Getting started in Grasshopper¶

After installing the plugin, the components are in the COMPAS Acoustics tab, in panels from left to right in the order a definition uses them. Concepts explains the terms.

How a definition flows¶

Elements. Turn Rhino geometry into acoustic objects: pick a material from the Material Library or make one with Construct Material, then give each mesh (or closed polyline) its material in Acoustic Object; turn Breps into meshes with Mesh Brep first. Place a Source and a Receiver.
Model. Collect objects, sources and receivers in an Acoustic Scene.
Simulation. Run Simulate Mono, Simulate Binaural or Simulate Ambisonics. They return a graph of impulse responses, one per source and receiver; pick one with Deconstruct IR Graph.
Analysis. Analyse Impulse Response gives the room acoustic parameters, and Plot 2D draws them on the canvas.
Auralisation. Auralise convolves a recording with the responses; Audio Player plays it.
Display. Show reflection paths, rays, a billiard of sound particles or an energy map in the Rhino viewport.

A simple simulation in a shoebox room builds steps 1 to 4 for a shoebox room. Every component is described in Components.

Using the components¶

Choices sit on the component bodies (switches, dropdowns, buttons); a wire into the same input wins over the control. The long runs (simulations, analysis, auralisation, rays) work in the background: the canvas stays responsive, the message shows the time and the worker's stage, and Cancel stops the run. Material Library opens a searchable picker on a click of its body; Plot 2D draws its charts on the canvas; the Audio Player shows the signal (an auralisation, a file, or an impulse response from Deconstruct IR Graph) and plays, pauses, seeks and sets the volume.

The worker¶

The components compute nothing themselves: they send the work to the worker, the Python 3.12 environment the installer created. It starts with the first component that needs it, a few seconds (half a minute the first time), and stops with Rhino.

The Worker component (Util panel) shows its state, for example compas_acoustics 0.1.0, schema ok. Every component's right-click menu has Open worker log, which opens the worker's log file: read it when a component turns red and its message is not enough.

Messages you may see:

No worker: run the compas_acoustics installer.: The worker was never created on this computer. Run the installer.
... is not this version's ...: run the installer again. / schema mismatch: run the installer again: The plugin and the worker come from different releases. Run the installer of the plugin's release.
The worker does not answer: ... Recompute to start it again.: The worker stopped (or was stopped). Recompute the component.