Make sure you have the things listed below before starting:
Rhino 6.0, 7.0 or 8.0
Grasshopper Plugin
One Click LCA account and license with Business features to be able to import data
One Click LCA account and license with Expert features to be able to get results back into Grasshopper
How do you set up the Rhino Integration?
Where can I download it?
The plugins for Rhino and Grasshopper are uploaded to Food4Rhino (a platform for Rhino plugins).
How do I install it?
Type in "PackageManager" in Rhino's command line.
Search for "One-Click-LCA"
Click on install
How to use the Rhino Integration?
Once the plugin is installed it will appear in Grasshopper’s plugin bar under the name “One Click LCA”. Clicking on it will show the available components of the plugin, as shown below:
The available components are:
Icon | Name | Description |
Select LCA profile | Allows you to search and choose the right material for each geometry. | |
Define material | Allows you to assign the material chosen from the “Select LCA Profile” component to the right geometry. | |
Create Construction | Allows you to a) group multiple materials and corresponding geometries together, b) give a custom comment and, c) define the building element’s class. | |
Run LCA | Allows you to connect all created constructions together and Run the LCA for your design. | |
Visualize Results | Allows you to visualize your results within Rhino. | |
Analyze LCA | Allows you to numerically examine your results. |
Select LCA Profile
In this component, you are asked to specify which material you will assign to a specific building element.
Search Profile: You can search for a material by connecting a text panel and typing the material’s name (see below). Once done, the “LCA Profile” (2) box will update with the available resources.
LCA Profile: A list of all the available materials based on the search criteria entered in (1) or the filters used (3).
Filters: Multiple filters which you can use to narrow down your search.
Define Material
In this component, you are asked to assign the building element designed with the previously specified material, choose the unit, type in the thickness (when necessary) or manually define the quantity.
LCA Profile: Connect the previously specified LCA Profile.
Geometry: Connect the corresponding building element.
Thickness: (Needed only when the unit is m2) Specify the element’s thickness.
Units: Choose the desired unit.
Explicit Quantity: Manually specify the quantity.
Create Construction
In this component, you can assign a class to each previously specified material and, optionally, group multiple materials together, give custom comments or give custom classifications.
Material: Connect the previously specified material.
Comment: (Optional) Give a custom comment.
Group: (Optional) Group multiple materials together.
Class: Specify the element’s class.
Explicit Class: (Optional) Override the classification given and type in a manual class.
Run LCA
In this component, you must connect all created constructions and then Run the LCA.
Construction: Connect the previously created constructions.
Run: Add a “Boolean (True/False) Toggle” to choose whether to run the calculation or not.
Login: Add a “Button” which when clicked will pop-up prompting you to enter your One Click LCA credentials. Note that you will require a temporary password which will differ from your account password. Further guidance on this can be found here: How To Login To Your Import Plugin
Cloud: Add a “Button” which when clicked will redirect you to One Click LCA website and start the import process.
Gross Area: Manually specify the project’s area.
CO2e: Connect a text panel to get a sum of the project’s CO2e.
Visualize Results
In this component, you can choose how you want to visualize your results within Rhino. The 3D model is coloured, and value tags are added according to the CO2e of each construction.
Construction: Connect the output of the “Run LCA” component.
Tags: Choose how you want to see your results (i.e., by Volume, Share, Absolute etc.).
Render Filter: Isolate either by the specified class or material name.
Render Colors: Edit how the colours’ intensity is shown in the model.
Analyze LCA
In this component, you can have a detailed numerical analysis of the results.
Connect an empty text panel to your desired output to see the related results.
Material: Breakdown of all the materials used and their properties including quantity and units.
Geometry: Breakdown of all the types of geometries used within the project.
Quantity: Breakdown of all the quantities entered in the model.
Units: Breakdown of all the units used.
Class: Breakdown of all the classes used.
Comment: Breakdown of all the comments entered.
Status: Breakdown of the calculation status of each building element calculated (success/fail).
Abs CO2e: Absolute Result in kgCO2e for each building element.
Rel CO2e: Relative result in kgCO2e/unit for each building element.
Share: % contribution to the project’s total CO2e of each building element.
Int Quint: Intensity quintile of each building element.
Abs Quint: Absolute share quintile.
Warnings: Breakdown of all the warnings
Test Model
To assist users with the OCLCA Grasshopper integration, you can download the test file available at the bottom of this page. This file includes all OCLCA components arranged in a simple workflow. Feel free to use this test file as a template for OCLCA components, for testing purposes, or for troubleshooting your own setup.
Modelling Guidance
The general process of modelling with One Click LCA’s plugin in Grasshopper can be summed up in five steps:
Select resources from One Click LCA’s database for as many building elements you are designing (“Select LCA Profile” component).
Construct the element by connecting the Rhino geometry and the corresponding LCA profile (“Define Material” component).
Assign classes to the constructed elements and (optional) group together elements (“Create Construction” component).
Connect all the constructions together and run the LCA (“Run LCA” component).
Visualize your results (“Visualize Results” component).
As such, a sample process following the steps above should look like this, as per the image below:
For every building element that you would like to include in your LCA assessment separately, you should have a distinct geometry able to be mapped to a specific material. Within Rhino, the finished result will look like the following image:
In the example above, we have chosen to see each element’s result by volume, hence the tag above each one. The colour coding indicated the contribution of each element to the project’s total CO2e.
How to uninstall the Grasshopper plugin
Navigate to: C:\Users\USERNAME\AppData\Roaming\Grasshopper\Libraries
Delete the One Click LCA folders