Hello everyone and thank you for being one of our early access testers!
We really appreciate your feedback. Let’s ensure Pollination will be as kick-ass as we all hope it to be and even better. We are very excited and anxious at the same time to expand our early access program. 
We are looking forward to your feedback. Use this forum to report any bugs, provide feedback and ask for new features. To ensure a timely response please post your questions under the right category. You can see all the categories here.
This is just the start!
We have been working on Pollination for more than a year now and we are happy that it is finally ready to be used by you. We build Pollination for real world projects and real world problems. We believe it will change how you have been running and collaborating on environmental simulation from now on. At the same time, we know that this is just the starting point - there are missing features, our web-based results visualization is non-existent and we know that there will be bugs but the core promise of Pollination is done and is working 
If you are one of the impatient ones see this post for how to create an account on Pollination: How to create your Pollination account. You will need this account to be able to use the CAD plugins as well as the API.
Here is what is ready to be used:
-
Pollination REST API: our API and SDKs are ready to go. If you want to build a new application to use Pollination or integrate your current applications we are ready for you. See below for more information on how to get started.
-
Pollination Grasshopper plugin: Our Pollination Grasshopper plugin is our first Pollination plugin to be released. You can download the latest version from our website and get yourself started by watching the video tutorials videos. Make sure you are using the latest developer version of Ladybug Tools 1.2.0.
These video tutorials should get you started with the Grasshopper plugin! Setting up and running parametric studies for environmental design from inside Grasshopper has never been easier!
-
Pollination Web app: Our web app is also mostly functional. You can create projects, build teams, add and remove recipes and organize your runs. In addition, since the web app is using Pollination API it should be a great resource for developers to see how every step of the process works. We have a long list of improvements for the app but we tried to make sure all the core functionalities are available for you.
Here is what will become available soon:
-
Pollination Rhino plugin: Our plugin for Rhino is almost ready! This will be a dream come true for people who wanted to build large energy and daylight models and also for anyone who is afraid of Grasshopper spaghettis and can’t get their head around DataTrees!
-
Pollination Revit plugin: Our plugin for Revit is also almost ready! At the minimum, the Revit plugin is going to solve the decade-long Building Information Modeling (BIM) to Building Energy Modeling (BEM) problem by allowing you to export clean analytical models out of your Revit model. It also gives you direct access to high quality and customizable Pollination simulation recipes from inside Revit! Stay tuned!
Here is what we have next on our list:
-
Pollination web-based results visualization: We already have a web-viewer that you can use from the web app to visualize input models but we are also working on a results visualization viewer. We decided to use what Kitware and VTK has to offer. We have already started the process but the development is yet to be integrated into Pollination. Download this file and open it in this viewer. Go to Grids and change max value to 10 and you should see this:
-
Pollination web-based recipe builder: We are also planning to change the current recipe viewer to be a recipe builder so you can edit the current recipes or create your own. If you are in a rush here is how we currently develop our recipes. Here is a snapshot of what we are working on - and no we are not going to replace Grasshopper. This is only for creating Pollination recipes.
Why did we invite you for our early access?
If you are here it’s because we believe you are an early adaptor and an innovator. We are looking for your honest feedback to make Pollination better for you and everyone else! With your help we know how to build tools that last for a long time and solve real-world problems. If there is anything that is missing from Pollination that is critical for you and your team to start using Pollination we want to hear from you! Thank you for being part of the journey.
You can read more about Pollination and the principles behind the decisions that we made on our website. Here are a number of posts to get you started:
- Principles of Pollination
- The problem with simulation automation
- Our solution to the two-week turn-around problem
Now that the product is out we will also be more active on Twitter. Make sure to follow us on Twitter to keep yourself updated. We will also use this forum and the #announcements category to keep you updated.
:pollination: API and SDKs
If you are going to use Pollination API directly or one of the Pollination SDKs our developer quickstart is the best place to get you started.
Here are a links to Pollination API documentation:
Most of your questions and comments probably belongs to #dev category! 
→ 
will see you there!
FAQ
What can I do during the early access?
We give every account a generous amount of cloud computing and storage during the early access. It is unlikely that you run out of your assigned compute hours but let us know if that happens and we will see what we can do.
You can create up to 10 private projects and 3 private repository for private recipes and plugins. You can add up to 20 accounts to your organization and build up to 5 teams.
When does early access end?
We are currently planning to end the early access at the end of June 2021 but that shouldn’t worry you about the future. We will make sure to communicate any changes beforehand.
Do you already have a pricing?
Yes. We do! But we are not ready to share the exact price but here are the 3 categories that we are going to offer - all the numbers in this chart can change but this should give you a good idea of where we currently are with pricing.
What recipes are currently available on Pollination?
You can see all the list of all the publicly available recipes here on Pollination. It includes most of the basic recipes that you would expect including annual energy use, annual daylight, daylight factor, direct sun hours and comfort map recipes!
Can I write my own recipe?
Yes. You can use pollination-dsl to develop your own plugins and recipes. You need to know some Python and also develop a command line interface for all the commands that you are trying to use. See this post for more information:
We understand that this is not for everyone and that’s why we are developing the visual interface for building recipes! 
Can I use Pollination Revit and Rhino plugins without Pollination cloud computing?
Yes. The Rhino and Revit plugin will be shipped with a number of selected recipes that can be executed locally. You can also use it as your graphical interface to create clean energy and daylight models and export them to your platform of choice. You can export the files as HBJSON, IDF, OSM, gbXML and Radiance file or folder.
We are hiring!
Now that you are here it should be a good time to remind you that we are looking for a front-end developer to help us with building the web-app, improve our result visualization platform which will be based on VTK and more. The job posting is here. If you know someone who might be interested and is qualified for the job encourage them to apply!
