The EBD-Toolkit is a set of tools for Unity and Rhino & Grasshopper that allows you to perform agent-based simulations, cognitive walkthroughs and topological analysis on your architectural designs. You do not know how to code to make full use of the toolkit - but if you want to, you can modify it to your own liking. To use it, we will first set up:
- Unity Hub: A program that allows you to manage Unity projects and different versions of the Unity Engine.
- Git: A tool that allows you to keep up to date with the latest changes of the EBD-Toolkit.
- GitHub Desktop: A user interface to use git without needing to learn the command line.
- Rhino 7: A CAD software that supports parametric modeling through the Grasshopper plugin.
GitHub desktop is a user interface for the version-control tool git. We will use git to download the latest version of the EBD-Toolkit and get the newest updates later. We only need to understand one single action it allows us to do: pull. Pull means: "Get the latest changes of the software, compare them to my current state, and integrate changes if there are any". Visit GitHub Desktop's website and click the Download for [Windows | Mac] button. Install and open the tool. Upon opening, you will be prompted to create or sign into you GitHub account. Please create one if you have not already done so.
In GitHub Desktop, choose File > Clone repository... > URL and enter the following URL: https://github.com/rabaur/EBD-Toolkit.git. Below, you will see where the toolkit will be saved on your system. Then, click clone.
After the download, you can verify that the project has been saved to the indicated path.
Now that we have downloaded the project, we need to install Unity Engine to open and view it. Visit Unity's website, then choose Student & hobbyist > Personal > 1. Download the Unity Hub > Download for [Windows | Mac | Linux], depending on your platform. After opening Unity Hub, you will be prompted to sign in. Please create a Unity ID if you have not already done so.
After logging in, we first need a version of the Unity Engine. Go to Installs > Add > Recommended Release: Unity 2022.3.XX. You do not need to select anything after that, and can simply press Done. This will download and install the corresponding Unity version on your system.
Warning
Generally, it should be possible you use a newer or older version of Unity of the same major version (everything that starts with 2022.x.xxxx), or even older or newer versions. However, at the time of writing this tutorial, only the version indicated above has been tested.
After the installation has finished, we are ready to add EBD-Toolkit project to the project list. Go to Projects > Add, and then choose the location of the project folder called _unity_files within the EBD-Toolkit folder you have cloned in previously. In the newly added project, add the Unity version you have just installed, and click on the project to open it.
Note
Depending on your exact version of Unity, you will see a prompt asking you if you want to upgrade the project to a newer version of Unity. Choose Confirm
The first time you open the project, the start-up might take a few minutes.
Find the tutorials to the toolkit's three main features here:
- Virtual Walkthrough in Unity: Design walkthroughs in your virtual environments and analyze participants trajectories and visual attention patterns.
- Spatial Analysis with Rhino and Grasshopper: Use human-centred performance measures to interactively design floorplans.
- Agent-Based Modeling: Tutorial in development.