Hi everyone,
I’ve been experimenting with Generative Design (GD) in Revit for a few months but its future is not yet clear for me. It’s really cool and I see many applications but it relies so much on the person who makes the script. And to bust the myths around GD requires one to try it out themselves which requires good skill-level in both designing and scripting and time.
I suppose I see BIM growing into something even smarter (analyzing capabilities) and then working together with GD algorithm to automatically suggest changes in ones design. Only then I see it becoming what is commonly said about GD. That it’s supposed to be an ‘assisting tool’.
How do you guys see the future of Generative Design in Revit?
Kind regards,
Tenzin Lungtok
It does require a high level of skill with Dynamo and design. It also requires a new mindset for what design is and an understanding of the technical limits of the tool. I give a series of presentations which take nearly a full business day to provide a foundational skill set in Dynamo.
That said I have worked with people who have seen design efforts reduced by more than 90% after such knowledge is attained. That is a number which is on par with switching from hand drafting to CAD, or from CAD to BIM in terms of impact. And just like those technical evolutions which came before, there is a skill set which has to be built up, and a mindset which has to be required.
There are other tools which are easier to learn out there - ie: TestFit, Spacemaker - which may feel like they offer a similar results with less effort. These are super useful and very powerful and should be something you add to your toolset. However in those cases you are using the tool which you are given, and if it doesn’t do the thing you want it to, you will need to invest in another tool.
When you start implementing Generative Design you customize it to suit your individual needs as an individual, team, project, office or firm.
Thank you for your response. Please let me ask you 3 follow up question.
-
From your teaching/ general experience;
Do you encounter many Architectural firms asking about GD and have you noticed a trend in what type of firm it is?
-
What industry benefits the most from GD and why do you think that is?
-
Do you see Generative Design as something that everyone will be capable of using (a spectrum at least) or do you think the learning curve is to steep for that to happen and it becoming a specialized area?
Kind regards,
Tenzin Lungtok
I’ll throw my two cents in as well.
-
GD seems to be great for architectural and industrial or product design firms. It’s good with geometry changes and directly correlated optimization of parameters. For this reason it’s a powerful early design (SD) tool for architects and prototyping tool for industrial/product design.
-
See above. However, that’s not to say that other industries don’t have huge potential in adopting this technology. Different industries will just have to figure out how GD fits their workflow - and that’s going to take time and iteration. My firm (MEP) has started using it as a design exploration and design decision tool. It just takes a bit of imagination in some cases.
-
There will certainly be a spectrum of users. Like any tool, GD will always be more powerful in the hands of someone who understands it and can write for it. However, just like Dynamo itself, you can also share files between users and have people run working scripts/studies with limited knowledge of how the system works on the back end. Writing Dynamo graphs for GD will have a steeper learning curve than just Dynamo because you have to understand how GD works in order to write graphs that allow GD to do what it’s intended to do. Again, it just takes time.
2 Likes
Yes - the variety is across the board from small sole practitioner firms to global multi-national ones. Project types vary and touch on all sectors. In this last week I have talk to people around applications in single family homes, massive factory complexes, and infrastructure projects. Afew months ago I had several discussions with a product manufacturer.
As a concept, the industry of design - it has significant potential beyond AEC after all.
Anyone can use it, yes. Some will decline going on the journey, just like some resisted the transition from hand drafting to CAD, or from CAD to BIM. Those who keep an open mind will ‘get there’ faster. This applies to all tools in this space - not just the Generative Design (capitalization intended) tool from my employer.
This is well said - much more to the point than the usual 10 minutes it takes me to state it. A lot of the issue stems from people “knowing Dynamo” in the context of automating the integration, rather than as a standalone item. Use of Sandbox for solving even non-generative issues can go a long way to ‘enlightenment’ in that respect.
2 Likes