FabLab London is all about giving your creativity an outlet by equipping you with the tech and training. That's why we're excited to present a workshop to learn about one of the best software design tools in the world – Rhino.

This event is a comprehensive introduction to one of the most powerful 3D CAD tools used in practically every design and manufacturing industry – and it’s taught by a Rhino guru, an international award-winning inventor, Bryan Oknyansky.

In this workshop you'll learn about the amazing plug-in that gives you parametric control over Rhino.

This event is a comprehensive introduction to a plug-in that gives you parametric control over Rhino 3D, the powerful 3D CAD software used in practically every design and manufacturing industry – and it’s taught by a Rhino guru, an international award-winning inventor, Bryan Oknyansky.

Grasshopper is a plug-in for Rhino. This means it's a (free!) add-on software and it gives you access to all of the commands in Rhino so you can control what you model in a way that Rhino itself is unable to.

To give you some ideas of how Grasshopper can be used, consider the follwoing. You can use Grasshopper to base a complex modelling project on simple geometries so that, no matter how far along you are in your modelling process, you can make changes to basic geometries that will update everything you modelled on them. 

You can see real-time variations on a single object by attaching object properties like size, position and colour (and many more!) to sliders.

You can use it to run a single command across a number of objects, making your design process faster and more efficient.

And for those of you who like to mathematically define geometries, Grasshopper has a full set of mathematical operators and expression writing tools.

But Grasshopper is also the bit of software that connects OTHER plug-ins to Rhino. Things like live physics simulators, structural optimisation, subdivision modelling and more can be plugged in to Grasshopper to truly extend Rhino's capabilities.

No matter what you plan to use Grasshopper for, Bryan will teach you:

• how to feel "at home" when navigating Grasshopper's interface
• how to organise your "world" inside Grasshopper
• how to create Grasshopper definitions
• how to work between Rhino and Grasshopper
• how to transfer your Grasshopper creations in to Rhino

Students will need to bring their own laptop computer with the latest version of Rhino and Grasshopper installed, a laptop charger, a computer mouse, and a pen or pencil to take notes.

About Bryan Oknyansky

Bryan Oknyansky is an international award-winning product architect known for inventing pioneering products that have taken him around the world as a lecturer and speaker. With 15 years of experience in the architecture, product and footwear design industries, Bryan specializes in using the latest robotic manufacturing technologies like 3D printing to reinvent the world around us one product at a time. Bryan founded Shoes By Bryan in 2012 – a London-based fashion and technology startup pioneering mass-market 3D printed footwear unique to every single foot in the world while also looking, and feeling, great. Alongside running his growing design practice, Bryan is an innovation consultant to multiple design industries, directs an independent CAD training program and is a Visiting Lecturer at Regent’s University London School of Fashion and Design.

www.bryanoknyansky.com
shoesbybryan.com 

Here he is on the BBC showcasing his amazing creations, all made in Rhino:

1. A laptop with at least 1GB of RAM and 600MB of space on it (not a whole lot) running Windows (XP, Vista 7 or 8) or Mac OS X (although Windows is recommended so Mac users running Windows on Boot Camp will have a better experience). Here it all is from the Rhino's mouth: https://www.rhino3d.com/new/admin#system

If this is confusing to you, we can help. Here's how to tell if your laptop computer is good enough for this workshop:

To see how much RAM your computer has installed: 
Windows XP: http://www.sythe.org/archives/428845-how-check-how-much-ram-you-have-windows-xp.html 
Windows Vista: http://www.wikihow.com/Tell-How-Much-RAM-You-Have-in-Windows-Vista 
Windows 7: http://windows.microsoft.com/en-gb/windows/how-much-computer-ram#1TC=windows-7 
Widows 8: http://windows8themes.org/how-to-check-ram-on-windows-8-computer.html 
Mac OS X: http://support.apple.com/en-gb/HT2353

2. A charger for your laptop computer.

3. A computer mouse. PLEASE TAKE MY ADVICE ON THIS AND BRING A COMPUTER MOUSE TO USE RHINO :)

4. An evaluation copy of Rhino if you don't already own a license. If you're going to download the evaluation of Rhino 5, it works for 90 days so it's best if you install it after you've RSVP'd for this Meetup. You can download a 90-day evaluation copy of Rhino 5 for Windows and MAC here: https://www.rhino3d.com/download/rhino/5/latest?PageSpeed=noscript