Topologic

Introduction

Topologic is a FOSS software modelling library enabling hierarchical and topological representations of architectural spaces, buildings and artefacts through non-manifold topology. Topologic is designed as a core library and additional plugins to visual data flow programming (VDFP) applications and parametric modelling platforms commonly used in architectural design practice. These applications provide workspaces with visual programming nodes and connections for architects to interact with Topologic and perform architectural design and analysis tasks.

Topologic is well-suited to create a lightweight representation of a building as an external envelope and the subdivision of the enclosed space into separate spaces and zones using zero-thickness internal surfaces. Because Topologic maintains topological consistency, a user can query these cellular spaces and surfaces regarding their topological data and thus conduct various analyses. For example, this lightweight and consistent representation was found to be well-matched with the input data requirements for energy analysis simulation software. Because Topologic allows entities with mixed dimensionalities and those that are optionally independent (e.g. a line, a surface, a volume) to co-exist, structural models can be represented in a coherent manner where lines can represent columns and beams, surfaces can represent walls and slabs, and volumes can represent solids. In addition, non-building entities, such as structural loads can be efficiently attached to the structure. This creates a lightweight model that is well-matched with the input data requirements for structural analysis simulation software.

Examples of use

Toplogic can be used to support energy modelling - say dimensioning the windows on different sides of a hospital to avoid summer overheating. Topologic can be be used to plot paths such as fire egress routes, the least disruptive route for a new service pipe or compute the most congested location in a city layout.

Rigorous Class Hierarchy

TopologicCore contains the following main classes:

• Topology: A Topology is an abstract superclass that stores constructors, properties and methods used by other subclasses that extend it.
• Vertex: A Vertex is a zero-dimensional entity equivalent to a geometry point.
• Edge: An Edge is a one-dimensional entity defined by two vertices. It is important to note that while a topologic edge is made of two vertices, its geometry can be a curve with multiple control vertices.
• Wire: A Wire is a contiguous collection of Edges where adjacent Edges are connected by shared Vertices. It may be open or closed and may be manifold or non-manifold.
• Face: A Face is a two-dimensional region defined by a collection of closed Wires. The geometry of a face can be flat or undulating.
• Shell: A Shell is a contiguous collection of Faces, where adjacent Faces are connected by shared Edges. It may be open or closed and may be manifold or non-manifold.
• Cell: A Cell is a three-dimensional region defined by a collection of closed Shells. It may be manifold or non- manifold.
• CellComplex: A CellComplex is a contiguous collection of Cells where adjacent Cells are connected by shared Faces. It is non- manifold.
• Cluster: A Cluster is a collection of any topologic entities. It may be contiguous or not and may be manifold or non- manifold. Clusters can be nested within other Clusters.

Build Instructions

Prerequisites:

• Anaconda or Miniconda
• On Windows: Microsoft Visual Studio 2022 with "Desktop development with C++" workload installed

1. Clone the repository, switch to the branch and initialize submodules (pybind11)

git clone https://github.com/wassimj/Topologic
cd Topologic
git submodule update --init

2. Create the Conda-based build environment for the target Python version: the files conda_env_topologic_*.yml where * is py310, py311, etc. for Python 3.10, 3.11, etc. define Conda environments named topologic_py310, topologic_py311, etc. that contain the build dependencies, notably OpenCASCADE, and build tools.
   As of 20221217, Blender comes with Python 3.10; the following instructions are for this version.

conda env create -f conda_env_topologic_py310.yml

(Developer note: keep the contents of the conda_env_topologic_*.yml files in sync.) b 3. Activate the Conda environment:

conda activate topologic_py310

4. To build TopologicCore separately, if needed:

python build.py --build-type Release --source-dir . --build-dir build --build-target TopologicCore

The built library is found in build/TopologicCore/.

5. To build the Python extension:

• Windows

cd TopologicPythonBindings
python build_windows.py

• Linux

cd TopologicPythonBindings
python build_linux.py

• MacOS

cd TopologicPythonBindings
python build_macos.py

The build output is found in wheelhouse/. The build output is a Python wheel that contains the extension module with TopologicCore linked into it and its OpenCASCADE dependecies "vendored-in" from the Conda-based build environment. It can be installed with pip or its contents can be unzipped.

A note on MacOS build

Libraries in MacOS can be shared or static. Static are the ones with .SO extension and the ones with .dylib are shared.

In order to inspect the dependencies of a library you can use the tool "otool" that is available on MacOS.

For example:

otool -L topologic.cpython-310-darwin.so

will print @loader_path/libTKOffset.7.7.dylib (compatibility version 7.7.0, current version 7.7.0)

@loader_path/libTKMesh.7.7.dylib (compatibility version 7.7.0, current version 7.7.0)

@loader_path/libTKBO.7.7.dylib (compatibility version 7.7.0, current version 7.7.0)

@loader_path/libTKPrim.7.7.dylib (compatibility version 7.7.0, current version 7.7.0)

@loader_path/libTKShHealing.7.7.dylib (compatibility version 7.7.0, current version 7.7.0)

@loader_path/libTKTopAlgo.7.7.dylib (compatibility version 7.7.0, current version 7.7.0)

@loader_path/libTKGeomAlgo.7.7.dylib (compatibility version 7.7.0, current version 7.7.0)

@loader_path/libTKBRep.7.7.dylib (compatibility version 7.7.0, current version 7.7.0)

@loader_path/libTKGeomBase.7.7.dylib (compatibility version 7.7.0, current version 7.7.0)

@loader_path/libTKG3d.7.7.dylib (compatibility version 7.7.0, current version 7.7.0)

@loader_path/libTKG2d.7.7.dylib (compatibility version 7.7.0, current version 7.7.0)

@loader_path/libTKMath.7.7.dylib (compatibility version 7.7.0, current version 7.7.0)

@loader_path/libTKernel.7.7.dylib (compatibility version 7.7.0, current version 7.7.0)

@rpath/libc++.1.dylib (compatibility version 1.0.0, current version 1.0.0)

/usr/lib/libSystem.B.dylib (compatibility version 1.0.0, current version 1319.100.3)

These are the dependencies that are also loaded when this library is loaded. As you can see there are a lot of paths that start with "@loader_path" and it is used to tell the loader that it should look for that library in the same folder that the .SO file.

Sometimes path will start with "@rpath" or "@executable_path", those are used to tell the loader that it should look for the library in the same path that the python app was executed.

In order to update the path you can use the tool install_name_tool that is available on MacOS.

For example:

install_name_tool -change @rpath/libTKOffset.7.7.dylib @loader_path/libTKOffset.7.7.dylib ./topologic.cpython-38-darwin.so
install_name_tool -change @rpath/libTKMesh.7.7.dylib @loader_path/libTKMesh.7.7.dylib ./topologic.cpython-38-darwin.so
install_name_tool -change @rpath/libTKBO.7.7.dylib @loader_path/libTKBO.7.7.dylib ./topologic.cpython-38-darwin.so
install_name_tool -change @rpath/libTKPrim.7.7.dylib @loader_path/libTKPrim.7.7.dylib ./topologic.cpython-38-darwin.so
install_name_tool -change @rpath/libTKShHealing.7.7.dylib @loader_path/libTKShHealing.7.7.dylib ./topologic.cpython-38-darwin.so
install_name_tool -change @rpath/libTKTopAlgo.7.7.dylib @loader_path/libTKTopAlgo.7.7.dylib ./topologic.cpython-38-darwin.so
install_name_tool -change @rpath/libTKGeomAlgo.7.7.dylib @loader_path/libTKGeomAlgo.7.7.dylib ./topologic.cpython-38-darwin.so
install_name_tool -change @rpath/libTKBRep.7.7.dylib @loader_path/libTKBRep.7.7.dylib ./topologic.cpython-38-darwin.so
install_name_tool -change @rpath/libTKGeomBase.7.7.dylib @loader_path/libTKGeomBase.7.7.dylib ./topologic.cpython-38-darwin.so
install_name_tool -change @rpath/libTKG3d.7.7.dylib @loader_path/libTKG3d.7.7.dylib ./topologic.cpython-38-darwin.so
install_name_tool -change @rpath/libTKG2d.7.7.dylib @loader_path/libTKG2d.7.7.dylib ./topologic.cpython-38-darwin.so
install_name_tool -change @rpath/libTKMath.7.7.dylib @loader_path/libTKMath.7.7.dylib ./topologic.cpython-38-darwin.so
install_name_tool -change @rpath/libTKernel.7.7.dylib @loader_path/libTKernel.7.7.dylib ./topologic.cpython-38-darwin.so

install_name_tool -change @rpath/libTKOffset.7.7.dylib @loader_path/libTKOffset.7.7.dylib ./topologic.cpython-39-darwin.so
install_name_tool -change @rpath/libTKMesh.7.7.dylib @loader_path/libTKMesh.7.7.dylib ./topologic.cpython-39-darwin.so
install_name_tool -change @rpath/libTKBO.7.7.dylib @loader_path/libTKBO.7.7.dylib ./topologic.cpython-39-darwin.so
install_name_tool -change @rpath/libTKPrim.7.7.dylib @loader_path/libTKPrim.7.7.dylib ./topologic.cpython-39-darwin.so
install_name_tool -change @rpath/libTKShHealing.7.7.dylib @loader_path/libTKShHealing.7.7.dylib ./topologic.cpython-39-darwin.so
install_name_tool -change @rpath/libTKTopAlgo.7.7.dylib @loader_path/libTKTopAlgo.7.7.dylib ./topologic.cpython-39-darwin.so
install_name_tool -change @rpath/libTKGeomAlgo.7.7.dylib @loader_path/libTKGeomAlgo.7.7.dylib ./topologic.cpython-39-darwin.so
install_name_tool -change @rpath/libTKBRep.7.7.dylib @loader_path/libTKBRep.7.7.dylib ./topologic.cpython-39-darwin.so
install_name_tool -change @rpath/libTKGeomBase.7.7.dylib @loader_path/libTKGeomBase.7.7.dylib ./topologic.cpython-39-darwin.so
install_name_tool -change @rpath/libTKG3d.7.7.dylib @loader_path/libTKG3d.7.7.dylib ./topologic.cpython-39-darwin.so
install_name_tool -change @rpath/libTKG2d.7.7.dylib @loader_path/libTKG2d.7.7.dylib ./topologic.cpython-39-darwin.so
install_name_tool -change @rpath/libTKMath.7.7.dylib @loader_path/libTKMath.7.7.dylib ./topologic.cpython-39-darwin.so
install_name_tool -change @rpath/libTKernel.7.7.dylib @loader_path/libTKernel.7.7.dylib ./topologic.cpython-39-darwin.so

install_name_tool -change @rpath/libTKOffset.7.7.dylib @loader_path/libTKOffset.7.7.dylib ./topologic.cpython-310-darwin.so
install_name_tool -change @rpath/libTKMesh.7.7.dylib @loader_path/libTKMesh.7.7.dylib ./topologic.cpython-310-darwin.so
install_name_tool -change @rpath/libTKBO.7.7.dylib @loader_path/libTKBO.7.7.dylib ./topologic.cpython-310-darwin.so
install_name_tool -change @rpath/libTKPrim.7.7.dylib @loader_path/libTKPrim.7.7.dylib ./topologic.cpython-310-darwin.so
install_name_tool -change @rpath/libTKShHealing.7.7.dylib @loader_path/libTKShHealing.7.7.dylib ./topologic.cpython-310-darwin.so
install_name_tool -change @rpath/libTKTopAlgo.7.7.dylib @loader_path/libTKTopAlgo.7.7.dylib ./topologic.cpython-310-darwin.so
install_name_tool -change @rpath/libTKGeomAlgo.7.7.dylib @loader_path/libTKGeomAlgo.7.7.dylib ./topologic.cpython-310-darwin.so
install_name_tool -change @rpath/libTKBRep.7.7.dylib @loader_path/libTKBRep.7.7.dylib ./topologic.cpython-310-darwin.so
install_name_tool -change @rpath/libTKGeomBase.7.7.dylib @loader_path/libTKGeomBase.7.7.dylib ./topologic.cpython-310-darwin.so
install_name_tool -change @rpath/libTKG3d.7.7.dylib @loader_path/libTKG3d.7.7.dylib ./topologic.cpython-310-darwin.so
install_name_tool -change @rpath/libTKG2d.7.7.dylib @loader_path/libTKG2d.7.7.dylib ./topologic.cpython-310-darwin.so
install_name_tool -change @rpath/libTKMath.7.7.dylib @loader_path/libTKMath.7.7.dylib ./topologic.cpython-310-darwin.so
install_name_tool -change @rpath/libTKernel.7.7.dylib @loader_path/libTKernel.7.7.dylib ./topologic.cpython-310-darwin.so

install_name_tool -change @rpath/libTKOffset.7.7.dylib @loader_path/libTKOffset.7.7.dylib ./topologic.cpython-311-darwin.so
install_name_tool -change @rpath/libTKMesh.7.7.dylib @loader_path/libTKMesh.7.7.dylib ./topologic.cpython-311-darwin.so
install_name_tool -change @rpath/libTKBO.7.7.dylib @loader_path/libTKBO.7.7.dylib ./topologic.cpython-310-darwin.so
install_name_tool -change @rpath/libTKPrim.7.7.dylib @loader_path/libTKPrim.7.7.dylib ./topologic.cpython-311-darwin.so
install_name_tool -change @rpath/libTKShHealing.7.7.dylib @loader_path/libTKShHealing.7.7.dylib ./topologic.cpython-311-darwin.so
install_name_tool -change @rpath/libTKTopAlgo.7.7.dylib @loader_path/libTKTopAlgo.7.7.dylib ./topologic.cpython-311-darwin.so
install_name_tool -change @rpath/libTKGeomAlgo.7.7.dylib @loader_path/libTKGeomAlgo.7.7.dylib ./topologic.cpython-311-darwin.so
install_name_tool -change @rpath/libTKBRep.7.7.dylib @loader_path/libTKBRep.7.7.dylib ./topologic.cpython-311-darwin.so
install_name_tool -change @rpath/libTKGeomBase.7.7.dylib @loader_path/libTKGeomBase.7.7.dylib ./topologic.cpython-311-darwin.so
install_name_tool -change @rpath/libTKG3d.7.7.dylib @loader_path/libTKG3d.7.7.dylib ./topologic.cpython-311-darwin.so
install_name_tool -change @rpath/libTKG2d.7.7.dylib @loader_path/libTKG2d.7.7.dylib ./topologic.cpython-311-darwin.so
install_name_tool -change @rpath/libTKMath.7.7.dylib @loader_path/libTKMath.7.7.dylib ./topologic.cpython-311-darwin.so
install_name_tool -change @rpath/libTKernel.7.7.dylib @loader_path/libTKernel.7.7.dylib ./topologic.cpython-311-darwin.so

If you run again otool -L topologic.cpython-310-darwin.so you should see your changes applied.