Getting Started with Dynamo Sandbox
Dynamo Sandbox is an open source environment for visual programming.
Sandbox is a standalone portable application which can be unzipped anywhere on one’s system and is ready to be deployed.
Unlike Dynamo Studio & Dynamo for Revit, Dynamo Sandbox doesn’t sit upon any host application so any custom nodes containing specific host API functionality will also not be accessible.
But using sandbox opens up a plethora of opportunities to dive into the world of automation. And the best part of it being it’s all visual so you don’t have to write a single line of code!
To get started you’ll need a system with Windows 7 or above.
Go to https://dynamobim.org/download/ to download the latest available sandbox.
Click on the Download button under Dynamo Sandbox group.
Locate the downloaded zip file and unzip it using an archiver like WinZip, WinRar, 7-Zip, etc. I like to use 7-Zip since it’s open-source.
Go to the folder you where you extracted the files to and launch the DynamoSandbox.exe
Read the agreement, check your preference, click continue.
You are now all set to dive into the world of visual programming.
Click New to open a new graph and drop in a few nodes to test it out.
Resources to learn Dynamo
Start here for an introduction to Dynamo: https://dynamobim.org/learn/
Basics of Dynamo: https://primer.dynamobim.org/
To know what each node does: https://dictionary.dynamobim.com/#/
Tutorials
- Dynamo Basics – Training Course by DiRoots
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8DAsh04sR4c&list=PLdGxhdaseXECO1hxio7vvE-y1Ud7qbW_n - Dynamo 2.x Essential Training by Ian Siegel
https://www.linkedin.com/learning/dynamo-2-x-essential-training/using-vectors-to-translate-geometry?u=2163426 - Dynamo: Practical by Paul F. Aubin
https://www.linkedin.com/learning/dynamo-practical/select-elements-by-family-type?u=2163426
Forum
In case if you have any question give it a search on the Dynamo forum. You would most probably find your questions already answered there. If not, you can always create a new topic on the forum and the Dynamo community would eagerly help you out.
The best way to learn Dynamo
Watching and reading tutorials would just get you started but if you plan to excel there is not a better way than putting your hands and mind to work. Just pick up a problem statement that irks you the most in your everyday workflow and try using Dynamo to solve it!