Name | Description |
---|---|
Elements | The core elements library containg the Element type, the geometry kernel, and all other core building element types. |
Elements.Benchmarks | Benchmarks and tracing for Elements. |
Elements.CodeGeneration | Methods for converting JSON schema of Element types to C#. |
Elements.Components | Component creation for Elements. |
Elements.Playground | A live code-editing application for generating elements in the browser. |
Elements.Serialization.DXF | Methods for serializing a Model to and from DXF. |
Elements.Serialization.IFC | Methods for serializing a Model to IFC. |
For the latest updates see the CHANGELOG
.
In a .net core project:
> dotnet add package Hypar.Elements
In Visual Studio:
PM> Install-Package Hypar.Elements
Find the documentation here.
The best examples are those provided in the tests, where we demonstrate usage of almost every function in the library.
Elements is a cross-platform library for creating building elements. Elements is for architects, engineers, and other building professionals who want to write code that generates buildings.
When we started Hypar we needed a library that would generate building elements and run at the core of each function on the platform. Because we don't like rebuilding the wheel, we looked around for existing libraries that fulfilled the following requirements:
Element
should be possible provided that those types are made up of primitives defined in this library.We couldn't find anything quite right. So we started building this.
Element
is a uniquely identifiable piece of a building system.In IFC, Revit, and other "BIM" applications, the building element ontology is fixed. If you want to introduce a new element which is key to your work process, you need to find the most closely matching category and put your element there. In Revit you might use the "Generic" category. In IFC you might use the IFCBuildingElementProxy
type. This makes it very difficult for the recipient of a model to reason about the model semantically. Elements enables the user to create "first class" element types in the system. If you want to create a Curtain Wall Bracket, you simply create a class CurtainWallBracket : Element
and users can search for your element by its defined type.
Elements contains a very simple hybrid BREP/CSG geometry kernel, and a small set of geometric types like vectors, lines, arcs, and polygons. Elements uses a right-handed coordinate system with +Z "up". Elements is unitless except as indicated when calling a geometric method. For example, arcs requires angles in degrees.
The geometry kernel that we've created for Elements is a very simple BREP kernel which does "flat stuff with holes in it" really well. We think Nurbs are sexy, and we'll definitely support more curvy stuff in the future, it's just that the effort required to support arbitrarily complex geometry for micro-services running in the cloud is not small. Professional geometry kernels, like the kind found in mechanical modeling applications, are also usually large, expensive, and not open source. They introduce cost and complexity, and restrict the open nature of code that you write with Elements.
Geometry operations in Elements use Vector3.Epsilon=1e-05
to compare values that should be considered equal. This is important as geometric operations using floating point numbers are imprecise. In addition, .NET will return different values for these operations on different systems. We have seen intersection tests that pass on a mac and fail on linux. Please use the provided methods like double.IsAlmostEqualTo(...)
, Vector3.IsZero()
, and Vector3.IsAlmostEqualTo(...)
which account for precision.
You'll only need to do this if you want to contribute to the library, otherwise you can use the NuGet package that is published regularly.
dotnet build
dotnet test
When adding sample code you need to add a special block of text to the class or method where you want the code to appear. The value of name
at the end of the URI will be matched with open and close tags in the test file. See Joist.cs and StructuralFramingTests.cs for an sample.
/// <example>
/// [!code-csharp[Main](../../Elements/test/StructuralFramingTests.cs?name=example)]
/// </example>
You may add up to one sample glb file per class, and when you name it the name must match the namespace, and class you are trying to demonstrate with _
instead of .
. For example Elements.Spatial.Grid2d
sample glb is named Elements_Spatial_Grid2d
.
cd doc
docfx -f --serve
We use CHANGELOG.md
to provide a list of changes to Elements. The easiest way to compile this log for new releases is to look at the commits that occurred between changes. This can be done as follows: git log --pretty=oneline v0.3.6...v0.3.7
, where the tags are changed appropriately.
Elements can be tested in a Polyglot Notebook.
To test against a released Elements package, add the following to the top of your notebook.
#r "nuget:Hypar.Elements, *-*"
To test against a local build of Elements, add the following to the top of your notebook.
#r "/Users/iankeough/dev/Hypar/Elements/Elements/src/bin/Debug/netstandard2.0/Hypar.Elements.dll"
#r "nuget:glTF2Loader, 1.1.3-alpha"
#r "nuget:Unofficial.LibTessDotNet, 2.0.0"
hypars-branch