Where to start?

compas_rrc
1

Hello everyone,

I am working with an ABB IRB 6700 and have decided to handle path planning using COMPAS RRC within Rhino and Grasshopper. As you can imagine, this is quite a complex task, and there are no comprehensive, “one-size-fits-all” tutorials available online that cover the entire process.

My First Questions:

  1. Is it possible and feasible to build a setup in Grasshopper/Rhino to run this system?
  2. What would be the simplest or most basic setup for controlling the ABB IRB 6700 arm?

Installation Issues:

I followed these steps for installation:

  1. Created a Conda environment and installed:
  • Python (3.13)
  • COMPAS (2.10)
  • COMPAS FAB (1.0.2)
  • COMPAS RRC (2.0.0)
    (I verified all installations.)
  1. Installed the required COMPAS modules for Rhino 8 using:
C:\Users\your_user_name\.rhinocode\py39-rh8\python.exe -m pip install compas_fab

This appeared to work, but Grasshopper does not seem to recognize the correct COMPAS modules. Instead, they appear labeled as “old”, and example Grasshopper files from the web do not function correctly.

Resources Used So Far (Without Success), among others:

Next Steps:

I am now planning to work through this course in hopes of making progress:

Any insights or advice would be greatly appreciated!

Thank you! :rocket:

2

Hi @Merlin!

Sorry for the late reply. And thanks for wanting to give COMPAS a try for your robotic process!
As you may have noticed, while COMPAS is supported in Rhino8, our Grasshopper components aren’t quite there.

We are slowly catching up and making an effort to offer Grasshopper components for Rhino8 for our extensions very soon.

Following your post we’ve started adapting our COMPAS FAB components so that they are available to use as CPython components inside Rhino8, and I hope we’re able to release it in the next couple days. I will post an update here once they are ready with instructions on how to get them installed.

In the meantime, you should be able to use COMPAS FAB as before using Rhino7, or directly by coding yourself (which I realize might not be ideal).

Regarding the examples from the course you linked, some of these might be quite old as the course ran around 2 years ago. If you have any specific issues with it I’m happy to try and help you getting stuff running.

Thanks a lot for your patience!
Chen

4

Hey Chen!

Thanks a lot for the response, I am looking forward to the update.

Kind regards,

Merlin

5

This should be possible now using Rhino 8, you should be able to simply go to Rhino’s package manager (type “Package Manager” in the rhino command"), search for “compas_fab” and install the latest version. It contains updated components for the Python 3 engine of Rhino 8.

Cheers
Gonzalo

6

Hi @Merlin,

Thanks a lot for sharing your experience! I’m currently working on improving the COMPAS_RRC Starter Guide to make the onboarding process smoother and more beginner-friendly.

I saw you mentioned using the Starter Guide but not being successful. Could you share a bit more detail on:

  • Which steps you found confusing or incomplete

  • Any installation or configuration issues where the guide didn’t match your experience

  • The point in the process where things stopped working for you

Your feedback would be super valuable in identifying where newcomers get stuck and how we can make the setup process clearer.

Thanks for taking the time.
Philippe

7

Hello Philippe,

thank you for your response. While wrapping up my thesis, I haven’t spent much time on the robot.

I have set up the virtual controller as outlined in the compas_rrc_abb repo (it seems it is no longer public on GitHub?). Now I would like to move on to the real controller. Since the configuration.md in compas_rrc_abb is a bit sparse, I would like to ask you for additional information on this step. Beyond this, I would also like to establish the connection with Rhino—do you have any additional information on this as well?

Thank you for your continued support!

Best regards,

Merlin