SolveForm v0.2-beta

SolveForm is a Grasshopper plugin for Rhino 8 that assists with climate-responsive conceptual massing generation. It provides a workflow for generating building sections, unified massing, floor levels, facade classification, and automated window placement.

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Current Pipeline

Solar → Section → Unify → Facades → Openings
               ↘
                Floors

Component	Description
Solar	Reads EPW climate data and computes orientation-based solar analysis.
Section	Generates conceptual building massing from section profiles and solar-derived height inputs.
Floors	Generates floor levels and slab geometry from the section output.
Unify	Boolean-unions all generated masses into a single closed Brep.
Facades	Identifies and classifies exterior facades by orientation (North, South, East, West).
Openings	Automatically arrays window geometry across orthogonal facade surfaces using floor elevations.

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Installation

1. Open the solution in Visual Studio 2022.
2. Build using the Release configuration targeting Rhino 8.
3. Copy the compiled .gha file into:

%AppData%\Grasshopper\Libraries

4. If necessary, right-click the .gha file → Properties → Unblock.
5. Restart Rhino and Grasshopper.

The SolveForm components will appear under the SolveForm tab.

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Typical Workflow

EPW File
    ↓
Solar
    ↓
Section
   ├──→ Floors
   └──→ Unify
             ↓
         Facades
        ↙       ↘
 Openings    Facade Analysis

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Openings Inputs

Input	Description
UnifiedBrep	Unified building mass
FloorHeights	Floor elevations generated by Floors
WindowWidth	Width of each window
WindowHeight	Height of each window
WindowSpacing	Horizontal spacing between windows
SillHeight	Height above finished floor

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Current Limitations

• Window generation currently supports orthogonal building geometry. Curved or highly irregular facades may produce unreliable results.
• Boolean cutting of window openings into the building mass is still under development.
• Section generation currently uses simplified procedural massing intended for early-stage design exploration.
• Solar analysis currently informs massing generation only. Solar-driven facade optimization is planned for a future release.

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Roadmap

Version	Planned Features
v0.1	Solar analysis, EPW reader, optimization framework
v0.2	Section, Floors, Unify, Facades, Openings
v0.3	Boolean window cutting, improved curved facade support, solar-driven window-to-wall ratios
v0.4	Site constraints, arbitrary Brep support, expanded optimization tools
v0.5	UI improvements, documentation, Food4Rhino release

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Requirements

• Rhino 8
• Grasshopper
• Visual Studio 2022 (.NET Framework 4.8)

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Author

Menatallah Abdulrhman

GitHub: https://github.com/Menatallah90