Hi!
Today I show you the world of Dynamo, which I personally love very much.
I've already told you that this free tool is for those who need to use Revit beyond its limits.
Dynamo has the interface of a mathematical program, and you can draw, insert and extract data, through functions.
These functions are "masked" by intuitive names, which describe the operation that the function will do. Each function needs one (or more) input and will give you one (or more) output. It is enough to connect the output of a function to the input of another (and so on) to create an algorithm that can do the most disparate things.
Here is a simple example: I built a structural pillar (crooked as architects like!) by the coordinates of two points and the line passing through them.
[Clickable image, property of mine]
The graphical interface and the easy use allows you to create algorithms even if you not have any computer science knowledge. You need just to know the logical and mathematical operations.
It would be also useful knowing how to optimize the algorithms to run the program faster and maybe a "To NOT do list" to prevent any mistake that could bring the computer into a loop!
Of course for the more experienced users it is also possible to write in Python.
Any practical example of use?
Imagine a tower of about fifty floors ... Imagine a tower of about fifty floors ... Why not create all the levels and plan views by managing some parameters, "number of floors" "level name" and "height between floors"?
If you have to insert a lot of data in the BIM model, why don't organize them in an excel spreadsheet and insert them into the native BIM file, with just a click?
If have to place n elements with a common rule (for example concrete formwork), why don't do it with an algorithm?
Dynamo simplifies this kind of operations and it is very useful in modeling complex geometries.