McNeel Rhino 8 3D

Available now with ShrinkWrap, SubD Creases, Mac Speed Boost, and more.
McNeel Rhino 8 is a powerful and feature-rich 3D modeling software that is perfect for architects, mechanical engineers, product designers, and 3D animators. With Rhino 8, you can design highly detailed 3D models quickly and easily, with its robust suite of tools and features. From its new ShrinkWrap modeling tool to its SubD Creases and improved drafting tools, you’ll be able to create more detailed and realistic 3D models than ever before. And, Mac users will experience a huge speed boost when using Rhino 8. Other features of this powerful 3D design software include a faster Render engine, a more customizable User Interface, PushPull workflows, new Grasshopper data types, and much more. With its intuitive user interface and array of features, anyone can start designing amazing 3D models with Rhino 8 right away.

New in Rhino 8
Rhino 8 adds dozens of refinements to existing tools and some new ones:

• ShrinkWrap:
  Create a watertight mesh around any geometry, ideal for 3D printing.
• SubD Creases:
  For designers who need to explore organic shapes quickly, SubD is a new geometry type that can create editable, highly accurate shapes. Unlike other geometry types, SubD combines free-form accuracy while still allowing quick editing.
• Built for Mac:
  Blazingly fast 3D drawing, a massive speed boost for Mac users.

Modeling Simplified:
Combine new tools to quickly sketch your idea in 3D.
PushPull:
Grab a face and push or pull it, extruding or extending. PushPull speeds up modeling by using curves to add or remove volumes from existing surfaces.
Gumball:
The move, scale, and rotate widget gets new grips for extending and extruding.
Surface Fillets:
FilletSrf has a new UI with dynamic radius previews.
Offset:
Offset can now create multiple closed regions.

Rhino Overview
Rhino can create, edit, analyze, document, render, animate, and translate NURBS curves, surfaces and solids, subdivision geometry (SubD), point clouds, and polygon meshes. There are no limits on complexity, degree, or size beyond those of your hardware.

Special features include:

• Uninhibited free-form 3D modeling tools like those found only in products costing 20 to 50 times more. Model any shape you can imagine.
• Accuracy needed to design, prototype, engineer, analyze, and manufacture anything from an airplane to jewelry.
• Compatibility with all your other design, drafting, CAM, engineering, analysis, rendering, animation, and illustration software.

Rhino 8 Main Features
Model Creation Tools

• Points:
  Points, point clouds, point grid, extract from objects, mark (intersection, divide, draftangle, ends, closest, foci).
• Curves:
  Line, polyline, polyline on mesh, free-form curve, circle, arc, ellipse, rectangle, polygon, helix, spiral, conic, TrueType text, point interpolation, control points (vertices), sketch.
• Curves from other objects:
  Through points, through polyline, extend, continue curve, fillet, chamfer, offset, blend, arc blend, from two views, tween, cross-section profiles, intersection, contour on NURBS surface or mesh, section on NURBS surface or mesh, border, silhouette, extract isoparm, extract curvature graph, projection, pullback, sketch, wireframe, detach trim, 2D drawings with dimensions and text, flatten developable surfaces.
• Surfaces:
  From 3 or 4 points, from 3 or 4 curves, from planar curves, from network of curves, rectangle, deformable plane, extrude, ribbon, rule, loft with tangency matching, developable, sweep along a path with edge matching, sweep along two rail curves with edge continuity, revolve, rail revolve, tween, blend, patch, drape, point grid, heightfield, fillet, chamfer, offset, plane through points, TrueType text, Unicode (double-byte) text.

Rhino 8 Interface

• User interface:
  Coordinate read-out, floating/dockable command area, pop-up recently-used commands, clickable command options, auto-complete command line, customizable pop-up commands, pop-up layer manager, synchronize views, camera-based view manipulation, perspective match image, configurable middle mouse button, customizable icons and user workspace, customizable pop-up toolbar, transparent toolbars, context-sensitive right-click menu, multiple monitor support, Alt key copy and OpenGL hardware support with antialiasing.
• Construction aids:
  Unlimited undo and redo, undo and redo multiple, exact numeric input, units including feet and inches and fractions, .x, .y, .z point filters, object snaps with identifying tag, grid snaps, ortho, planar, named construction planes, next and previous construction planes, orient construction plane on curve, layers, layer filtering, groups, background bitmaps, object hide/show, show selected objects, select by layer, select front most, color, object type, last object, and previous selection set, swap hidden objects, object lock/unlock, unlock selected objects, control and edit points on/off, and points off for selected objects.

Rhino 8 Display

• Features include extremely fast 3D graphics, unlimited viewports, shaded, working views, perspective working views, named views, floating views, full-screen display, draw order support, two‑point perspective, clipping planes, and one-to-one scale to view models at full size.
• New in Rhino 8:
• Metal:
  Blazing fast 3D drawing on Mac.
• New Display Mode:
  Monochrome, a clean, minimal look, perfect for showcasing architectural work.

Rendering and Presentation

• Rhino Render: We’ve updated the Cycles engine for faster, GPU-accelerated ray tracing.
• UV Mapping: UV Mapping has been improved with a floating UV Editor, new unwrapping algorithms, pinning and a better texture quality in the display.
• Procedural Textures: Native, per-pixel procedural textures in raytraced and rendered modes.
• Display Modes: Monochrome, a clean, minimal look, perfect for showcasing architectural work.

Drafting

Every type of physical product design relies on technical illustration and 2D drawing to concisely communicate ideas, specifications, and instructions to people in design, development, and fabrication. Our goal for Rhino was to make it easier to create 2D drawings and illustrations for every discipline in every notation system and visual style used worldwide.

Annotation objects include arrows, dots, dimensions (horizontal, vertical, aligned, rotated, radial, diameter, angle), text blocks, leaders, hidden line removal, Unicode (double-byte) support for text, dimensions, and notes. Dimensions in perspective views are supported.

In Rhino 8, we’ve added…

• Linetypes: Draw stylized curves with pattern, width, and taper to communicate design or artistic flair.
• Reflected Ceiling Plans: A reflected parallel projection viewport mode, perfect for RCPs.
• Dynamic 2D Drawings: Section Styles: Clipping planes and section styles give more control when using clipping planes.

Digital Fabrication

As you may know, the Rhino development project started more than 25 years ago to provide marine designers with tools for building computer models that could be used to drive the digitally controlled fabrication equipment used in shipyards.

We continue to focus on the fact that designs are only useful once they are built and in the hands of consumers. With the cost of digital fabrication and 3D printing technology dropping quickly, more and more designers now have direct access to 3D digital fabrication equipment.

In Rhino 8, try out…

• ShrinkWrap: ShrinkWrap creates a watertight mesh around open or closed meshes, NURBS geometry, SubD, and point clouds: ideal for creating meshes for 3D printing.
• Sectioning for Fabrication: Support for extracting curves, hatches, surfaces, and slices of clipping planes.

Mesh Tools

Robust mesh import, export, creation, and editing tools are critical to all phases of design, including:

• Transferring captured 3D data from digitizing and scanning into Rhino as mesh models.
• Exchanging mesh data with many applications such as SketchUp® and Modo®.
• Exporting meshes for analysis, rendering, prototyping, and fabrication.
• Converting NURBS to meshes for display and rendering.

QuadRemesh: Quickly create a quad mesh from existing surfaces, solids, meshes, or SubDs—ideal for rendering, animation, CFD, FEA, and reverse engineering.

In Rhino 8, test out…

• Improved Mesh Booleans: Completely rewritten and more reliable Mesh Booleans.
• ShrinkWrap: ShrinkWrap creates a watertight mesh around open or closed meshes, NURBS geometry, SubD, and point clouds: ideal for creating meshes for 3D printing.

3D Capture

Capturing existing 3D data is often one of the first steps in a design project. Rhino has always directly supported both 3D digitizing hardware and 3D scanned point cloud data. Rhino now supports:

• Large point clouds. 3D scanners have become faster and cheaper, making huge scan files more common.
• Rhino’s 64-bit support and enhanced support for graphic co‑processors have made working with these large point clouds possible.
• LiDAR captures 3D terrain data for agriculture, archaeology, conservation, geology, land use planning, surveying, and transportation, plus wind farm, solar farm, and cell tower deployment optimization. Rhino for Windows has robust support for plugins, such as RhinoTerrain™, that provide specialty tools for these new Rhino users.
• 3D digitizing support: Microscribe®, FaroArm®, and ROMER – Windows only.

Inspection and Analysis

Design realization requires high‑quality 3D models in every phase of design, presentation, analysis, and fabrication. Rhino includes tools to help ensure that the 3D models used throughout your process are of the highest possible quality.

Analysis: point, length, distance, angle, radius, bounding box, normal direction, area, area centroid, area moments, volume, volume centroid, volume moments, hydrostatics, surface curvature, geometric continuity, deviation, nearest point, curvature graph on curves and surfaces, naked edges, working surface analysis viewport modes (draft angle, zebra stripe, environment map with surface color blend, show edges, show naked edges, Gaussian curvature, mean curvature, and minimum or maximum radius of curvature).

New in Rhino 8:

• Curvature Analysis: Now supports SubDs.
• Draft Angle Analysis: Allows using Named CPlanes, a smarter CPlane Z option, and automatically sets direction when switching options.
• Point Deviation: Now supports SubDs and shows red numbers when invalid distances are entered.

Large Projects

File management tools for managing large projects and teams include Notes, templates, merge files, export selected objects, save small, incremental save, bitmap file preview, Rhino file preview, export with origin point, work sessions (Windows only), blocks, file compression for meshes and preview images.

Compatibility

Rhino is compatible with hundreds of CAD, CAM, CAE, rendering, and animation products. The openNURBS libraries allow hundreds of other applications to read and write Rhino’s native 3DM files.

In addition, Rhino 8 now supports:

• USD Export: Universal Scene Description, an extensible format commonly used in visualization applications.
• GLTF Import/Export: GL Transmission Format, useful for sharing 3D models on the web using WebGL.
• Improved support for many formats.

Grasshopper

Grasshopper is a graphical algorithm editor included with Rhino.

Unlike RhinoScript, Rhino.Python, or other programming languages, Grasshopper requires no knowledge of programming or scripting but still allows developers and designers to develop form-generation algorithms without writing code.

New in Grasshopper 1 in Rhino 8:

• Object Attributes: Manage Rhino object attributes directly from Grasshopper.
• Annotations: Document your design with Grasshopper’s annotation, hatch, and line type components.
• Blocks: Create block definitions and instances in Grasshopper.
• Live Baking: Live update existing Rhino objects from Grasshopper.
• UserText: Add, modify, or remove user text from any Rhino object.

Developer Tools

The world’s most robust 3D development platform for specialty modeling, rendering, analysis, and fabrication tools across a wide variety of disciplines.

More accessible development tools: RhinoCommon (.NET), Grasshopper, Rhino.Python, RhinoScript, the Zoo license manager for plugins, and the Rhino Package Manager are key ingredients.

Comprehensive documentation.

An active developer community.

Open-source Rhino development tools, including Rhino.Python and RhinoCommon.

Free developer tools, including technical support, marketing support, and training. Our development tools are available to everyone with a valid Rhino license. No special program registration, contracts, license agreement, or approval is needed.

Localization and translation services are available. Details…

Plugins: The Rhino SDK exposes most of Rhino’s internal workings, making it possible for third-party developers to create powerful plugins and add-ons. A programmer’s I/O tool kit with source code is available on openNURBS web site.

Scripting: Rhino 8 features a new powerful code editor and scripting platform, supporting RhinoCommon (C#) and CPython in both Rhino and Grasshopper on Windows and Mac.

RhinoScript

Features include:

• Multi-document script editor
• Online help system
• Documentation and examples
• RHINOSCRIPT IS WINDOWS-ONLY

Rhino.Python

Rhino.Python is a powerful scripting language in Rhino on both Windows and Mac. Rhino.Python is built for flexibility and clear syntax.

If you would like to give Rhino.Python a try, explore some of the links on the Rhino.Python site.

RhinoCommon

RhinoCommon is the cross-platform .NET plugin SDK for Rhino.

Available for Rhino for Windows, Rhino for Mac, Rhino.Python, and Grasshopper.

A true .NET style SDK, well organized, and easy to learn.

Improved documentation. Details…

C++ plugins

Microsoft Visual C++ 2017 for 64‑bit Rhino

Plugin wizard creates multi-targeted projects for easy project and platform support

Dozens of SDK additions and enhancements to help create more powerful plugins

Renderer Development Kit (RDK) now integrated with SDK

Documentation

Samples

Renderer Development Kit

Available in Rhino for Windows, the RDK includes a rich set of functionality for renderer developers, including:

• Support for C++, RhinoCommon and RhinoScript.
• Materials: Define custom material types that fully integrate into the Rhino material editor.
• Environments: Define custom environment types that fully integrate into the Rhino environment editor.
• Textures: Define custom texture types that fully integrate into the Rhino material, environment, and texture editors.
• Built‑in Render Window: Rhino Render Window complete with tone operators, post-effects, multiple channel support, recall of recent renders, built-in zooming, support for HDR output, and window cloning.
• Sun: Automate the new Rhino sun control with full access to the sun position calculation tools for your plugins.
• Custom render meshes: Plugin system for defining render-time custom render meshes that can be used by any render plugin or exported to mesh formats.
• Post‑effects: Plugin system for defining post-render frame buffer effects that can be used by any render plugin.
• Many minor renderer tools.

Rhino Skins

You can completely wrap your plugin application around Rhino. Here is how using C++ or RhinoCommon (.NET)

License Management for plugins

The Zoo features:

• Supports third-party Rhino plugins.
• Runs as a service – automatically restarts when the server reboots.
• Uses Standard Internet Protocol Support. Firewall friendly. Now runs across WANs, routers, and VPN.
• Troubleshooting tools.
• License checkout duration control.
• Updated installation and administration details.
• Third-party plugin developer details.

openNURBS

The openNURBS developer toolkit now supports Rhino 7 (and earlier) native 3DM files. Other 2D and 3D CAD file formats supported include:

• IGES
• STEP
• ACIS
• DXF/DWG
• Parasolid
• FBX
• OBJ
• STL
• 3DS
• LWO
• RIB
• VRML
• CSV
• PLY
• ...

Developers who want to develop import/export features for Rhino should choose openNURBS. Developers who want to add new functionality to Rhino should use RhinoCommon. RhinoCommon is part of the openNURBS SDK.

Standalone Products

RhinoCAM, RhinoART, RhinoPRINT, and RhinoCAM-Nest are other popular standalone products for Rhino users.

Standalone Products

RhinoCAM, RhinoART, RhinoPRINT, and RhinoCAM-Nest are other popular standalone products for Rhino users.

Conclusion

Rhino 8 offers a comprehensive suite of tools and features tailored to meet the needs of architects, mechanical engineers, product designers, and 3D animators. With its powerful modeling capabilities, enhanced performance, and improved workflow, Rhino 8 empowers users to create highly detailed and realistic 3D models with ease. Whether you're designing for 3D printing, digital fabrication, or visualization, Rhino 8 provides the versatility and flexibility required to bring your ideas to life.

Upgrade to Rhino 8 today and experience the next level of 3D modeling innovation!

Get Started with Rhino 8

Ready to explore the exciting new features of Rhino 8? Download your copy now and unleash your creativity!