Land Kit 2.1 Release Notes
Customize Everything
Available as a prerelease (beta 3)
Land Kit version 2.1 tightens integration between Rhino and Grasshopper. Whether you are using the Land Kit Workflows or building your own scripts, this changes the game; for design customization, data management, and documentation. The primary change is our Customize Parameters component and many of the changes in 2.1 support this new idea:
Imagine changing and customizing parameters for different things per geometry with all the benefits of parametric design.
And this set of tools isn’t just for landscape, it’s for anyone who deals with per-geometry data or parameters.
And there are other exciting developments with plants and paths. Paths can now form chains that have varying sections along a path with different slopes and even widths per section. We have also added a Path Cross Slope mod (!). Planting got some love, with Update Conditions (for changes over time) and the new Create Pseudo Plants feature. We also have a nice list of improvements to existing tools at the end.
Let’s dive in.
8 New Components
Topo
Cross slopes added to paths with different running slopes
1. Path Cross Slope Component - by popular demand… This adds a cross slope “mod” to any path. The 4 modes allow you to elevate the right or left or even both path sides (twisting right or left) according to a percent grade.
With the Customize Parameters (see below) you can also change the cross slope for each path or section.
When we talk about a future where people design in 3D, this is the kind of future we are talking about. It’s more than modeling just so you can render. It’s modeling so you can solve three dimensional problems.
Planting
Planting solutions come in all shapes and sizes, that’s why we continue to expand the breadth and depth of the problem space for planting.
2. Update Conditions Component - Are you trying to design plantings that accommodate for change over time? This new component provides updated areas with removed plants where conditions no longer match, the removed plant list, missing plant locations, and stats on the unfilled niches.
Assess and replace plants that don’t fit the conditions that are projected to change over time.
It’s pretty simple. Input a new environment with different conditions and pre-filled planting area(s) and this new component re-assesses plant viability in their current placements. It’s everything you need for a dynamic landscape: where changes might have to happen and the tools to help you fill those spots with different plants.
So as trees and shade grow, you would likely need different plants in some places. Update Conditions helps you assess this quickly.
Fake plants just got real
3. Create Pseudo Species Component - When we first released Land Kit, we introduced the option for “pseudo plants”. These have allowed you to design, test, and learn in more abstract ways without having the perfect plant data. But we noticed that these tools have limited features. So we have introduced a new component that procedurally creates “fake” plants. Each pseudo plant has plausible parameters based on its plant type. There are 45 different data fields that are generated randomly for each plant including cluster radius, self spacing, nutrients, and more.
Documentation
Outputs to CAD and visualization software are an ongoing priority for us. These new tools speed up the work and close some previous gaps.
4. Contours Component - This tool cuts contours at twice the speed (or more) than the Grasshopper default contour component. This component can also give you elevation annotations based on spacing or on guide curves (like annotations that follow a path or a ridge).
5. Bake Text Component - Now you have the ability to bake text based on input planes and other fiddly attributes right in a Land Kit script. 9 alignment options are available. It will create a new layer if one doesn’t exist. And you can use any font installed and available in Rhino.
Data
Now for the main event. WARNING: This is extremely nerdy, but super useful to the people using Grasshopper and eventually (SOON) for all Land Kit users.
6. Customize Parameters Component - This is the big one. You can make per-geometry adjustments, create a spatial database, or leverage information modeling in Rhino, all with one tool. You can assign, change, and remove keys and values for different parameters using an adapting panel. This also allows you to generate annotations and export CSV files of your data.
We start with a layer. When this tool runs, it makes sure that all of the geometry on that layer have the same user text keys, and it keeps this list in sync as you add or remove parameters. You can even tell it which keys you always want to have. It’s a great interface for changing user text and maintaining spatial data that lives in your project file.
7. Layer Pipeline Component - Much like the beloved native “Geo” Pipeline, Layer Pipeline is a direct line to Rhino and its geometry but our version goes a few steps further by immediately exposing relevant attributes all at once (ie layer, color, user text keys, and user text values). You can also filter the pipeline for different kinds of geometry, (including text in Rhino 8 and higher) and geometry from inside blocks. This will make your work more responsive to data edits, like layer color, user text, and more.
8. Sort Key Values Component - Last component but not least, this adaptable widget is a simple but powerful tool in Grasshopper. It turns any lists of key and value pairs into component outputs. It turns the keys into component outputs and then the values flow through those key outputs. Great for sorting out data in Land Kit and Grasshopper like parameters, plants or even GIS-related data. And it will persistently hang onto wire connections by key name as others are added or removed.
We think this will quickly replace other cumbersome key-value setups.
Other Improvements
If you made it this far, these improvements are well worth a look!
⛓️ Path Chaining - The Create Paths component will now automatically connect stretches of path, each with their own parameters. centerlines just need to be lined up end to end and centerlines need corresponding parameters for each section.
Customizable Sculpt and Grade Mods - Using the Custom Parameters for each attractor geometry, you can now control more of your site design, more nimbly with just one sculpt or grade component. Each attractor can have its own parameters.
🌅 Gradients for Topo Elevation - Topo Elevation adopts a page from Draw Environment Layer as Mesh Component. Assign custom gradients by simply inputting a list of colors.
🏇🏻 Plant Clustering speed improvements - We continue to optimize plant clustering from some changes we made in 2.0.3. These speed improvements in Fill Plants Constrained and Pattern Fill Constrained add better clustering behavior without slowing things down.
🪣 Plant Fill with less steps - If no environment is provided for plant fills, it fills anyway. Note, Environments with layers are still required for testing environmental constraints in plant niches.
🌼 Control Clustering with CSVs - Entering values for “cluster radius”, “self spacing”, and “weight” in your spreadsheet will now be applied as plant attributes when importing your CSV.
⚛️ Less Random Fills - More persistent pattern layouts with paving and planting. Pattern will not completely change when changing colors, for example.
🌞 Sun Exposure - We’ve repurposed the “convert” button on this component to “alt layer”. This means that Sun Exposure always will create two layers:
“hours_of_sun” : a layer describing average hours of sun in each cell
“Sun Exposure” : layer describing Sun, Part Shade, and Shade (according to common assumptions). The “alt layer” input will rename this layer if you want to differentiate it (like “Spring_Sun” or something like that).
It all comes together, ready to customize.
In addition to a few other minor tweaks, that is 2.1. We know it’s a lot to process, but we are hoping to incorporate these elements into the Workflows and future features coming to Land Kit. Watch for it!
Watch our Instagram and LinkedIn for examples, info sessions, and upcoming workshops.
And as always, sign up for a free 30 days here.
-The Kit Crew at LANDAU
