Using parametric design via Grasshopper is my favorite design tool, I try to use it every chance that I get. One recent example of my work with Grasshopper was in my structures course. Referencing my concept sketches, I started by modeling a campus facilities building in Grasshopper. I then set up a set of spreadsheets that I used to calculate the loads on the structure and determine the sizes of beams and girders. With the information from the spreadsheets, updating the Grasshopper model was simply changing a few inputs to the script. Next I set up additional scripts and spreadsheets that calculate the shear, moment, and deflection stress values of each beam and girder, as well as drawing diagrams of these stresses.
