Inside Hypar 2.0: The Future of Space Planning?

This article was researched and written by Agustina Aboy, an architect and BIM specialist from Montevideo, Urguay.

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Hypar's birth

Hypar was founded in 2018 by Ian Keough and Anthony Hauck, both of whom have extensive backgrounds in AEC industry. Ian is recognized as the "Father of Dynamo," while Anthony previously directed AEC product management at Autodesk. Their combined experience in developing digital tools for building design led them to create Hypar, a cloud-based design platform aimed at streamlining the design and construction workflow.

Hypar 1.0 was a web-based design environment built around the concept of functions, where each function managed a specific building system. Both the Hypar team and users contributed to this ecosystem, making it a collaborative platform. One of its standout features was the text-to-BIM modeling function, which isn't available anymore.

Hypar 2.0: a minimalist reinvention

I had the opportunity to meet with Andrew Heumann, formerly an architect and now a software developer at Hypar, to talk about the reasons behind this reinvention. According to Andrew, Hypar 1.0 aimed to serve a broad range of user groups, which interfered with usability. This prompted the need for a more focused approach to improve the user experience.

Hypar 2.0 marks a shift from its earlier multi-function ecosystem to a more intuitive tool, now focused on space planning.

Here is a list of the current features:

• Intuitive Web-Based Interface: Accessible from any internet-connected device, Hypar 2.0 has been redesigned to offer an intuitive user experience, requiring no prior training to get started.
• Space Planning Focus: Users can easily block and stack spaces, add furniture, and generate layouts, simplifying the early design process.
• Program Import and Tracking: Building programs can be imported from Excel or CSV files, allowing users to track design progress in real time and ensure that areas and room quantities meet program goals.
• Furniture and Layout Suggestions: Hypar 2.0 automatically suggests furniture layouts based on the spaces you’ve created, speeding up the design process.  
• Quick Exports: Users can quickly export their designs as PDFs or directly to Revit, making it easy to integrate Hypar into existing workflows.
  
• Revit Interoperability: With its Revit add-in, Hypar 2.0 allows the transfer of designs, creating native Revit elements directly from the Hypar designs. User can also export Rooms from Revit to their Hypar project.

A User-Centered Approach

Hypar 2.0’s development was influenced by feedback from a diverse group of users, ranging from AutoCAD veterans to BIM managers, and from small firms to large practices. This beta testing process ensured the tool was easy to use while retaining powerful functionality, regardless of prior BIM experience.

Simplicity Without Sacrificing Power

While the interface is simple, resembling tools like Figma Jam or MIRO, the backend remains powerful. Features such as suggestion-based furniture layouts and quick space tagging help users accelerate their design process.

Open Source and Community Collaboration

Hypar is open-source, with its core libraries and automation logic available on GitHub. The community is encouraged to collaborate, share knowledge, and improve the tool.

Looking Ahead: Hypar’s Roadmap

Hypar’s future looks promising, with plans to expand functions while maintaining simplicity. Key areas of focus include:

• Expanded Suggestions: Currently, the tool suggests copying layouts spaces in the project, but in the future we’ll get adaptive layouts that adjust to the size and type of your space without needing a previous example. Going beyond furniture, Hypar will suggest room relationships (e.g. placing bathrooms next to patient rooms in hospitals) helping users with design decisions.
• Open-Source Community Growth: Users will be encouraged to contribute their own suggestion logic and best practices for different project types.

First Impressions of Hypar 2.0 : My user experience

Hypar 2.0 offers an intuitive and user-friendly interface. I was able to dive in immediately—no instructions needed—to create designs, generate PDF sheets, and seamlessly import data into Revit. Here’s an overview of my experience:

Navigation:
The drawing canvas supports both 2D and 3D views, allowing for easy visualization of spaces and building features.

Hypar also supports internal perspective views (walkthroughs), providing a human-scale perspective of the space.

    

The toolbar at the bottom of the screen provides a range of tools for: Drawing Tools:

• Spaces: Define rooms/areas.
• Furniture: Add furniture to spaces.
• Underlay Image: Insert a background image or DXF file for reference.
• Planning Grid: Establish a modular grid.
• Building: Outline the building perimeter.
• Grid Lines: Add structural grid references.
• Stair, Elevator, and Shaft: Incorporate vertical elements.

Navigation tools:

• Select multiple objects (Shift+Mouse Drag)
• Zoom Extents / Zoom to Fit
• Measure

On the right-hand side, there’s a Legend of Program Types, showing designated colors and counts. For each program type, you can define:

• Program Name
• Color
• Space Count Required
• Area per Space Required
• Total Area Required

I appreciated the flexibility to import/export this data to Excel for faster edits. Hypar allows column mapping during upload, so exact naming isn’t necessary.

Drawing feature

• Space Manipulation: Spaces can be locked to specific areas, maintaining dimensions when sides are adjusted. While the default shape is rectangular, adding points allows for polygonal shapes.
• Diagram Mode: I found working on the diagram mode lighter and easier to navigate.
• Image Import: Scaling relies on defining two points (a dimension). Since the dimension isn’t locked to the grid, you have to ensure careful alignment.
• Layout Suggestions: While the Layout Suggestions tool adapts furniture layouts based on room types, there’s still room for refinement—during my test, it applied the same amount of furniture to two open workspaces of different sizes, distributing the items across the larger space instead of increasing the quantity. 

Revit integration

Connecting Hypar with Revit requires installing the Hypar add-in. The import/export feature in Hypar’s top menu provides a direct download link.

The add-in includes two functionalities:

1. Load Project: Imports a Hypar project into Revit.
2. Send Selection to Hypar: Exports selected rooms and furniture from Revit to Hypar.

Both tools worked seamlessly in my tests, though I haven’t yet tried them with larger projects.

Testing Insights

• Rooms/walls limitation: If you have a complete building silhouette in Revit, consider creating a room that spans the entire floorplan before exporting to Hypar. This helps overcome Hypar’s limitation of importing only rooms, not walls.
• Repositioning: Avoid repositioning items in Hypar if you plan to re-import them to Revit, as they won’t align.

Image and PDF export

Hypar allows exporting your designs as both images and PDFs, offering flexibility depending on your documentation needs.

• Image Export:

You can export images in PNG format, with options for 2D or 3D views. This is useful for quick visual references or presentations.

• PDF Export:

PDF exports work best for scaled 2D diagrams and offer customizable title blocks, where you can add your own logos for branding. During testing, I experienced occasional crashes when exporting detailed views, which I reported as feedback. I was impressed by the prompt response from Kat on the Hypar team. After some back-and-forth troubleshooting, the issues have been successfully resolved.