Through the Interface

VASA 0.2.0 is now available

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Rhys Goldstein has been busy implementing some new features in the Voxel-based Architectural Space Analysis (VASA) package.

I've just published a new version to the Dynamo Package Manager containing the following enhancements:

  • Added "PathModel.GenerateSamplePoints" and "DistanceField.GenerateSamplePoints", which generate sample points according to an approximate spacing parameter.

  • Added proximity operations ("NearestFilledAlongX", "NearestFilledAlongY", "NearestFilledAlongZ", and "NearestFilledHorizontally"), which find the filled voxel nearest to a point.

  • Added special operations ("AutoCrop", "AutoSplit", "DensityMap", "DensityMapWithWeights"), which automatically crop, split, and create density maps from voxel models.

  • Added new examples ("11-VASA-Path-Density.dyn" and "12-VASA-Sensor-Coverage.dyn"), which demonstrate the new features.

  • Fixed a bug in the fill from point operation, which previously failed to fill an empty region in rare cases.

  • Fixed a bug in the union operation, which previously hung if passed an empty list.

The best way to check out what's new is to load the above-mentioned sample files. The first covers path density – something that is extremely valuable for Generative Design workflows, such as the one implemented for Project Discover.

Path density sample in Dynamo 2.13

Here's an animation of the graph's graphical output:

Path density sample

The second is also one I can well imagine making use of, in the future, for IoT-centric projects: it allows you to calculate and display the coverage of sensors in a building.

Sensor coverage sample in Dynamo 2.13

Here it is moving:

Sensor coverage

This is actually more involved than it might look: the sample isn't just displaying the sensor coverage graphically, VASA is also providing sample points within the space that get used for the sensor locations:

Showing the sample sensor locations

This is exactly the kind of capability that we had to implement with significant complexity – using the centroid of Voronoi cells – to create neighbourhoods in the MaRS project. This is going to be very useful for various generative workflows, I'm sure!

I'm going to leave it there for now, but this is something I'd like to dig into in more detail in a future post. I'm sure Rhys will soon be recording another of his great videos to discuss this soon, in any case.

One response to “VASA 0.2.0 is now available”

  1. Daniel Hurtubise Avatar
    Daniel Hurtubise

    I've been using heat map for wifi coverage.... definitely need to try with vassa now 🙂

    Reply
    1. Kean Walmsley Avatar
      Kean Walmsley

      Let us know how you get on!

      Kean

      Reply
  2. JesperWallaert Avatar
    JesperWallaert

    Hi Kean,
    Great work on the VASA Package👍
    When I use the STL exporter add-in inside Revit. My STL model gets rotated in the X or Y axis when displayed as a Voxel model. The STL sample files is not rotated. What am I doing wrong? or it there a way to rotate the Voxel model in other axis then horizontal?? uploads.disquscdn.c... Revit 2021 Dynamo 2.6

    As you can see in the attached picture the building is on its side.

    /Jesper

    Reply
    1. Kean Walmsley Avatar
      Kean Walmsley

      Hi Jesper,

      Thanks for taking a look at VASA!

      Rhys had exported his STLs from Dynamo, which apparently creates them "Y up". We assumed this to be the appropriate convention to support, but it seems the Revit add-in creates them "Z up".

      One suggestion Rhys made is that we could add a flag to VASA's STL import to allow people to specify that the model is Z up rather than Y up. Would that work for you? In the meantime you might be able to bring the geometry into Dynamo and export it to STL from there, as a stop-gap.

      Best,

      Kean

      Reply
      1. JesperWallaert Avatar
        JesperWallaert

        HI Kean,

        Thanks for your prompt reply.
        It sounds like a valid solution when using STL directly exported from Revit. Which I see as the best solution especially with large datasets. I would like to avoid having he geometry passing through Dynamo in this case.
        /Jesper

        Reply
        1. Kean Walmsley Avatar
          Kean Walmsley

          Hi Jesper,

          We've just published VASA 0.2.1, which now has a SwapYZ parameter on the STL import node. Would you mind giving it a try, to see whether setting this to false fixes the issue for you?

          Many thanks,

          Kean

          Reply

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