Node-based visual scripting with Dynamo and Grasshopper, parametric families and adaptive components, generative design workflows built around constraints and goals, facade panelization and other automation use cases, and when scripted workflows are worth their cost against manual modeling.
This module moves beyond hand-placed parametric families into computational design proper: authoring the relationships that generate geometry, rather than placing geometry by hand element by element. It covers how Dynamo and Grasshopper represent computation as a graph of connected nodes, how adaptive components replace a family's fixed local origin with adaptive points so a single panel family can conform to an arbitrary curved surface, and how generative design differs from scripting by searching a population of design options against stated constraints and goals instead of executing one predetermined outcome.
By the end of this module you should be able to explain why a curved-facade panelization workflow chains a divided surface, adaptive components, and optional generative exploration together, and why treating a script as a strict upgrade over manual modeling — without weighing its authoring cost, maintainability, and the limits of what an optimization algorithm actually understands — is the most common mistake a team new to these tools makes.