Generative Design for Dummies #2

Brute Force vs Optimization

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First of all, how are you?

You know that you can always reach me by replying to this email. Right?

Try it. Don´t be shy…

Every time I read one of your replies with “Sketchup Sucks”, you make my day a bit better!

Keep them coming haha

Next step: t-shirts and socks with the phrase… 🤣

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Today you will keep thinking about Generative Design (not Generative AI).

Because Generative Design is cool and fun…

BUT to create scripts that work you first need to understand the basics.

And one of the basic things to know is the difference between:

I tried to make it easy for you with this video here:

If you don´t want to see the video…

Read below…

What are the differences between Brute Force and Optimization?

In a nutshell:

You design the script, with any range of random parameters you need.

The script is going to spit out as many solutions as you want.

Each option will be produced with random values of those parameters.

Using the example of a script to position a house inside a parcel, while maximizing its area.

Each iteration will give you: a random position and random dimensions for that house.

Therefore, all the options are random inside your range of parameters.

Store all of them, and then choose the one you like best at the end.

For this, you can use Galapagos (a default Grasshopper component ).

There are other similar plugins for this, like Wallacei.

This plugins run what is called a Genetic Algorithm (I will make a post about this another day).

In this case, instead of generating random outputs with random parameters.

The script tries to tweak those parameters to maximize or minimize a specific value.

Using the example of the house, the script will aim to improve the location while maximizing the area of the house.

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Very high level, those are the two differences.

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PS: Think of the software you hate the most, and reply to this email with it.

or to participate.