the level needed to create a file compatible with ShapeDiver.

b) Another option is to hire a freelancer. Grasshopper is widely popular, and plenty of freelancers would gladly use their skills to help you build your Grasshopper files. However, you are responsible for finding the right computational designer. The quality of the files will depend on this expert following all of our guidelines and best practices. This option can also be quite affordable, but it might also take time if your freelancer is unfamiliar with ShapeDiver or if you have to go through multiple ones before finding the right one.

c) Finally, you can reach out to our team to build these files for you. Since 2017, we have assisted multiple companies in different industries with creating the right Grasshopper files to meet their objectives. We offer Grasshopper professional services, including optimization, consultation, and full development. If you need to get your Grasshopper files right on the first try and time is of the essence, our team is here to help. We have more information on Our Professional Services page, so reach out if interested.

In general, creating one Grasshopper file for each product is recommended. However, depending on the number and type of products, you may want to merge multiple products into a single Grasshopper file or use multiple Grasshopper files for a single highly complex product (this makes debugging far easier!). It's important to have a clear strategy in place before you start developing these files, as the approach may vary from business to business. If you're unsure how to approach your specific use case, we offer consultation services, so feel free to reach out if you need qualified guidance.

Please note that this is the most important step in this whole process! If your Grasshopper files are slow, buggy, or don’t render properly, this will affect your 3D product configurators with ShapeDiver. In other words, the end result will only be as good as the initial input!

With the Grasshopper part out of the way, the next step is to choose the right ShapeDiver plan for your project.

Step 2: Choosing the right ShapeDiver plan

Now that you have at least one Grasshopper file ready, it's time to host it online. That's when ShapeDiver comes into play. Native Grasshopper files can only be created and used on a computer running Rhinoceros 3D, which limits their accessibility and utility. But if you host them online using a platform like ShapeDiver, anyone can access the power of these files and benefit from them, yet the IP remains safely protected by our system.

While you can start testing your Grasshopper files with a Free plan (you can create one here), you'll find that you won't be able to use some key features, such as scripted components, import/export data, or embedding your models on external websites. In this case, you'll need to start a trial of any of our paid plans.

We offer different options according to your website integration requirements, Grasshopper file complexity, and predicted monthly usage of the 3D product configurator on your website. Our Pricing page has a comparison table that summarizes each plan's features, which can be useful when deciding between two or more options.

We have five different plans available. This guide will focus on three of our most popular ones: Designer, Designer Plus, and Business. They are part of a shared server system based in Frankfurt, Germany, which means that all Grasshopper files are stored and processed in that location. This system's performance and availability are shared between all of our ShapeDiver users to ensure subscription costs are as low as possible.

If you're interested in learning more about our two other higher-end plans, Business Plus, and Business, our sales team will happily schedule a video call with you and your team.

Designer Plan | from €49/month

The Designer plan is our most affordable offering, starting from €49/month billed yearly. It's usually the right choice for early entrepreneurs or small businesses with tight budgets or dipping their toes into 3D product configurators.

This plan includes iframe embedding, a very simple way to integrate our 3D viewer and standard UI into your website, including the ability to generate data such as technical drawings, production files for CNC or 3D printing, and visualization of geometry in Augmented Reality.

The two most important restrictions to pay attention to with this plan are the computation time, up to 10 seconds, and the lack of any API access, which means online configurators created with this plan can not connect to external systems or have custom user interfaces.

Nonetheless, this is still a great option for those businesses wanting to test their MVPs before deciding to make a bigger investment down the line.

Some great examples of clients using this type of plan are:

- Interstate Brick | AEC

- Shaperbay | Surfboards

Designer Plus Plan | from €199/month

The Designer Plus plan starts from €199/month, billed yearly. It includes all of the features offered in the Designer plan, plus Viewer API access, larger file size export limits, and 2 seats (please consult our FAQ section on our pricing page to learn more about seats).

Our Viewer API is the perfect solution for those businesses who need a custom frontend for their 3D product configurators or to connect their models to external systems, such as eCommerce platforms like Shopify or WooCommerce. Additionally, it allows the creation of advanced interactions with our viewer, such as clickable and draggable elements, which greatly increases the overall UX of an online configurator.

We have plenty of documentation on this API, plus an in-depth video tutorial series. Needless to say, you'll need at least some web development knowledge to truly make the most out of our Viewer API. If you need help in this area, we recommend looking for a local web developer with knowledge in JavaScript, TypeScript, HTML, CSS, etc., or browsing through our recommended Web Development Partners page.

The main constraint to pay attention to with this plan is the computation time, which is still kept at up to 10 seconds, just like the Designer plan, although it can be increased to up to 30 seconds if needed (please consult our pricing page for more information).

Some great examples of clients using this type of plan are:

- Ecale | AEC

- Aectual | Interior Design

Business Plan | from €499/month

The Business plan is the top-of-the-line offering within our shared server system and starts from €499/month billed yearly. It includes all features offered in the Designer Plus plan, plus access to a second API called Geometry Backend API, up to 30 sec. of computation time by default, private technical support (instead of the Forum support included with other plans), bigger Grasshopper file sizes, bigger import and export sizes, 5 seats, and more.

The key feature of this plan is the inclusion of our Geometry Backend API. Unlike our Viewer API, which requires an active viewer session to communicate with your Grasshopper files in our servers, this advanced API allows your web development team to build more complex workflows by directly communicating with your Grasshopper files hosted in our servers without having to go through an active (opened) viewer. If you or your web developer believe your online application requires this API, you can check out our documentation and this video tutorial.

Some great examples of clients using this type of plan are:

- Re:Ukraine Villages | AEC

- Bocci | High-end Luminaires

For a more detailed look at our prices and features, including our Enterprise plan, please check our Pricing page, including our FAQ at the bottom of the page, as it explains important concepts such as monthly credits, seats, and support.

Now that you’ve chosen the right ShapeDiver plan and your Grasshopper files are hosted online, the third and final step is to integrate your models into your website.

Step 3: Integrating Everything into Your Website

Before you can successfully complete a ShapeDiver-powered 3D product configurator, the last and final step involves embedding our viewer (and your models!) into your website and, if needed, connecting it to a custom front-end and/or any other external systems. Please note that depending on the type of integration you need, you might need the help of a web developer.

iframe Embedding

If you choose iframe embedding, a feature included with all paid plans, integrating your models into your website is as simple as copying and pasting the automatically generated embed code of any of your ShapeDiver models. It can literally be done in under 1 minute. Our documentation includes a section dedicated to this type of embedding, so please review it carefully in case you're interested.

Direct Embedding

If you choose direct embedding, included with Designer Plus and above, you or your preferred web development team will use our Viewer and/or Backend APIs to create the perfect (and custom!) integration. This includes advanced concepts like animations and clickable elements, plus connecting your models to:

- A custom frontend

- An eCommerce platform like Shopify, WooCommerce, Prestashop, etc.

- Inventory systems and other types of databases

Our documentation includes dedicated sections for our Viewer API and Geometry Backend API & SDKs, so send these resources to your web development team.

If needed, our team can take over some of the more advanced API-related tasks, such as draggable and clickable elements, so your team can focus on the website development aspect of your project. For more information on this, please refer to the API Development Services on our Professional Services page .

As mentioned previously, we provide plenty of video tutorials and documentation covering how to use our various tools properly, so make sure you and your team thoroughly explore these resources. When in doubt, use our Support Forum to receive qualified and cost-free assistance from our development team.

Takeaways

In conclusion, building an online 3D product configurator with ShapeDiver is an excellent option for those businesses that want to keep control of the development process and move at their own pace, especially if you already have Grasshopper knowledge and/or web development resources. These online applications can help automate different processes, such as sales, design, or manufacturing, by leveraging the power of parametric design via Grasshopper.

On the other hand, if your business needs help with Step 1 or Step 3 in this guide, it's relatively easy and affordable, compared to alternative technologies, such as three.js, to find a professional willing to help you (including ourselves!).

To have a complete overview of our different plans and professional services, check our Pricing page. If you want to discuss a project with our team, use the contact request form on our website, and our sales team will be happy to schedule an introduction call with you.

In the interview, Dan discusses his background, what sparked his interest in the AEC industry, and the benefits of using parametric design tools like Grasshopper. He also provides some specific examples of how computational design is particularly useful in his everyday job as a Structural Engineer.

Furthermore, Dan talks about the use of ShapeDiver and how it helped him to create a new in-house tool called 'Cactus,' which he explains in more detail. Overall, the interview provides insight into the importance of computational design in the AEC industry and how it can lead to more efficient and sustainable design.

1. Can you tell us about your background and the company you work for?

My name is Dan Cole, and I’m a Structural Engineer with a keen interest in computational design and sustainability. I have worked at Webb Yates Engineers since graduating from the University of Bath in 2017 with a degree in Civil Engineering. As a company, we pride ourselves on promoting innovative, creative, and low-carbon design and have won many awards in recognition of this.

2. When did you first become interested in the field of AEC, and what sparked your interest?

I’ve been interested in making things for as long as I can remember, not necessarily buildings but lego, furniture, art, etc. At 16, I decided to do some work experience at a local Architecture practice, and although I enjoyed it, I thought that Civil Engineering would be a better balance on the art and design/math spectrum. Based on that, I chose my undergraduate course and have been in the same field ever since.

3. What are your main responsibilities at Webb Yates Engineers?

My day-to-day job involves leading, or working on, the delivery of Structural Designs for projects across various scales and typologies, from architecturally focused residential buildings to large-scale infrastructure developments.

All projects typically start with a set of sketches and an appraisal of different design options comparing parameters such as structural efficiency, aesthetics, cost, buildability, and embodied carbon. These sketches then get worked up to detailed drawings, eventually leading to a fully constructed building.

Two years ago, we started an internal computational design group that I lead. Within this group, we have a wide range of interests and experience, and we use this to develop anything from bespoke pieces of software to computational design tools. We’ve also experimented with research topics like structural topology optimization.

4. In your opinion, what are the biggest benefits of using parametric design tools like Grasshopper in the AEC industry?

You might say I’ve got quite a ‘traditional’ work pattern for someone who spends so much time developing computational tools, but for me, I nearly always start any piece of work with a pen (or pencil) and paper. This helps me get a better feel for the problem I’m tackling as I find my brain doesn’t really grasp things well if I’ve dived straight into it with a keyboard and mouse.

However, there are some things you can’t do with a pen and paper, or they’d be oversimplified or time-consuming if you did. This is where parametric tools can really shine. Whether it’s dealing with complicated geometry, undertaking something repetitive, or working on a project that is liable to rapid change, parametric tools can do things you can’t and at a much quicker rate.

It’s this sweet spot where I think parametric tools are at their optimum. It can be all too easy to get overly excited and dive straight into a massive tangle of grasshopper spaghetti when you could have ended up at the same result in half the time with a more archaic approach.

5. Can you give me a couple of specific examples in your everyday job where the use of computational design is particularly useful?

As I’m sure is the case with all jobs, in Structural Engineering, there are the exciting tasks (like coming up with a concept design for a new stadium) and the mundane tasks (like churning out 500 pages of design calculations). Any computational tool that cuts down the time I have to spend on boring tasks so that I can focus on the interesting stuff is a big hit with me!

Tasks like producing calculation packs are an essential part of the job, but there’s a lot of time and repetition involved in producing them, and it’s not something that adds value to a project.

The best structures are generally a result of good engineering minds focusing on the early stages of a project, where key factors such as layout, form, and material choice are made. So, the more time we have to focus on this, the better.

6. How does using parametric design tools like Grasshopper compare to traditional design methods?

As I mentioned before, there’s a time and a place for parametric tools, but used well, they have a nearly limitless potential to elevate designs. The main advantage, as the name suggests, is that you have a range of ‘parameters’ to play with and can iterate through different options much quicker than you would with traditional methods. This effectively increases a scheme's ‘search space’ and allows you to explore a range of creative options.

7. What drove you to start using ShapeDiver?

I had been planning on producing a tool to help improve the speed at which we produce scheme designs in the office for a while but struggled to think of the best technology to use for this. Grasshopper felt like a natural choice due to the inherent parametric capabilities, and geometric modeling, but not every engineer knows how to use it, and it isn’t very accessible to a complete beginner. A bare grasshopper script is also liable to accidental changes that could potentially lead to errors.

On the other hand, fully coding a piece of software or web tool from scratch to carry out the calculations and render the geometry would have involved much work upfront and taken much longer to develop. Especially considering that developing computational tools isn’t our main job.

When I came across ShapeDiver, it was the perfect bridge between these two problems. All the advantages of the parametric capabilities in grasshopper but with an attractive, easy-to-use interface on a web app – A no-brainer!

8. Can you give an example of a specific project where ShapeDiver's tools were particularly useful? Who was it built for, and what problem did it solve?

The app mentioned in the previous question is our new in-house tool called ‘Cactus’, a web-facing app that uses Grasshopper behind the scenes via ShapeDiver’s viewer and backend APIs.

It renders a full 3D parametric model of a building, undertakes a preliminary structural design, and calculates the embodied carbon, all in approximately one second. Practically any construction typology can be modeled and designed, including some more unique framing systems such as timber stone composite construction, which Webb Yates Engineers have a specialism in.

The main advantage of the tool is that it can be used by any engineer in the office due to the accessible user interface. This means that it isn’t exclusive to a small specialist design group within the team and can be used on every project.

Not only can it be used to cut down the time sizing structural elements for different options, but it provides comprehensive and accurate reporting on embodied carbon. We can present this to clients to allow them to make informed decisions about their buildings.

9. Can you tell us about your experience using ShapeDiver's viewer and backend APIs?

In our web app, we actually use the viewer and backed API separately. We have two mirrored copies of the same Grasshopper script, one with geometry and one without. We use the backend API to connect to the script without geometry, enabling us to perform the structural calculations and sizing rapidly and independently of the other script. We then use the viewer API on the script with geometry to generate an optional rendered 3D model.

We’ve also recently started using the backend script alone to run over 120,000 different simulated building designs to gather data and determine trends of how design parameters affect embodied carbon of structures. We’re currently processing this data – keep an eye out for the results!

Both of the APIs work flawlessly, and being able to work with them both separately leads to massive improvements in performance and is one of the keys to the tool’s success.

10. How has this tool been received by your team, and have they led to any improvements in efficiency or productivity?

The app has been well received across the office and has started being used on real projects. It’s still in the early stages, and we have many ideas for improvements and future developments. We’re really excited to see where it ends up!

The main praise has been that it’s easy to use, and people are enjoying the power of parametric design without even knowing what Grasshopper is.

11. How do you see automation tools like those built with ShapeDiver impacting the AEC industry in the future?

In my opinion, apart from a few specialist groups within companies, the AEC industry is too slow or cautious to take on new technology. Especially compared to some other industries like software development, where day-to-day work is brutally efficient.

There are many exciting, impressive technological creations within the AEC industry, but they tend to be bigger-picture or specialist tools. The lack of accessibility, and probably some skepticism, means that 90% of engineers don’t end up using them in their day-to-day tasks and therefore don’t have the impact they could have.

Compared back to software development, even something simple like automatic line completion in code editors is a commonplace time saver. But, I can think of very few examples of something similar in our industry.

I think there’s a real gap for tools that are perhaps less flashy but transform the day-to-day tasks of engineers for the better and create a new ‘norm’ of workflows.

 12. What kind of future developments or advancements in the AEC industry are you excited about?

The AEC is more than aware of the current challenges faced in the climate emergency. Many things need to be addressed to resolve it, but I think digital tools should be a part of the solution.

Any development that marries (sensibly) computational design with sustainability really excites me, and I think this is where the ‘next big thing’ will come from.

- Thank you for your time, Dan. This has been a great conversation!

Thank you as well for this opportunity.

That's it for this new edition of  Designers Corner.  Don't forget to visit Webb Yates Engineers website and LinkedIn profile.

Would you like to get featured in this space? Please email us at  contact@shapediver.com  and tell us about your project or brand! We'd love to start a conversation.

This article will explain this emerging technology, the benefits for virtual shoppers and merchants, how to create the right 3D assets for AR viewing, and discuss implementation strategies for companies on their way to a digital business transformation.

How AR is changing eCommerce

Augmented Reality is definitely no momentary trend. Together with Industry 4.0 , AR is part of a complete digital transformation and automation of the business-to-consumer industry. With customers demanding more enjoyable and intuitive user experiences from online stores, retail will be a pioneering field to sprout the first generation of AR applications.

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, in the last 3 years, about 15% of all retail sales occurred online . That is three times the amount sold over the virtual counter just a decade ago. Even more so, eCommerce revenue is expected to nearly double in the coming five years.

With brick-and-mortar stores increasingly being replaced by flat-screen interactivity, some of the value of an authentic, in-person shopping experience gets lost in translation. Augmented Reality catches some of these issues and adds unique features of its own.

Not only do customers enjoy a realistic product preview in their surroundings, but the new medium can also augment the experience with additional information that can adapt to specific situations. Furthermore, for merchants selling customizable products , it can help their customers understand different physical variations, alternative colors, materials, and finishes.

Overall, it has the potential to make shopping more engaging and interactive, which can lead to higher conversion rates and reduced product returns.

How AR improves the shopping experience

Online retail puts millions of products at the fingertips of about 6.5 billion smartphone users worldwide. Operating on mostly tiny displays, people have to judge whether any given purchase will fit into their lives. That's a tall order.

Particularly for clothing, vehicles, and home interiors, it can be difficult to picture how products you see on your mobile screen will look in real life. This is where AR comes in.

Here are some of the advantages AR could offer to different industries:

Furniture and other interior design products can be viewed in the same room the customer intends to place them. This way, they can evaluate scale, materials, and color-match to the surroundings. They can even determine the piece’s best placement in the space. And being able to rotate the object in 3D will clarify how certain details and features will look.

Jewelry and other luxury items like wristwatches, eyeglasses, and makeup can appear as if customers are already wearing them. This is much more useful for the consumer than viewing the product on a sterile white background.

Car modifications can be previewed on the customer’s car in real time! A full-scale walkaround preview is perfect for seeing how a new rims, decals, side skirts, or paint job would look.

Toys can be previewed to allow children to experience the product and some of its interactivity. The AR experience can even allow characters to come to life.

What’s the difference between AR and VR?

While they may seem similar on many fronts, the two technologies are notably different.

VR (Virtual Reality) completely immerses the user in a simulated environment. It transports the person to a different place, which is great for video games, simulators, virtual traveling, work meetings, and fitness and meditation sessions.

AR (Augmented Reality) , on the other hand, does not take people to an artificial world but overlays three-dimensional objects into reality. People can move around while interacting with the dual world by staying aware of their actual setting.

VR focuses purely on a virtual experience, but with AR, things can go both ways. It can use the real world to create an improved virtual experience, like Pokémon Go, Jurassic World Alive, Harry Potter: Wizards Unite, and Minecraft Earth. However, AR can also elevate the real-world experience, for example, with infographics or price tags next to real objects and even real-time text translations.

While VR and AR may seem comparable initially, the two technologies accomplish distinctly different purposes using similar means.

Another important difference is that while VR requires a headset, AR can be experienced on mobile devices like smartphones or tablets. Those willing to invest more can be rewarded: AR glasses fully merge the virtual with the physical world while enabling hands-free viewing.

Many modern mobile devices, such as phones and tablets, come equipped with a native AR viewer. This means that billions of people have immediate access to AR content without purchasing additional hardware or downloading separate apps. As a result, merchants can assume that customers browsing their store on a mobile device can view AR content.

Paving The Infrastructure

Global audiences are responding massively to these immersive technologies, and millions of online customers already own a headset specific for viewing AR/VR content.

While VR is booming in the form of video games, YouTube content, and 3D content creation, AR is expected to soon catch up, with many brands offering an augmented feature.

In 2023 there will be an estimated 30 million AR headset sales . These include Meta Quest Pro, Microsoft HoloLens 2, Vuzix Blade, Magic Leap 2, and ByteDance’s Pico 4.

Meta’s Reality Labs, the successor of Oculus, reported $2.3 billion in total revenue in 2021. Other Big Tech players, like Google and Apple, are working hard to catch up and launch their AR hardware platforms. Apple’s AR/VR headset is expected to go into production sometime in 2023.

It is safe to say that in the near future, AR will have assumed a permanent role as the preferred medium for interactive experiences for tens of millions worldwide.

Creating AR-Ready Assets

The most popular file formats for AR content are 3D models in.fbx,.obj, and.gltf formats. These formats are widely supported by most 3D modeling software, making them easy to export and use in AR applications.

Additionally, there are many online platforms and 3D modeling tools available that can be used to source or generate these types of files. These tools allow developers, artists, and designers to create high-quality 3D models which can be used in different AR applications. Here are some suggestions:

1. Using Online Repositories

Repositories like CGTrader, Cults3D, MyMiniFactory, Thingiverse, Sketchfab, and TurboSquid contain thousands of static 3D models that can be purchased or downloaded for free. These files can then be repurposed for AR viewing.

2. Scanning Real-World Objects

If a merchant simply wants to scan an existing product, smartphone apps like ARitize360, Qlone, RealityCapture, and Polycam can reconstruct an object based on a photoset taken by rotating around the object as if it’s on a carousel.

3. Using 3D Modeling Software

Fusion 360, Tinkercad, ZBrush, Blender, Maya, Sculptris, and Unity offer a blank canvas for creating 3D models using professional tools for simple geometric shapes.

There are even specific tools to create simple models specially suited for viewing on augmented reality platforms, such as Apple Reality Composer.

4. Using Parametric Modeling Software

Instead of creating static geometry based on a fixed set of dimensions, parametric 3D assets allow the user to tweak the parameters while the 3D model updates in real time.

For merchants looking to offer customizable products, parametric design is the go-to solution. And Grasshopper  is a modeling tool part of Rhinoceros 3D that stands in a category of its own. With it, objects aren’t modeled manually but defined by a set of parameters, typically in the form of sliders, toggles, and other input elements. Using the ShapeDiver plugin for Grasshopper, merchants can easily output glTF files, which can be repurposed for AR.

Furthermore, the ShapeDiver platform allows merchants to host their parametric models online and expose the key parameters to the user. The model can then be altered on the fly with a simple online user interface. ShapeDiver includes an AR function that can be used directly on the platform or in merchant stores, including Shopify.

How to add AR to your marketing strategy

Before going the AR route, it’s important to decide on a specific implementation strategy for fitting this newfound tool into your marketing arsenal. AR can be much more than an additional feature, so consider what value it will bring to the customer, how it can tell the right brand story, and how to establish enough visibility and attention to create buzz.

Instead of simply adding an AR button to products in your store that have a 3D model available, you can bring extra attention to this technology by creating a separate website that revolves around a social media campaign.

Another option is to create a VIP backroom in the store with an exclusive collection of products that gives the AR feature maximum impact. Instead of a simple 3D model, consider doing an interactive animation or an exploded view and add unique customization options or infographics.

Mimicry of purchase intention is a well-known phenomenon in marketing, especially among teenagers and young adults. So in some cases, it will be a sensible idea to create a digital twin not just of the product but also of a 3D avatar that’s using it.

With Grasshopper and ShapeDiver, it’s possible to create online configurators that allow customers to customize an object in 3D and visualize it onsite in AR. Nomade Editions from Germany and Saw & Sew from the UK are already leveraging these technologies. It’s also possible to import vector art, so logos and emblems can easily be embossed or debossed into the model, just like Gemme Jewelry from Germany is doing.

Apart from try-before-you-buy applications and after-sales support, AR can be utilized in various other ways to guide the sales process, improve customer satisfaction, and drive revenue.

Takeaways

Augmented reality is a technology being adopted by eCommerce companies to improve customer user experience. With the rise of online retail sales, customers expect more from shopping platforms regarding user experience, and AR could be the solution.

The technology can make shopping more engaging and interactive, leading to higher conversion rates and reduced product returns.

AR allows customers to view products in realistic settings, such as furniture in the room they intend to place it in, jewelry and luxury items as if they are already wearing them, car modifications on the customer's car in real-time, and toys that can come to life.

Over the course of the next few years, many experts expect AR to be a leading factor in transforming the online shopping experience. As retailers implement their AR-based shopping experience, it is time to leap ahead of the competition and introduce a 3D & AR product configurator.

Don't forget to check out  Our Clients page  for some examples of companies using the ShapeDiver platform to build incredible 3D and AR online applications.

Are you interested in creating an online configurator with Augmented Reality capabilities?   Email us at  contact@shapediver.com  and   our team of experts will guide you through the steps required to set up your own 3D and AR configurator.

Soon after getting started with an MVP, the pandemic forced him to pivot and rethink his strategy. In this interview, we discuss the story and the decisions he had to make throughout his journey. We also discuss his tech stack and vision for his company.

1. Welcome! Tell us a bit about yourself. Why are you working in the Furniture Industry?

My name is Winston Ferguson. I’ve been living in the UK since 2017, but I’m originally from Vancouver, Canada. Growing up, my family had a furniture store, and I started my career working for a large international furniture brand. I then took a detour to the island of St. Vincent And The Grenadines in the Caribbean, where I opened a restaurant.

After about ten years, I felt it was time to get off the islands and out of the restaurant business. I was surprised by how little the furniture industry had evolved despite how much technology had advanced. So, I decided there was both a substantial challenge and an opportunity to rethink how furniture is designed, made, and marketed.

2. Saw & Sew: interesting name! What does it mean to you?

Literally, Saw & Sew is a reference to two furniture-related activities: sawing wood and sewing upholstery. But to me, Saw & Sew is much more - it’s my pursuit of a vision.

3. What's the back story to Saw & Sew?

The vision has always been locally made-to-order furniture for the mass market. The company was originally focused on developing modular components to achieve this. We launched a minimum viable product, a chair component, but couldn’t find a suitable platform to market our furniture and realize the immense customization options afforded by our concept. Then the pandemic hit, so we scaled everything back to focus on developing the technology internally.

I’ve designed and developed almost everything relating to Saw & Sew - building the company has been a matter of my time.

4. What’s your favorite part about working with the concept behind Saw & Sew?

The challenges it presents - coming up with solutions to things like:

- Marketing a design with thousands, or even millions, of variants.

- A product that adapts to where the consumer is geographically.

- Developing an effective customization process that isn’t overbearing.

Following that, you’re rewarded with an exciting design process. The concept excels at accommodating an immense product development schedule. It’s about exploring many ideas, gauging market reactions, and evolving. You’re not restricted to playing it safe because of the associated costs/risks in product development.

5. How did you learn about Grasshopper?

I have known Rhino since around 2018. I learned about Grasshopper after discovering ShapeDiver while I was googling for a solution that would let me create my online configurators at my own pace.

6. When did you realize Grasshopper was the right tool to power this online configurator?

When I discovered how flexible and capable it is. Not only can the design develop from its simplest origin, but what’s created is applicable in manufacturing processes - it’s not just a visual representation.

7. How is ShapeDiver involved?

We use ShapeDiver for our online configurators. It renders the user-manipulated design and handles the creation of any necessary CAD files.

Using ShapeDiver means our workflow is synergetic across the entire vertical chain of processes. A single Grasshopper definition will create the 3D models for our visuals and, thanks to ShapeDiver, serve as a 3D configurator to potentially thousands of products, which can also be viewed in Augmented Reality.

8. What are other technologies involved in this project?

We use React.js for user inputs and to track the state of a user’s design. Our platform is built using Ruby on Rails and uses the proprietary metadata system we developed to relate goods and services for the creation of products via a configurator.

Additionally, we use Adobe Creative Suite to create texture maps and Blender for visuals.

9. You’re currently raising funds. What’s the vision for Saw & Sew in 5 to 10 years?

I want Saw & Sew to enable most consumers to have furniture that isn’t a compromise after a tedious process of searching inventories. Their home can feature exciting designs precisely tailored to their specific wants and needs.

We will become experts in technological processes related to user-generated products.

10. Can you give us a sneak peek into what products we will see in the future from you?

We’re launching a collection of textiles, and we have several more design prototypes in the works - including chairs, beds, and tables. Additionally, Saw & Sew is looking for local furniture, material, and textile makers to collaborate with so the platform will start to feature products from other designers.

In 2023, we’ll develop real-time algorithms for creating products based on a user session. In the future, it won’t be about the products you see from Saw & Sew but the products you see from you - even if you don’t even know you created them.

- This has been great! Thank you for taking some time to talk to us.

Likewise! Thank you for letting me share my story.

That's it for this new edition of Getting to know... Don't forget to visit Saw & Sew's website and LinkedIn profile.

Would you like to get featured in this space? Please email us at  contact@shapediver.com  and tell us about your project or brand! We'd love to start a conversation.

1. Welcome! Please tell us a bit about your background. Who is part of the team? What are your hobbies?

My name is Supun Amarasinghe. I'm a full-stack software developer and cloud architect with over 14 years of experience in different industries. I started AR development as a hobby in 2017; since then, I have kept learning new AR frameworks and experimenting with how to improve web AR technology.

My other co-founder Ven has been working in AEC and using 3D/AR/XR technologies for over 7 years. We are a small team with another 2 members in our group.

2. What is Imersian, and what type of work do you specialize in?

We are a software development startup specializing in WebAR and WebXR technologies. We developed the Imersian platform, which can automate the 3D creation workflows and optimize them for web-based Augmented Reality.

3. When did you first get interested in Augmented Reality?

In 2017, I saw IKEA Augmented Reality app. At that time, I realized Augmented Reality could solve the main problem in e-commerce: seeing products in real space before buying. This experience motivated me to learn how Augmented Reality works and pushed me to experiment with web AR technologies.

4. What does AR solve for the eCommerce industry?

We believe AR can solve multiple problems in the eCommerce industry. The most prominent one is that buyers cannot see a physical product before buying it. If the product's value is higher, this becomes a critical issue, and the ability to make a confident purchasing decision is not easy for the customers.

Augmented Reality is a perfect technology to answer questions like, "does this product match the images on the website?", and "does the size fit my space?".

It can bring a very accurate representation of a product on an eCommerce website into the customer's actual space. This can provide much more precise details for the customers to decide on their purchase. As a result, retailers can enhance the number of sales conversions.

For example, one problem for the furniture and interior design industries is that people cannot imagine 3D spaces by only using 2D images and sketches. Augmented Reality is a great way to solve this problem. It allows regular people to place 3D objects in their spaces and see what the sizes, colors, and shapes look like.

5. When did you decide to create this specific approach for AR?

We conducted several case studies and research to analyze how AR could solve the previously mentioned problems.

One key finding was that people do not like downloading multiple apps to get AR experiences. For this reason, we developed Imersian as a 100% web-based AR solution that could help users during specific scenarios where they need to place multiple items in AR.

This is essential when people design a space or compare numerous product variants. Imagine comparing different variants of a sofa or handbag.

6. Which industries can most benefit from AR within eCommerce and why?

We believe any industry that for the past 20 years has tried to sell its physical products via a regular website. If we had to choose, we’d say:

- Furniture and Interior Design: Customers consider several things, such as size, color, and shape, before buying. Augmented reality solves this biggest problem, and retailers can increase their conversion rates. Before AR, retailers used videos, Lifestyle images to provide these details. But the problem is non of those existing solutions can bring a product to the customers' real space.

- Fashion: Customers like to customize products to their preferences. It can be hats, sunglasses, phone covers, or jewelry. 3D and AR facilitate this requirement by visualizing the end product virtually.

7. How does the Imersian app work?

Imersian web application works directly from an e-commerce website. It offers various integration options, including plugins for e-commerce systems such as Shopify, Javascript API, and iFrame integration. All these integration methods render the Imesian app on a website, and it can show 3D models in AR from different sources. Furthermore, it allows users to move, rotate and scale multiple 3D models in AR.

8. How is ShapeDiver an important element in this story?

The 3D models are the primary component to visualize a product in Augmented reality. ShapeDiver can dynamically generate 3D models of different product variants by changing dimensions and textures. This is essential to provide highly customizable product experiences to customers. Therefore, ShapeDiver plays a vital role in this space.

9. What’s the future of Augmented Reality?

AR is still a new technology; only a tiny percentage of the world population knows what it is or has used it. If we look at the previous technological revolutions, we can see that in every decade, there was a significant revolution in how we consume information. For example, in the past, radio, TV, the Internet, and mobile phones changed the way we consume information. We believe the next revolution will be Augmented Reality, boosted by new and upcoming hardware such as AR Glasses from companies like Apple, Microsoft, or Meta (Facebook).

- This has been great! Thank you for taking some time to talk to us.

Thank you as well for this opportunity!

That's it for this new edition of  Getting to know...  Don't forget to visit Imersian's website and check out the ShapeDiver demo they build. You can follow them on their Instagram account and Linkedin company profile.

Would you like to get featured in this space? Please email us at  contact@shapediver.com  and tell us about your project or brand! We'd love to start a conversation.

is a leading supplier and developer of BIM (Building Information Modeling) software and related services. They employ more than 250 people across Europe and Latin America. Their portfolio includes products and applications that provide an accurate, detailed, and data-rich 3D environment for the design and construction industry.

Recently, they were interested in creating a free online application that would allow them to showcase their knowledge for calculating and optimizing the design of metal structures. They knew Grasshopper was a powerful tool to build such an application, but they needed a way to host these files online and make them available to anyone via a web browser. They found out that ShapeDiver could give them these capabilities and even allow them to use third-party plugins such as Karamba3D and GeometryGym.

In this interview, we talk with Construsoft's team and discuss the topics surrounding this powerful online tool called Optinave.

1. Welcome and thank you for taking some time to talk to us! Please tell us a bit about Construsoft.

Thank you for having us here. Construsoft has been distributing market-leading BIM and structural analysis software for more than 25 years. We also offer consulting, implementation, training, and parameterization services for the construction engineering sector.

2. What is Optinave?

Optinave is a free web application for calculating and optimizing the design of  "Industrial Warehouse" type metal structures in accordance with Eurocode provisions based on a Grasshopper algorithm that uses Karamba 3D as a structural analysis engine and ShapeDiver as a web visualization engine.

The user defines the geometry and location of the warehouse, and Optinave computes and optimizes the structure and provides a list of materials and sections with the option of downloading.ifc and.xml files to continue the design on your computer.

To perform the calculation, Optinave generates wind and snow loads according to Eurocode and allows wind loads to be displayed and applied automatically for any regular geometry according to the standard.

Finally, the user can visualize diagrams of the structure's forces, reactions, and deformations under the applied loads.

3. How did this concept come about?

The Optinave concept arises from the need for structural engineers to quickly pre-size industrial warehouse-type structures considering location-specific wind and snow loads.

4. What is the main advantage of this type of application? What problem does it solve?

Industrial building structures are slender structures where wind and snow have a great impact on the design. Manually pre-dimensioning the member sizes of a structure considering the geographical location, is a time-consuming task.

This application allows the user to quickly generate a first approximation of the total weight of the structure and the section profiles to be used for a given location.

5. What were the most important points when creating this application?

When creating Optinave, the aim was to develop an application that produced reliable structural results which combined ease of use and calculational rigor. This was accomplished by optimizing the wind load generator algorithm in combination with the Karamba3D plugin for structural analysis.

6. Are you considering further developing the Optinave project, perhaps implementing the introduction of different geographical areas other than Spain?

Yes. One of the advantages of developing web configurators based on Grasshopper algorithms is that implementing improvements and new developments does not require a significant investment of time. Optinave was designed for the geographical area of Spain, and implementation for other locations is very likely.

7. What benefits does Grasshopper provide for this application compared to other software?

Thanks to its flexibility, Grasshopper allows for the development of complex algorithms where it is possible to combine code requirements with structural calculations, obtaining models with good computational performance. This performance is a critical building block for building smooth web applications using ShapeDiver.

8. Currently, topology optimization and 3D printing are increasingly important. Do you think it is feasible to integrate these aspects in future web configurators?

Topology optimization is one of the most powerful features that Grasshopper offers, and it takes full advantage of parametric design.  A web configurator that allows for this capability would be of great value, especially for companies using 3D printing. Implementing this would be a challenge that we would face with enthusiasm!

9. Regarding ShapeDiver’s plugin for Grasshopper, what aspects would you consider were the most important ones for this and other projects at Construsoft?

In our case, we frequently use the material creation components and the GLTF display component. In addition, the new attribute components allow for efficient information handling. The ShapeDiver plugin components are also beneficial when we are developing algorithms for our own internal workflow efficiency.

10. What is the importance of being able to download.ifc and/or.xml files from Optinave?

The main objective of Optinave is to improve the workflow in the design of industrial buildings. The design and optimization in Optinave allow a first approximation of the structure's final design. Then the engineer must continue to develop a final design.

The possibility of obtaining an.ifc and/or.xml file is essential to continue the calculation without starting from scratch. With these files, we will have all the geometric information generated in Optinave, which results in a significant reduction in modeling time.

11. Do you plan to develop configurators that go beyond these basic building forms and collaborate with other large leading companies in the design development of complex geometries?

In recent years we have formed a team to be able to interface with the development of large projects. Our Optinave web application is a tiny sample of what we can achieve. We believe that for companies dealing with complex geometries, a parametric web configurator can be of great value commercially and optimize internal workflows.

-Thank you very much for your time! It’s been a pleasure to learn more about your work at Construsoft.

The pleasure is ours! Thank you for this opportunity.

That's it for this new edition of  Getting to know...  Don't forget to visit Construsoft's website and check out their Optinave application. You can follow them on their Instagram account and LinkedIn profile.

Would you like to get featured in this space? Please email us at  contact@shapediver.com  and tell us about your project or brand! We'd love to start a conversation.

Today, these manufacturing practices and materials are hurting the environment, so Rodrigo Aranha decided to do something about it. He created Web Shaping Bay, an online application powered by Grasshopper and ShapeDiver that allows surfers to design their surfboards and download the production files for local manufacturing using materials such as wood, cardboard and cork.

In this interview, you’ll learn more about Rodrigo’s background, how he got into woodworking, Grasshopper, and when he built a surfboard made of covid-waste material.

1. Hello, Rodrigo. Thank you for being here! Tell us a bit about your background.

I was born in Brazil, but I've been living in Portugal since 2016. I am 36 years old and started surfing when I was 20. Since then, my life decisions have revolved around being able to surf as often as possible.

2. How did your passion for surfing and woodworking start?

Coming from the countryside of São Paulo state in Brazil, about 4 hours from the beach, I went to the state's capital to study architecture, and I started surfing with the friends I made at University. We used to go surfing before classes, leaving before sunrise.

At that time, weather forecasts were not as precise as today. We used to call a number that would give us daily reports of the surf condition but only after a certain time, so it was a gamble to find a good wave. If the weather wasn’t good enough, we would go in anyway. It wasn't easy initially, but I fell in love with surfing.

After graduating in Architecture, I felt the urge to move to a beach town, which I did. I moved to Ilhabela, a beautiful island in São Paulo state, where I worked in a small architecture studio and at a woodworking school giving technical drawing classes. That's when I started to become familiarized with woodworking.

3. How did you learn about Grasshopper?

In 2016, I moved to Portugal to continue my studies. I enrolled in a master's program in product design at the University of Lisbon and a post-grad program in Computational Design at the same University. That was when I started studying the surfing industry and first had contact with Grasshopper.  

4. How did the idea of a customizable surfboard come to be?

I had built a few surfboards in the past when I lived in Ilhabela, some from regular surfboard blanks, some from old broken surfboards, and some wooden ones.

I decided to investigate the surf industry when I had to choose a project for my master’s thesis in Portugal. I found out that the materials used to build the majority of surfboards today are the same petroleum-based, non-recyclable materials from 70 years ago. The new advances made by CNC production have only exacerbated that issue. What previously were hand-shaped products, usually built locally and customized to that specific surfer and wave, nowadays are products that are mass-produced and shipped globally.

I decided to experiment with different materials and processes to build a surfboard. At that time, I was intrigued by Ron Resch's moving paper structures. So I wanted to substitute the foam blank (which is more than 90% of the final surfboard and generates twice its weight in non-recyclable waste) with a cardboard and cork core structure (some shapers had previously used such material for surfboard construction). Grasshopper seemed like the perfect tool to take on that approach, and it was also an excellent opportunity to increase my crude knowledge of computational design.

I managed to write a basic GH definition to generate the cardboard inner structure of my surfboard. After much trial and error and some help from local shapers in Costa da Caparica, I came up with the final model to present as part of my master’s thesis. That later evolved into WSB and Aranha Shapes.

5. What were some initial challenges you faced during this early stage?

At first, I was using surfboard-specific software to get the model so I could run my GH code to generate the structure, and I found that software to be difficult to work with. In the end, I didn't have all the information about the model. I realized that if I created my surfboard parametric model with Grasshopper, I could have much more data and understanding of the modeled surfboard.

For this reason, I made a parametric file for surfboard modeling using GH, going through the steps involved in shaping and the parts that constitute a surfboard shape, the size, outline, rocker, foil, rails, deck, and bottom. That way, if I changed any parameter of the surfboard, the inner structure would change instantly according to its shape.

6. How did you find out about ShapeDiver?

In the two final months before I delivered my thesis, I learned about ShapeDiver. It opened up a new perspective of sharing with others the parametric surfboard modeling tool I had created for myself. ShapeDiver is now at the core of WSB.

7. How did Web Shaping Bay start?

After presenting my thesis, I left the project aside for a while due to other career opportunities.

At the same time, I was selected to participate in the “MEO/WSL Unwanted Shapes” call, where selected shapers were challenged to make a surfboard using covid waste. I built a surfboard using cardboard and covid-mask waste that professional surfers used during a special heat at WSL events in Ericeira and Peniche.

Meanwhile, I built the same shape out of wood from the same model created in the GH definition, which worked very well, so I decided to add the option of generating the inner core for hollow wooden surfboards in WSB.  

I got this project selected and sponsored by Cascais municipality as one of their programs for small business ideas.

8. Why is this concept so important for the surfing industry?

I believe that the surf industry is experiencing a shift. There is an increasing concern about the environment and the industry's use of more environmentally friendly materials and processes.  

In recent years, there have been advances in material and production methods. The concept of Web Shaping Bay is to be part of that movement and to apply innovative technology and building methods to these materials that are less damaging to the environment and to the people that work within this industry.

For example, wooden surfboards have been around since petroleum-based foam came onto the scene, but they were very laborious to build. However, with CNC, laser cutting, vacuum bagging, etc., it is much easier to produce high-quality, resistant wooden surfboards. With WSB, one can quickly generate the inner structure for a hollow wooden board. WSB offers the unique feature of generating a horizontal and vertical structure for the inner wooden structure, which follows both the rocker and the outline curves.

9. What’s the main selling point of these types of custom surfboards?

Web Shaping Bay positions itself as a user-friendly, simple, and accessible surfboard modeling software. The main aim is to support shapers that make hollow wooden surfboards.

There is an increasing community of wooden surfboard makers. Primarily small businesses, surfers that want to build their board, shapers that usually shape foam blanks, or wood enthusiasts that want to make a wooden “Stand Up Paddle” for cruising on calm waters.

WSB has a lot of parameters to adapt to your specific way of building and your available material. There is an underlying idea of separating the immaterial (meaning the shape of the surfboard and all the parameters that form that shape) from the material (meaning the final product, the materialized surfboard). This way, after the user models a surfboard and has at their disposal the information provided by the model, there are many options available to produce that surfboard. This approach makes it easier to incorporate new building methods and materials. That said, the tool will constantly evolve and adapt.

One can have the inner structure to make a hollow wooden board or have a spin template, rocker template, outline, etc., to handshape from foam or wood. Right now, these are the options, but there's more to come, such as providing the gCode to CNC core blanks, etc.

10. What’s next for Web Shaping Bay?

WSB is constantly evolving. Many new preshaped options will be added, for example, the possibility of modeling an asymmetric surfboard. We will also add a pro version with more functionalities and an easy version with fewer parameters.

In parallel, I have my custom surfboard company Aranha Shapes, which makes hollow wooden surfboards. It will be open for custom orders soon, but until now, I have been testing material and doing R&D for Web Shaping Bay. I developed a straightforward and effective way of making the inner structure for a hollow board implemented into WSB.

Aranha Shapes aims to make more environmentally friendly surfboards without the added price. I have been working with flexible plywood and cork, which are very cost-effective materials. The next step is to build a website for Aranha Shapes where the WSB configurator will be incorporated so clients can select certain specifications of their custom surfboard, and I can build the board as desired.

That's it for this new edition of  Getting to know...  Don't forget to  Web Shaping Bay  and follow them on Instagram !

Would you like to get featured in this space? Send us an email at  contact@shapediver.com  and tell us about your project or brand! We'd love to start a conversation.

A few months ago, they started Forma, a digital library powered by ShapeDiver that offers customizable objects, accessible and open to everyone.

In this interview, we discuss their background, the type of work and clients they focus on, and topics such as Digital Fabrication and Augmented Reality.

1. Hello there! Thank you for taking some time today. Please tell us a bit about yourselves.

Jordi: Thank you for having us! Our names are Joan Marc and Jordi. We are both from Vilassar de Mar, a coastal town near Barcelona. We founded ADDA Lab a few years ago.

We're both engineers with experience in Architecture, Industrial Design, and Additive Manufacturing, among other areas.

Joan Marc loves climbing and hiking and has an extensive library of thick books and magazines. I love digital art, fractal landscapes, woodworking, and growing a vegetable garden.

2. What is ADDA?

Advanced Digital Design & Architecture (ADDA) is a computer engineering agency based at 22@ Barcelona's innovation district, which works on the nexus of design and technology to promote more efficient, sustainable, and collaborative production and consumption models, fair for people and the environment.

We worked for years in our respective sectors and were slightly disappointed with the methodologies used in many companies. We noticed that many engineers spend their days doing repetitive tasks without a clue about the final performance of the projects developed until the end of the design cycle and without taking care of critical aspects of design, such as people and the environment.

For this reason, we decided to start ADDA Lab. We wanted to focus on exploring new technologies, tools, and methodologies that could allow the development of impactful projects more efficiently and sustainably.

3. What is Forma?

Forma (forma.barcelona ) is a digital library of customizable objects, accessible and open to everyone.

At its core, it uses Grasshopper files hosted online via the ShapeDiver platform. At ADDA, we've been building parametric models for product configuration for a long time. Soon we realized that bringing those configurators to the cloud was necessary to make them readily available to everyone.

Forma wants to be a channel to spread this knowledge and showcase the possibilities of online product configuration, allowing users to interact and configure objects tailored to their needs and spaces and instantly generate the instructions for their digital manufacturing.

It is a project developed from bottom to top, collaborating with maker spaces and the collectives around them to co-create the solutions and validate every step to close the digital gap and contribute to technologies for the common good.

4. In your opinion, how does parametric/generative design differ from traditional 3D modeling?

Traditional 3D modeling was a big step from the "pencil and ruler" method. It helped create complex projects, reducing development times, avoiding mistakes, and reducing repetitive tasks.

The same happens with parametric and generative design. It can automate the modeling process, avoiding repetitive tasks and human errors while at the same time using computational power to calculate complex solutions and generate thousands of possibilities to test in a design stage the final performance of projects.

These methodologies are crucial to creating what we call "meta-designs". These designs follow the same rules but can generate infinite different results. As an analogy, it is similar to DNA, resulting in entirely different specimens with similar instructions.

5. Which industries can see the most significant benefit from adopting this design approach?

From our point of view, any industry that focuses on producing physical objects. From jewelry to architecture. It may seem like a broad approach to developing a business. Still, if we look at our clients at ADDA, we can find orthotics manufacturers, architectural offices, machinery and tooling industries, furniture brands, and cosmetic producers, to name a few.

So we think it is more a way to approach problem resolution than specific solutions for industries. We use several different tools in our daily work, and when we don't find any that fits our objectives, we code and develop what's needed to solve the problem or to empower and help the ones who will.

6. How are web technologies shaping how we understand and interact with online products? 

Digital technologies have dramatically changed our world and will continue to do so. The web has become a space where humans can interact with each other, no matter the physical location. First was messaging, later video, but now we can even play with geometries and other complex interactions.

Nowadays, these technologies are mature enough to provide affordable, robust solutions to create seamless experiences where users can interact with products in an immersive manner. Not only for visualizing and understanding them but for personalizing and adapting them to the user's needs and preferences.

This makes it possible for manufacturers to create products that fit their users' needs, provide value, and help them automate and communicate with their business and manufacturing processes to make them possible without added complexity.

7. What can online users do nowadays that they couldn't ten years ago?

Maybe the one with a higher impact is Augmented Reality. Merging the virtual with the physical world opens many possibilities, not only for games.

For example, the fact that you can see a personalized design in the space where it's going to be installed enables users to visualize and validate before buying it, improving the overall buying experience and increasing the client's satisfaction with the product and the brand.

8. What's the most significant impact of digital fabrication? How is it related to other movements, such as distributed manufacturing?

Digital Manufacturing is a broad concept involving additive and subtractive production methods. Their most substantial impact is the connection with a computer that enables the manufacturing of complex parts and, most important, on-demand production, allowing the production of different geometries and objects each time.

They open the door to personalized production and distributed manufacturing, making it possible to manufacture the same object in different manufacturing locations.

These methodologies differ broadly from mass manufacturing, which needs the production of thousands of identical parts to be profitable and push production to centralized locations worldwide. Both digital and distributed manufacturing enable sustainable and human-centered means of production. Manufacturing happens near the final user, and each product can be different from the one before and the one after, and where companies can cooperate to fulfill an order, sharing production capacity and acting in synergy as a bigger organism.

We strongly value those methodologies at ADDA and bet on them to disrupt and change tomorrow's production and consumption models.

9. How can businesses start embracing these new technologies?

There are two main approaches: the first is to start small, with a product that can benefit the most from this methodologies, and from there, validate the process and start adding more functionalities and broaden it to the rest of the company's portfolio.

The second one is to create a business model from a disruptive perspective to make something new that can offer users and clients something that the competition cannot.

The clue is the combination of technologies and methodologies, such as digital manufacturing, distributed production, reality capture, extended reality, and cloud environments. There are many possible combinations, and every product or business will have different visions, needs, and strategies, so we invite companies to reach out to us to talk and explore possibilities so we can guide them through the endless potentialities that lay ahead.

- Thank you very much for these valuable insights!

Thank you as well for having us.

That's it for this new edition of  Getting to know...  Don't forget to visit ADDA-Lab and Forma websites and follow them on  their Instagram and LinkedIn accounts.

Would you like to get featured in this space? Please email us at  contact@shapediver.com  and tell us about your project or brand! We'd love to start a conversation.

They saw that traditional offerings were not only heavy to wear and expensive, but the whole process took too much time, and they took action.

They knew they could shorten the entire process by using parametric design to customize each patient's forearm easily and then 3D printing to manufacture each part. The only missing link was finding a solution that could allow them to host their Grasshopper file on their website and output the right production file for every patient. How did they solve it? Read along to find out!

1. Hello there! Please give us a background on your team:

We are an entrepreneurial team of 3 co-founders. Myriam holds a Ph.D. in Epidemiology and started in 2006 to work in the field of orthopedic devices. Lukas and Alec will finalize their Masters in Medical Engineering in 2022 and have already designed different assistive devices and created parametric models.

We love thinking outside the box to make low-tech smart, whether it is Myriam's business model or Lukas and Alec's manufacturing and design approaches. What fascinates us about our job is the smile on the face of our end users and the happy messages they send us.

What drives us is the belief that we can contribute to inspiring the care path for assistive devices. Getting started in this field takes courage, perseverance, and the right way to deal with negative feedback from traditional stakeholders who do not think out of the box.

2. What sparked this idea?

There are more than 20 million people worldwide with missing limbs. The majority is not using any device. Many because of the high costs, others because of lacking comfort or functions.

For families with affected children, it's challenging because they grow and frequently need a new customized prosthesis element. But only a few countries have a substantial reimbursement for such devices; therefore, the cost is a fundamental limitation.

At the same time, people have trouble getting used to the weight of an artificial limb or the sweating inside the device. Even though arm prosthetics have become more versatile, today's state of the art does not manage to solve these user pains sufficiently.

3. What's the main problem or reason for macu4 to exist?

From the user perspective, we quickly realized that significant changes wouldn't happen at the required pace since forearm prosthetics is a very niche market. Niche markets are not attractive enough for established players and are too risky for investors when it is about low-tech. But making low-tech smart is the way to go, and besides that as well quite exciting.

"Smart" does not mean changing only the design or the material. It refers to the entire value chain: how end users can access it, how much it costs, how to interact with the user, how to collect measurement data, how to manufacture it, etc.

We decided that we would solve the problem by combining new technologies such as additive manufacturing and parametric models with new business models to create new possibilities with the overarching goal of improving the quality of life of people that look for an arm prosthesis.

4. What's the status quo? How are you changing this?

The customization process of an arm socket (in a traditional way) looks like this:

(1) The patient has to travel to the prosthetist (in larger cities, there is no problem, but in smaller cities or villages, there is a need to travel to the prosthetist).

(2) The prosthetist has to examine the arm stump and make a plaster cast. Some shaft technologies cannot work well with a scan because scanning is complex. In the case of arm stumps and the traditional liner (inner part of a shaft) has to sit perfectly on the arm.

(3) The prosthetist produces in a time-consuming process the first test component. A few cases can now consider a 3D silicon print of such parts, as this would save time.

(4) The prosthetic arm is finalized.

(5) The patient travels again to the prosthetist to test the first version of the prosthetic arm.

(6) If needed, the prosthetist has to rework the shaft/inlet.

(7) The patient travels again to the prosthetist to receive the final prosthetic arm.

At macu4, we created a new approach that saves time while customizing the socket.

The first key element is the measurement, which can be done manually, photo-based, or with a scan - measurements are extracted by an algorithm. The configuration equals selecting the colors and additional modules a user requires. The second key element is the socket customization which is done by the parametric model and based on the measurement data - in this step and during the measurement, there are considerable reductions in time.

5. What have been the main challenges in making this happen?

We bundle several aspects currently neglected by the market into one approach. For example:

1. We introduce a simplified measurement technique and are therefore able to offer our solution as well via a B2C model.

2. We use 3D printing to outsource the manufacturing of a customized device and overcome current design limitations.

3. We automate the customization process with the parametric model approach and dramatically cut costs.

We do all this within an industry with heavily rigid structures. The biggest challenge during the development process was and is the fundraising and the relationship building with prosthetists.

For investors, the approach covers too many new elements. For prosthetists, it is difficult to think out of the box and see the long-term opportunities of the Macu4 approach (i.e., serve more clients simultaneously or offer people with out-of-pocket payments a much cheaper solution).

6. How is Parametric Design (Grasshopper) involved?

We were looking for a way to lower the costs of customized prosthetics because the working steps to customize a prosthesis socket are highly time-consuming. At the same time, we were looking for a possibility to introduce remote measurement for users.

The best way to approach this was to create the prosthetic socket design as a parametric model. A third requirement was that the prosthetist should get access to the socket design through our webshop and without the need for expert skills or subscription to expert software. The combination of Grasshopper and ShapeDiver fulfilled all of those requirements.

7. What are the benefits of using 3D printing vs. the traditional approach?

The designs developed by macu4 are always produced by 3D printing. Both the customized and the standard parts. We decided to make these designs by 3D printing because this is the way to go for customizations. But it also helps to overcome current design weaknesses of existing product offerings in the market, i.e., to make parts lighter.

Another significant advantage of 3D printing is outsourcing the production efficiently (and decentralizing it) and running several tests during the design development phases without high initial investment in materials. This way, the cost burden is relatively low for a startup that has only limited resources at the beginning.

8. Which other companies are involved in this project?

The value chain starts with finalizing the STL files for the required product designs. Especially the files of customized designs are created just in time. For this process and the visualization of the 3D model, we work with ShapeDiver. Before the designs are 3D printed, we mark them digitally to make them identifiable once they are provided to the clients. For this step, we partially use the software solution of Additive Marking GmbH.

9. How is ShapeDiver helping you?

ShapeDiver is the online platform that processes the Grasshopper file for running the socket model. Thus, we can focus on the core technology of macu4, the parametric approach itself, and the customer frontend in which we embed the ShapeDiver viewer.

For macu4, the software solution is more than a software element. It is a comprehensive service. We go from reliable 3D visualizations to custom-made consultancy services to get access to a broader software development network.

10. Can you describe the complete process for a user to get their prosthesis done via Macu4?

We sell our design solutions directly to professionals (B2B) and end-users (B2C). The process with end-users is as follows:

A person with a missing forearm and a specific bi-manual activity in mind, for example, cycling or kayaking, finds us online via social media, search engines, or recommendations via 3rd parties. On our website, the user has the option to either contact us directly or get initially informed by our explanatory videos and our FAQ.

1. Once the person feels that the Macu4 Explorer could be a suitable solution for them, the self-measurement takes place. Self-measurement means that the user follows clear instructions on providing the Macu4 support team with data on their arm. It is a method where the user prints a template on paper and takes three photos of their arm. Macu4 processes the images and extracts the measurement values we need for the parametric shaft model.

2. When this is done, we inform the user by email to create an account in our online configurator and start the configuration. If desired, a video call takes place before the configuration. For the activity modules, a user always configures the required size alone and based on two measurement values that we provide. For the customized shaft, the user only receives a measurement code. As a final step, the user confirms the configuration(s) and pays online.

3. Once this is done, we finalize the shaft configuration based on the measurements we extracted from the photos and start the 3D printing process.

4. Finally, we assemble and label the product. The user receives the products by mail, and we conduct a video call to ensure that the user gets all parts and solves any questions they might have.

11. What's the long-term for macu4?

Our clients are of different age groups. They are either already using a prosthesis or not. What they have in common is that they look for a lightweight device that is modular and suitable for sports.

For some, it is the add-on product; for others, it is the first-choice solution. Our goal is to successfully launch the Macu4 approach, introduce end-users to the parametric model-based configurations of their devices and contribute to people's well-being.

- Thank you very much for your time today! We're delighted to have you as users on our platform!

Thank you as well for letting us tell our story here. We really appreciate it!

That's it for this new edition of  Getting to know...  Don't forget to  visit macu4's website  and follow them on their Instagram and LinkedIn accounts.

Would you like to get featured in this space? Send us an email at  contact@shapediver.com  and tell us about your project or brand! We'd love to start a conversation.

By now, many members of the Grasshopper community know that if they need to share a Grasshopper model online, they can simply create a ShapeDiver account  to do so. Our platform makes it extremely easy to drag and drop your Grasshopper file and create a web application that can be shared with non-technical clients or colleagues in just a few seconds.

Our system's standard UI and UX are more than enough for most simple use cases. But what happens when a product requires a more complex UX like clicking on a specific part of the model to trigger a particular action (animation, camera movement, hidden UI), dragging the object, and positioning it in a precise location on the canvas? What if the online application requires a specific UI that reflects certain design guidelines? Or to load multiple GH files on a single scene and view them all in AR?

Here is where our ShapeDiver API comes into play. By leveraging web technologies and the power of parametric design provided by Grasshopper, designers can build online applications at a level of complexity that would be very difficult to achieve using only web technologies.

This webinar aims to give a clear overview of what can be achieved if one uses a Grasshopper file and the ShapeDiver API. It’s meant as a non-technical introduction to the possibilities and complemented by brand-new technical documentation and actionable examples that should help you go from a complete beginner to an expert in a short period.

Does this sound interesting to you? Then read along and check out the exact content of this live event!

Webinar Overview

Date:   Tuesday, June 28th, 2022

Time: 8am PT, 11am ET, 5pm CEST, 8:30pm IST

Duration: Approximately 90 minutes

> REGISTER NOW

Part 1: Getting Started: Embedding & Connecting!

- Estimated time: 10 min

You’ll learn how to embed a ShapeDiver model directly on your website and connect it to a custom user interface via our viewer API. We’ll also share an actionable example you can use with any of your models.

Part 2: Advanced Interactions 101: Clickable Elements!

- Estimated time: 10 min

We’ll show you how to use the 3D environment as part of the UI flow to improve your UX by making clickable elements that trigger specific actions, such as camera movements, animations, hidden UIs, etc.

Part 3: Divide & Conquer: Multiple Models, One Scene!

- Estimated time: 5 min

In Grasshopper, like in life, things can sometimes get messy and complex. Worry not! We’ll show how you can divide a highly complex Grasshopper model into smaller ones and load them into a single scene. This is a great way to distribute the logic in smaller chunks or build more complex workflows involving several definitions.

Part 4: Advanced Interactions 201: Dragging & Snapping!

- Estimated time: 10 min

Easy peasy so far? We hear you. In this section, we’ll show you how to have individual control over multiple models on a scene by making them draggable and automatically snap to other areas of the scene.

Part 5: It’s Alive: External GLTFs, complex animations & AR!

- Estimated time: 10 min

Add the cherry on top of the pie by creating a truly gorgeous experience: load external GLTFs, export your scene in different file formats and even view it in AR. Life’s great, isn’t it?

Part 6: Q&A

- Estimated time 30 to 45 min

The tables turn and now it's time for you to ask us questions! Do you have a special application we didn't cover? Would you like us to double-down on a specific topic? Let us know!

> REGISTER NOW

Takeaways

This non-technical webinar should give everyone considering building a complex 3D online application a good overview of the possibilities our platform can provide. Together with our lead developers, we’ll aim to give you all the insights and guidance you need to make an informed decision.

<< If you have any questions ahead of the event, please send us an email at contact@shapediver.com or use the contact button at the top of our website.>>

. This startup was founded by three Czech architects that had the goal of building an affordable family house that could also meet the criteria of quality in the 21st century.

Their inspiration is deeply rooted in the classical Czech village buildings and their proportions and layout. This helps Cake Houses to fit in various sites and contexts appropriately, while also combining good design and repetitive construction techniques.

By using parametric design and CNC machines, they effectively reduced design and construction time on-site where the finalized parts are assembled on the spot. This way, they are trying to counter some of the biggest problems of the construction industry, like the complexity of working with multiple vendors and contractors.

1. Hello there! Please give us a brief background on your team, profession, and hobbies.

We are three young architects based in Prague, Czech republic. We first met at the Technical University of Liberec and later started working as a team. Our interests vary, from playing chess or volleyball to amateur hairdressing, surfing, making music, parenting, etc. There is a whole lot of it.

2. What is “Cake Houses,” and why did you come up with this concept?

Cake Houses is our answer to a simple question: is it possible to build an affordable family house that meets the criteria of quality architecture in the 21st-century? Our motivation comes from the reality of Czech suburban areas and housing estates that emerged in them. Projects that might fulfill the idea of cheap but whose architectural quality is at least questionable.

The central concept is to combine good design and the advantages of a typical house typology, such as repetitive construction, both backed by computer technology. We believe this combination can bring quality architecture to more people and make it more affordable.

3. What are the design inspirations behind this?

We got inspired for the design of the house primarily by the classical Czech village buildings, reinterpreted and adjusted to fulfill the needs of 21st-century users. A similar proportion, roof, and layout are the attributes easily found in historical buildings all around our region so that the house can fit in various contexts and sites. It is universal and timeless.

The inspiration behind the concept was based on different types of industries, such as automobile or furniture production. Industries that adopt standardization as a way of reaching affordability. We also implemented the aspect of personal customization, which is thanks to computer programming, a fast-growing worldwide phenomenon. Our goal is to connect all of the above.

4. What’s the main problem you’re trying to solve with Cake Houses?

We know that architecture can be expensive, partially because every building is basically a prototype developed from scratch. Aside from the price, it is often a complicated, stressful, and time-consuming process not everybody wants to be part of. That's why many people decide to build cheaper, faster, albeit poor-quality houses, as seen in extensive catalogs of predesigned projects.

Our goal is to change this. We believe there is a massive gap between working with architects and choosing from the catalog. That is why we developed a variable type house of good architectural quality that implements the ideas of repetition and modular framework to lower the price.

5. How is sustainability embedded into this project?

We are aware of the material and energy consumption of the building industry. That is why we designed Cake Houses as wooden structures, which are widely considered to be more sustainable than usual building systems. Wood is renewable and practical to construct from, so we see no point in making typical family houses any different. The modularity and repetition help us avoid unnecessary waste of energy and material during construction.

The house adopts an intelligent energy management system and uses a thermal pump, which can be combined with other alternative energy sources. The preferred orientation and volume of the house also help to reach efficient thermal profits.

6. What type of manufacturing techniques are involved during this process?

All components are supposed to be made on a production line using modern CNC machines. Finalized parts are then transferred to the particular site and assembled on-site.

We use manufacturing techniques that are widely considered standard nowadays and have yet to find an alternative that would save money for our clients or us. Perhaps we will be able to experiment with advanced technologies such as robotics or large-scale 3D printing in the future. Still, for now, it is more practical for us to stick to the standard methods the industry provides.

7. What were the main challenges throughout the development of this project?

The biggest challenge for us was (and still is to date) the overall complexity of it. Practically everything that exceeds the “good old-fashioned designing.” Throughout the whole process, we were forced to leave our safe space to become programmers, salespeople, marketing experts, illustrators, etc.

Aside from that, another problematic matter is the complexity of the building industry in general. Let’s say that creating a variable house is a bit more comprehensive than creating a variable table, mainly because of the number of contractors, crafts, details, and legislative procedures involved. We chose a pretty tricky problem to solve!

8. How did modular design influence this whole concept?

We use modules as the basic units to construct our Cake Houses. Thinking in modules provides us with the variability of the internal layout so that houses can be configured according to our client’s requirements. In this case, modular systems support the idea of repetitiveness. The same construction system is used over and over again, ensuring the quality of execution and reducing the material residue as well as the cost.

Unlike previously, where modularity meant that many parts were produced and afterward connected, we instead use more recent programming techniques that allow us to create virtual modules and connect them beforehand inside a fictional environment.

9. What’s the right balance between predefined options and fully parametric?

That pretty much depends on the overall characteristics of the project itself. In our case, the use of fully parametric designs would simply not be worth it. Instead of experimental construction systems, we focus on constructing in conventional ways to make our designs more accessible and affordable. Some pre-definitions come from the materials and systemic parts we use - materials that already exist and are very much standardized in production shape and size.

Although some fully parametric projects interest us, their implementation would require a different type of manufacturing than we currently use.

10. How are Parametric Design and Grasshopper involved in this project?

Since programming, generally speaking, is more and more involved in many human activity fields, it is no surprise that architecture is not an exception. We, as architects, feel the need to face these changes and not act like they don’t happen. For us at Cake Houses, this evolution is even more important to follow, and Grasshopper is a great tool to help us.

We don’t use Grasshopper strictly for the usual Parametric Design; instead, we connect different predefined parts via our algorithms. You can liken the whole system to a toy construction kit, such as Lego.

Grasshopper helps us connect blocks and, therefore, automatize designing and drawing plans. When it comes to the combination of computer science and architecture, we believe that there are endless possibilities to explore.

11. How is ShapeDiver helping you?

Thanks to ShapeDiver, our customers can easily view and examine our designs in 3D via their computer or mobile devices. The connection to Grasshopper works exceptionally well! We can quickly transfer our virtual models from our computers to the internet. Our clients can explore the possibilities of Cake Houses on their own. Or show and discuss the designs with their friends at any time, anywhere.

When clients visit our office, the project they designed via the virtual configurator can be quickly transferred back to Grasshopper and Rhino. This enables us to make different adjustments, give a walk through the house in virtual reality, and more. It is easy, fast, practical, and fun.

12. What’s the future of affordable housing?

That’s a big question, especially nowadays. In recent years, we have witnessed significant growth in the general size of floor area per person. Although this will probably continue in developing countries, it is most likely to halt in the Euro-American context, where the construction costs have already gotten far too high. In our opinion, housing could and should become more practical and less expensive.

A good example of this may be a recently expanding phenomenon of tiny houses. Given that contemporary housing production is strictly connected to resource and land consumption, shifting to a more sustainable living and economy could be a game-changer. Housing projects should and hopefully will become more responsible.

However, we think our habits and needs do not change that often in terms of general typology. Therefore, we don’t expect any massive shift towards some kind of highly alternative housing projects anytime soon.

13. What’s the future for Cake Houses? 

Another big question! We find ourselves at the beginning of our journey and will have to wait to see where the road leads us. Nonetheless, we see massive potential in how Cake Houses work as a system.

For instance, in the context of the current construction industry, you can see how repetition and overall sameness keep the prices low. We can imagine situations where you use the same repetitive techniques in different ways to keep the structures construction-wise similar, but to develop houses that are different in their shapes and materiality. This could be a valuable tool to reach more diversity and less tediousness.

The idea of designing the principles according to which the house is designed, rather than one final plan, is what interests us. We would like to explore this subject further and further. But only time will tell.

- Thank you very much for your time today. This has been very inspiring!

Thank you as well for the opportunity. We hope to share even more exciting news with you in the future.

That’s it for this new edition of  Getting to know...  Don’t forget to visit their website and to follow them on their Instagram  account! 

Would you like to get featured in this space? Simply send us an email to  contact@shapediver.com  and tell us about your project or brand! We’d love to start a conversation.

is the leading online platform for hosting, publishing and sharing Grasshopper files on the web. Professionals from multiple industries such as Medical, Automotive, Furniture, AEC, Jewelry, among many others, use our services to create online applications based on their Grasshopper definitions. These applications can be used by non-technical people by simply accessing them via a web browser.

We are excited to announce that we recently added support for 4 new plugins on our ShapeDiver platform: IntraLattice, Chimpanzee, Treeslot and Droid. This brings the total number of supported third-party plugins to 33, which include among others popular names such as Pufferfish, Karamba3D, Kangaroo 2, OpenNest, Weaverbird and MeshTools. Click here if you'd like to see the complete list of supported plugins.

INTRALATTICE

Intralattice is a plugin used to generate solid lattice structures within a design space. It was developed as an extensible, open-source alternative to current commercial solutions, such as Within.

As an ongoing project developed at McGill’s Additive Design & Manufacturing Laboratory (ADML), it has been a valuable research tool, serving as a platform for breakthroughs in multiscale design and optimization.

The generative process is split into 3 main modules, each of which has a selection of various components, for a total of 16 components.

CHIMPANZEE

Chimpanzee is a Grasshopper plugin for Rhino 6, Rhino 7, Rhino 8 WIP and Rhino Mac written in C# which focuses on fractal math and chaos theory.

It contains currently 90 components including strange attractors, map & oscillators, 4D hyperchaotic systems, iterated function systems (IFS) a fractals like Mandelbrot set or Julia set using escape time algorithm.   

TREESLOTH

As a 3D CAD software suite, Rhino+Grasshopper is, at its core, a means to create, transform and manage data. Grasshopper’s explicit visual scripting interface structures these operations through the use of DataTrees.

Treesloth emerged as a series of tools applied in both professional and research practice to help better negotiate the the types of data relationships within (and between) Grasshopper definitions that enable more complex operations. Treesloth components don't have their own ribbon, but are instead distributed throughout the "Sets" ribbon.

Notable features include:

DROID

Droid is a 3D printing related Grasshopper plugin library add-on, with control over model slicing, custom paths and Gcode generation. Designed to be used from small desktop 3D Printers, up to large scale Robotic Fabricators using FFF technologies and running from Gcode.

Available to be used to prepare and print models in a 'Plug & Play' style with Droid components, or in a more controlled and experimental manner with Custom input and output print paths.

Droid allows control over conventional Slicing features such as infill, shell thickness and caps, within the Rhino and Grasshopper environment. In addition, output and editing of paths is also available once models are sliced into the Rhino and Grasshopper workspace, allowing full control and analysis to the user.
Custom or edited paths then can be input back into Droid for Gcode preparation and generation.

Would you like us to support another third-party plugin? Then send us a message in our Forum! We are constantly adding new tools that can help me ShapeDiver the most open and accessible platform for Grasshopper files.

WOOD-SKIN® was founded in 2013 to help architects and designers bridge the gap between the creative freedom of digital representation and the practical realities of the construction site.

We are architects, designers, and engineers with a shared passion for materials, digital fabrication, and software, which led us to challenge the technical and economic obstacles to creating complex 3D surfaces with conventional cladding materials like wood, felt, cork, plastic, and metal.

We believe that real innovation lies at the intersection of composite materials and digital fabrication, where technology becomes the enabling factor for new building methods and a new design grammar.

2. What is WOOD-SKIN® solving/offering that is so unique?

WOOD-SKIN® created a way to bridge the gap between the idea of a 3D complex surface and its realization. We offer a turnkey solution that presents many advantages compared to traditional systems.  Our technology makes the process faster , more scalable, and more affordable.

Furthermore, we consider ourselves as an extension of the architects and designers’ arm. Not only do we offer beautiful products but, with our know-how, we also design, engineer, and install our surfaces.

The WOOD-SKIN® process transforms rigid materials into 3D sheets of a “programmable” composite with the potential to be coded and given a specific form through a one-step fabrication process. The patented technology enables the panel to fold along “digital hinges”, much like origami .

From the flat state, the material morphs into the third dimension, where it can assume a range of forms and functions limited only by the imagination of the designer, without losing structural strength.

We carefully mix rigid materials such as wood with a variety of high performance textiles, then the sheets are carved by machines with tolerances proper of the aerospace industry.

3. When and how did this idea come to be?

WOOD-SKIN® is the result of years of experiments in the most various fields, from model making to stop motion animation and wood working. At the core, WOOD-SKIN® is a pure obsession for dynamism, materials and innovation. The idea, as often happens, formed during several years of architectural and design practice and ultimately materialized when having to deal with a complex design we did not know how to solve. In other words, we had to solve for ourselves the very issue that is today the core of WOOD-SKIN®’s value proposition, “complexity solved”.

Rather than creating a one-off solution we decided to come up with a system, a technology, later patented, that would have enabled architects and designers from all over the world to transform and thredimesionalise materials traditionally known as flat. After a healthy amount of failures, headaches and obsessive adjustments Wood-Skin was born and launched in 2013.

Today the technology has matured enough to go from the first historical counters at the Allez Up gym in Montreal commissioned by the De La Plant family for their gym to the largest free-form ceiling in the world at the United Nation in Geneva, a project commissioned by the state of Qatar.

4. What are the three main products that WOOD-SKIN® offers and what are their main characteristics?

MESH PANELS

The Mesh Panels are inspired by the natural realm, fully tracing existing organic forms and integrating them with the varied world of architecture.

Mesh Panels are the ultimate example of the possibility of the WOOD-SKIN®  process, where the 3D surface is locked in shape by a quick-assembly frame that can be then hung to the wall. The meticulous selection of sustainable materials for the new Mesh Panel includes paperstone, print, metallic and non-metallic laminates, as well as Alpi (an ultra-thin and lightweight material), available in a variety of colors and infinite shapes with elegant finishes.

The multi-adaptability of Mesh Panels, guaranteed by their free-form properties,  allows them to be composed in several combinations depending on the space they will enrich.

FOLD PANELS

Propelled by the optimization of sustainable materials, the simple design of our Fold Panels establishes a comfortable atmosphere for the user, facilitating any preference through a tailored approach.

Fold Panels are 3D boards with compelling geometries, built inside square or rectangular modules. The Fold Panel concept is uniquely suited to transform a space with the colors and configurations that best fit the project’s overall vision of the architect. The Fold panel system is composed of three different lines: A-gami, O-gami and U-gami.

More than ever, these make it possible to create unique three-dimensional coverings with a wide range of material finishes and quick, easy assembly. A robust frame sustains the weight of the panels and facilitates the installation on walls and ceilings. The most important part of the new panels is an online configurator: the user has the possibility to change parameters of the standard panel directly online, changing dimensions, shape, materials, downloading the file and using it inside his project. These online tools are the ultimate expression of the digital nature of our panels.

This tool allows you to combine, juxtapose and orient the panels to create a preview of your composition. For the finish, you can then choose among the laminates, metals and veneers in the collection. Once you’re done you can export a 3D model or a.dwg file to share with colleagues and/or import into your project.

This more advanced digital tool enables you to intuitively model the form and aesthetic characteristics of the panels at will, thanks to the use of parametric sliders. The configurator allows you to push beyond the logic of the standard product and adapt the Fold Panels to your creative needs, obtaining truly unique results.

TAILOR MADE SERVICE

Tailor Made surfaces are unique bespoke products created for specific projects. The guiding design principle here is the geometry.

Our architectural and design team has years of experience working with top firms on international projects, and there’s nothing that excites us more than the challenge of engineering intricate shapes, designing custom details, and devising solutions to ‘impossible’ problems. For particularly complex projects, our people are on hand to oversee the installation, whether in Italy or abroad.

The WOOD-SKIN® design team is able to discretize any complex geometric input with single or double curvature, and transform it into a series of flat elements easily produced and installed.

Thanks to WOOD-SKIN®’s proprietary design software and programmable manufacturing process, the most expensive and time-consuming aspects of customization are significantly reduced.

5. What are the more challenging aspects of designing and building these products?

The intrinsic nature of what WOOD-SKIN® can be, in terms of designing the elements, opens to many ideas and solutions to complex projects. At the same time, it leaves a "blank canvas" which can be an obstacle, in terms of what can be imagined and how to actually design it.

That's why we focused on creating parametric algorithms for our paneling solutions and making them available online to the final customers, who can integrate bespoke creations into their projects with the click of a button.

This also allows the process to be entirely digital and enriched with embedded information: the customer can receive the precise specifications and data about the element they designed with our tools (downloadable 3D assets, technical sheets, all of this related to the actual configuration created through the online configurator).  Our team benefits from having a controlled environment that allows for a "standardized customization", receiving all the necessary information about geometries, dimensions, finishings, application and project location through the same tool the customer is working with.

In terms of building the panels, our statement "complexity solved" best explains how easy the system is, even if it might seem intimidating at a first glance. Thanks to the digital parametric process, we can provide the customer with all necessary information (pieces, fixing order, bill of quantities, etc.) for the product to be easily understood and installed, especially for our Fold and Mesh Panels families.

With the Tailor Made products, it is the same, but with a few more guidelines and solutions customized for each bespoke project we help create. Also, astonishingly even to our experts, when some mismatch happens between the digital and the real site conditions,WOOD-SKIN® can be extremely compliant even where the digital model tells us it should be theoretically impossible. This is thanks to the "digital hinge" programmed into the panels, which can always bend when designed to be left unfixed.

6. How is parametric design and digital fabrication related to these products?

WOOD-SKIN® is designed through the use of bespoke computational tools which enable it to be precisely controlled and allow us to simulate the physical behavior of the skin, parametrizing  the geometry and the material, before manufacturing. For this reason, digital fabrication processes are necessary to create a direct link between the digital design and the physical end-product as we are able to inform specifically the CNC processing machine. This ensures the best results in quality and timing for final production.

7. How is ShapeDiver involved?

WOOD-SKIN® is designed to be extremely versatile and adaptable, so that almost any shape can be designed with it. However it needs constraints and parameters that only computational tools can control. ShapeDiver enabled us to offer our clients the possibility of engaging with  WOOD-SKIN® computational tools transforming them into simple online configurators. By doing so, it facilitates product communication, eases our clients into self-designing their custom solution, and simplifies the process of transforming digital designs to final products.

8. What are the characteristics of a great online configurator?

WOOD-SKIN® is available in an infinite variety of materials and geometrical patterns. In this respect, it is extremely relevant that a product configurator is easily updatable with new variables in finishings and geometries, that includes good and fast rendering features to represent the real product in every detail, and that it is fast in calculating the parameters changes for a proper user interaction. AR integration is definitely accurate for such a product, because it provides a deeper element of understanding, meaning for the user to see it exactly where it was imagined to be in reality.

9. Is there a relationship between bespoke products and sustainable products?

Sustainability is one of the main attitudes of the WOOD-SKIN® firm and people making part of it in the whole vision. Starting from the digital fabrication process, which aims to optimize resources, time and materials while concurring to create bespoke shapes, making the impossible possible, the whole production process, from concept to completion is inclined towards minimization of energy consumption and waste.

Thanks to the WOOD-SKIN® patented process, we are able to create volumetric shapes, with the most complex designs while minimizing the material quantity and time needed for design and production. Furthermore, our products involve many sustainable materials/finishes such as recycled felt. Also, all the materials and finishes we select are compliant with the highest standards of quality and sustainability available for that specific material on the market.

10. What’s the future of digital fabrication?

Digital fabrication offers a vast range of benefits, from production timing and processes to final cost. Furthermore, it is a great encouragement for architects and designers to explore their creativity and project-customization.

For this reason, we believe that digital fabrication will lead the design and construction industry to a new era of digital craftsmanship, in which standardized solutions will be replaced by mass customization, ultimately leading to great efficiency and virtually zero waits. We believe that truly digitally fabricated products are key to a sustainable future addressing global issues and very customized aesthetics at the same time.

- Well, this was been extremely interesting! Thank you once again for your time. Anything else you'd like to add?

Thank you as well! Just to remind everyone to check out our website and our online configurators.

That’s it for this new edition of  Getting to know...  Don’t forget to follow our friends from WOOD-SKIN® directly at their  LinkedIn  and  Instagram  accounts! 

Would you like to get featured in this space? Simply send us an email to  contact@shapediver.com  and tell us about your project or brand! We’d love to start a conversation.

A few weeks ago, we officially introduced our completely redesigned ShapeDiver Platform 2.0 during a live webinar. As shown during that event, we not only released a brand new UI, but we also revamped our entire infrastructure including our Grasshopper plugin.

Precisely this will be the focus of our next live webinar, hosted by the McNeel Europe team over at their YouTube channel   on May 12th, 2022 at 4pm CEST / 10am ET, 7:30pm IST.

This time, Edwin Hernández from ShapeDiver will provide a guided tour of all the new features recently introduced with the latest version of our Grasshopper plugin. From new import and export file formats, to our new attribute system and a plethora of new components.

Webinar Overview

Date: Thursday, May 12th, 2022

Time: 4pm CEST / 10am ET / 7:30pm IST

1. Welcoming & Introduction (5 min.)

2. The ShapeDiver Plugin (about 40 min.)

- Inputs: new import file formats

Rhino 7 brings completely new import file formats and we added all of them to ShapeDiver.

- Outputs: new export file formats

Same as with imports, there are also new export options with Rhino 7 and they are now available on ShapeDiver.

- Display: new material options and GLTF 2.0

Among the many updates, materials can now be exploded to extract information from them. The new GLTF 2.0 display component uses the standardized format so that the results can be used in any viewer, even local ones.

- Attributes: a new way of managing data

In the new plugin, every object manipulated in your definitions can be assigned one or several attributes. However, ShapeDiver attributes can take virtually any data type supported in Grasshopper: numbers, strings and colors, but also geometry can be used as attributes. This flexibility is reflected in the sdTF file format we use for transferring structured data between clients.

3. Q&A (about 15 min.)

To close this webinar, we’ll answer any questions derived from the information shared during the presentation.

-> Register Now

Takeaways

Just like on our last webinar, we can't wait to show everyone all of the new components and possibilities that our new plugin has to offer. To help everyone plan accordingly, we calculate that this event will consist of around 45 minutes of walkthrough and explanations, plus 15 minutes for Q&A purposes. For those who won't be able to attend, you need to worry not as the event will be recorded.

<< If you have any questions ahead of the event, please send us an email to contact@shapediver.com or use the contact button at the top of our website.>>

ShapeDiver 2.0 is finally here. But what exactly is ShapeDiver 2.0? Well, a lot of things. We’re still the best way to create online applications based on Grasshopper files, but now we're taking the necessary steps to make sure the process of building these applications is more efficient and flexible, both for individual designers and teams alike.

To begin with, most of our users have surely noticed the tip of the iceberg: a completely updated platform frontend and the new tools it offers. However, ShapeDiver 2.0 covers the entire ShapeDiver infrastructure, from the platform to the Grasshopper plugin functionalities, and perhaps most importantly everything in between. New features both extend our focus on online applications but also introduce a set of tools aimed at large design teams in the AEC industry and beyond.

Whether you are a long-time user of ShapeDiver or a Grasshopper enthusiast curious to learn about the classic features of the platform as much as the newer ones, this webinar is the ideal introduction to everything our cloud platform has to offer. Join us and decide whether the ShapeDiver tools can improve your design, manufacturing and/or sales processes!

If you want to register right away, here’s the link for you to do so. If you’d like to first learn what we’ll cover during the event, then read along!

Webinar Overview

Date: Monday, March 21st, 2022.

Time: 6pm CET, 12pm ET, 9am PST.

1. Building Online Applications (Estimated time: 45 min.)

On the one hand, this new iteration of the ShapeDiver platform both solidifies and extends the core ShapeDiver vision: helping designers build online applications around parametric design. Key developments include the following features which we will cover in detail during the webinar:

In particular, we will detail a complete workflow for turning a Grasshopper definition into an interactive, powerful design application online.

2. Work Better Together (Estimated time: 20 min.)

On the other hand, in the context of our merge with the Swarm application developed by the Core Studio at Thornton Tomasetti , the ShapeDiver platform has extended its scope to a set of new functionalities aimed at optimizing the internal processes of design teams. The webinar will cover the following topics in particular:

3. Next Steps (Estimated time: 20 min.)

We will close the webinar with a preview of the ShapeDiver roadmap, with a focus on the tools that we believe will open up new workflows for parametric designers:

-> Register Now!

Takeaways

We’re very excited to show everyone what we’ve been working on for the past 12+ months. We hope that by the end of this webinar you will agree that the wait was worth it. To help everyone plan accordingly, we calculate that this event will consist of around 90 minutes of walkthrough and explanations, plus 20 to 30 minutes for Q&A purposes.

<< If you have any questions ahead of the event, please send us an email to  contact@shapediver.com  or use the contact button at the top of our website.>>

As we've explored in previous articles, there are plenty of areas that are due for disruption inside the AEC industry. While some focus on the construction materials being used, such as Mass Timber, other focus on the actual construction processes, like prefabrication and modularization. This week, we meet the founders behind Toggle, an American firm that is reimagining rebar fabrication with the help of computational design tools like Grasshopper and ShapeDiver.

You'll learn how they got inspired to start this company after witnessing how wind turbines are built, how they got $100K in funding and basically hacked their way until they found 'Product-Market Fit', plus how COVID forced them to have a "work from anywhere" mentality. Finally, they have a word of advice to all new founders on how to navigate the intricate world of startups and funding rounds. We hope you enjoy this unique and inspiring story!

1. Welcome, Daniel and Andreas. Thank you for joining us today! Tell us a bit about Toggle, what it is and what problems are you tackling?

- Hello everyone! Thank you for having us here. I am Daniel Blank, CEO and Co-founder of Toggle Robotics. Ian Cohen and I started this company in 2016 from Brooklyn, NY.

- And I'm Andreas Thoma, I am Toggle's Director of Digital Fabrication and I joined Toggle in 2018.

Toggle is a construction robotics company at its core. We have built a full stack robotics and automation solution for pre-assembling rebar. This, we believe, solves a potent problem of efficiency in the Construction Industry. 

The demand for concrete in the construction industry is accelerating. We need infrastructure, we need housing. Cities are becoming larger and more complex than ever before. And meanwhile, there's a challenge to deliver construction quickly, affordably, and at the scale that it's needed. Thus, the solution is to bring in new efficiencies to this particular ingredient that's so critical to construction.

'Rebar Prefabrication' is one of the key focus areas in Toggle’s mission to build world-class robotics and automation solutions for a wide range of physical fabrication and assembly applications in large-scale urban and infrastructure construction.

2. Why did you start Toggle, and what was the motivation?

The motivation to start Toggle is an interesting story that involves wind turbines! The "aha! moment" stems from the mixture of three different ideas that gel perfectly with each other. The first would be to understand the cost overruns in large-scale projects caused by a lot of variable factors that make the project run longer and become more expensive than they're initially anticipated. Why does this have to be the way and can we intervene to make it efficient?

That’s the preliminary thought, but when we look back and realize the tremendous advancement in the consumer products space in our lifetime, from the computer to go from this really heavy thing that is the size of a room to going into a desktop form factor and then to a thing in your pocket and even on your wrist now.

I believe there’s this democratization with consumer products, with things like smartphones and cars and televisions and refrigerators and all of the air conditioners, all of these types of things. But with construction, you know, I think things have always kind of gone in the other direction, like the bigger the project's getting, the more that time goes on, the more the cost overruns.

The last piece of the puzzle is my visit to a wind farm close to Vienna, where I saw a wind turbine come together. Grid scale wind turbines are taller than The Statue Of Liberty and are transported onto trucks and prefabricated in factories in controlled environments. The turbine itself came together in a matter of days, however the large concrete foundation, with its reinforcements and other construction activity, slowed things down.

This was sort of the inspiration moment for me to find a faster or better way to do this part of the construction process. And then as we began to explore this, we saw that it applied not only to wind turbines but to the whole construction industry.

3. How/when did you find 'Product-Market Fit'? 

It is never an easy journey to find product-market fit. Initially, we had to do a proof of concept where we needed to demonstrate, on some small scale, how we could use a robot to manipulate rebar to form a cage fit for construction.

The idea was to get investors to see the potential and get their support. We did get some potential customers but we knew our next step would be to get into an accelerator program where we got some funding. Fortunately, we got accepted into the "Urban-X" accelerator program that's based in Brooklyn, where, as part of our participation, we received funding amounting to $100,000 USD, which was a significant amount considering we were funding the entire company from our pockets.

To go from funding out of pocket to having one hundred thousand dollars to develop, things moved swiftly for us due to the program and it was in this phase that we began working towards product-market fit. The traditional process of making the assembly of rebar is manual. We have people that are picking up pieces of rebar or they're putting them together into these three-dimensional shapes.

At Toggle, we reimagined the process and essentially broke down that process into its component steps and we looked at where we could introduce automation, where could the robots do the lifting rather than the person doing the lifting? Or where could the robot do the positioning rather than the person doing the positioning? Or where could the robots connect to pieces together rather than a person doing that?  

After a brief period of experimentation, we found that prefabrication of rebar cages for large infrastructure projects, which have high volume and higher repeatability of shapes, as the perfect 'Product Market-Fit'.

4. For how long did you bootstrap and at what point did you decide that you needed funding ?

We realized very early on that we are both a construction company and a robotics company. We knew it was going to be capital intensive and not something that we could finance out of our own savings for very long because the robots are expensive, the space that we need is expensive and the engineering team is expensive, so it was clear that it’s a high-cost endeavor.

Initially, we bootstrapped and leaned heavily on the academic community. We found the university programs where they were already doing this type of research and this type of exploration. That’s where we all met, me, Andreas Thoma, and Ian.

We had a strategy to just find universities and the public institutions that are already researching robotics and construction, or robotics and architecture, and which are the ones that have great labs that have robots in them.

The next step was to gain access to them by either making friends with them or tapping into those resources and getting access to them. And fortunately, we found that we were based in New York City, and there's only one place in New York City where this existed, and it was at the Pratt Institute's Consortium for Research and Robotics, the architecture school in Brooklyn which happened to have a pretty small and pretty modest facility with an ABB IRB 1600 and an ABB IRB 6700 industrial robotic arm on a track.

They were allowing students as well as startups to work with these tools. We experimented for a while there before visiting other schools like MIT, University of Michigan, CalTech and even a lot of trade shows to speak to people from these programs and try to pitch them the idea of Toggle. It wasn't a hard sell as they had already seen architectural and bespoke designs being made by industrial robots using digital fabrication and we pitched them the idea of using robots for creating rebar cages for piers, piles, and columns and that sort. Once we had considerable interest, we knew it was time to go big and get funding.

5. Looking back, what were the initial challenges when starting Toggle?

Everything was a challenge .  Right from the capital expenditure to developing capacity to participate in a construction project because it’s one thing to produce like a small sample but to participate in a construction project, you need to be a construction company, which means you need the workforce, you need tools, you need people and you need insurance and many such things which are pretty capital intensive. Building that capacity was the primordial challenge for us.

Then came the technical and engineering challenge of working with rebar, which is a really big one because the main thing that differentiates us from automated manufacturing is that with automated manufacturing, you're making the same thing over and over again, and the parts fit together with a high degree of precision when it comes to tolerances. So like if you visit the BMW factory and you see a robot putting the windshield on a BMW 3 Series, you know it's going to do it the same way every single time, and the windshield is always going to fit into the frame, perfectly.

But with construction, it's the opposite of those things. There are different projects all the time and things generally don’t fit together because rebar is not a precision material. That's really where a lot of our technology comes in, as is in providing all of the flexibility that's needed to skillfully execute that.

6. Can you summarize your journey in finding customers? What was particularly challenging?

Toggle works with two broad different categories of customers. One would be contractors who are on the job site actually building and they need the rebar for the reinforced concrete portions of their structure. And then the other category of customers that Toggle works with are suppliers of building components like the rebar itself or precast. And in both of those cases, those types of companies would otherwise be employing a manual workforce within their factories to assemble rebar.

Thus, Toggle provides these pre-assembled cages to them, or we can provide the service of free assembly to them, sometimes on their material, to alleviate the productivity bottlenecks in the manual assembly that's going on in their factories.

The major challenge was to create a platform to communicate drawing data from either a PDF, a scanned PDF, or general sketch instructions onto a file that the robot can understand and execute. That's where Toggle OS comes into play. It dynamically generates the path planning for the robotic assembly which is essentially the sequence of necessary actions and moves that the robot needs to follow to go from picking up bar number one and putting it in location number one and then picking up bar number two and putting in location number two until you get the finished product.

7. What is digital design? What is digital fabrication and why are you bridging it?  

For us at Toggle, we feel the biggest pain point in the Construction Industry is the hand-off point. Typically, the planning team hands over documents/drawings to the contractor to manufacture them. The contractor processes it for construction. However, this handoff is completely opaque to each other. Once done, you don't know what's happening on the other side anymore. It's gone.

We believe that’s what inherently makes the whole construction process also quite opaque. When you're planning a building, you don't know exactly how it's going to be built or what it's going to cost. You just kind of have to guess a little bit, and the more experience you have, the better you can guess. But this transparency from A to Z just doesn't exist yet.

Basically, to enable transparency and enable more trust where it can be guaranteed what something's going to cost and how long it's going to take to build and so on and so forth. We at Toggle feel that we can help with that process and reduce risk in the whole thing. We aim to sit right in between to improve their communication for hand-off and bridge the gap in digital fabrication.

8.How did COVID impact your everyday work inside the company and with clients?

The impact of Covid was quite massive, both physically and digitally. All of a sudden we had to work in a much more distributed way. I think COVID essentially forced us to adopt a distributed team and this kind of "work from anywhere" mentality where you are communicating essentially from everywhere and anywhere.

As a result of that, we have been able to build a team that's brought together some incredible skills and experience that hasn't been anchored to like all being in the same room in the same place. Andreas is in Zurich, I'm in New York. My co-founder Ian is in Pennsylvania. Our production facility is in Pennsylvania, but our R&D facilities are in New York, we have a software developer that's in Seattle and we have a project manager that's in Atlanta. So it's very, very distributed now. But it forced us to come up with the way that we operate as a company to accommodate that.

And so now, we're going to start to build out more of a presence in Zurich with an office there. And we already know how to collaborate across time zones and borders pretty efficiently and it's kind of the nature of our business anyway to have multiple people in multiple locations because we're doing research and development in one place.

We're doing production at another place, our customers are in another place. So it helps with all of that. And I think that broadly speaking in the industry what COVID has done to construction is it's made it even more difficult to have a workforce on the construction site, right?

Due to COVID, new safety, health regulations about the number of people and the spacing, distancing and testing and, all of these things were implemented, which just means it's that much more difficult to have a very large group of people working together in a smaller space and so that incentivizes prefabrication because then it's one less thing you have to worry about doing on on the site. This tactile shift in thinking is the biggest impact Covid has made on the entire construction industry.

9. What role do cloud applications play for you?

As we explored earlier, we are bridging the gap for converting geometry data into a format that the robot understands and can execute. And as we learned earlier, Toggle OS was developed to understand the geometry data and create a sequence strategy for the robots to assemble the rebar into specified cages. But before Toggle OS can send out the data, the drawing needs to be understood and cleaned so that it can be directly plugged into Toggle OS. That’s where our association with ShapeDiver comes into play.

Essentially geometry data can be in any format, either PDF, CAD, or even a sketch. ShapeDiver and Grasshopper help us convert that raw data into an intake format that can then be plugged onto Toggle OS for further fabrication. Since Grasshopper and ShapeDiver can understand and provide the exact geometry data, there is absolutely no room for errors and precision can thus be guaranteed.

10. What would you recommend to new founders in the AEC/ConTech field?

From the business point of view, try to get into an accelerator program that tells you the method, the strategy, the steps that you've got to follow to raise money. They groom you for the investors. There’s less need to reinvent from the ground up because there is already a structure on how to run a business and how to pitch it to investors for funding. Don’t fiddle there. What needs more attention is problem-solving, and that too with focus. So my general advice to new founders is FOCUS.

Try not to solve too many problems, and instead focus on 2-3 problems. Don't try and solve everything. We at Toggle follow on the same lines. We aren't trying to do every type of rebar right now. We are trying a handful of typologies that we've selected that we can fabricate nicely. They are high volume, there's a lot of them, and we've decided to focus completely on that for now. And then as we progress, we will kind of expand our repertoire of what we can do that enables us to progress.

Focus on solving a handful of problems rather than having hundreds of problems at the same time. The chances to succeed are much higher if we are solving a handful of problems step by step and achieve solutions and focus our resources entirely on that. Toggle is built on enhancing efficiency and we feel that is the way forward for us.

- Well, thank you very much for your time, Dan and Andreas. This has been an excellent overview!

Thank you as well for having us!

That’s it for this new edition of Getting to know... Don’t forget to follow our friends from Toggle directly at their LinkedIn and Instagram accounts! 

Would you like to get featured in this space? Simply send us an email to contact@shapediver.com and tell us about your project or brand! We’d love to start a conversation.

While this application might seem like a perfect fit for obvious industries such as Furniture, Jewelry and AEC, there are plenty of other industries that can also benefit from this approach. For this reason, we decided to bring the spotlight to the Food Industry.

In this article, you'll get to know Pastry Chef Michal Lev. You'll learn why she decided to mix two of her greatest passions: food and design. She discusses how Parametric Design and Additive Manufacturing help her create new experiences and reduce food waste and how she thinks the future of food design will look like. Enjoy!

Video: Product Reel | Michal Lev | Pastry Chef

1. Welcome, Michal. Thank you for joining us today! Tell us a bit about your background.

Hello! Thank you for having me. My name is Michal Lev. I served as a naval officer for a long time and loved to cook and bake for the crew when I had the time. At the first opportunity, I went to study to become a professional pastry chef and after I left the army I worked as a pastry chef.

At the same time, I fulfilled another dream I had – becoming a product designer. I received my master’s degree in Product Design at the Technion University and decided to combine my two biggest passions – food and design. So, after gaining skills in innovative tools, I’m now working as a food designer.

2. Why did you decide to be a Pastry Chef with a Master of Product Design?

In recent years my passion for desserts and design grew. I have always loved baking desserts. From a young age, I would stand next to my father in the kitchen and prepare food but mostly cakes, cookies, and sweet things. In addition, over the years I have liked to paint, do things by hand and I knew that "when I grow up" I would be a designer.

Over the years I realized that there is a potential here to combine these two loves - the food field has a lot of potential for innovation and at the same time we eat with our eyes. For this reason I decided to pursue both lifelong dreams.

3. What are you bringing to the pastry/gastronomy industry?

Customization and user experience - I used innovative design tools and methods while combining my knowledge as pastry chef. It was important to me that beyond the idea and the sketches there would be a dessert on the plate at the end of the process and that it would be delicious!

In the food field, the bottom line is that it should be delicious and appetizing, not just aesthetic or ecological, etc. The field of food design is complex and full of layers from taste, texture, temperatures to the design of colors and appearance to produce an eating experience that is rarely addressed today.

4. How did you learn about Parametric Design / Grasshopper?

During my master studies at the Technion, my lecturer Yoav Sterman guided me on the project. Yoav taught me in several courses and as a part of the project guidance itself, parametric design as well as Grasshopper.

When it was time to plan my project, it seemed the right direction to add mass customization. I implemented the customization in the project using Grasshopper with parameters that give added value to the users beyond beauty – design their own dessert easily.

5. When did you figure out that there was an opportunity to innovate in this space?

The food industry has been very conservative for years - even at my first pastry chef job in a large bakery, I saw a lot of industrial machines use to replace human labour, but not to create innovation - machines that were supposed to save costs and maintain standard production of the familiar and simple desserts we all know, but not to create something new.

Even before that, I knew it was a market with plenty of opportunities for innovation, but when I saw it in the day-to-day work it became obvious to me. Of course, there is innovation in food in terms of healthier materials or more ecological ways of production, but I have hardly found news regarding the appearance of the food itself or the eating experience and thinking about how the customer consumes the product.

6. How is ShapeDiver helping you here?

During the project, I created parametric desserts with the option of customization. Without ShapeDiver they would remain in Grasshopper. ShapeDiver helps me create a better user experience by giving the users access to an intuitive user interface.  With a few sliders to control the parameters of the product, the users can design the dessert while it is instantly preview and change. The new AR feature is a great way to see the actual size of the dessert before ordering it.

7. What's your favorite pastry design and why? What was the inspiration?

My favourite dessert is the biscuit cake - because of the gradient color that combines visibility and taste.

It is the gradient that provides depth to the taste and unlike the desserts we know today has meaning beyond aesthetics. The use case I was designing for is a romantic event – the partners both choose their own favourite taste, and the result is a combination of both. The interesting part is how they blend in taste and appearance. What is the taste of 40% mango and 60% pistachio? It’s never stops to be interesting. 

In addition, it is a dessert that is relatively simple to produce and is very distinct in its use case and the experience it produces. It may sound funny, but the inspiration came from a design of a wooden bench made of laser cut panels connected side by side to create kind of a wave shape.

8. How can Additive Manufacturing or other types of advanced manufacturing processes improve the gastronomy industry?

In my opinion, they will allow us to customize our food and more importantly reduce food waste. About a third of the food produced in the world for human consumption is lost or wasted. Once I purchase a product that is created especially for me, it offers me a product that is most suitable for me without waste.

In the field of food design our "color palette" is much more complex because of the extensive use of the senses. Innovative tools can help us produce products we never thought we would see on a plate.

9. Where do you see yourself in 10 years?

That’s a difficult question - for several years now I have been building myself to reach this moment when I combine design and food. Admitting that this field has not yet been developed, it is difficult to imagine what can be achieved in the next 10 years, with the significant and rapid changes that are happening today. At the same time, I aspire to work in a field that combines the two and create a significant breakthrough with food we never imagine.

10. What's the future of food design?

Until now, technological improvements in the food industry alone haven't been able to solve the problems like food waste, sustainability, and changing consumer attitudes.

There is a need to design services and experience - in the eating experience, taste design, texture, shopping experience, appetizing, change eating patterns, reduce food waste, and make our food sustainable. Ultimately food is an experience and not just a need for survival. It is deeply related to our culture and sensory experience.

I hope that food companies will understand the value of food designers, and it will become a necessary profession. As designers, we can make use of design tools and design methods together with teams engaged in development today to solve those problems in the future.

- Well, thank you very much for your time, Michal. This has been an excellent overview!

Thank you as well for having me!

That’s it for this new edition of <<Getting to know..>> Don’t forget to follow our friends from UGA Pastries directly at their Facebook and Instagram accounts!

Would you like to get featured in this space? Simply send us an email to contact@shapediver.com and tell us about your project or brand! We’d love to start a conversation!

1. Welcome, Ulrich. Thank you for joining us today! Tell us a bit about your background.

Hello! Thank you for having me. My name is Ulrich Merz. By profession I am a product designer. I used to live in Berlin for many years and relocated to my home town Regensburg with my family recently. I am married to a ENT (ear, nose, throat) physician and we have three kids together.

I equally enjoy designing and engineering. Apart from my new venture, I support industrial clients at new product developments. What I love about my job: design embraces a variety of fields, such as materials, process and technology, manufacturing capabilities, economics, strategic thinking and product life cycle. That makes it a key success factor for business.

2. How did MERZ MÖBEL get started? What triggered this idea?

The furniture we bring to market is a classic sideboard with a certain mid-century appeal. We designed it while running our studio in Berlin. The first prototype got sold instantly. Shortly thereafter, a client asked for a series of sideboards, but requested different dimensions, as well as colors. Many years later, people kept appreciating the design of our sideboards and time proved it’s functional and visual longevity.

During the pandemic, we felt the urge to start something new and began developing the MERZ MÖBEL business case for the production and distribution of our customized design sideboards M4313.

3. What type of changes are you trying to bring into the Furniture Industry?

Today, many interior products come with options for individualization, such as the number and height of compartments or a color palette to choose from. In contrast to this traditional approach inside a system, the freedom of customization we offer to our customers results in a truly unique piece of furniture, because all dimensions can be defined incrementally and independently. MERZ MÖBEL lets customers define their own collectors item according to their needs!

4. What types of production methods do you use and why?

The M4313 sideboards are produced in highly specialized environment. Every production step is designed for efficiency, process control and safety. We use conventional woodworking machines, which are partly complemented by special devices and 3D printed adjustment adaptors to guarantee consistent precision and quality and to reduce set up times. We do without automated manufacturing: Solid wood deserves manual work, doesn’t it?

5. Absolutely! How is Grasshopper involved in your processes and why? What are the benefits this parametric approach?

The Grasshopper asset is the invisible hand in the process and does the magic before production. The algorithm computes a visual representation of the model, so that users can see what they get while they're configuring their piece. But there is a lot more going on under the surface.

For example, pricing is calculated automatically, taking into account material cost, production and handling cost as well as packaging and shipping expenses. We use the plugin Squid to export the production parameters along with a unique order number and then print it out on adhesive labels. The numbers are applied to every component during production so every part is traceable.

Parametric design often displays generative patterns or complex structures but it is applicable to any conceptual work. The possibilities with Grasshopper are literally borderless, this is what makes it so powerful!

6. How is ShapeDiver helping you build your business?

ShapeDiver is the linking part between the Grasshopper definition and the web API. Also, ShapeDiver hosts and computes the Grasshopper file.

Thanks to a comprehensive documentation, our programer easily understood the concept and I believe he had a good time while implementing the configurator. The customer service includes a Support Forum where I rarely waited more than a day to get useful answers to my questions!

7. What aspects were the most important when designing your UI and UX?

Complex interactions can be overwhelming for users. That’s why we designed our user interface to be playful and easy to comprehend.

With it, users can easily choose from a drop down menu of six predefined models and order directly but they are also encouraged to alternate dimensions and play around with color combinations.

In addition to this, we integrated a camera behavior that is responsive to user inputs. For instance, if the side panel color is changed, the model will automatically switch to that side. Also, changes in dimensions always lead to a slightly new and fluent camera adjustment. It’s these little feedback details, that make a good user experience!

8. What is the design detail you like the most about your products?

There are plenty of things we like (we're biased!). We like the overall concept of the solid oak frame with thin paneling, because this solution is robust and reliable without being heavy-weighted itself.

Also, we really love the characteristic corner joints of the M4313 sideboard: they are somewhat brutal and at the same time delicate, precise and flush. But the detail we like the most are the fine grooves for the sliding doors, because they are a nice detail to look at and offer a smooth functionality.

9. What's the future for eCommerce in the Furniture Industry?

In Germany, the furniture market is still dominated by a few big players with stationary branches, but more and more people are willing to buy furniture online.

The share of eCommerce is already above 20% with a 9% growth and we see new online pure player successfully pushing into the market. There will definitely be a huge shift for the benefit of those, how understand how to leverage eCommerce in terms of a strong business model with a premium customer journey. In addition to this, eCommerce can provide a sustainable opportunity for a new generation of niche players like MERZ MÖBEL.

- Thank you very much for your time Ulrich! This has been a great overview of your company.

Thank you as well for having me here! It was a pleasure to discuss this with you.

That’s it for this new edition of  Getting to know...  Don’t forget to follow MERZ MÖBEL directly at their  LinkedIn  and  Instagram  accounts! 

1. Welcome, Tobias. Thank you for joining us today! Tell us a bit about your background.

Hello everyone! Thanks for having me here. My name is Tobias Fast. I'm and Head of Towers Division and Digital Practice Leader at Fast+Epp.

I love building things and that’s why I studied Civil Engineering at the University of British Columbia and later in 2014, I studied Structural & Earthquake Engineering for my Master’s Degree.

After working with SOM in New York and Expedition Engineering in London, I spent much of my time living in Germany and working at Fast + Epp’s Darmstadt office. Through my work in four different countries, I have gained knowledge via a wide range of projects, including skyscrapers in Manhattan, tension structures at the London Zoo, and prefabricated egg-shaped timber cabins destined for the BC wilderness.

2. What is Fast+Epp and who do you work with?

We are a structural engineering firm based out of Vancouver, Canada. We also have offices based all over North America, namely New York City, Seattle, Edmonton, Calgary, and also we have an office that is very close to you guys based in Darmstadt, Germany.

Primarily, Fast+Epp works in the building sector providing services for buildings of all scales from Private Residential Homes to Large Towers for clientele ranging from Private Developers, Institutions like Federal, Provincial and Municipal Governments.

We work with all kinds of materials like Concrete, Steel, Timber, and Cross Laminated Timber or Mass timber being our area of specialty.

3. What are your service offerings and expertise?

At the core, we are a structural engineering and designing firm, but over the 30+ years of providing structural services, we have diversified our offerings. We currently offer Structural Design and Engineering for not only residential and commercial buildings but transportation structures too.

We have in-depth experience in providing structural design for Mass Timber buildings right from personal homes to large recreation centers. Leveraging our expertise in Mass Timber and Parametric Design, we have developed a series of web-apps under our Concept Lab in collaboration with ShapeDiver, for quick sizing of Mass Timber structures and elements. It was developed with the goal of combining the creativity of Architecture with the practicality of Engineering.

We also provide life cycle assessment studies for buildings, bridges, and exposed structures in regards to sustainability, structural optimization, and building physics.

4. Could you tell us about the recent trends in construction and the AEC industry in general?

With rising awareness regarding climate change and a quest for sustainable ways to build taller and better buildings, we are seeing a rise in the number of taller Mass Timber buildings popping up across North America.

Together with supportive building codes by the IBC and growing conscience about building materials, Mass Timber construction is the single biggest trend in the AEC industry and I feel it is here to stay.

5. What is Mass Timber and what factors are propelling its mass adoption?

Mass Timber is a generic term that encompasses products of various sizes and functions, like glue-laminated (glulam) beams, laminated veneer lumber (LVL), nail-laminated timber (NLT), and dowel-laminated timber (DLT). But the most common and most familiar form of Mass Timber, the one that has opened up the newest architectural possibilities, is cross-laminated timber (CLT).

The "Mass Timber Movement", so to speak, started right where you guys are, Austria, Switzerland, and parts of Southern Germany. The first wave of timber products were Glulam or Glue Laminated Beams and Posts and was available in smaller section sizes with its application limited to small single family homes and residences.

Adoption in North America was relatively slow due to less to no supplier presence here for Mass Timber products and importing Mass Timber for prefabrication was not as convenient as it is today.

Fortunately, we have huge forest reserves here in North America and a long tradition of building with wood, but only on smaller scales. This, coupled with the influx of master carpenters from Europe and the introduction of wood products like Glulam and CLT. Mass Timber began to get more attention and gained more use in the building industry back then.

Today, Mass Timber is a much more common building material and is gaining more prominence by the day.

6. How did the "West Coast" become the "Chief Innovator" and leader for Mass Timber? 

Several factors contributed to the rise of the West Coast’s dominance in the industry. For one, the willingness from the local authorities to allow engineers and designers to experiment and build with new technologies and materials combined with the building codes not being as restrictive as they are in Europe propelled the movement ahead to the next phase of research and studies being done at universities to find solutions for build higher and taller with wood and Mass Timber products.

Thus, willingness from the authorities, experimentation by designers and engineers, and supported by the research done at the universities had created a conducive environment that propelled the adoption of Mass Timber products further in much taller and higher buildings. Our Head Office in Vancouver, Canada, where I am currently, is also made with Mass Timber and Timber Prefabrication.

7. What is Timber Prefabrication? And what are the opportunities for timber prefabrication?

Prefabrication or Prefab is an incredibly fast and efficient construction technique that not only economizes the use of time, labor, and materials but also increases profitability over traditional construction techniques. However the term "Prefab" is highly misinterpreted as a technique to build an entire building off-site and then assembled on-site with all the services integrated with it - mechanical, electrical and others.

We need to understand that there are different levels to "Prefab" and these levels are largely influenced by the amount of risk a contractor or entity can take. Not a lot of contractors or suppliers are out there willing to take the risk of executing the structure, envelope, mechanical services, and furnishings all under a single roof. Here in North America, we do have some suppliers and it is often talked about on paper, but it's very difficult to get it done for an actual building.

However, Timber Prefabrication provides a very good starting point and helps in resolving the risk issue for all. With Timber Prefabrication, we are only talking about the structure and not about the services, envelope, electrical, and rest of things. This is especially easy to do for most contractors and builders as the risk and scope are manageable for them without it overlapping with mechanical, electrical, and others.

The Brock Commons Tallwood House is particularly a good example of how Timber Prefabrication can synergize the construction on-site as the 18 story building went up two floors every week! With Timber Prefab, there was fast construction, much fewer delays, fewer carbon emissions, and embodied energy, and less concrete, hence a massive boost for the environment.

All in all, even though the highest level of full-kit assembly is away, Timber Prefab is a good entry-level approach for prefabrication.

It’s only a matter of time before more suppliers and contractors come on board to make it possible. But we are having more and more conversations regarding "Prefab" with our clients and considering its numerous advantages, we feel that we are headed in the right direction with it.

8. Tell us about the negative effects of concrete on the environment and what is your approach towards the issue?

This often comes up in most of our conversations with our clients but only in some percentage of those conversations it is taken seriously, in terms of willingness to do away with the use of it in their project as a construction material.

The adverse effects of concrete as a building material is fairly well known and proven by various research studies documented over several years. The industry too has a fair idea of the number of carbon emissions they generate and their ill-effects on the environment and we’ve certainly had conversations with suppliers and manufacturers about finding solutions for reducing their impact on the environment, one of which is changing the concrete mix design ratios to use less cement and in turn reduce the impact of concrete.

That being said, the gains from the mix design are very minuscule and other solutions currently available in the market are not promising either. So how do we move ahead?

Well, the way we look at this particular problem is that we take a pragmatic approach towards it. Concrete is still bad from the sustainability and environmental lenses, however, it's still an incredibly useful material. The vast majority of buildings are made of concrete and the need for it can’t be controlled. What we can control though, is the amount of it. We’re never going to build a deep foundation structure or basement structure without the use of some concrete. We just need to know where to use it and how best to use it. Using each material where it's best suited for.

Another conversation around concrete is the need for densification. We need taller, higher structures and those structures need deep foundations made out of, you guessed it, concrete. To deal with the issue at hand, we promote mass timber superstructures that are made up of timber and some amount of supporting steel for buildings, like our office here in Vancouver. Here the superstructure is of timber and steel while the substructure is of concrete.

Of course, you can be a purist and do away with concrete at all. But for us, we take this pragmatic approach where we believe concrete is useful, where we shall best use it, and let’s reduce it where we don’t need it and use timber prefabrication as much as possible.

9. What timber is actually being used for construction?

When we talk about "using timber for construction", we generally mean man-made wood panel products that are made by arranging layers of wood in different patterns and held together by different materials. There are majorly four different types of wood products used in the construction of a building. They are glulam, CLT, DLT, and NLT. Glulam is not a new wood product, it has been in use for decades. Glulam is Glue Lamination of wood strips. The conventional wood is cut into thin strips and alternate strips are glued and bound together in various shapes and sizes.

CLT, DLT, and NLT are particularly new-age wood panel products. Unlike Glulam, CLT or Cross-Laminated Timber is made by alternate wood strips glued perpendicular to each other. Because the lamstock is going in two directions, it gets better structural rigidity and doesn't shrink in length or width.

DLT or Dowel Laminated Timber avoids using glue and instead uses wooden dowels to bind wooden boards together. These are used in places with high moisture variation throughout seasons as the boards combined with hardwood dowels form a moisture equilibrium due to their differing moisture content.

NLT or Nail Laminated Timber is just a modern name for what has been done forever in warehouses and factories, and used to be called mill decking; you just nail boards together. The aesthetics of NLT are a bit rougher, with that warehouse look that people want these days, without all the trouble of old warehouses.

10. Are you considering using "Material Passports"?

Certainly yes. Material Passports are a collection of data sets that can improve our current situation of raw materials crisis by providing a detailed inventory of all the materials, resources, and components of the product, as well as detailed information about their source location , extraction, and use.

Material Passport is a great step in the quest for a more circular economy, however, since it's a relatively new idea and no regulations have made it mandatory, enforcement is ineffective. That being said, here in North America, we do have "Environmental Product Declarations" or EPD which is eerily very similar to Material Passports.

EPD is basically a paper that provides information about the contents of the product, the amount of energy needed to transport it from its source to the job site, and vividly illustrates its sustainability data in regards to its procurement and use. With EPD one can easily review the entire sustainable and energy history of every material and product available on the market.  

At Fast+Epp, we have extended this by creating internal logs about each building that we design in terms of its carbon footprint and cost to the environment. This is certainly not just Fast+Epp but we feel that Vancouver as a city has started to think in terms of its cost to the environment and how well we can reduce it. The initiative does not help in reducing carbon emissions by tons of margin, however, every tiny bit helps. This initiative has certainly led us to create better designs, both from a structural as well as a sustainability perspective.

11. How and why do you use ShapeDiver ?

The idea for a preliminary concept design tool, now known as Timber Bay, came as a response to resolve the observed redundancies in our workflow whenever a new timber building is conceptualized. The ShapeDiver platform helped us do away with the constant repetitive tasks of calculating each member's sizes and grades for various spans we propose to our clients.

With its computational abilities, we are not only able to calculate member sizes, but even able to visualize them instantly. This particular feature greatly improves our client experience as they no longer have to read a 2D PDF with a bucket load of calculations and instead can see a 3D visualization of the proposed design, instantly.

Another benefit of the computational tool with regards to timber construction is that it provides a fair amount of idea about the spans that can be worked with, different types of grids, preliminary material costs, and various other parameters that can be easily played around to arrive at the ideal solution.

What started as an internal productivity tool, now lives online as part of our Concept Lab. This ShapeDiver collaboration has made it easier to have a conversation regarding structure and material with our prospective clients.

We already have a considerable amount of hits on the web app, externally, and that has taken us a bit by surprise. But we do see its value in terms of shortened decision times, fewer human errors, and more productivity. A win-win for both the business and the consumers/stakeholders alike.

12. What are your future plans regarding this configurator?

Future plans would be to add the new PDF export and the new AR functionality of the ShapeDiver platform. Both features would be extremely beneficial for our sales team in their conversation with prospective clients as they can not only have a quick estimate of the building cost but can even have a quick visualization of the proposal. From a business perspective, we are witnessing tremendous value in our association with ShapeDiver!

- Thank you very much for your time, Tobias. This has been an excellent overview!

Thank you as well for having me!

That’s it for this new edition of Getting to know... Don’t forget to follow Fast+Epp directly at their LinkedIn and Instagram accounts! 

<< Special thanks to Alex Walzer for his collaboration during the writing of this article.  Alex investigates the role of entrepreneurship for and in AEC when utilizing nascent production technologies. He is a PhD researcher at the Chair of Innovative and Industrial Construction (Prof. Dr. Hall) at ETH Zürich - and can be reached at  walzer.tech  and  @alexnikw on Twitter . >>

After introducing our brand new platform a few weeks ago, it’s now time to unveil the new version of our Grasshopper plugin. This time we made sure to tackle some of your most requested features such as new import and export file formats, a new attribute system, a plethora of new components, downloading and updating via Rhino’s Package Manager and much more.

Read along to learn more about these features and make sure to leave us any comments or feedback via our Support Forum! Let’s get started.

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The ShapeDiver plugin v1.9 includes the following features:

1. Download & Update Using Rhino’s Package Manager

The versioning nightmare is over. The last legacy version of the ShapeDiver plugin (1.7) and all the future ones will now be included in the package manager, making it easy to download, update and also go back and forth between versions.

In order to switch to the package manager, make sure you clean your current ShapeDiver installation.

If you have used the installer, it should be straightforward to uninstall it. In any case, make sure to clean all files related to an older version of the plugin.

You should then be all set up to launch the package manager from inside Rhino using the "PackageManager" command.

Search for ShapeDiver in the "Online" tab and download the latest version, or any other version you need there. The package manager might ask you to restart Rhino after the operation is completed.

You can also directly use the link from our Food4Rhino page.

2. Completely Redesigned Set Of Components

This new version contains a lot of new components, but even the old ones are getting some "love" via new icons and some cosmetic updates. We believe the new visual language makes it easier to differentiate components and account for the many new functionalities that are now included in the plugin.

3. Import Any Rhino 7 - Compatible Format Using The New Import Geometry Component

The new Import Geometry component (only available in Rhino 7) makes use of Rhino 7's headless import command and is therefore now compatible with any file format that Rhino can import as a Rhino document.

You can access the full list by double clicking on the component and checking the available formats there. Additionally, imported geometry comes with some of the properties that were included in the imported document, depending on the ones available in each file format. This metadata is available and can be extracted using the new Attribute system that we talk more about in a below section.

Read more about the Import Geometry component .

4. Advanced Export Options & New Supported Export Formats

The "Download" components of the plugin have been updated to replace the file format input with a full export options object that exposes most of the export options available when exporting files from Rhino. In order to define those options, the plugin now includes a set of "Export Options" for various file formats, including new ones such as 3ds and 3mf. More file formats are coming in the near future.

Read more about the list of supported file formats for export and the available export options for each of them.

5. New Attribute System

In the new plugin, every object manipulated in your definitions can be assigned one or several attributes. An attribute is essentially a piece of metadata attached to the object, in the form of a key-value pair. It is similar to the User Text entities you might be familiar with in Rhino. However, ShapeDiver attributes can take virtually any data type supported in Grasshopper: numbers, strings and colors, but also geometry can be used as attributes. This flexibility is reflected in the sdTF file format we use for transferring structured data between clients.

The applications of the attribute system will be multiple in the near future! Here are a few things that you can already do with them:

You will notice a brand new "Attributes" category of components as part of version 1.9. They are all helper components that should help you extract existing attributes from geometry and attach new ones before exporting or displaying them.

We are still working on the documentation of all the new functionalities, but you can already find some information about how to use the new Import component (https://help.shapediver.com/doc/Import-Geometry.1858043917.html) along with the attributes components.

Read more about the Attributes system.

6. New Display Component & Support For glTF 2.0

On top of the traditional ShapeDiver display component, the new plugin includes a "glTF 2.0 Display" component that can be used along the new "glTF 2.0 Material". Using this component, the assets created for display are 100% compatible with the glTF 2.0 material specification. They can be used in the ShapeDiver viewer but also any other viewer supporting this format, either by retrieving them using the API or directly by right-clicking on the Display component and clicking on "Save glTF 2.0". Notably, these new components are the only way to build and export glTF 2.0 files from Rhino, using all the material properties available for the format.

You will notice that the old "ShapeDiver Display" and "ShapeDiver Material" components are still included in the plugin. We decided to keep them for a few reasons:

For these reasons above, we decided to keep both options in the new plugin and let users decide on the optimal one depending on their use case.

Read more about the Display Components and their respective advantages.

Takeaways

As mentioned in our platform announcement blog, we have completely reworked all of our tech stack from the ground up. This makes us more nimble when adding new features (and fixing bugs!). This also applies to our plugin.

We are working on some great updates that we can’t wait to share with everyone, so make sure you keep in touch with the blog and/or social media channels ( especially LinkedIn ) and check Rhino’s Package Manager every once in a while to see if an update is available there! As usual, if you have any questions, comments or simply want to say hi, our team is ready to assist you via our Support Forum.

After spending most of 2021 in development and in Beta testing for the last few months, we’re proud to announce that our new ShapeDiver platform is finally ready to be tested by all of our ShapeDiver users.

Back in November, we shared a blog post highlighting what was coming in this new version, so if you haven’t read that one yet, we highly encourage you to do it before reading along here.

On this blog post, besides announcing that everyone will now get access to these previously announced features by default, we want to introduce a few new ones that should enhance the way you interact with and share your Grasshopper models on our platform.

We’re still working on new features that will be going live during H1 2022, so you can expect a ton of new announcements in the coming months. Without further ado, here are the new features being introduced today!

1. Per-Model Analytics Section

While the global analytics screen from the legacy platform does not have its counterpart in the new platform yet (this should be ready within the next months), this platform update includes a new section on each model view page with detailed analytics for the current model.

Four metrics can be explored through this screen: the number of “credits” consumed by the model, the number of “computation requests”, the number of “exports” and the “time spent” by users visiting and updating parameters of the model.

Each of these metrics can be further filtered by the various sources where the model can be accessed from: directly on the web platform, in embedded sessions (iframe and using the API), through the backend REST API and through desktop clients (only available in the private beta at the moment).

For the selected time period, the analytics screen will provide the total number related to the selected metric as well as a trend chart for the period.

2. Sharing Models With Other ShapeDiver Users

Designer and Business users now have access to a new “Sharing” section in the model edit page. It lets them share their models (including private models) with other ShapeDiver users registered on the platform. For each user, the model owner can decide whether to share only simple viewing permissions, or other ones such as using the file import and exports and browsing the analytics data for this model.

Users who receive those permissions can then access the shared model through the new “Shared With Me” section of their library page.

This way of sharing models with other ShapeDiver users is embedded within the platform’s authentication system and therefore comes with a high level of security. Shared models keep the same level of privacy as regular Private models, and it will never be possible for anyone else to access the model, besides the curated list of users the model is explicitly shared with.

3. Link Sharing Private Models W/ Anyone

Alternatively, Designer and Business users have the option to activate “Link Sharing” for private models through the Model Edit page. When this feature is enabled, the model owners have access to a private link that they can share with anyone (including non ShapeDiver users).

In practice, models with link sharing enabled can be opened by anyone who knows the private link. However, we have implemented several security enhancements to the feature:

First, the generated link contains a unique ID that is different from the usual public url. Additionally, model owners can revoke this access at any time by disabling link sharing again in the Model Edit page. At that point, the shared link stops working, and if the user enables link sharing again, a new link will be generated.

4. New Augmented Reality Settings

In the last release of the platform, we included a new AR quick look button that allows viewers of a model to customize parameters and immediately visualize the corresponding solution in augmented reality.

In this update, model owners have access to additional settings related to the AR feature, that allows them to switch it on or off, and most importantly to control the scaling settings of the model when opened in AR.

Additionally, it is now possible to embed ShapeDiver iframes including the AR button!

5. Search Models By Ticket

Our API users will be happy to know that with this update, it is now possible to search which model of their account corresponds to a direct embedding ticket used in their application. Simply enter the ticket in the search bar of the gallery page; if an active model corresponds to the specified ticket, it will come up in the search results.

Takeaways

We’re very excited to see what and how all of our 7,200+ users start creating with this new version of ShapeDiver. As mentioned in our previous blog post, this complete restructuring of our system finally allows us to be much more nimble when adding new features to our system. If you have any suggestions on what to add or update, feel free to let us know in our Support Forum!

We’re still hard at work on several amazing new features, which we hope to announce during H1 of this year. In the meantime, on behalf of the entire ShapeDiver team, we wish everyone a great 2022!

Meet Indimise , a German company that allows anyone around the world to 3D print their own smartphone case without the need for any technical experience, special CAD design software, or their own 3D printer. Excited? So are we. Let's dive straight into the interview!

1. Welcome, Sebastian. Thank you for joining us today! Tell us a bit about your background.

Hello everyone! Thank you for having me here. I am Sebastian Flügel. I’m 29 years old and live in the small town of Fulda, Germany.

I love to create new things and that’s why I studied Vehicle Systems Engineering at the DHBW Stuttgart.

Beside Indimise, I am working as a project leader at an innovation department of an engineering supplier. The few hours left of my days are filled with lightweight aircraft flying and Boogie Woogie dancing.

2. What is Indimise?

Indimise is a website where everyone becomes the designer of its own 3D printed smartphone case. We provide an online 3D product configurator based on Grasshopper and the Shapediver platform.

With the help of this configurator anyone can customise a 3D pattern, color and engraved text for various smartphone cases. The patterns are inspired by nature as well as modern and historical architecture.

Orders are manufactured on demand by the laser sintering process on industrial SLS machines using the material polyamide 12. Thanks to 3D printing there are no warehouses, no overproduction, less manufacturing waste, and short trading routes. That’s how our smartphone cases are more sustainable.

3. How did it all start? What is the story behind Indimise?

I was on a ferry on the long way home from my motorcycle trip from Morocco to Italy. Inspired by the Islamic patterns that I saw in Morocco, I designed a Christmas present that I wanted to 3D print for my girlfriend who I have not seen for a while.

So I sat there with the CAD software on my PC and someone asked me what I was doing. This person was impressed that I could design and 3D print practically anything. That is when I asked myself “How could everyone get access to the freedom of 3D design and 3D printing?”.

4. Out of all the use cases for 3D printing, why did you choose smartphone cases?

Smartphones became status symbols, but their visual appearance does not differ much. That is why individualization based on 2D photo printing is already a huge topic for smartphone cases. 3D printing and online 3D configurators will add a new dimension to the individualization of smartphone cases.

5. Which one do you consider the best smartphone ever made and why?

It would be easy to call the original iPhone here, because it defined a new era for cell phones. But I never owned one.

I personally consider the iPhone SE first generation as the best smartphone ever made. The simple design is timeless. It had the technology of the iPhone 6, but stayed small despite the trend of big-sized smartphones. Actually, I still use one as my business phone. Small, simple, and well equipped.

6. What were the main obstacles you encountered while creating the whole concept of Indimise?

At first, I thought that I had to develop the whole infrastructure and software to run my CAD files on the cloud on my own. That was too big of an obstacle for me. But then I found several options to host my parametric designs so that my customers could interact directly with the viewer to manipulate the designs.

At the end, I chose ShapeDiver with its integrated features and a big list of supplied Grasshopper plugins, which made it much easier for me to create a better user experience.

7. What is one of your favorite design features of your cases and why?

I personally love most that the case designs are three-dimensional. This attracts attention as it is visually striking. People asked me on the street about my smartphone case almost every day!

8. What are your thoughts on the future of parametric design and 3D printing?

I am convinced that on demand 3D printing is an important step to overcome the age of mass- and overproduction. In future every physical product could be tailor-made to our individual needs as we already get used to it for digital products.

Online 3D product configurators and parametric design are important technologies to make 3D printing attractive and accessible for a wider range of people. The following step would be that people do not have to customise manually on their own, but artificial intelligence creates the individual design for them.

9. What’s next for Indimise? Any new projects you are looking forward to?

We will continuously improve Indimise based on our clients feedback and add new design templates for smartphone cases. We have a lot of inspirations for new patterns that are just waiting to be parameterized and to be explored by our customers. Moreover we have already tested prototypes for other 3D printed customisable products.

10. Where do you see Indimise in 10 years?

In 10 years, customers from all over the world will have access to individualize their own sustainable manufactured unique product on Indimise. Our materials will be 100 % made of renewable materials and every product will be climate neutral. Our AI driven assistant will create outstanding individual designs for our clients.

11. Any advice you could give to anyone creating their own 3D printed products?

Yes! First, you do not need your own 3D printer. Manufacturing platforms offer high-tech 3D printing services like SLS and SLM with much higher quality than consumer 3D printers at a fair price.

Second, you do not even need to know how to use CAD software to make your first 3D designing and 3D printing experiences. You can start at Indimise and customize your own 3D printed smartphone case :)

- Well, thank you very much for your time, Sebastian. This has been an excellent overview!

Thank you as well for having me!

That’s it for this new edition of Getting to know... Don’t forget to follow our friends from Indimise directly at their Facebook and Instagram accounts!

Would you like to get featured in this space? Simply send us an email to contact@shapediver.com and tell us about your project or brand! We’d love to start a conversation.

1. Create Parametric Images & Textures!

The use of the Squid plugin (ShapeDiver Edition) enables us to create images from not only the geometry we create but also from other images and even from simple text. Beginning with a basic Rectangle for projecting the BitMap image, we then provide a set of instructions for the Image to be generated. Lastly, we need to provide input for Pixel density and count. After setting up the script, we can easily control various aspects of the image, particularly its colors, amount of objects to name a few.

Interestingly, these same images can also be used as textures for objects modeled in Rhino! Once this is connected to the Geometry and uploaded to ShapeDiver, you can instantly change and modify the texture on the entire geometry easily through custom sliders, in real time.

2. Create Parametric PDF Files!

In the Squid plugin (ShapeDiver Edition), we have added a new component called Squid PDF. Once you have built the script with various image objects, the true potential of a “parametric PDF” starts to shine.

With this, we can build manufacturing drawings, generate invoice reports or create detailed CNC drawings. And the best part is the seamless integration with ShapeDiver. Any changes made to the model and the product details are instantaneously updated in the drawings!

3. Convert Images Into Curves!

Using the Rooster plugin and simply linking the BitMap Image outputs a set of clean curves that create a boundary around the entire bitmap image. But, wait, why would you want to get the curves from an image?

First, you can convert a raster image into a vector image, instantly. And a second, more interesting use case is the ability to integrate it into other scripts so that it can read and adapt to the new curve information. The example of the Voronoi pattern exemplifies this approach.

4. Import DXF Files

With this function, we can easily send geometry information between Grasshopper files. The geometry can be curves, meshes, and objects. But the main advantage of this function is its ability to import layers, colors, and other associated data that is contained in the DXF file.

With the Building example, we can get a 2D DXF file, complete with its layers, objects, and curves, to a 3D object with thickness, completely inside Grasshopper. And since it is linked, any modification in the master DXF file will get instantly reflected in the 3D object. From 2D floor plan to 3D model, instantly!

5. Export DXF Files!

Combined with the power of ShapeDiver, the DXF file is complete in all its aspects, with dimensions that are recognized by both AutoCAD and Rhino.

Bottom Line

We just barely scratched the surface of what's possible with the power of Grasshopper and ShapeDiver. There's a reason why this is the prefered CAD solution for many professionals out there!

Did you find this post interesting? Let us know if you have any other interesting thing that can be achieved with Grasshopper by tagging us on Twitter or Instagram or send us any questions/comments via our Forum !

As you probably know, we have been hard at work on the new version of ShapeDiver. This major update follows our merger with the Swarm project developed by the CORE Studio at Thornton Tomasetti. In collaboration with the CORE team, we have developed a major update to our infrastructure, both in order to support lots of new features but also to improve the performance and flexibility of the data flows throughout our servers.

Today we are thrilled to announce that our new ShapeDiver Platform is ready for a test drive as an Open Beta, and it is our pleasure to invite anyone interested to take part in it, explore some new features and give us your feedback, comments, and bug reports ahead of the public release.

Please note that our ShapeDiver Plugin for Grasshopper is currently being tested as Closed Beta for a few more weeks, therefore it's not included in this Open Beta. Feel free to apply for an invitation if you’re interested in helping us test it! Simply let us know via our Contact Request button on our website.

How Can I Get Started?

To get started simply head to shapediver.com/app/login and use your current username and password. This will give you access to our completely new ShapeDiver platform. If you do not have a ShapeDiver account, you'll first need to create one by heading to shapediver.com/app/register.

You can still use our legacy platform at any time by heading to app.shapediver.com as usual. Just bear in mind that once we are done with all this Beta testing process, the legacy platform will be deactivated. For this reason, make sure to let us know which features you really like about our legacy one so they get included in our new one. We'll let you know how down below.

What’s New?

Let’s discuss what you can access with the new ShapeDiver Platform during this Open Beta period.

All Accounts:

a) Ordering & Grouping Of Parameters

Let’s start with the crowd-pleasers. The two most requested features of all time finally make their official debut. When uploading your models to ShapeDiver, the order in which the parameters were arranged in your Grasshopper canvas on your computer will be respected when displaying them on our platform. No more manually reordering your parameter names!

Additionally, when using parameter grouping in Grasshopper, each of these groups will be automatically displayed as folders in our UI. This will allow you to better organize your parameters. No more scrolling through an endless number of parameters!

b) Bookmarking

Who doesn’t love exploring the ShapeDiver feed in search of inspiration? This feature will allow you to bookmark those public models that you’d like to revisit in the future!

Simply click on the bookmark icon when visiting any model you have access to on the platform. You will then be able to find the model easily in your library, under the new “Bookmarked” section. Importantly, bookmarked models will also be accessible through the various desktop clients for ShapeDiver that are in private beta testing phase currently.

c) Import Parameter & Viewer Settings

On top of the new ordering and grouping features we are rolling out, the new platform comes with a more complete and fine-grained way to import settings from existing models.

The feature is available within the Model Edit page, where users are now able to select one of their existing models and decide which parameter settings (order, visibility, naming) and which viewer settings (scene, environment, lighting, cameras…) they wish to import to another one of their models. This is available right after uploading or at any time when editing ShapeDiver models.

d) Parameter History

The new parameter panel lets you go back and forth between successive parameter sets you have explored, thanks to new Undo and Redo buttons . This feature is available through the platform and iframe embedding (for Designer accounts), as well as through the viewer API (for Business accounts).

e) ShapeDiver Viewer 3.0

We’ve also been hard at work with the new evolution of our ShapeDiver viewer. The new viewer comes with improved materials and support for HDRI maps!

At the moment, they can only be set up through the viewer API, but we will soon add an option to upload them directly from the platform. Additionally, the new attribute visualization modes are ready to go and be used with the attribute system that is part of the new ShapeDiver plugin, currently in private beta. In other words, you will hear much more from the new viewer in the coming weeks. For now, viewer 3 already comes with a feature that deserves its own item…

f) Augmented Reality

Yes, you are reading this correctly. We’re bringing AR to all accounts as a free upgrade! This feature will allow you to visualize any configuration on the native AR viewer of your mobile device. The best part is that there’s no need to modify your Grasshopper files as this is all done “in-platform”! Bear in mind that Safari is needed for iOS devices and Chrome is needed for Android ones.

Other Noteworthy Upgrades!

We’re not done yet! In order to improve the UX of our free and paid accounts, we’re also bringing the following account-specific upgrades:

Free Accounts:

g) Increased Computation Time From 5 to 10 Seconds

We hear you, 5 seconds of computation time is sometimes not enough when starting with ShapeDiver. For this reason, we’re extending the maximum computation time limit for all Free accounts from up 5 seconds to up to 10 seconds. This should enable easier testing and iterations during the prototyping phase. Please note that we still recommend learning the basics of Grasshopper optimization in order to reduce the computation times of your models.

Designer Accounts:

h) Advanced iframe Embedding w/ Styling & Colors

Our iframes are a great way to easily get started with using ShapeDiver as a sales and/or marketing tool on your own blog or portfolio. With this new update, we bring even more customization options! Now it’s not only easier to prepare your iframe for embedding with our new checkbox system, but now you’re able to add a bit of your own brand style to the UI!

Business Accounts:

i) Viewer 3 API

With our brand new viewer comes a brand new viewer API. We had to break some eggs here, and for now viewer 3 API is not backwards compatible with viewer 2. However, it is much more intuitive and flexible, and we believe the developers community working with ShapeDiver will love the new approach! The viewer is now available both as a CDN dependency and as an npm package coming with a TypeScript implementation. Check out the new documentation for more details!

Our Viewer 3 also keeps an in-depth representation of the data structures defined in Grasshopper through its scene tree, allowing for fine-grained control of user interactions through the API. You will hear more about this in the coming weeks as we roll out new API features.

What happens to Legacy PRO users?

Our ShapeDiver early adopters also get some love in these new updates. First of all, and as mentioned above, our new platform and our viewer 3.0 come as a free upgrade to everyone. This means AR, HDRI maps and the viewer 3.0 API are also available to you. Once launched, our plugin will also bring many more features, so please bear with us while we bring it out of Closed Beta.

How Do I Get Support During This Open Beta Period?

Any user who’s testing our platform during this Open Beta period can find all-new support resources by heading to help.shapediver.com.

Where Do I Report A Bug?

Our team is happy to hear about bugs and feature requests on our public forum, as we always have been. Since users trying the beta will cohabit with the ones that prefer staying on the legacy platform, we recommend using the [BETA] prefix in the title of all topics where the new platform is discussed. Additionally, please make sure to give us your username so we can better identify your models.

What About The Closed Beta?

Parallel to this Open Beta we are also running a Closed Beta with a select number of users who are helping us stress test the rest of our upcoming releases. Some of the features being tested are:

Additional Changes

Free users can no longer export / import files or upload models with scripts. In order to test drive these features, please consider starting a 7-day Designer trial or a 14-day Business trial.

Designer users can no longer access the tickets for direct embedding for their models. If you need access to the viewer API, please consider starting a 14-day Business trial.

You can start a trial at any time from your ShapeDiver account. On the new platform click on your profile picture and then in Manage Plan .

Wrapping Up

We know it's taken us a bit longer than anticipated, but we believe the wait will be worth it. We now feel ready to keep improving existing features and building completely new ones on top of this redesigned infrastructure.

We sincerely appreciate your patience and hope these changes will bring a true upgrade in the way you interact with ShapeDiver. As always, let us know via our Forum any thoughts, comments and/or feedback!

In this article, we will be discussing the " project management triangle " that often seems to play out in the AEC sector: to find a balance between schedule (time), budget (price) and scope (quality). In today’s projects, one needs to choose a set of two, but it seems impossible to deliver all three at the same time: fast and cheap won't be of good quality; cheap and of good quality won’t be quick or on time; on time and of good quality won't be cheap.

Prefabrication and modular construction is aiming to deliver the impossible, namely to satisfy all three variables at the same time. We will discuss the role of digitalization, and look at some best practice examples that aim to tackle the housing crisis by productizing the build environment.

Previously On AEC Fragmentation

As discussed in our two last articles about fragmentation in the AEC ( Pt. 1 & Pt. 2 ), this industry suffers from low value creation and strong industry fragmentation. As of today, building as an industrial activity is still project-based (within and across projects), heavily relying on “on-site” work right at the construction site.

More recently, however, new digital planning platforms and additive manufacturing technologies are promising to change AEC by streamlining the design-to-built workflows, cutting time and other forms of waste in construction. Are we actually witnessing the complete (digital) transformation of the AEC domain, or will it just fade away (again)? Let's find out.

Industrializing Construction

As mentioned, the “on-site” approach makes sense for heavy, monolithic structures as for example in infrastructure usually made from cast reinforced concrete. Think of tunnels, bridges, streets and foundations. On the other hand, lightweight (hybrid) elements made from wood and steel can easily be prefabricated in a factory, an approach commonly termed going “off-site”. Using manufacturing environments combined with reusing designs are the key differences of Industrialized Construction when compared to traditional construction.

Building Information Modelling (BIM) lays the foundation for the efficient digital planning across trades. On top of it, thinking in building systems allows these components to become literal products: In Industrialized Construction, these solutions are reused from one project to another, avoiding unnecessary rework on the planning and permitting side while integrating parametric control for mass-customization.

Off-site vs Prefab vs Modular

"Off-site Construction" is an umbrella term, under which prefabricated construction and modular construction fall. It involves planning, designing, fabrication and assembly at a location which is not the final site and tries to minimize the work needed to be done on the spot. Off-site construction promises to be less time consuming, more sustainable, safe and flexible. As the structures are manufactured in an controlled environment it is possible to monitor and maintain quality - which is challenging in traditional, on-site construction.

"Prefabricated Construction", or “prefab” for short, is part of offsite construction. In Prefab, elements are constructed and assembled in a manufacturing environment, such as a factory instead of a construction site. Of course, these structures must adhere to local building codes and components can widely range in dimensions and complexity.

In "Modular Construction", a building is constructed in box-like elements. First, after being prefabricated, these 2D or 3D modules are being transported and mounted together on-site using minimal efforts. Modules often include kitchen and bathroom units but there is no limit to their use but considerations in terms of relocation resources have to be made.

We spoke to AplusV solutions, a company that delivers mass customized solutions for the construction sector, betting on mass-produced timber products, also known as Mass Timber Construction.

Chris Aerts, APlusV solutions's CEO, believes that,  “ we should try to replace concrete with timber, which actually stores CO2 instead of emitting it. I think Mass Timber is the future for AEC! Especially for multi-story buildings. ” Here, multiple solid wood panels are nailed and/or glued together, providing strength and stability. Elements can be produced to design specification.

Automation & Robotics

Off-site, prefabricated modules that have been planned with BIM and are fabricated in a factory environment do not necessarily entail that they are being manufactured like products in other industries. But, and because of the fully digital workflow, the information from planning and design can be used to directly fabricate elements without the need for traditional 2D plans and sections.

This is commonly achieved by the use of numerically controlled systems such as CNC-type machinery and/or robotic arms or a combination of them. It is also possible to have machines work alongside human workers, sharing or alternating the tasks and increasing productivity and safety. As we previously discussed, additive manufacturing and assembly are on the rise, given the industries’ low added value. Manufacturing technologies also allow for more consistent quality and higher throughput.

As Chris Aerts mentions: “ With the advent of high-level digitization, automated manufacturing of building components is becoming increasingly more common ”.

Inflow of (Venture) Capital

Not surprisingly, the initial costs for setting up the software engineering workflows and also the hardware (as in, literally a factory) comes with respective capital expenditures early on and constant, if not increasing, operational expenses along the way. “ Several large construction companies in the Netherlands have been pouring millions into building new factories in the last two years. ”, explains Chris Aerts, “ That is why  we are currently focusing on the configuration platform instead. ”

In fact, there are several strategies for new and existing firms to counter these high expenditures, such as setting up a partnership or taking capital from outside the company itself. For nascent firms (Startups and Spin-offs), this might be in the form of Business Angel investment and Venture Capital. These early tickets can also help to overcome financial barriers related to hiring and scaling, but most importantly cover up the cost of facilities before revenue can be generated.

In a recent article, Warren Buffet is said to be betting on the modular construction company MiTek that has a focus on hotel rooms and apartment buildings. Probably the most prominent example is US-based company Katerra, famously becoming the most recent - if not the only - AEC Unicorn. “ However, just having an investment can not guarantee the success of a company, as  Katerra’s recent downfall has shown . ”, Chris Aerts adds. Tech-giants by the likes of Google  are also betting fairly big on modular construction.

Business Model Innovation

As business models are changing with the market dynamics, such as constantly changing trends, there is no one-size-fits-all model that can be applied in construction by everyone at any moment. Yet, we can mention some frequently found in AEC: General and/or Niche Construction Services, Production / Manufacturing, Material and goods supplier, “Brick-and-Mortar” type, eCommerce, Rentals, Contractor Services, Consulting / Engineering, and Commission-based business models (and a mix of all above), in B2B.

Some industrialized construction companies are offering a unique mix of those to create a unique value proposition and let the customer choose what they really want (B2C). For example:

This approach can also allow you to generate revenue by using the configurator (“pay as you go”). “Online configurators and parametric design platforms will change the way building products will be ordered and delivered,'' says Chris Aerts.

(Above:  Timber wall configurator by APlusV solutions )

Takeaways

While modularization and prefabrication are not the answer to all productivity and efficiency problems in the AEC industry, they definitely show the path towards profitability under certain circumstances. Whether focusing on more efficient processes, or completely new business models, it's clear that improvements can be possible if all parties involved embrace a new way of approaching traditional problems.

<< Special thanks to Alex Walzer for his collaboration during the writing of this article.  Alex investigates the role of entrepreneurship for and in AEC when utilizing nascent production technologies. He is a PhD researcher at the Chair of Innovative and Industrial Construction (Prof. Dr. Hall) at ETH Zürich - and can be reached at   walzer.tech  and   @alexnikw on Twitter . >>

Esmaeil Mottaghi; is an Architect, Researcher, and Computational designer based in Tehran, Iran. He graduated with a master’s degree in computational design from the University of Tehran (UT) and has several experiences as an expert for digital manufacturing and as a tutor in the field of computational design.

Arman Khalilbeigi Khameneh is  a Digital Architect and Computational Designer.  Since 2016 has been teaching in the field of design computation, data-driven design, and digital fabrication in the most prestigious universities of the region including the University of Tehran.  >>

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Today, computational tools are an integral part of our design process. Through the algorithmic logic embedded in these tools, the design pipeline is redefined. The tools can enhance many aspects of a project, from the most trivial and laborious process of document generation to the most complex decision-making process. Among the many possibilities, the morphological and form-generating methods make for some very interesting subjects.

Geometrical shapes and patterns are algorithmic in nature due to their discrete mathematics and geometric definitions. Furthermore, since they have procedural generation methods, where each step is based on the previous one, they are tightly compatible with parametric modeling. Parakeet3D is a collection of digital tools that facilitate the generation of geometric and natural patterns.

By integrating with Grasshopper, it expands the morphological repository for Patterns and Networks, allowing designers to go beyond old shapes and push the old boundaries to comply with modern design requirements. Parakeet aims to take a comprehensive look at several aspects of this process.

A notable gap exists in studying [traditional] geometrical patterns. For most geometrical patterns, what's being studied is simply the final outcome of the generation process. We have limited data on the progression of these patterns today. Barring a few exceptions, what has been gathered today are mere morphs and shapes without associated data or algorithms. It is the logic behind these morphological processes that is missing. These all together formed the idea behind Parakeet3D.

This research aims to decode or approximate the generation process behind some of the old and authentic patterns in an algorithmic syntax. This approach enables the designer to generate, apply and analyze patterns not only for ornamental designs but also for modern architectural purposes such as thin shells, free-form surfaces, and performative envelopes.

Designing with Parakeet is simple and straightforward. It's as simple as selecting a tile (grid), then selecting the method you want to use for pattern generation on that grid.

The tiling options for the base are listed under the “tilings” category. They have been designed with similar inputs as Grasshoppers native grids for designers' convenience. This segment covers regular tilings, semi-regular tilings, k-uniform tilings and a number of non-Euclidean tilings like hyperbolic or Poincare disk.

Figure 1: Basic concepts and methods for geometric pattern generation using Parakeet3D. a) Tilings (regular tilings, semi-regular tilings, k-uniform tilings and a number of non-Euclidean tilings like hyperbolic or Poincare disk) b) Modification methods. c) Pattern generation methods (Genotypes)

Also included in this category are parts from the M.C. Escher category, commonly known as "Deformation Parquets" and which may be used as a base grid.

Figure 2: M.C.Escher Patterns

Secondly, and finally, we will select a method by which a final network will be generated on the grid. These methods are listed under the category with the same name. The majority of them are compatible with all possible tilings and even with irregular arbitrarily closed curves.

One of the key features of Parakeet is how the user interacts with each method. In other words, each method has been simplified in terms of the required data so that it can be easily used to produce heterogeneous variations. Simply input a normalized (between 0-1) number for each cell and you will get extraordinary results.

Figure 3: Parquet Deformation generation by a continuous change in Genotypes inputs

Thus far, we have covered the basic principles of working with Parakeet3D. which is to select a tiling and then select a Pattern Generation method of Genotype. For more advanced users, there are extra components that can be used after each step.

These methods, called 'modification methods' multiply the complexity and variety of patterns. These components can be applied both after tilings and/or Genotypes. Number of key methods in this category are "Mirroring Quad Subdivision", "Dual Graph", "Truncation" and "Complex (Hyperbolic) Transformation" and "Kaleidoscope". The results of such modification are depicted below.

Figure 4: Application of a Parakeet3D Genotype on modified tilings, a) Genotype ‘B’ on a tiling with ‘mirroring quad subdivision’ b) Genotype ‘B’ on a tiling’s ‘Dual Graph’ c) Genotype ‘B’ on a tiling with ‘Truncation’ d) Genotype ‘B’ on a tiling with ‘Complex Transformation’

Besides geometrical patterns, Parakeet has several tools to generate natural patterns. Key members in these categories are Venation Algorithms, Growth, Aggregation and flow patterns.

Figure 5: Examples of bio-inspired patterns generated using Parakeet3D. a) Venation algorithm I b) Venation algorithm II c) differential growth algorithm d) floral (arabesque) patterns e) Fracture (crack) pattern f) fractals g) Diffusion-limited aggregation h) Flow-path patterns

Try Parakeet for yourself

The following model has a parameter to upload your own surface into the geometry and export to get the final pattern result.

The model works with3dm,dxf, dwg, step, and iges formats.

Want to give it a try? You can start by downloading a sample.dwg and uploading it to the Import parameter.

Bottom Line

We are always looking to give our users the most expansive toolbox possible, and Parakeet is the latest addition.

To get the most up-to-date list of supported third-party plugins, simply check out our documentation section .

Please be sure to check out and download the Parakeet plugin from their Food4Rhino page.

Parakeet is a project by Esmaeil Mottaghi and Arman Khalilbeigi Khameneh. Please refer to their support email [ parakeet3d@gmail.com ] for commercial or educational inquiries. Please follow Parakeet3D's YouTube channel for more tutorials.

<< Would you like us to support any particular plugin? Make sure to read this article that explains what we can and can’t support. If your plugin is eligible for support, let our developers know via our Forum.>>

Grasshopper definitions can become messy and difficult to understand, as they can quickly go from few components to hundreds of them. In this video tutorial, Edwin Hernandez, Lead Computational Designer at ShapeDiver, shares " 3 Reasons Why Your Grasshopper Definitions Should Be Clean & Documented! "

1. Future-Proof Your Work

This simply means that when we look back at the duplicate grasshopper files, we can understand, in an instant, what was created and how it was created. And for this to be achieved, the ShapeDiver team has created a template here . This template includes a convenient list of elements that help in organizing your grasshopper definition quickly and easily.

These elements include "Parameters," which mainly control the entire Grasshopper script. Primary groups, Inputs, and outputs also are classified as elements in the template.

These elements include "Parameters," which mainly control the entire Grasshopper script. Primary groups, Inputs, and outputs also are classified as elements in the template.

Local testing suggests the components are currently unsupported by ShapeDiver and need to be deleted later on before uploading. Lastly, "Ready to Organize" and "In Progress "elements help in the definition stage of a particular script. Here we have an example file organized using the different elements present in the template.

2. Debug, Edit, Extend

Modularizing your scripts and dividing them into smaller modular groups helps quickly iron out potential bugs without more significant impact to the overall larger definition. By working and dividing the more extensive definition into smaller sub-groups, we can easily reuse, move around, easily extend them or find the bug and focus our efforts on fixing it in that particular independent smaller group.

3. Collaborate & Receive Support!

If you work in teams, the last thing you want is your team to spend hours just understanding what you intended to do with the definition. Naming and, if needed, providing appropriate subtitles to groups and subgroups making it easier to locate and find things quickly.

Furthermore, color coding components are crucial to impart greater understanding to the overall script. Blue coded are inputs, and the green coded ones are outputs. Greater understanding regarding color coding can be looked up in the template file.

Bottom Line

We hope that these three reasons motivate you to keep your Grasshopper definitions clean and make it possible for you to document them easily. This will help your peers and help thousands of users when you decide to host your Grasshopper file online on ShapeDiver.

How do you keep your definitions clean and documented? Let us know by tagging us on Twitter or Instagram !

<< Do you have any questions or comments? Make sure to let us know via our Forum . Our development team is ready to provide cost-free assistance and troubleshooting! If you need to upgrade your account and increase your computation time, head to our website and reach out to us via our contact form.>>

AEC and its plenty stakeholders, Source: Autodesk Redshift

Previously On Part 1

As discussed in the last article, the AEC industry suffers from low-value creation - as low as below 10% which might be due to the fact of strong fragmentation within and across projects. There might be opportunities to learn from other, non-project-based industries such as the manufacturing, financial, or software sector. One stepping stone to streamline workflows in AEC is by simplifying data creation, interoperability, and storage.

Value creation in construction, Source: Sarhan et. al.

Boosting Remote Work From The Cloud

People working in AEC are often away from the office, e.g. on construction sites or client meetings. Even more so then, it is important that their data is accessible and fully functioning. This, however, can be impacted by the lower performance of portable computers which are not necessarily capable of delivering similar power as a desktop computer. In the current global situation, many people in the AEC industry find themselves working from home, which means full-time work on portable machines, limiting productivity.

Using cloud-based digital workflows allow us to have more (design and business) options available in less time. This, in return, means we should be able to make better decisions earlier on, where the impact on savings is the highest. Following a digital workflow also allows us easily to separate work packages across several people, allowing again for more agency and faster, better decisions. In this respect, how is your company doing so far?

Remote work and the cloud, Source: DealerSupport

Why Online Collaboration Is Here To Stay

Yet another step ahead from just digital is online, meaning on the web. Working online allows AEC professionals to be working on a document of any kind at any time, on any device and from anywhere. As if this is not yet enough, online work also allows real-time collaboration with partners, contractors and clients. There is virtually no delay other than the necessary for data to transmit from one place to another. This also helps lower the barrier of entrance for new-comers as no installation is necessary.

Bringing together the mentioned building “blocks”, teams today can already collaborate in real-time on the cloud - having full control by using parametric design software. Data import, alternation and export schemes can be automated and allow for a more fulfilling working experience, increasing overall productivity.

Donau City (embed the demo or GIF), Source: Pavol (SD)

The Rise Of The AEC Web Platforms

Because of the AEC industry’s strong needs, several specifically tailored cloud applications have appeared in recent years. They all share strong roots in being web-based platforms, streamlining across stakeholders, increasing collaboration and reducing time to make (better) decisions. Below, we are highlighting some of the better known ones:

HYPAR

Hypar : "the next-generation platform for designing, generating, and sharing building systems." Hypar allows the users to quickly add their expertise to their own processes. So that they dont have to start from square one with each project and can make better decisions, faster. Hypar is developed by AEC industry veterans and directly integrates with common softwares (including Rhinoceros3D) and data formats such as JSON and gITF, tackling the sectors of AEC, Building Products, Space Planning and Real Estate.

KitConnect

KitConnect : "a purpose-built desktop and web solution that promotes Building Product Awareness". The core processes include: Structured Design (BIM), Command & Control, Knowledge Capture & Distribution and continuous optimization to combine design, planning and manufacturing built around the Autodesk ecosystem. In short, KitConnect provides a structured exchange environment from modelling to manufacturing to drive scalable building solutions for the users utilizing industrial construction methods such as time-saving and quality-enhancing, vertically integrated Prefabrication and Modularization.

Prism App

Prism App : "an open-source app which accelerates the design process for precision-manufactured housing (PMH) for London." It is free and easy to use and helps the user to quickly determine viable options for their development on the web. Prism App uses a dashboard to visualize housing data in heatmaps, such as expansion, types, building scale, apartment, and even room size. The platform is especially unique as it is actively supported and used by the Mayor of London (UK).

Speckle

Speckle : "streamlines collaboration and automation for 3D information such as CAD & BIM". This developer-friendly and open-source solution allows you to build your custom solution using their custom SDK. Speckle achieves real-time and remote ready collaboration, integrated data curation, object-based version control and additionally includes a comprehensive toolset to automate even the most complex workflows. For users simply looking for a turnkey solution, keep in mind: Here, you will need to set up your own server.

Giraffe

Giraffe : “..works alongside you calculating areas and ratios, laying out car parking, analyzing solar and managing data.” Giraffe allows you to sketch on a map to build your narrative. It automatically converts 2D sketches into 3D data, lays out parking spots, analyzes solar radiation and views. Building costs, yield, and other planning metrics can be extracted from the web app, both for internal and external stakeholders and partners. Also, full project history and portfolio building are available.

TT Swarm x ShapeDiver

In 2018 US-firm Thornton Tomasetti introduced “ Swarm ” for the very purpose of sharing knowledge in AEC: “ Swarm is an app store for the design community. It connects Designers who need tools with the Superusers who are building them. Swarm allows design teams to discover and share solutions that empower creatives to do their best work.”  As of recently, we are happy to announce that both Swarm and ShapeDiver platforms will merge and join forces to help develop the AEC sector. It is our ambitious goal to improve every possible workflow and to transfer and retain as much domain knowledge as possible.

TT Core Swarm and ShapeDiver merge Source: ShapeDiver

Takeaways

In this article series we discussed the sheer amount of waste generated in the AEC industry, highlighted how segmented and fragmented the stakeholders in the industry are and what can be done to learn from other, non-project-based industries.

When looking more closely at workflows, we understood that there are certain barriers in place and that moving to cloud-based applications can help to collaborate on these large projects we see in AEC. In addition, the rise of web platforms and configurator tools were discussed, highlighting a few of them, and to conclude we are proud to reiterate on the successful merge from ShapeDiver with TT Swarm.

<< Special thanks to Alex Walzer for his collaboration during the writing of this article.  Alex investigates the role of entrepreneurship for and in AEC when utilizing nascent production technologies. He is a PhD researcher at the Chair of Innovative and Industrial Construction (Prof. Dr. Hall) at ETH Zürich - and can be reached at   walzer.tech  and   @alexnikw on Twitter . >>

Using Parametric Design On The Cloud!

There are plenty of opportunities for those embracing new, collaborative digital workflows, no matter the size of the company or project. Ideally, it would mean better planning and faster building, overall better quality, and less environmental impact. As another bonus, it also entails more fun and motivation when working, less frustration for you and your team, and, possibly even shorter workdays - a perfect win-win.

Are you looking to apply cloud-based solutions to your business?

Fill out our  contact form and our team will be happy to listen to your needs and guide you through the entire process.

For everything else parametric, check out our blog for updates or subscribe to our newsletter and follow us on Instagram and Twitter .

AEC and its plenty stakeholders, Source: Autodesk Redshift

Waste vs Added Value

The assumption that construction deals with low productivity can be measured in several ways. Let’s look at the added value because in fact, today’s output of the sector is in a very severe position:

•  60% of value in construction being wasted, such as in accidents, delays, waiting times, rework, unnecessary handling and damaging of materials, poor payment and tendering systems; the list goes on.

•  30% of value is lost due to support activities, such as procurement, logistics, cost estimating and management.

•  Only 5% to 10% is in the form of value creation, or in other words, what the customer actually wants.

What can we do to understand the root cause(s) of these symptoms, how do we get started?

Value creation in construction, Source: Sarhan et. al.

Segmented Stakeholders

The AEC sector is fundamentally fragmented in several ways (often concurrently): within the individual project phases (such as within the design phase), as well across several phases and their stakeholders, and of course across individual projects. As a result, this fragmentation affects the productivity and competitiveness of the industry.

In fact, the value-add in the AEC sector is insufficient and margins are getting increasingly tighter each day. How can we excel moving forward to make this large industry more efficient? Glad you asked! One way is to look at other industries, such as software and financial services. The graphic below illustrates individual company users (red node), individual external users (blue node), and their connections, can you spot the difference?

Network study of different industries, Source: Box

Learning From Non-Project-Based Industries

At the root, the AEC industry and its companies are mainly (capital) project-based, which limits scalability naturally: each project and its stakeholders are unique. Looking to sectors such as software, financial services or (lean) manufacturing, AEC could potentially evolve from being project-based, to processes, platforms and eventually products, providing individual buildings but reusing existing knowledge and tools.

What might appear as obvious to people from other industries, AEC workflows often start “from scratch”, neglecting previously found solutions. We believe that there is no need to begin all over again with each project, so let's start by first looking at how digital workflows in AEC are structured today and how they could be improved in the future, starting today.

Today's Planning & Design Workflow

In today’s AEC projects, digital information is stored by many specialized stakeholders, in different levels of detail, on several machines and accounts, using various software environments and data formats.

In many cases, information is often still being exchanged like a century ago: with drawings and reports printed on paper - breaking the digital chain of information across the projects only to re-digitize the information at a later moment again. As the goal is a flawless and thus lossless workflow, it is important to establish it as early as possible.

In order to apply and automate as much domain knowledge as possible, Application Programming Interfaces (or short, API) can allow for the conceptual hand-shake and check. Perfect, problem solved! Right? Not so fast.

APIs have specific import and export requirements, such as file formats and respective versioning. These details can create frictions on the workflow, potentially slowing it down or stopping it entirely, counteracting their very purpose.

A potential solution to this would require a universal data transfer file format, similar to what our developers at ShapeDiver have been working on together with TT CORE Studio: an open-source and platform-agnostic data format called sdTF . We'll have a more in-depth article diving deeper in what this format can offer to the AEC and different industries.

Breaking Down Barriers

As previously mentioned, CAD and BIM tools are frequently used in AEC. In fact, it is common to use several software environments in a single day. This requires specific technical training and continuous education on each of these platforms and it comes with further drawbacks: accessibility (import, export and storage), version-control and data-loss.

Each platform requires a software license and is commonly limited to a specific user or machine, mostly via a purchase or subscription model. So, what would it actually take to centralize CAD information and be able to import, change and export files natively through a single software environment? The aim of this integrated data workflow is to both ease the collaboration and extend the possibilities within. Hint: cloud-applications.

Workflow example through Rhino3D, Source: Rui de Klerk

Preview Of Part 2

In Part 2 of this article, we will have a look at the current state of cloud applications and discuss the opportunity of boosting remote work productivity, powered by these cloud-based services. This novel way of working allows for better and faster decision making and opens the way for real-time and online, interactive collaboration - right on any device, any browser, and anywhere.

<< Special thanks to Alex Walzer for his collaboration during the writing of this article.  Alex investigates the role of entrepreneurship for and in AEC when utilizing nascent production technologies. He is a PhD researcher at the Chair of Innovative and Industrial Construction (Prof. Dr. Hall) at ETH Zürich - and can be reached at   walzer.tech  and   @alexnikw on Twitter . >>

Using Parametric Design On The Cloud!

There are plenty of opportunities for those embracing new, collaborative digital workflows, no matter the size of the company or project. Ideally, it would mean better planning and faster building, overall better quality, and less environmental impact. As another bonus, it also entails more fun and motivation when working, less frustration for you and your team, and, possibly even shorter workdays - a perfect win-win.

Are you looking to apply cloud-based solutions to your business?

Fill out our  contact form and our team will be happy to listen to your needs and guide you through the entire process.

For everything else parametric, check out our blog for updates or subscribe to our newsletter and follow us on Instagram and Twitter .

For a modern retail brand, eCommerce is no longer an option. However, the rising supply of online shopping options has created an ever more competitive landscape in the eCommerce space. Tech giants like Amazon have created a high bar when it comes to customer satisfaction in the digital space. This, in turn, causes market trends to advance and evolve... and fast.

While the last decade saw the popularization of eCommerce as a concept, the next decade will shift the expectations of what a functional digital strategy and supply chain looks like to comply with the expectations of the modern consumer.

This brings us to the next big question on everyone's mind, what's next for eCommerce? What are the next trends and practices that will put early adopters ahead of the competition?

The answer: Mass Customization.

What is Mass Customization?

The term was first coined by IBM in 1984, mass customization is the production of goods according to precisely what individual customers want while keeping costs for manufacturers at a low level. This technique is the best for both personalization and production . This has prompted leading experts to agree that "mass customization" is the  future of retail .

In a world where customers expect 2-day deliveries and seamless online experiences, the next big step will be the personalization of goods. With rising practices such as Distributed Manufacturing and 3D printing, Mass Customization is slowly, but surely, accelerating its way into becoming a widespread approach to shopping.

In this article, we explore innovative methods being developed by large companies to allow customers to make personalized choices from a large selection of goods thus helping restore individuality to scalability .  Let’s dive straight in!

Mass customization has two components: personalization based on user choice and "synchronous production " using tools such as 3D printing or computer-controlled machine tools to produce goods with top-notch quality.

1. Personalization:

This empowers customers to choose from a large number of possible options, such as custom-designed shoes, or personalized kitchenware, which may include paint colors and the choice of handles for a particular pot. When designing these goods in the 'factory', for example using computer-aided design (CAD), manufacturers are able to see the finished product before they make it so that they can ensure that each unit produced is just right.

In this way, brands can provide more value to their customers and the customers  feel more connected to the brand on a personal level.

2. Synchronous production:

When brands want to create customized items as soon as their customers order, they switch to Synchronous production. This is easily achieved through the usage of machines such as robots and High tech 3D printers.

One of the most interesting things about this technique is that it is not only meant for giant companies but also most appropriate for small entrepreneurs and brands to provide customers with a unique and personalized offer , which is often difficult to achieve by the former due to their rigid manufacturing operations. We discuss more benefits like these in our blog The Quest For Customization In A World Of Economies Of Scale .

Why is the practice becoming more relevant?

Mass customization was developed as a response to the rise of personalization on the web . Most successful retailers have found that while customers are happy to browse through large numbers of products, they increasingly prefer to order customized goods - choosing from a small number of options such as color or size.

Customers then want an efficient service that provides  fast delivery but at a relatively affordable price . Mass customization satisfies these needs by creating goods in bulk , using technologies such as 3D printing or robotics, which reduce the complexity and cost of production while maintaining high quality .

What are the benefits of Mass Customization in eCommerce?

Today mass customization is practiced mainly by large manufacturers, but the technology itself is highly adaptable for many small businesses or brands too. For example, it could easily be applied to services like e-book publishing, e-commerce sites, luxury products and so much more that need quick visualization before placing orders. This subject is briefly explored in our blog on Online 3D Configurators: 6 use cases

Some of the benefits of mass customization include:

1) Faster Delivery

With Mass customization, custom-made goods are produced in bulk, which then just need to be sorted and packed for delivery. This means that orders can be shipped much faster than with smaller individual lots of items.  More orders shipped, more sales made!

2) Reduced Costs & Complexity

In Mass production, to make a decent sense from a business perspective, a high volume of orders needs to process, which inadvertently escalates costs and increases complexity. Whist in Mass customization, you only produce what you sell. This way, you keep your costs low, make production less complex and keep customers happy with the best quality of products.

3) Reduced Shipping Costs

With mass customization, there is no need to send out samples or prototype products because the consumer has no limited options. This means that shipping is highly efficient. Since shipping is becoming increasingly expensive, mass customization offers a great cost advantage. (Costs can even be further reduced by applying practices like distributed manufacturing .)

4) Improved Quality

The entire process of Mass customization is based on providing products according to specified specifications. It also helps in improving the quality of individual items, and this means that mass customized goods are, in most ways, always uniform, of high quality, and up to precise specifications.

5) Better Control Over The Supply Chain

Mass customization allows manufacturers to control inventory levels in their supply chain by allowing them to predict demand more accurately.

This prevents overproduction of goods that may have a short shelf-life or may end up being returned by customers due to minor defects. The increased efficiency and production means that manufacturers can respond more quickly and cost-effectively to changes in demand.

6) Environmentally Friendly

Where mass production emphasizes economies of scale, mass customization focuses on the needs of individual customers. With mass production, brands produce large volumes of a single product and make minor adjustments to the assembly process for each specific customer order.

Mass customization can involve customizing every detail about an item or service: materials, design, packaging, colors or flavors in food products, location of delivery, and more. This allows for on-demand manufacturing at reduced levels of waste and pollution when compared to traditional manufacturing. This subject is further explored in our Nomade Editions case study.

Many experts agree that mass customization will become widespread in the coming years. If mass customization becomes integrated into eCommerce, it could transform the industry and ensure that e-commerce enjoys continued success.

Companies like Unruh Furniture in the United States and Nove25 in Italy are already applying mass customization using 3D Configurators in their eCommerce ecosystems. This has allowed them to position themselves as highly innovative and provide a truly personalized purchasing experience.

How can you implement Mass Customization?

More and more companies are finding that customizing products to suit individual needs is a great way to increase conversions. As we all know, eCommerce is a business in which it is vital for websites or merchants to maintain a  healthy conversion rate . For this to be achieved, the site must not only offer products that consumers want but also provide flexibility with these items so that customers can purchase exactly what they need.

In the past, customization has always been something reserved for high-end and luxury goods that tend to be expensive. But now, thanks largely to the Internet age, mass customization has become an affordable option for small businesses of any shape or size as well as large corporations with extensive budgets.

As an eCommerce business , your primary goal is to open up a line of communication with customers and provide them with a personalized product . Mass customization is one way to do this. By adding aspects like custom colors, logo integration, and monogramming to your offerings you are able to cater to  individual tastes and preferences while also creating an opportunity for increased revenue.

But how exactly does one implement mass customization? Here are five key steps:

1) Start With A List

Create a list of all potential customization options that fit into the shape of your specific needs. This will be important later on when it comes time for budgeting purposes as well as a presentation during the implementation phase with customers. This should be manageable, but keep in mind some items may not make the final cut.

2) Customizable Options

Make an inventory of the customization options you identified in step 1 and use that information to create a spreadsheet with a checklist of all of the options. This is where it comes in handy to have an overview of all the possible customization options available. You can use different colors, fonts, and other design elements for each option.

3) Listen To Your Customers

Brainstorm with potential customers on what they would prefer to see brought to life by your eCommerce business through a custom design. Invite them to provide you with their thoughts or ask them to draw a picture of their ideal look. This will enable you to create a design that includes your options and their suggestions. Win-win for Both.!

4) Make Budgeting Easy

Once the design is finalized, work on the budgeting procedures. You will need to decide how much money you want to allocate for each option, whether there are any additional costs beyond the estimates in step 2, and if it is feasible for you to try out all those ideas at once.

5) Great UI and UX

Finally, you can create a user-friendly interface to add to your eCommerce website for your customers to understand their options and find the right parameters that fits them. A good way to do this is by adopting a parametric 3D Configurator approach. These are truly customizable 3D models of your product that can be shaped and molded by any parameter you want them to (scale, color, material...).

A good example of how these 3D configurators work in an eCommerce environment is the buying experience of the company Shapelamp , which allows users to design their own lighting unit that will then be automatically sent a manufacturing order through CNC cutters. You can try their configurator by visiting their website .

All in all, mass customization is the next step in the evolution of eCommerce. Its implementation can help create an even more successful online marketplace by providing better customer service and creating a personalized buying experience.

Although the global pandemic has accelerated the adoption of eCommerce worldwide, mass customization is simply beginning to take up. Ecommerce and Mass Customization, according to eMarketer research, is all but set to increase in both volume and capital in the coming years. With the right tools and strategies at your helm, for incremental growth, the right time to push is now.  

Mass Customization is a rising trend that is gaining popularity and becoming more accessible through the years. This practice is already allowing companies from all shapes and sizes to cut down on costs while increasing customer satisfaction and creating brand diversification. As eCommerce becomes the new norm of the retail world, tailoring experiences to the individual will no undoubtedly become the next step.

Thinking about integrating mass customization or 3D experiences into your eCommerce startup and would like guidance on the process? Fill out our contact form and our team will be happy to listen to your needs and guide you through the entire process.

For everything else parametric, check out our blog for updates or subscribe to our newsletter and follow us on Instagram and Twitter .

In this video tutorial, Edwin Hernandez, Lead Computational Designer at ShapeDiver, shares "4 Ideas For Customizing Everyday Products w/ 3D Printing (& Grasshopper)!" Let's dive straight in!

1. Create A 3D Printable Pot/Planter

Starting from developing a simple parametric Pot Grasshopper script, you can create your parametric pot design. However, with the power of ShapeDiver, not only can you visualize your model, but you can also share it with thousands of others to view and 3D print it on their own. Upload the Grasshopper script, toggle, and play with many parameters like base diameter, base thickness, base profile, and so on!

2. Create A 3D Printable Laptop Cover!

Once we have a 3D model of our product, in this case, it's an Apple Macbook Air, and we can design its back cover in exciting patterns and designs. Using Lunchbox Plugin for the practices and Squid Plugin, we create a highly customizable and personalized design. But why not share it with the world? Well, ShapeDiver it!

Upload it on ShapeDiver, customize your model and see it visualized in real-time. Best part? Export the final product file to your 3D printer and see your product turn into reality!

3. Create A 3D Printable Bottle Cover/Wrapper!

How is this for a cool gifting Idea? A 3D printed customized wine bottle cover. Take an image, in this case, a Beatles album cover, run it through ShapeDiver ImageImportComponent and Rooster Plugin, and wrap it around our bottle using Surface Morph Component. Viola! With that, our Wine bottle cover is ready to be printed.

But why stick to just one image? Upload your Grasshopper script and easily create thousands of bottle covers with various images instantly! Please share them with your friends, family, and thousands of others online with the help of ShapeDiver.

4. Create A 3D Printable AirTag Keychain!

Apple AirTags is a fantastic and helpful accessory, especially in its ability to locate lost objects. Just put it in your bag, on your bicycle, or in your wallet and forget it! It's that easy. However, due to its small size, it's also effortless to lose it. What if we could print out a 3D keychain for the AirTag? Well, in this example, we do just that.

And not only do we explore how to customize it, but we also upload it to ShapeDiver and access lots of parameters to tweak and change. Once we design the one we like the best, we can then export the 3D file to our 3D printer and see our designs in reality!

Bottom Line

We hope that these four ideas involving 3D printing and Grasshopper helped you kickstart your creativity. Possibilities are literally endless, and we can't wait to see what you build using our platform!

Do you have a great idea to share? Let us know by tagging us on Twitter or Instagram!

<< Do you have any questions or comments? Make sure to let us know via our Forum. Our development team is ready to provide cost-free assistance and troubleshooting! If you need to upgrade your account and increase your computation time, head to our website and reach out to us via our contact form.>>

To change this linear approach to Manufacturing, according to the  HP Digital Manufacturing Report , out of 2000 companies that took part in the survey, a whopping 52% of companies are looking into Distributed Manufacturing, a technique that is seamlessly transforming how products are designed, produced, and shipped to customers.

In this article, we’ll explore what Distributed Manufacturing is, its benefits and how any company can adopt it for its own business strategy. Let’s get started!

What is Distributed Manufacturing?

Simply put, Distributed Manufacturing is the production of goods at the point or near to the point of consumption by end users. It has furthermore come into the limelight due to multiple reasons, but mainly because it is reinventing the manufacturing industry from its linear, monolithic and closed approach to a more transparent, customizable, and small-business friendly approach.

Additionally, the rising energy prices have directly influenced the increase in shipping costs , all while adding exponential stress and increasing the burden on the environment.

Finally, COVID-19 induced supply outages worldwide , which have caused manufacturers to relook and move their production processes nearer to the consumers for business continuity and safeguarding themselves from any disruptions caused due to trade and tariff wars.

These reasons have led to the growing adoption of distributed manufacturing or “Localised Manufacturing” as a business strategy and therefore it is not surprising that many companies are looking into this method for 2021 and beyond.

The Rise of Distributed Manufacturing

Distributed Manufacturing has been around for some decades now. However, due to a wide number of reasons, businesses have been motivated to rethink their production processes.

Over the years, Distributed Manufacturing has come up to be a proven business strategy for businesses with products that have a high need for personalization.

Distributed manufacturing is also one of the key elements that helped small businesses stay afloat during the nationwide lockdowns that swept the globe during the COVID-19 pandemic.

On the one hand, it describes the merging of internet platforms with more adaptive, flexible, and digital manufacturing technologies. It embodies a vision of the future in which everyday goods can be personalized and manufactured on demand within short distances of customers or end-users.

Design Locally, Service Globally - Benefits of Distributed Manufacturing for Businesses

The benefits of Distributed Manufacturing are manifold for customers:

Adoption of Distributed Manufacturing For Your Business

We have now briefly understood how this approach works and how it can benefit a business. However, is it right for your business and if so, how can you adopt it successfully?

To successfully adopt Distributed Manufacturing for your business, digitization of manufacturing at multiple levels needs to be embraced. Digitization will not only accelerate the growth but also help in scaling up your business offerings to a larger, global, higher-paying clientele.

Our research highlights 4 major facets of your business that needs digitization for better adoption of Distributed Manufacturing, they are as follows:

1. Production Strategy

The traditional way of manufacturing parts and shipping to various destinations is almost unsustainable in the present world, especially for smaller companies. There is a pressing need to rethink the production strategy of your business to stay competitive and provide value to your customers. Therefore it is inevitable as we have to embrace advanced production methods such as 3D printing and CNC methods that have a transformative impact on the ways we make our products. Integrating these advanced production methods not only makes financial sense but also safeguards our business to supply chain outages. Here’s how the production strategies in the Construction industry are undergoing a digital transformation.

2. Production Automation

One of the most crucial and tedious steps is to create a detailed and precise fabrication file for your product. Add in customizable parameters in the mix, where clients custom configure their purchases/products, your business is now burdened with extra costs, delay in the creation of production files, and increase in production times.

However, via Computational Design and software like Grasshopper , any business can automate the process of file creation while also enabling to launch products with a high number of parameters that customers can choose from. This is not just limited to getting a sketch into a functioning prototype but can be extended to complex business processes such as Jewellery design and Furniture design.

3. Remote Collaboration

After resolving how customizable products can be manufactured and production files can be automated, the next step is to host these files on the cloud and allow users to customize a product from anywhere and any device.

To empower users for this kind of experience, a robust cloud application is of prime importance. One that hosts Grasshopper files as well as helps users to customize their favorite products with ease and convenience.

ShapeDiver is a cloud application that not only hosts your Grasshopper files but also integrates seamlessly into your existing design framework, helping you have an unlimited number of customizable parameters for your products.

4. Digital Storefront

Once we have a seamless integration of all things that happen during and after purchasing a product, it's now time to have a storefront that not only lets users customize products but also lets users seamlessly pay and order their products directly.

Online 3D configurators provide great value to both your business and your customers when seamlessly integrated with your digital store. This Digital storefront is nothing but your own website that has a flawless integration of ShapeDiver and payment gateways. Here are 6 different use cases for integrating 3D configurators onto your website.

How does everything look when put together? A great example is Nomade Editions from Germany. They offer their clients the ability to order a fully fabricated table, shipped to their home or a more eco-friendly alternative of just purchasing the production file. This allows their clients to use a local FabLab instead of having the product shipped directly to their address. Here's an interview with Nomade's owner, Paolo de Jesus.

Summing Up

As we learned in this article, Distributed Manufacturing is a process that brings many benefits not only at the business level, but also at the environmental one. For this reason, we believe that every business should incorporate this methodology into their supply chain at least to some degree, be it in production strategy, production automation, remote collaboration, and even on your own website.

However, it is also far more important to not just adopt it but also have the right framework to ensure its success. ShapeDiver is a great platform that helps not only to build but also allows seamless integration of cloud applications with the power of Grasshopper and parametric design.

Are you thinking about integrating Additive Manufacturing or 3D experiences into your eCommerce startup and would like guidance on the process? fill out our contact form and our team will be happy to listen to your needs and guide you through the entire process.

For everything else parametric, check out our blog for updates or subscribe to our newsletter and follow us on Instagram and Twitter .

Hello, I’m Michele Farina, Automotive Designer and Grasshopper Specialist at ShapeDiver.

In this blog post I will teach you how to push the boundaries of the ShapeDiver viewer in order to achieve high quality rendering results. I will unveil some tricks that allow to create a more realistic configurator and improve the user experience of your clients without compromising performance.

Hold on to your door handle and get ready to race through these 5 things I learned while creating this Lamborghini configurator with Grasshopper and ShapeDiver!

1. OPTIMIZING With Booleans & Attached Transformations

This Lamborghini is made of several parts of a very different nature:

The body of the car is mostly a static design that can be designed in any 3D design software (Maya, Blender, etc…) and exported as low poly meshes that can be internalized in the Grasshopper definition. Then there are two distinct parametric parts of the car: the rims and the grille. Those are created from scratch in Grasshopper.

The first way to optimize your definition is using booleans to break the computation of some parts of the script when it’s not used.

All these wheel variations above are built in low poly through Kangaroo. If refinement is needed, a toggle connected to Weaverbird ’s Catmull-Clark component would smooth them.

Also, the GO INSANE! parameter uses a value list that works as a toggle enabling and disabling some Mesh+ components to create fancy surface refinements for the rims.

Remember that there is a hard WebGL limit of 64k vertices per mesh (16 bits), so every branch of all ShapeDiverDisplayGeometry components should not exceed that limit. One should also pay attention to the total number of vertices for all meshes in the scene, but limitations will mainly depend on the GPU of the device being used.

The second way to optimize your script is to reduce the number of meshes generated in the Grasshopper model, and thus reducing both its computation time and the download time of updates for the online ShapeDiver model.

This is relevant in particular if the same geometry is reproduced several times across the definition. A key component in that case is a C# script we developed at ShapeDiver: the XFormGeo component (you can download it here ). The C# script works similar to the native Grasshopper Transform component, but it attaches some transformations to the original mesh without creating new meshes.

We are tricking the ShapeDiverDisplayGeometry , giving it a mesh and transformation, saving many vertices and usually a bit of computation time. Check the comparison between the Transform and C# script methods:

Using the Transform method (above), the operation takes about 7ms of computation time locally. If the tree of meshes is flattened and joined together, we end up with a mesh of more than 134k vertices. Using the XFormGeo component, first of all, the operation is so fast that the Profile (GH > Display > Canvas Widget > Profiler) does not show anything, and we end up with 33k vertices. In Grasshopper, it’s seen as the single wheel but we are telling the ShapeDiver viewer that we want to display four wheels (33.5k x 4 = 134k vertices). Be aware that the XFormGeo component will attach a series of transformations where the final geometry will be displayed. If you want to display the geometry in its original position, make sure to attach the identity transformation (for example using the identity matrix component or the Scale transformation with factor 1).

As an example, I only internalized one side of the body of the car in the definition, and I am attaching both the identity transformation to visualize its original position and the mirror transformation to visualize the other half.

2. SIMPLIFY Your Parameters

As a basic rule, before uploading a model to ShapeDiver, it's a good idea to review all your sliders and only keep the ones that we want to expose to the users.

For example, some trimming details of black plastic or rubber in a car are usually not configurable or not so interesting to configure; so in this case, as you can see below, I've just internalized the values in the right primitive.

Everything that is disabled won’t be seen in ShapeDiver, so I kept the Trimming Colour swatch, and the metalness/roughness sliders disabled nearby, just in case I want to change something in Grasshopper. You can use panels, instead of sliders, if you want to see the values and maybe modify them while modeling, but you don't want them visualized in ShapeDiver's interface.

In some specific cases, you would need to keep the sliders even if users won't be able to use them in the configurator (just hide them before applying settings when uploading).

For example, I want to let my users change the color of the Lamborghini’s body frame. Still, I'm not interested in having the metalness and the roughness of the bodywork being configurable.

What I did was to keep these values as sliders to test them during Edit Mode before publishing. Indeed, it is sometimes easier to play with material parameters directly in the online viewer in order to achieve the exact look we want. Once I achieved the desired results, I hid them by simply clicking the “crossed circle button” on the top right corner of each parameter when setting the model up on ShapeDiver.

3. REALISM Is In The Shadows

As you can see in this render above (made in Keyshot by Mattia Ker ), one of the secrets to having a highly realistic result both in rendering and in our configurator is for the object to cast a shadow on the ground. To have a more realistic shadow, I created a special opacity map using Photoshop.

My process was: screenshotting the top view of the Lamborghini, then with the Pen tool in Photoshop creating the car's outline (with side mirrors included). In the opacity map’s logic, pure white in color, pure black is transparent, grey is the gradient between them. It's important to remember that the farther the object is from the ground, the blurrier the shadow is (side mirrors, for example).

Once the opacity map is ready, implementing the Grasshopper part is pretty straightforward.

As you can see below, you can create the base shadow rectangle by the bounding box of the car. I suggest moving this rectangle a little bit above the ground level to avoid overlapping effects in the viewer.

The third step is meshing and texture-mapping the mesh ( Human component supported by ShapeDiver). The last step is displaying the mesh with a ShapeDiverMaterial component.

As you can see, I've kept the floor color swatch to see ShapeDiver's environment with the correct intensity of darkness. The car opacity map internalized in a bitmap is connected to the Opacity input of the ShapeDiver Material component.

The last things you need to care about are the dimensions of the bitmap, which should be in the power of 2 . In our case, 1024x512 is also good.

4. ENVIRONMENT & Lights

Creating a pleasant environment around your object can help a lot in making your configurator look good. Usually, backgrounds don't take too much time to model and have few vertices so they don't impact the configurator's performance.

Moreover, having different maps (texture, metalness, roughness, bump, normal, and opacity) adds a new layer of realism to the configurator's final result.

As you can see below, I internalized the base color of the environment and the maps T M R N inputs. The string is only a link to the texture I want to use. With the ShapeDiverTextInput's components on the left, you can also have the possibility to let the user upload the surface while configuring the object. Or they could be helpful (that's what I've used them for) to test more textures directly in ShapeDiver’s viewer and check the results.

Remember to “ texture map ” the meshes (using the Human plugin) when you want to have complex materials like the above. We have a complete video tutorial on this here.

Bear in mind that so far, we cannot have emissive materials in our current ShapeDiver viewer, but it's possible to create some suggestive results with some tricks.

You can see my lighting setup in the image above:

I have four visible types of lights (plus 1 you cannot see: the hemisphere light).

To set the lights in the ShapeDiver environment, we need to know the exact coordinates where they will be located. These coordinates can be obtained in the Grasshopper model and input manually in the lighting settings.

You can use the ShapeDiverDataOutput component and connect the data directly to the light position via the API. Additionally, the lighting settings allow saving different lighting scenes that can be reused in any other uploaded model by copying the model settings in the upload process.

5. CUSTOMIZE With Decals Or Similar

Last but not least, a personal touch! Using this method below, you’ll be able to create any customization in the shape of decals, stickers or similar to your geometries, in my case the plate. We can achieve this by using the “Squid ShapeDiver Edition”, which is bundled with our ShapeDiver plugin.

Download the GH file of the plate.

I created a rectangle outline in the position where I wanted my decal. I transformed it into a planar mesh, and after I've mapped it (with PlanarMapping from Human plugin) with the exact dimensions and plane of the rectangle. In parallel, I played down the rectangle in XY plane, and I started preparing the SI (Squid Instruction). Squid Instructions are inputted in the Squid component, which creates a bitmap. This bitmap is inputted in the T (texture) input of our ShapeDiverMaterial component, which goes into the ShapeDiverDisplayGeometry .

Actually, there were 3 Squid Instructions:

Conclusion

We know that first impressions tend to last. I hope this tutorial helps you understand how to make the most out of the ShapeDiver viewer so whatever project you’re working on, it can look its best on the web.

When in doubt, please post your question on Forum, and our development team will be able to help.

Do you have a feature request? Let us know .

Best, Michele Farina.

And a special thanks to CGI artist Mattia Ker: https://www.instagram.com/mattia_ker/

If want to see more configurators like this, browse through the ShapeDiver gallery to see what others computational designers are working on!

<< ShapeDiver is the most convenient way to take Grasshopper definitions online. We are committed to helping designers everywhere share their creations and create cloud-based applications with limitless potentials.>>

<< If you're not entirely familiar with Grasshopper, I recommend watch our  video explaining Grasshopper for beginners . >>

While Grasshopper has been developed primarily as a parametric modeling tool, its robust API and embedded features allow for it to be used as a powerful software prototyping environment. If you’re handy with a little C# or Python, Grasshopper can become a sandbox for creative coding! Let me show you some examples.

1. Automating Repetitive Tasks

Why trim your grass one blade at a time, when Grasshopper can do that for you (pun intended)?

I’ve used Grasshopper in the past with a little C# or Python scripting to create a custom bulk-renaming utility for organising a ton of files for a project. A friend of mine even used it to send out unique applications for internships in bulk to Architecture firms (although I don’t recommend trying that!).

A task that otherwise requires you to check items off a list one by one, performing a set of steps for each can become extremely tedious. Grasshopper’s visual programming environment can help you dynamically evolve your process as well, allowing you to make the process more streamlined over multiple script iterations.

2. Custom Applet + UI Prototyping

HumanUI is a popular Grasshopper plugin developed by Andrew Heumann. It performs a seemingly simple function - creates windows and UI elements that can communicate with the Grasshopper script. In practice, this simple concept can be a very powerful tool.

Whether you’re making a script for one of your design projects or trying to create a utility script that fits into your regular workflow - HumanUI can be used to expose the input and output of the script in a clean and user-friendly way. This is helpful not only for simplifying the use of frequent scripts but also for packaging them to share with someone who doesn’t necessarily want to see your wire-spaghetti.

3. Automating Time-consuming Processes

With every modification to a design, a new set of drawings need to be created. For mass production of customizable products, you may need to re-generate g-code or production drawings every time a customer sends unique specifications. Using plugins like Squid and Pterodactyl, you can easily compose and export pdf drawings and reports, directly from within your Grasshopper script. Plugins like Droid and Silkworm allow you to produce g-code from geometry within Grasshopper very efficiently. With some custom C# code, you could also post-process this g-code and feed it straight to your 3D printer.

Such strategies can cut down on several minutes that are wasted in opening third-party applications, importing your exported model, and then pushing to the destination after post-processing. These several minutes, over several iterations, can amount to many hours saved in your regular workflow every month! Time = Money ;)

4. Web Applications

We don’t need to go too far from home to explain this one - ShapeDiver is a web platform that lets you upload your Grasshopper scripts and run them in the cloud-like watching YouTube videos. Though this sounds simple, the other examples should tell you how powerful this can become.

Many ShapeDiver users are already using this platform to create amazing web-based solutions that run in the browser for their customers and even for their teams. Irrespective of your industry, turning Grasshopper scripts into applications that can be scaled up adds even more value to this already incredible piece of software.

Here are just a few of the many success stories from ShapeDiver users:

Nove 25

This Italian jeweler has brought a modern twist to the timeless history of Italian craftsmanship. Their design team has implemented Grasshopper into their design workflow and drastically accelerated the manufacturing process needed for every custom order.

Nomade Editions

A furniture design studio based in Berlin, Germany, that experiments and prototypes ideas for flat-pack, CNC furniture. With Grasshopper and ShapeDiver they have the power to allow their users to co-design a product before placing an order via the Shopify integration. A custom DXF file is then generated after every order. Clients can then choose to pay for the file only and manufacture locally, or have Nomade Editions manufacture and ship the product to them.

5. Accounting and Finance Management

Yes, Grasshopper is an unorthodox choice for this, to say the least, but if you’re an avid user it really helps with creating a highly customized workflow for managing your money and small business. Making API calls through simple C# scripting can also help invoice automation and integration with other management systems you may be using. API calls can also be made to fetch real-time forex rates or stock prices (even cryptocurrency!).

You can easily make a script to calculate exactly the numbers you need, rather than depending on a ready-made application that might not show you the numbers and analytics that are most relevant to you. A well-made grasshopper script could become your weekly dashboard to track and plan expenses.

6. Grasshopper + Arduino

This is a famously easy way to get started with Arduino and robotics for Architects. With tools like Firefly and Heteroduino enabling direct communication between the Grasshopper Environment and an Arduino device, prototyping complex systems can’t get any simpler than this.

Here’s one of my old projects - I created a best-out-of-waste robotic arm without having to write more than a few lines of code:

You can learn more about this project here . Also, check out the Firefly Experiments’ Gallery for more cool Arduino/Hardware projects with Grasshopper and Firefly.

7. XR Content Prototyping and Digital Fabrication

Grasshopper plugins like Fologram, Mindesk, and Project Shark allow you to not only visualize 3D scenes through XR technologies [Augmented Reality, Virtual Reality, and Mixed Reality] but can also help in the fabrication of complex geometries without the need for documentation and drawings. You can create PoC VR apps and prototype 3D User Interfaces. Then, you can take it one step further by using holographic visualization as a guide for fabricating real-world objects and structures.

Designs that would otherwise be extremely complex to draw and document on a 2D sheet can become much simpler to execute. Moreover, in the lack of Adobe XD alternatives for XR Applications, you can design UI/UX through the same medium in which it’ll be used.

Conclusion

So why should you use Grasshopper in these unique ways? Well, in some cases, simply because you can!

The way I like to think about the use of innovative technologies is by assessing the value addition they offer in any given context. As an Architect and Designer, my team and I find ourselves using Grasshopper in all sorts of uncanny ways just because it presents certain advantages and flexibility over other solutions.

In summary, using Grasshopper in weird ways can help you in one or more of the following ways:

This basically means that it can perform the job of several IDEs, Game Engines, Macro editors, Spreadsheet apps, Modelling tools, and more - even Accounting software. The fact that it was created to perform just one of those jobs shows the amazing job McNeel did while developing it.

Steve Jobs once said, “The best way to create value in the 21st century is to connect creativity with technology”. Grasshopper is one of the best tools that can enable that today and the massive community supporting it adds more value to it every day on Food4Rhino.

Have you used Grasshopper in a way that would make David Rutten proud? Tell us about your most abnormal scripts!

With ShapeDiver you can collaborate in an online environment where you and your colleagues can operate and design remotely. You can also build cloud-based applications through our API features that can help you create online experiences with limitless potential.

If you need inspiration, browse through the ShapeDiver gallery to see what others computational designers are working on!

<< ShapeDiver is the most convenient way to take Grasshopper definitions online. We are committed to helping designers everywhere share their creations and create cloud-based applications with limitless potentials.>>

But fret not, as Edwin Hernandez, Lead Computational Designer at ShapeDiver shares " 5 Things To Avoid When Uploading Your Grasshopper Models to ShapeDiver! " Let’s dive straight in!

Make sure to subscribe to our YouTube Channel so you don't miss tutorials like this.

Tutorial Takeaways:

So you’ve just completed designing your Grasshopper model and are ready to show it off to the entire world by uploading it on ShapeDiver? Well, before you do that, let's see if you're avoiding these 5 common mistakes.

1) Don't Forget to INTERNALIZE your geometry!

When building Grasshopper scripts we generally reference the geometry from the Rhino Environment onto Grasshopper. This is the first problem that you will encounter while working with ShapeDiver.

ShapeDiver is a viewer that runs everything that is only in the Grasshopper environment and nowhere else. Thus if you delete geometry in the Rhino environment,  All of a sudden your Grasshopper script stops working. This is where the Internalization of geometry comes into the picture.

As instructed in the video, you should always internalize your Brep Geometries into Grasshopper. This way, ShapeDiver can perfectly Visualize your model in all its pristine glory!

2) Don't forget to HIDE unwanted geometry!

Notice that unwanted flickering on the Sunglasses? That’s because some overlapping objects have their Display Preview turned ON. As guided in the video, only have the ‘Display Preview On’ of the ShapeDiver components and nothing else. Just reupload your Grasshopper script with the changes and all flickering problems will be resolved.

3) Don't send NURBS to ShapeDiver!

Yes! Your Grasshopper script is advised to exclude all those breps, surfaces, interpolated cubes or control pointed cubes. You can, however, upload it to ShapeDiver but it won’t be optimal.

Since our viewer renders your model, it needs the model to be made up of meshes (here's another interesting tutorial, in case you want to learn more). Meshes help our viewer to render your model and drastically reduces the computation time, ultimately providing you with a quick and fast visualization.

4) Don't use UNSUPPORTED plugins!

Not all Grasshopper plugins are, as of this moment, supported by ShapeDiver (here's an article that explains why). In part, this is because every plugin needs to undergo a manual check, needs a clear descriptive code and most importantly, it should be coded to work in an online environment and not in a localized environment.

Here’s a quick list of Plugins that are supported by ShapeDiver.

If you have used a plugin that is still unsupported, try exploring our currently supported plugins to find out if we already provide an alternative. If you can't find one, try scripting a component using VB, C# or Python. If all this fails, you can always suggest our development team to support your favorite plugin via our Forum.

5) Don't send DATA TREES to ShapeDiver!

Lastly, avoid having multiple "data trees" in your Grasshopper scripts. Data trees will essentially increase the computational time needed to render your model. The more data trees you have the more computational time ShapeDiver will require to visualize your model.

Try flattening your data tree, which will help you send only one file instead of 3, thereby reducing the computational time required by two thirds!

Bottom Line

We hope that by avoiding these 5 common mistakes, you'll be closer to experience the full potential of hosting your Grasshopper scripts online with ShapeDiver. Possibilities are endless and we can't wait to see what you can build using our platform!

<< Do you have any questions or comments? Make sure to let us know via our Forum . Our development team is ready to provide cost-free assistance and troubleshooting! If you need to upgrade your account and increase your computation time, head to our website and reach out to us via our contact form.>>

Computational design is rapidly replacing traditional design in many industries. Over the years, designers have built our physical world according to the characteristics of every object, from a basketball to a shopping mall. Today, computational design is changing this design process and thus becoming popular in many fields, from the automotive industry to architecture and apparel. In this article, we will discuss what computational design is and what its applications are.

What Is Computational Design?

Computational design is a design process that involves algorithms and coding instructions. It emphasizes defining every step of the process that leads to the formation of an object.

The concept of computational design is not new. It has been used in industries for a number of years now, but over the past decade and a half it has slowly built up to where it is today. Many different industries all across the globe have adopted it as their preferred solution for how to improve their design processes.

It includes variables, logic, and an end product that is produced automatically through running computer code. This is in contrast to designing an object on a traditional drawing/modeling tool.

Generally, computational design includes the following concepts: