An Open-Source and Multi-platform Computational Design Framework for Timber Engineering

This paper presents the development and implementation of a computation design framework whose goal is to simplify and streamline the structural design of timber structures. Conceived as a multi-platform and open-source library, it implements the logic and technical rules from timber design codes and state-of-the-art literature as a comprehensive and structured C# library. It incorporates the Eurocode 5 rules and equations, the related material standards, and a set of necessary utilities. This core library is easily accessible by the different software packages used daily by engineers. The interface with Microsoft Excel has been particularly pushed as users can access the totality of the library in a function-based manner. Furthermore, different components for Grasshopper were developed to allow timber floor vibration analysis using results from FEM package, allowing an instantaneous and highly visual reading of the floor performance. This library also provides the timber engineering community with a collaborative, open and trusted timber design framework which can serve as basis for further computational design developments, such as machine learning algorithms, where a solid and trusted timber computational design implementation is needed.