If you aren’t familiar with or used Rhinoceros or Rhino before today, we will be sharing some tips to get you started right away! What exactly is Rhino? Rhino 3D is a commercial 3D computer modeling and computer-aided design program developed by Robert McNeel & Associates, a privately-held company in Seattle, that’s popular in school and professional settings. Rhino’s geometry is based on the NURBS mathematical model, which produces a precise representation of curves and surfaces on the computer. This is why it can be perfect for computer-aided drafting (CAD), computer-aided manufacturing (CAM), rapid prototyping, 3D printing, architecture, industrial design, automotive design, watercraft design, and product design! These tips will help facilitate an easier comprehension of the powerful 3D modeling, establishing a good foundation for beginners for most uses.
It’s important to differentiate that Rhinoceros is not a BIM program! Let’s get to these tips!
1. Learn the Basics + Interface
Rhino is a powerful tool used for a wide range of projects spanning different industries like product design, jewelry design, fabrication, and of course, architectural design. As a result, Rhino comes with a host of features and tools that you’ll continually discover tools for the years to come. This may feel daunting at first for many users, but be not afraid! Surprisingly enough, 80% of the job you’ll be doing can be done with 20% of features! Start with simple commands like polylines, boxes, spheres, boolean, scale, and you’ll be able to sketch up most concepts from day 1!
2. Learn + Customize Shortcuts
If you have worked in AutoCAD or other CAD software, you will come to realize there are similar commands to achieve a certain task. A similar feature in AutoCAD, Rhino also has a window that displays recent actions or space to input commands, so you can start working quickly with familiar commands.
However, once you are familiar with typing commands, you’ll find that it gets a little repetitive and exhausting. The solution is to create your custom keyboard shortcuts by going to Options > alias or Options > keyboard shortcuts. Once you set them up, you’ll never go back to typing commands manually!
3. Use Layers
If you are familiar with Adobe programs like Photoshop and Illustrator, you’ve probably used layers before. How do layers work in 3D space, though? Interestingly, layers in 3D programs are simply another way to group objects, saving you time by having neat groups to work efficiently with bigger files as your project grows. Other options in layers allow you to control the material, plot style, and lock it, so you can’t accidentally delete something when working on the model!
4. Use Blocks
If you’ve mastered the art of the tips above, you are ready for this wonderful feature. Sometimes you’ll find yourself repeating the same geometries over and over – like furniture, for example. Simply copy-pasting objects can be hard to edit at once and cost time and system performance. A great solution to this is to use the Block command. Blocks are a set of objects that can be re-used as a unit. When you edit one instance of these blocks, you’ll see the same changes being applied to all of them!
Useful commands:
- Block
- BlockManager
- ReplaceBlock
5. Layouts
Are you still exporting your line drawings to illustrator to “weight” them and print them? The same features are readily available in Rhino! Layout basically captures a part of your model into a printable paper dimension. This means the layouts update as you change your model. It might take a bit of getting used to, but once you understand how layout captures your model, you’ll speed up your iteration and presentation time by multiple folds.
6. ViewCapture
If you need something a little faster at the cost of losing a bit of precision, you should try using one of the ViewCapture commands. This command helps you capture and save whatever you see on your Rhino viewport. So that means you can instantly send someone a high-quality image of your line drawings or Arctic view. This is useful for the concept development stage or when you are in a crunch for time – which happens all the time. So definitely keep this “up” your sleeve for your future modeling needs!
We hope these tips help you get started with this amazing program! If you’d like some more advanced techniques, please visit our Youtube, where Ben breaks down his workflow, helping people create dozens of beautiful renderings and models! Do you like using Rhino? What are your favorite Rhino tips and tricks? Could you share it with us in the comments below?
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