A5. RhinoVAULT

The Rhinoceros® plug-in RhinoVAULT, developed by Dr. Matthias Rippmann at the Block Research Group at ETH Zurich, emerged from research on structural form finding using the Thrust Network Analysis (TNA) approach to intuitively create and explore compression-only structures.

Using reciprocal diagrams, RhinoVAULT provides an intuitive, fast funicular form-finding method, adopting the same advantages of techniques such as Graphic Statics, but offering a viable extension to three-dimensional problems. Our goal is to share a transparent setup to let you not only create beautiful shapes but also to give you an understanding of the underlying structural principles.

Development of RV 1 has stopped. We developed the brand-new version, RhinoVAULT 2, based on the COMPAS framework. Happy form finding!

Research Platform

‌RhinoVAULT 2 (RV2) is an open-source research and development platform for funicular form-finding built with COMPAS, a Python-based framework for computational research and collaboration in Architecture, Engineering, and Digital Fabrication.

RV2 is a Rhino plugin that replaces RhinoVAULT for Rhino versions 6 and above. Unlike RhinoVAULT, RV2 no longer relies on Rhino for its computational implementation. Instead, it is built entirely with open source packages from the COMPAS ecosystem and will, therefore, be available not only for Rhino and Grasshopper, but also for Blender and other tools with a Python scripting interface, and ultimately even in the browser.