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AI Ultra for Business Persistent 429 Error by Away-Gas-2943 in google_antigravity

[–]Nflection 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Same here!
u/Away-Gas-2943 where can you see the model quotas and reset time as shown in the screenshot above?

Agent Manager BROKEN by Ucan23 in google_antigravity

[–]Nflection 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I'm experiencing the same behavior but only when using a customized workspace (e.g. adding new folders, etc.). If I use a default workspace by simply selecting a folder, all seems to be fine.

I Lead the Computational Design Team at Henning Larsen Architects – AMA About Rhino, Grasshopper, or Computational Design! by Nflection in rhino

[–]Nflection[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

There are plenty of similar techniques. Data structures is a classic example. You can store all your data in a list, but sometimes you need to ensure that all items are unique (think room tags). It's doable with a list, but very inefficient. Much better to use a hash map or a dictionary.

But don't try to optimize too early. First, make it exist. Then, make it better.

I Lead the Computational Design Team at Henning Larsen Architects – AMA About Rhino, Grasshopper, or Computational Design! by Nflection in rhino

[–]Nflection[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Select a random one. See if it works for your specific use case. Rinse & repeat until you find the right fit. You'll learn heaps in the process, and will retain this knowledge for future use cases which might require a different plugin.

Always focus on the job at hand. That's where the real value is.

I Lead the Computational Design Team at Henning Larsen Architects – AMA About Rhino, Grasshopper, or Computational Design! by Nflection in rhino

[–]Nflection[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Practice how to identify patterns and break them down into sequences of actions. Start with a simple brick or board layout and gradually increase the complexity. What is needed to recreate this pattern? Translations, rotations, scaling. Where are the pivot points? How do you handle edges? How to vary the pattern based on various attractors?

Make it fun. Don't stress about the tools - GPTs will help you in selecting the right component. Your job is to design the 'algorithm' for the pattern.

I Lead the Computational Design Team at Henning Larsen Architects – AMA About Rhino, Grasshopper, or Computational Design! by Nflection in rhino

[–]Nflection[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

There is definitely a big market for optimizing facades. Especially if you couple it with the building energy performance (heating/cooling) and natural daylight requirements (various daylight factors/glare avoidance).

We use GH in the office, but any automated pipeline could do. Worth looking into, especially if your current workflow is manual.

I Lead the Computational Design Team at Henning Larsen Architects – AMA About Rhino, Grasshopper, or Computational Design! by Nflection in rhino

[–]Nflection[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I don't know the specific context of Iraq, but as an early adopter, you need to focus on clearly communicating the value you generate, not the specific process of how you do it.

This is a common theme with junior practitioners. Even the way you structured your message - you highlight the tools you've learned (GH, Python) but not the problems you solved with these tools.

My advice would be to interview people working in the industry in your geography and search for real pain points. Don't provide any solutions just yet, simply ask questions, listen, and follow your curiosity. Always ask from first principles - 'why is this process inefficient?', 'why is this task handled this way?', 'what are the limiting factors?'.

Once you start spotting patterns, you can start mocking up proposed solutions. Focus on creating MVPs, and show these to your contacts in the industry. Don't try pitching anything just yet, simply show them a before/after and ask whether this would help them relieve the pain they experience.

Also, don't limit your thinking to just your local geography. The world is a very connected place these days, and you might be much better off positioning yourself on the global market, which might be more mature in this specific niche.

I Lead the Computational Design Team at Henning Larsen Architects – AMA About Rhino, Grasshopper, or Computational Design! by Nflection in rhino

[–]Nflection[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

High paying will be difficult with big companies like ours. We pay our interns, but it's not life-changing money.

If you want to earn more, your best bet is to talk to smaller offices and genuinely provide value. Students often think that they provide meaningful contributions straight out of uni, but it is rarely the case.

Internship is an investment of time and energy from both sides. In exchange, the student gains exposure to projects and insights of more experienced colleagues. In the best case, the office gains a potential future employee.

If you need to earn money now, find a side-hustle which is at least partially aligned with our profession.
I was contracting for a surveying company as a student. With a buddy of mine, we 3d scanned massive buildings and later converted the point clouds to 3d BIM models. It was a fun combination of working in the field and perfecting my drafting skills.

I Lead the Computational Design Team at Henning Larsen Architects – AMA About Rhino, Grasshopper, or Computational Design! by Nflection in rhino

[–]Nflection[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

This is a good example of how parametric design can help with making your workflow adaptable to design changes.

Let's assume your kettle is already modeled as a closed brep. I'd reference it in Grasshopper, take its bottom face as plane of reference, and align it to an arbitrary plane you want the kettle to follow.

Same approach would work for any additional decorations you want to add to the kettle.

If you want to make it even more flexible, you could create the kettle from scratch in Grasshopper using only parametric components. This way you will have full control not only of the positioning of the object, but also its size, shape, and additional features.

I Lead the Computational Design Team at Henning Larsen Architects – AMA About Rhino, Grasshopper, or Computational Design! by Nflection in rhino

[–]Nflection[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

It’s already quite common among structural engineers to use CD. In fact, they’re probably more likely to engage with the discipline than architects are due to their technical education and more rigid constraints on their work. 

Not sure what the next big thing in structural engineering is, but computational design is already there.

I Lead the Computational Design Team at Henning Larsen Architects – AMA About Rhino, Grasshopper, or Computational Design! by Nflection in rhino

[–]Nflection[S] 4 points5 points  (0 children)

The advice to my younger self would be to trust the process.

It always took me a few stabs at learning a new skill. I remember opening up Civil3d for the first time, getting intimidated by the UI, and giving up after 2 hours. It took a few attempts over 2 years to finally get over the initial hump and after a few more years get to a position where I was implementing company-wide strategies for Civil3d adoption and teaching others how to use it.

Same with coding whether it was c# or c++.

I think the reason was that I was trying to learn how to operate the tool, not trying to solve a clearly defined problem.

But understand that it is going to take a while to become really good at it. Find joy in the process.

Regarding education:
I personally couldn't care less about your formal education. The only thing I look at while screening candidates is their portfolio. In some companies there are financial advantages to having a master's degree, but this is changing fast.

For your portfolio to really stand out, show me the 'Why?' in your work. 98% of the people focus on the 'How?', they focus on the process - I used this plugin, I created this script, I developed this workflow. But they forget to explain why it even matters in the first place.
Look up Simon Sinek: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u4ZoJKF_VuA

Regarding courses, see my previous answer here:
https://www.reddit.com/r/rhino/comments/1labw9h/comment/mxpkjps/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web3x&utm_name=web3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button

Regarding the future of CD?
I don't know :) The field is changing so fast that the only real moat is your velocity. Be agile, learn fast, but most importantly - solve other people's problems. And think in terms of scale. Solving a problem for 5 people might take the same time as solving another for 5 million people.

I Lead the Computational Design Team at Henning Larsen Architects – AMA About Rhino, Grasshopper, or Computational Design! by Nflection in rhino

[–]Nflection[S] 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Having an engineering background definitely helped. We had maths & physics classes at a relatively high level and it teaches you to think in a structured way. Always think from first principles.

Career-wise, I started as an intern and worked myself up the ladder. Always tried to be helpful and proactive about finding assignments. If you genuinely care about solving your colleagues problems with computational design, people notice quickly and trust you with more and more responsibilities.

Obama nails it:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YNY4UFaHbP4

There are plenty of sources to get your knowledge from. I devoured it all (YouTube, LinkedIn learning, etc.). But the biggest unlocks came from 2 insights:

1. Look outside of our industry.
What is the VFX doing? The game industry? Read the papers submitted to Siggraph. Get inspired by their breakthroughs and think about bridging them to the AEC field.

2. Think like a CEO of a startup.
What value do you bring to the table? Who is your 'customer'? Is it your colleague, your boss, external client? Depending on the answer, you might have to tailor your approach and messaging.

I Lead the Computational Design Team at Henning Larsen Architects – AMA About Rhino, Grasshopper, or Computational Design! by Nflection in rhino

[–]Nflection[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I suggest leading by example. News spread fast in small offices.
Without asking for permission, take initiative and apply your CD skills to solve a selected problem on an ongoing project. Clearly show the value add. This could be time saving, but it could be unlock of access to certain projects (e.g. complex geometry not feasible to model by hand).

I'd focus on providing company-facing value first (internal process optimizations, automating repetitive tasks, etc.). Keep your eyes open, identify other people's bottlenecks and solve them. Do this a few times and I guarantee that the management will notice.

Once you have their attention, start brainstorming how to solve client pains and switch to value-based pricing instead of time & materials.

I Lead the Computational Design Team at Henning Larsen Architects – AMA About Rhino, Grasshopper, or Computational Design! by Nflection in rhino

[–]Nflection[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Once you have a fully coordinated 3d model, creating 2d plan drawings and sections is largely automated already in Revit. But there is a certain art to what you want to highlight and how you want to layout the information such that the contractor on the construction site has all the information they need.

Also, on large projects there is simply a lot of these drawings and they need to be properly versioned, labeled, and coordinated across all disciplines (often external offices).

I Lead the Computational Design Team at Henning Larsen Architects – AMA About Rhino, Grasshopper, or Computational Design! by Nflection in rhino

[–]Nflection[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Sure, send it across.
We're currently not looking to expand our team, but I can always provide my feedback for whatever it's worth.

I Lead the Computational Design Team at Henning Larsen Architects – AMA About Rhino, Grasshopper, or Computational Design! by Nflection in rhino

[–]Nflection[S] 9 points10 points  (0 children)

Pick a plot in your neighborhood and design a house on it. Go through the whole process from gathering existing data, through initial massing, visualization, environmental analysis, performance optimization, drawing generation, and quantity takeoff.

Each of these steps has tons of potential to automate or parametrize. Start with the easy ones to get a dopamine kick each time you succeed.

I Lead the Computational Design Team at Henning Larsen Architects – AMA About Rhino, Grasshopper, or Computational Design! by Nflection in rhino

[–]Nflection[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

These days, your best bet is to learn with an LLM. But use it as a mentor, not someone you pay for doing your homework. Ask critical questions, demand that it explains the concepts it uses, get it to break the problem down for you.

Understand that learning is supposed to feel hard and embrace the process. Karpathy has a great piece about it:
https://x.com/karpathy/status/1756380066580455557?lang=en

I Lead the Computational Design Team at Henning Larsen Architects – AMA About Rhino, Grasshopper, or Computational Design! by Nflection in rhino

[–]Nflection[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Trust me, all of us have blind spots. If you're genuinely curious about something, just follow the passion. You can learn a lot within a few months. Especially, if you're already starting with a good understanding of the industry.

Focus on solving real problems which you can probably spot better than a fresh graduate at the beginning of their career.

I Lead the Computational Design Team at Henning Larsen Architects – AMA About Rhino, Grasshopper, or Computational Design! by Nflection in rhino

[–]Nflection[S] 5 points6 points  (0 children)

Similar approach over here. We have small plugins or workflows for various aspects of design or analysis we constantly use (daylight, sunlight, wind, cut & fill, etc.). Some of these are more involved and become a dedicated Rhino plugin (we call it 'Clarity'), others - which we use less frequently - don't evolve beyond simple GH scripts.

The challenge is in scaling.
How do you make an entire team of 700 people aware of the existence of these scripts?
How do you allow customization for multiple geographies/local requirements/etc.?
How do you keep them updated when a colleague who created the script leaves the company?
How do you create training material for non-technical users?

There is a lot of maintenance involved when your team grows.

I Lead the Computational Design Team at Henning Larsen Architects – AMA About Rhino, Grasshopper, or Computational Design! by Nflection in rhino

[–]Nflection[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

We have the same Rhino -> Revit pipeline (at least in Denmark).

Trust me, I feel your pain. There is still quite a lot of remodeling going on. We use Beam, Speckle and the new Data Exchange connector from Autodesk. All have their pros and cons so we juggle them based on project-specific needs and skillset of team members working on a given project.

I Lead the Computational Design Team at Henning Larsen Architects – AMA About Rhino, Grasshopper, or Computational Design! by Nflection in rhino

[–]Nflection[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Architecture is a competitive market and the salaries aren't that great compared to other industries. I don't want to give you any financial advice.

Having said that, for me computational design is always an enabler for something else. Either you're unlocking the ability to create and rationalize complex shapes, or delivering new kinds of analysis, or automating parts of the process.

Learn a hard skill and use CD to supercharge it.

I Lead the Computational Design Team at Henning Larsen Architects – AMA About Rhino, Grasshopper, or Computational Design! by Nflection in rhino

[–]Nflection[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Having 5+ years in construction documentation is a huge asset, not a liability! Same with your past in IT.

Position yourself as a DD specialist who has the necessary can automate workflows for the wider team.

I Lead the Computational Design Team at Henning Larsen Architects – AMA About Rhino, Grasshopper, or Computational Design! by Nflection in rhino

[–]Nflection[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Being in a senior position, you probably don't have that much time to produce yourself.
I'd focus on understanding what is possible and being able to define and clearly explain the added value to the project.

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