evolute. blog
behind the scenes
There is a very simple answer to this question: Evolute is NOT patenting geometry!
You may have heard about the two patents co-held by Evolute and RFR. There is a discussion swelling in the community about these patents, which we think is great: discussions keep us going. Before joining into the discussion, however, we kindly ask everyone who joins to inform oneself about the patents, for example by reading the infos we have put together on the Evolute website , but ideally by actually reading the patent texts themselves, because the patent texts present the most neutral information about the patents one can get. There are people on the web communicating their opinion about the patents without being properly informed about what is actually patented. For example people claim we patent geometry, which we are not. We are also not patenting software. And we definitely never ever trick our clients by selling them consulting or software which at the end suddenly has a hidden patent fee attached. We have never hidden any information about the patents. From the beginning, we have followed the path of open and transparent information:
1. We have put up an information page on our website about the patents in December 2010 as soon as we released the Planarization module of EvoluteTools for Rhino, which is pertaining to the patents.
2. We have made users of EvoluteTools for Rhino, including users of the freely available Trial version, aware of the patents by means of the End User License Agreement. The EULA has been available through our website since the release of EvoluteTools for Rhino.
3. We have asked other providers of Software that builds upon our geometric insights, and that can thus be used to produce results that might infringe the patent, to make their users aware of the patents. We did this not to prevent or “troll” competition but to follow our path of open and transparent information and to save users of any software from unwittingly producing patent infringing results. In our eyes, even without our reminder, it is the duty of any software provider to inform their users of the consequences of using their software. Unfortunately it is out of our hands to control whether the information that is passed on is correct or not.
This blog post is but one more channel to communicate openly about: What have we patented ? And why ? And how do the patents interact with our consulting work and software ? With this blog post we want to give you some informal insights into our work on complex geometry, which we love and cherish.
Which brings us to why we are co-holders of these patents:
During the recent years we have performed a significant amount of research in the young field of Architectural geometry. In fact, we are proud to say that we have been at the forefront of shaping this exciting field at the melting point of mathematical theory and hands on architectural practice. All our research is publicly available and we have participated in the foundation of a new conference “Advances in Architectural Geometry” with the sole purpose of bringing people together and advance the field in an open and collaborative spirit.
The main research legacy of Evolute in our eyes is a set of geometric insights to enable and understand complexity in architecture. We have shown what is possible and where the geometric limits lie. We have shown how a building geometry can be optimized for various practical requirements and desires. Some of these insights and optimizations have an immediate, extreme impact on the production cost, the buildability, and the aesthetics of a building. Some of these insights are extremely sought after by designers as well as constructors. And by “extreme” we mean there will be people saving or making tons of money by using our research results, they will and already do. We feel that it is our right to earn a reasonable portion of this money as our return on investment, because we invested a lot to produce research results everybody can now profit from and build upon. Therefore the patents are not about preventing anything, they are not about trolling anybody, they are about getting fair payment for our hard work and our dedication to save money and enable great architecture.
So the foremost reason for us to participate in these patents is to earn money with our technology. We do not co-hold these patents simply for marketing. We plan to convince many more customers in the future that they can save money and time and get a great solution by licensing our technology. We are selling and defending our patents and not just sitting on them to prevent competition.
An equally important reason to participate in the patents is to prevent others from blocking us to use our own inventions. Imagine such patents would have been filed by a facade specialist contractor who would not be interested in making the technology available to others through software, who would use it to prevent competition between contractors, and who would not openly publish any research results. This is not just a hypothetical statement, this is what happens with other inventions in the field. For results in architectural geometry, we believe that this would be the far worse path for the community.
So what are we patenting?
As said, technical info about the patent contents can be found here and nothing can replace the reading of the actual patent text, if you are really interested. In short, informal, and not legally binding terms (because for that we would have to reproduce the patent text), the patents cover the following:
– The first patent covers a freeform supporting structure (the physical entity, described through geometric properties) with planar elements for which we have shown in our research that it for example enables torsion free supporting beams. Torsion is a major cost-factor for most constructors since having support elements with torsion implies costly and tedious production. Also torsion can be an important aesthetic factor since a structure can look much more slick and elegant without torsion. Due to the high practical implications, covering a freeform structure with planar elements, including a cost effective way of construction, has been investigated by many and for a long time. Our geometric research and insights have enabled what many have sought after. Our solution is far from trivial (maybe it seems so now it is there) and has led to this patent. Not the geometry is patented but the physical architectural building solution. The patent also includes one specific method of determining the geometry of a support structure.
– The second patent covers a supporting structure (the physical entity, described through geometric properties) for freeform structures consisting of single curved panels. Being able to use single curved panels instead of the usually much more expensive double curved panels and still (re)produce a generally curved freeform impression has been the dream of practitioners since a long time. Our research has enabled this! Again not the geometry itself is patented but the actual physical solution.
Having read until here, it should be clear that the patents are NOT covering software or algorithms or geometry, i.e. we are NOT preventing anyone from designing or creating design tools based on our research. We patent real physical elements that possess specific nontrivial geometric properties, which enable a cost effective production and can also improve the aesthetic quality of a built structure.
And how does all this relate to Evolute’s consulting and software?
Working at the forefront of research, as well as with multiple contractors, manufacturers, engineers, and architects, we consider ourselves as top consultants when it comes to complex geometry architecture. Let it be design assist, optimization for cost and aesthetics, production data, modeling, or any other service related to complex geometry: Our clients value our services and software and save money by using them, or they save money for their own clients further down the value chain.
Architects and engineers may prefer using our software over using our services, or they might even use software or services by someone else who might have been inspired by our research. Certainly we do not aim to inhibit competition, and we won’t elaborate on the benefits our own software and consulting have to offer compared to others’ in this article, that is a topic on its own. When it comes to our patents, however, we reserve the right to claim a license fee at the point of the value chain were our patented technology is applied and money is saved, and you can be assured that the patent license fee will be insignificant and way beyond the savings the patent enabled. Again, we follow the path of open and transparent information, communicate early and openly about the patents no matter of whether you decide to use our software or our consulting, and we encourage everyone to get into contact with us in early stages of a project since this is the most efficient point to access our expertise. We will support you in turning your vision into reality, be it with solutions that are patented or not.
So finally, we have some new tutorials on our homepage for you to check out. The new videos are categorized by difficulty and Modules used. In the Tutorial page, at the bottom, you will find the Examples download area, so get the etQUBE and replicate the results in the tutorials. We also have the TSplines+EvoluteTools Webinar recording there, just in case you missed it. The old tutorials can still be accessed through our YouTube channel, although they will get discarded in the future, as they become obsolete due to new implementations and improvements done to the Plugin.
As some of you may know, the contest ended a few days ago. So what does it have to do with Evolute ? A few things as a matter of fact: we are sponsoring the award for the Architectural Category, specifically a full commercial bundle of EvoluteTools for Rhino worth a few thousand Euros, secondly, TSplines is a great product for modeling freeform shapes and a powerfull tool that works very well together with our plugin, as evidenced in the Webinar we put together with TSplines. This extremely powerful combination allows you to create the craziest shapes with ease and at the same time provides the FASTEST way of paneling and optimizing a freeform design. The coolest thing about using TSplines in combination with EvoluteTools is that given a TSplines surface – you already have the coarse mesh (the box mode TSplines Mesh) that you can use for further subdivision, saving precious modeling time. In the future you will hear more about this combination and we will even put out some cool tutorials for you to check out, we will also have some surprises. Back to the contest – I am currently looking over the submissions and hopefully soon, together with the other judges we can decide upon a winning submission. Another thing worth mentioning is that during the contest we provided an extended Trial version of our plugin for the contestants to try out (unlimited face count, full functionality), hopefully they enjoyed working with it. So keep an eye on the TSplines website and our blog to see the winning entry.
First and foremost – welcome !!! And thank you for checking out our blog. We’ve been meaning to get it up and running for some time but things always got in the way, sorry to keep anyone waiting. So what is it going to be about ? Mostly news about what we are working on, new things we are testing in the Plugin, workshops, architectural gossip, informal interaction with our (potential) users and hopefully a bit of wacky fun. In case you don’t know already, please have a look at our website to find out what we are specialized in.
I will introduce the team so you know who you might be dealing with, from left to right, here we are: Michael, Simon, Mathias, me – Florin, Martin, Alex, Helmut – our scientific advisor and Heinz – our CEO. Since I will be doing most of the blogging, here are a few words about me: I love peaches ( I did say a FEW ).
Here at Evolute I am responsible for things like: testing the Plugin , customer relations, recording tutorials, product support, design and consulting. So you can blame me for typos, hypothetical bugs in the software ( I am supposed to find them first ), global warming, boring tutorials, late reply to emails, things like that. So keep an eye on our blog as there will be more cool stuff to come.