Rhinoceros - A fast and intuitive 3D NURBS modeler.

Robert McNeel & Associates say that you can use Rhino to model "anything from a heart valve to a ship hull and a mouse to a monster" and add that "you can model and render objects that you could previously create only using software and hardware many times more expensive". After a period spent getting to know Rhino, I can't really find fault in these claims. I did model a ship hull from a lines drawing and also used Rhino to model the helmet which accompanies this note (see below). The software does indeed run perfectly well on my modest Windows PC. However, the bonus is that Rhino is pleasant and logical in the way that it goes about its tasks. If you have found 3D modeling to be a chore in other packages, you'll appreciate Rhino's speed, features and excellent interface. Newcomers to the field will also be able to get to grips with Rhino, although prior experience with 2D vector packages like CorelDraw and Xara X will prove helpful. The (colour) manual is generally very good and contains some useful tutorials which are backed up by some great Web tutorials from the user community. Rhino has a good website and there is an excellent newsgroup where experienced users are happy to help with information. (However good in some ways, I found the manual lacking in comprehensive explanations of the huge feature set and needed to get advice from the newsgroup on more than one occasion). I also found Rhino's technical support people to be on the ball. Users will not be short of help and encouragement.  Development proceeds apace and the company seems to be very responsive to the wishes of users - I just hope that they resist any temptation towards bloatware and keep Rhino lean and mean. 

Rhino's authors know what their users are doing with the software and how they need to interact with other packages. Import and export filters are plentiful and you should have no trouble using Rhino in conjunction with your existing software for rendering, animation or CAM.  

Changing the look. It's refreshingly easy to change the layout of Rhino's interface and this is just as well since there are more tools here than I remember being in my grandfather's old workshop!  All tools seem to be available from fly-outs within the default workspace but it's simple to display a set of toolbars which are specific to your project. If you fancy a change from Rhino's toolbar icons you can download various .ws (workspace) files and enjoy new icons - simply for aesthetic reasons or to help you in migrating from some other 3D applications.

Getting back together - with the command line. You can do just about everything in Rhino with a mouse but you can also use the command line. Of course, you sometimes need this for entering precise coordinates but its surprising how often it can be useful to quickly type a command you seldom use and whose toolbar button is not immediately apparent. Right clicking at the command line also brings up a list of recent commands for you to click on and repeat. Mouse, command line, what else? You can also use Rhino with 3D digitizing arms by Faro and MicroScribe.

Caveats? I'd like future manuals to get into more detail on many of the commands, with more real life examples of how they can be used. Error reporting (for example when a command fails for some reason) is sketchy and not very meaningful to the beginner. 

Conclusion. You'll find all the 2D and 3D tools you'll need - whether you are designing monsters for the screen or parts for machining. Rhino can dimension (although dimensions are not associative), produce US or Euro four-view 2D drawings and perform various types of surface analysis. It is a very well balanced and generally fast application that leaves some of the (more expensive) competition for dead. If I was in the business of awarding stars, 4.75 out of 5 would seem about right. It is very impressive right now and looks set to improve with age.

Version 2 Update.

The look and feel is the same and although there are many subtle interface enhancements and some new modelling and editing commands, the main focus has been on enabling Rhino for plug-ins. Flamingo, a full featured rendering plug-in has been available as a download for beta testing and by the time you read this may well be available commercially from the Rhino website. Flamingo is a natural for Rhino users new to the delights of raytrace and radiosity rendering. These include trying to guess just how long your PC will take to bring your wire-frame model to life with your choice of materials and lights (tip: if you want to give your machine a good work out, try using some transparent materials in your scene).

I tried a few of the plug-ins available as free downloads from the Rhino website. One of these allows a floating, always on top, window with light bulb and padlock icons for each layer. It makes the manipulation of layers (already well implemented) even easier. This, combined with Rhino's new method of choosing between multiple objects at the cursor saved much time on a recent project. No one said that 3D modelling of complex shapes would be easy but Rhino does does its best to help with the sometimes tedious aspects. 

Rhino has enthusiasts in many different fields and I've heard of a hydrostatics plug-in for the boat design community. No doubt we'll see many more interesting tools as time goes by - Rhino 2 allows multiple workspaces, so plug-ins can display their own toolbar set.   

Check the Rhino website > for further detail, news and downloads. 

The model above represents an English helmet of around 1540, in the style of the King Henry VIII's Greenwich workshop. I have seen this type referred to as a "pig-faced bascinet". Experts in both 3D modelling and Tudor period armour will realise that the model is unfinished, but I was stuck for time and had completed enough to know that Rhino could easily cope with the remaining bits of detail. 

Now in the groove, I decided to see how Rhino would cope with a breastplate of the "peascod" type from around 1580. Once the construction geometry was in place, this project just involved a couple of "patch" commands and a fillet or two. Once again, I was impressed with Rhino's interface. Flipping from view to view, zooming, panning and rotating are all quick and intuitive. Shading and spinning the model around in the perspective viewport is quick enough for this to be used whenever you need to check on your progress of your work. All this aids the workflow and helps explain how Rhino has gained such an enthusiastic following in the 3D community.