Architecture, engineering & construction
Your computational designers already build the tools. ShapeDiver turns their Grasshopper definitions into web apps every engineer and architect can run in a browser, with safe inputs, access control, and version control, without a Rhino license or a file to pass around.
The problem
In most firms, a handful of people hold the Grasshopper skills, so everyone else lines up: rerun this script, change that parameter, export that model. Every request costs an email, a file transfer, and a chance to introduce an error - and your specialists spend their days running tools for other people.
How it works
Your computational designer builds the definition in Grasshopper, exactly as they do today.
Upload it and it becomes a web app in your workspace on the platform, exposing only the inputs and outputs you choose.
Set safe parameter ranges, data validation, role-based access, and version control.
Colleagues use it in a browser without installing Rhino or plug-ins, or you embed it in your intranet.
Geometry, drawings, quantities, analysis data, and reports, generated the same way every time.
How this is different
You can run Rhino.Compute on your own servers and call it through Hops or your own code, but then load balancing, caching, security, scaling, and the front end are all yours to build and maintain. ShapeDiver handles that. The real difference is the implementation and maintenance you no longer take on.
Read the full ShapeDiver vs Rhino.Compute comparisonNo installs, no license for every user, no files passed around - and because inputs are governed, a tool can’t be run out of range.
Your computational designers build the app in Grasshopper with App Builder, without a web-development team or a separate app framework to write, host, and maintain.
Your definitions and libraries stay yours - keep developing them in-house, or take them elsewhere, at any time.
What comes out
Geometry and models, technical drawings, quantity takeoffs, analysis and embodied-carbon data, and reports - in the formats your process needs, generated consistently on every run. For precast and offsite manufacturers, the same run can produce shop drawings, production files, and data for the ERP system. Connect to your internal systems, BIM, and tools like Speckle and Autodesk Forma through our APIs and SDKs.
Platform, APIs & integrations
Proof
CORE studio / USATheir own estimate is roughly a sevenfold return, which they describe as a lower bound. Tools like their “Asterisk” platform automate member sizing, quantity takeoffs, and embodied-carbon calculations.
“Engineers no longer have to spend days or weeks running manual calculations… answers in minutes.”
Eesha Jain, Computational Designer
Spain
Automation delivered as a service: a best case of a three-minute workflow in place of a three-week manual drawing.
Also building on ShapeDiver
balbek bureau’s RE:Ukraine Villages configurator, for rebuilding homes in war-damaged villages, covers more than 200 million possible house configurations for the Kyiv region alone.
Tobias Fast of Fast+Epp on mass timber and prefabrication, timber versus concrete, and Timber Bay, the online tool they built on ShapeDiver for estimates.
Ezequiel López and Alex Walzer
Dan Cole, structural engineer at Webb Yates Engineers and lead of its computational design group, on Grasshopper in engineering and his tools on ShapeDiver.
ShapeDiver
Ian Miley, Design Director of Type Five in California, on site-built modular homes and the online configurator they built with Grasshopper and ShapeDiver.
ShapeDiver
The business case
Specialists go back to building tools, and the queue disappears.
Decisions happen faster, with better visual and quantitative evidence behind them.
Governed inputs and version control keep results consistent across offices and disciplines.
The real lever
Trust & governance
Role-based access, safe parameter ranges, data validation, and version control keep every tool governed. Your definition stays private on our servers and is never exposed to the people using the app. Everything runs on SOC 2® Type II audited infrastructure, with cloud regions in the EU, the US, and Asia; SSO and a dedicated, isolated environment are available on Enterprise.
Security & Trust
Who it's for
Engineering firms, architecture practices, and contractors with a computational design team, from a five-person specialist group to a firm rolling internal tools out to thousands of colleagues. Usually a computational design or design technology lead builds the tools, and a head of digital practice or a BIM manager rolls them out.
Getting started
Self-serve
Start a free trial, upload a definition, and share it as an app.
Enterprise
An Enterprise deployment comes with a dedicated backend, SSO, onboarding, and an architecture review.
Not sure yet
Book a call and we’ll work through your case, including the ShapeDiver vs. Rhino.Compute comparison for your team.
No lock-in - your definitions and Grasshopper libraries stay yours.
FAQ
No. The apps run in a browser; only the person who builds the tool needs Grasshopper.
Safe parameter ranges, data validation, role-based access, and version control are built in.
You can - but then the scaling, caching, security, and front end are yours to build and maintain. Most firms would rather their computational designers spend that time on design logic. Read the full comparison.
Through open formats and connectors, not inside Revit itself. A definition can export IFC: Construsoft’s Optinave, for example, returns IFC files for each steel structure. The Speckle connector passes geometry and data on to Revit and the other tools Speckle supports, and there is a connector for Autodesk Forma. Your internal systems connect through our APIs and SDKs.
Dynamo Player runs Dynamo scripts inside Revit, so everyone who uses a tool needs Revit open. ShapeDiver runs Grasshopper definitions in a browser, for people who have neither Rhino nor Revit. Speckle Automate runs functions automatically when a new model version reaches Speckle; ShapeDiver apps are interactive, and the two work together through our Speckle connector.
SOC 2 Type II across the board; SSO and dedicated, isolated environments on Enterprise.
Yes.
AEC
Talk to us about deploying your Grasshopper tools across the firm - or start a free trial and publish your first one today.
