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Complex geometry Structural

Computational modelling, added to a project already underway

Complex geometry added to a live analysis model computationally, and pushed to both the analysis model and Revit.

Discipline Structural
Client context Structural engineering team
Tools involved Strand7, Rhino, Grasshopper, Revit

The problem

Computational modelling is usually treated as all or nothing. Either a project starts with it or it does not, and most projects do not. By the time the geometry gets hard, there is already a model in place and a team committed to it. So the complex additions get done by hand, node by node, on a model that is already large. It is slow, it is error-prone, and it has to be repeated: once in the analysis model, and again in Revit for documentation.

What I built

For this client I wrote a script that consumed their existing Strand7 model into Rhino, so new geometry could be built computationally right on top of what was already there. Nothing was rebuilt from scratch; the additions referenced the real model.

From that same source, the geometry went back into Strand7 for analysis and into Revit for documentation. Model once, land in both places.

What makes this work

It builds from the existing model rather than a blank file, and feeds two destinations at once. One pass gets you most of the way there, roughly 70% in Revit and 80 to 90% in the analysis model, and when changes come later you regenerate through the script instead of remodelling by hand. Computational modelling stops being a switch you flip at the start and becomes something you can add at any stage.

What changed

The team got their complex additions into both models from one source, mid-project, without modelling anything twice. When the design moved, the geometry regenerated rather than being rebuilt.

Notes on maintainability

The point is that it is not a switch. Computational modelling can be added to a project at any stage, not only at the start.

Recognise this on your own projects?

If your team runs into something similar, get in touch. Happy to walk you through how it works and what it could look like for you.

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