Rhino 3D basics

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

Geometry - basic building blocks

geometryexamples of manifestationsparameters
points
x/y/z coordinates
curve geometry
  • vertices
  • control points
  • degree
surface geometry (NURBS)
  • surface
  • polysurface

solids
  • box
  • sphere
  • cylinder

meshes / polygons
  • faces
  • edges
  • vertices


Boundary representation (BREP)

geometric entitiestopological
pointvertex
lineedge
surfaceface

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

WhatHowVisual 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