Gramazio Kohler Research

Compas Timber is an open-source toolkit that offers data exchange and planning automation algorithms, for contemporary timber construction. Built within the Compas framework, it provides a unified semantic data model for representing timber structures composed of beams, plates, and their connecting joints. Structural elements carry both geometric and semantic information—beams defined by centerlines and cross-sections, plates defined by surfaces and thickness—and all components can be linked through explicitly defined connection types to form complete models.

The toolkit offers automated functionality for detecting intersections between beams and plates, generating appropriate joint topologies, and producing consistent geometric features such as cuts, notches, voids, and surface operations. All timber features in Compas Timber are defined using the BTLx standard fabrication format, ensuring that all parts that are planned in Compas Timber can be fabricated on industry-standard CNC and joinery machines. Its integration with Rhino/Grasshopper enables designers to interactively generate, visualize, and modify timber assemblies, as well as bake fabrication-ready geometry. Additional modules support assembly representation and planning, allowing users to define steps, dependencies, and construction-oriented logic directly within their design model.

Looking forward, Compas Timber aims to expand into a full design-to-fabrication and planning environment for the timber industry. This includes developing more advanced plate-to-plate and plate-to-beam connection types, interfaces for architectural design, structural-analysis and timber-planning software, as well as enhanced workflows for fabrication checking, automated sequencing, and robust data exchange between design, engineering, and production systems.

To find out more, see Compas Timber documentation and source code.

Credits:

Gramazio Kohler Research, ETH Zurich

Collaborators: Dr. Aleksandra Anna Apolinarska, Chen Kasirer, Gonzalo Casas, Dr. Oliver Bucklin, Panayiotis Papacharalambous, Anastasiia Stryzhevska, Eric Gozzi, Paul Jaeggi, Nicolas Boscoboinik, Jonas Haldemann


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