Rhino 3D basics

A great reference for Rhino 3D can be found here: https://www.rhino3d.com/tutorials

Geometry - basic building blocks

geometry	examples of manifestations	parameters
points		x/y/z coordinates
curve geometry	Line Polyline Circle Ellipse Arc NURBS Curve Polycurve	vertices control points degree
surface geometry (NURBS)	surface polysurface
solids	box sphere cylinder …
meshes / polygons	meshes subdivision surfaces	faces edges vertices

Boundary representation (BREP)

geometric entities	topological
point	vertex
line	edge
surface	face

Rhino Interface

Setup:

Turn on Point Snap (End, Midpoint, Center, Intersection, Perpendicular, Quadrant) & Grid Snap
Turn on Gumball
Turn on shading for the perspective window (shaded or ghosted)
Tip: Enter or Space to enter commands

First Steps in Rhino

What	How	Visual Aid
navigating	Pan (two finger swipe/right mouseclick + Shift - also Control + Shift + click and drag) Zoom (pinch) Rotate View (two finger swipe/right mouseclick - also Control + click and drag
selection	depending how you drag your selection window either everything touched by the selection window is selected (bottom right to top left) or only objects that are fully enclosed by the window are selected (top lect to bottom right)
create geometry	_line _curve _circle _arc _rectangle
edit 2D	_move _copy _rotate _scale _dir (flip direction) _array
	_join _explode _trim _split _group _ungroup _extend _mirror
edit with gumball	Turn on control points Turn on gumball select control points or geometry and use handles to move, rotate or scale extrude: drag move handle then hold Command to select contour: Command + Shift + select contour
create 3D geometry	primitives: _pipe _box _sphere _cylinder operations: _sweep _loft _rail _revolve _extrude -
boolean operations	_BooleanUnion _BooleanDifference _BooleanIntersection
use a reference image	_BackgroundBitmap
Make solids from surfaces	operations: _join _cap

Exercise: 2D

Attempt to recreate the form in this technical drawing to scale.

image source: https://blog.draftsperson.net/metric-dimensioning-guide

Exercise: Extrude and Boolean

Make a simple house using a combination of the 2D drawing commands, extrude and boolean operations. Plan some abstracted details, like doors, windows and chimneys that could be added.

Commands:

_extrude

_BooleanUnion
_BooleanDifference
_BooleanIntersection

Exercise: Revolve

Reproduce the 2D form, and revolve it into a 3D solid

Commands:

draw line; turning on gridsnap makes things easier
join the line, if it is not a joined line already
use _fillet to create the round inner edge
revolve contour to create a 3d solid

Exercise: Gumball

Transform and extrude a 2D form using the gumball tool.

Tip: holding command (windows ctrl) after dragging an arrow will extrude in that axis.

Exercise: Advanved

Reproduce the form from this technical diagram.

Commands:

Offset to offset the boundary of a curve
Split and Trim to edit lines, curves and polylines
Object snap tangent to draw a line from a curve edge
Extrude to create 3D geometry from 2D
SrfPt to create a non-planar surfaces
Split to cut a solid with a surface or curve
Boolean Union to combine all geometry
MergeAllFaces to clean up surfaces