Structural Complex geometry
Steel nodes from coordination to detail
Steel-node geometry generated for early coordination, then reused for analysis and Revit documentation.
- Client context
- Structural engineering team
- Built with
- Rhino, Grasshopper, Revit
What changed
The team coordinated, analysed and documented 71 nodes without remodelling the full set at every stage. The workflow stayed in use across a two-to-three-year project. The analysis models still needed some manual finessing, but the bulk of the geometry regenerated from one source.
The problem
On a tall, complex tower, the steel nodes were a problem before anyone could detail them. The team needed to understand how much room each node would take, so they could coordinate the connections against building services and the facade. Once the positions were resolved, the same complex geometry still had to reach the analysis model and Revit documentation. Modelling every node again for each stage would have duplicated the work.
What I built
I wrote a script that brought together the project grids, the architect’s sketches and the Revit floors, then generated what we called node massings. These shapes reserved the space each connection needed and gave the team something concrete to coordinate against.
Once coordination fixed the positions, a second script developed the same source into detailed geometry for the analysis models and Revit documentation.