Hi, I am Dimitrios Ververidis, and I am a technical manager in PrismArch project that aims to bring the major AEC disciplines, namely Architects, Structural Engineers, and MEP Engineers in one “Prismatic” collaborative VR space. We work on Unreal Engine, Rhino, Revit, Grasshoper, and LadyBug software. I was wondering what is the timeplan for the reveal of the first beta Unreal connector or if we can help to it. Project: http://prismarch-h2020.eu
4 Likes
Hi @Dimitrios.Ververidis, and welcome! There’s never enough Dimitri{e, os} around 
Prism looks really interesting, and we would be happy to collaborate on the Unreal plugin. @cristi just shared internally a demo screenshot this weekend of receiving data, so good timing! I suggest you start a new thread on this - prism and unreal - so we can bounce ideas there.
2 Likes
Hello!
My name is Nathaniel Wong. My experience and skillset really don’t have any convenient titles. I’ve worked primarily with Gehry Technologies as a parametric designer, 3d project coordinator, tool developer and software engineer. I also had the opportunity to work with @clrkng over the last couple of years. I am presently discussing starting a technology backed design to fabrication company.
On paper, I’m probably one of the least educated people here, but I’ll let you form your own opinion on that. I originally studied computer science, computer graphics, and CAD/CAM as standardized intersections of those fields didn’t exist at the time. I ended up spending most of my application studies working with CATIA V5 which correlated very well with object instancing and class definitions from the C++ data structures I was also studying. Those skill sets led to a brief opportunity to work with composite tooling, and later an opportunity with Gehry Technologies. I think there was a stint doing css front ends somewhere, but we won’t talk about that.
My interests include origami, computer graphics technologies, realtime rendering, non-photorealistic rendering, system building, woodworking, cnc operation, and improving technical workflows.
I am excited to see connections between many of those interests potentially facilitated by Speckle, and to be part of the community here!
I don’t really have pets, so here’s my newly formatted dev server.
6 Likes
Welcome @nwong! That’s a nice little cozy spot for the lil 'nuc. I just ordered one this weekend too funnily enough - possibly because of a need for a psychological pet replacement, now that you mention it.
@clrkng might’ve mentioned this some time ago, we would be super keen to help out in any way we can - it would be a totally rad thing to do.
Also, css is awesome. 
1 Like
Hi there!
I think it’s time I introduce myself before I flood you with too many questions over Discourse 
My name is Pawel, I work at Arup Poland as Mechanical Engineer (for most of the time recently I’m involved in datacentre design, site supervision etc.) however I have always been interested in IT (playing around with static HTML & CSS sites back in 2000’s and being that go-to guy if someone needs his Windows re-installed via DOS 
).
I started playing around with Python good couple years ago and gradually try to get better at it and understand core software development ideas on the go. (Un)fortunately Python started to be more and more popular with great community and I tend to be biased towards it
When I’m off construction site and my little 8 month old son allows, I try to continue my developer journey (mostly web development with Django and alike) and recently started also looking in Vue (it’s great Speckle uses it also so more reasons to learn more of it )
Great to see Speckle getting more traction (personally I thought for a long time it’s just a bunch of connectors for different apps to communicate at runtime, but learning just recently its also a data store with data versioning and API access was a game changer ).
We had a chance to meet with @izzylys in Madrid on Arup’s global automation event (Hi Liz ) , hopefully at some point there will be a possibility to meet the rest of Speckle Team!
Keep the ball rolling!
5 Likes
Forum Intro
Time for another intro! My name is Ollie, I’m based in London and am joining as the shiniest new member of the Speckle team! 
I’m a former architect, former video games designer, and self-taught software developer. As a huge fan of open source in AEC, I love giving back to the community which has helped me learn so much over the years. Some fun side projects have included:
- Dynamo Python Primer: A free, accessible guide to help first-time coders navigate the complex world of writing Python scripts within Revit/Dynamo.
- Regular Data Validation: An open-source Revit plugin to help BIM data managers create, manage and validate building data.
- HomeGrown: A (closed source) machine-learning assisted apartment layout tool, but with published research paper including a detailed methodology and interviews explaining our process in depth.
My new role at Speckle will largely focus on community outreach, UI/UX and product development. I’m hugely excited to be joining the team on arguably AEC’s most important open source project.
We have no pets, so instead we live in a jungle of house plants 
I’m more than a little goofy (see: fish shirt) and love playing pranks, so be warned Speckle team 
As for hobbies, I have a lot of fun cooking - especially the exotic or more challenging stuff.
Our most recent experiment was curing egg yolks (it sounds weird but they’re amazing… and you can grate them like parmesan!).
Looking forward to getting to know you all and learning about how we can make Speckle even better for you 
9 Likes
Hey Guys,
I am Dick Elsman, BIM Automation Coordinator at Infranea.
As it says part of my job is to make a lot of manual actions obsolete. I have been focussing on bringing Civil3D to Revit now for about 2 years straight, and see a lot of added value to speckle here, as Autodesk is not solving these problems themselves.
I live in a city in Noord Brabant in the Netherlands, mostly experienced in Dynamo. Really experienced in mapping out information flows and optimizing them, as my previous job was creating dashboards out of data.
Huge fan of the open source community, as it is usually more in tune with the real requirements of the market, and allows great flexibilty.
Hope to start investigating more into Speckle asap!
KR
7 Likes
Hi Everyone,
Been lurking for a while so thought I better introduce myself to you all. I’ve got no pets, but I do have a teenage daughter - I wasn’t allowed to photograph her though 
My name is Nige and I am a Lecturer in Architecture Technology at the University of Wolverhampton (UK). I’ve just returned to academia after 7 years in industry using Unity to create apps and visualisations for AEC customers. My tool of choice is definitely C#, although I did teach myself python during my PhD and am getting back into that again now. I’m keen to grease the wheels of collaboration by removing the blockers created by proprietary file formats etc. and am keen to see the AEC industry start to adopt more open source and open standards, so Speckle definitely speaks to me.
7 Likes
Hi @Dickels112 , welcome to the forum!
We’re glad to have you join our community - your feedback on our Civil3D connector could prove very useful as we develop it! Have you had a go at sending / receiving data with it yet?
I also got into software development initially via the Dynamo route - it’s a gateway drug, as some have said
Hi @NigeDemo, great to have you on board! Likewise, your feedback with our current Unity Connector could be super helpful. Have you had a chance to install it and chuck some data around yet?
Both Python and C# are our weapons of choice, so we have a ton of systems you should be able to plug into without much learning curve. @izzylys has been writing our speckle-py library that’s now up on PyPI, and our speckle-sharp repo should align with your C# experience.
Feel free to reach out if you have any questions about installing / using Speckle. Otherwise, see you around the forums!
3 Likes
Thanks @Ollie - no not yet. Currently playing with BlenderBIM so have been hassling @izzylys in my attempts to get the blender connector working Rest assured though that I will be taking the Unity Connector for a test drive pretty soon and will totally try and provide some useful feedback.
2 Likes
Hi everyone,
My name is Panos. I am currently a game programmer at Certh, developing gameplay mechanics and tools. Moreover, I have an MSc in Game AI, and my main research interest is the integration of state of the art AI solutions in game design tools.
I came across Speckle through the Unreal Engine plugin, and I really loved the overall idea as well as the community. I am willing to contribute to the existing Speckle solutions as much as possible and cooperate with this lovely community.
When I’ m not writing code, since I am living in Greece I enjoy free diving and exploring the Mediterranean waters.
3 Likes
Kalispera @PanMig! Personally, I’m really envious of
since I am living in Greece I enjoy free diving and exploring the Mediterranean waters.
especially since I’m typing this from a rather chaotic weather London. I might source some island tips post-vaccine time.
We’re happy you’re around - Speckle Unreal needs you! The PrismArch project you’re on with @Dimitrios.Ververidis is really cool, and a perfect way to shape the plugin from our point of view. So please be bold in your contributions, and tell us how things should be and where they should go (we lack game engine experience internally - barring some Unity from @Matteo).
I wish Speckle would also be able to tickle the AI side of things as well - but who knows, maybe soon we’ll have autonomous agents going around BIM models zapping clashes between architectural models and structural ones
2 Likes
Hey there,
my name is Niklas and I am structural engineering student currently doing my Master’s at the Bauhaus University in Weimar.
I am so fascinated by this project and therfore, I would like to develop a client for a FE-software I use a lot for my final year project.
I worked for werner Sobek in Stuttgart where I came in contact with Visual Scripting.
I got some (really) basic C# scripting skills mostly in the Grasshopper environment (and a little bit in Visual Studio) and some Python knowledge.
Is there any recommendations where to start or what to look at (some good E-Learning stuff, introduction examples, …)
I’ve seen the the “Writing your own connector”-Guide in the developper docs, but maybe you experienced guys know something for the very first run
When trying to teach myself coding is not taking away all the free time of my normal university stuff, I am always outside with a good book
See you around, I am looking forward to,
Niklas
3 Likes
Hey @HQue , thanks for the nice words and welcome!
It’s great you’d like to contribute to Speckle and expand its ecosystem, our team and the rest of the community is here to help you do so
Regarding programming in general, I don’t have any specific e-learning platforms to recommend, I learned C# and the Revit API the hard way: by writing my own plugin and failing many times until I got it right 
. Hopefully the FE software you are targeting has some nice documentation and examples!
Regarding Speckle, I know the existing guide is quite high level, so the next best thing would be looking at how the existing connectors have been written. As well, looking at the tests in Core can help understand how to perform simple operations (send, receive, call the API etc…).
Any specific questions just ask on the forum, that’ll also help us write more comprehensive docs!
Looking forward to it!
2 Likes
Thank you @teocomi for your kind answer!
Ok, I think I know what to do and I’ll come back for sure when I’ve got further and more specific questions
See you soon!
2 Likes
Hi everyone!
Nice to introduce myself to this multitalented community!
My name is Shuai Zhang. I am a Chinese born Surinamese living in the Netherlands.
I have a masters degree in Architectural Engineering from the TU Delft and I’m currently employed by NACO ( a company of RoyalHaskoningDHV) in the Netherlands.
Ever since my student days I’ve been working on ways to improve existing workflows using Visual Scripting, C# and Python. A colleague introduced me to Speckle and right from the start I was fascinated by it’s potential: I definitely see a department wide usage of Speckle in the near future.
Anyway, in my free time I do a lot of reading, dabbling in SBC’s and Arduino or just go for a walk with mini-me.
I look forward to contribute to this community.,
Shuai
5 Likes
Hi Shuai! 
welcome to the forum, it’s great to have you with us! 
We’re seeing lots of use from TU Delft and we’re good friends with the bunch as Royal Haskoning too, so we probably have a bunch of contacts in common already!
I started off in visual programming, Python and C# too, so it’s a familiar journey
Very interested to hear where you might take Speckle with those Arduino skills!
2 Likes
Hi everyone, I’m Marco. 🙋🏻
I am a Building Engineer, based in Brescia, Italy, where I studied building engineering and architecture. I am currently a BIM Specialist / Consultant collaborator for a Brescia company.
I came to know about Speckle today and I think it has some very interesting potentials that need to be tested.
When I am not trafficking between BIM models, I love cycling and go hiking in the nearby mountains. I strongly believe in sharing knowledge and I appreciate communities.
3 Likes
Benvenuto Marco and cheers to a fellow hybrid architect/engineer , I really hope you find Speckle useful and that you get to use it more!
P.S.
Damn your photos make me regret leaving Italy… 
Hi everyone!
I’m Saket, architect by training currently based in Singapore. Joined Arup as a sustainability consultant and somehow got myself into doing building performance simulations, esp. cfd stuff. I have seen some fantastic Speckle works in Arup by some colleagues on real projects of all scales. Recently I have joined a startup focusing on smart building technology.
In my free time I love to go bird watching. Hello from the hungry woodpecker chicks and a kite.
4 Likes