What is Rhino?

Rhinoceros (Rhino) is developed by Robert McNeel & Associates. It models curves, surfaces and solids with mathematical precision, from simple boxes to double-curved facades and boat hulls. Architects use it for complex forms and facade panelisation; product, furniture and jewellery designers for manufacturable shapes; engineers for fabrication geometry.

NURBS (non-uniform rational B-splines) describe curves and surfaces exactly with control points, weights and a degree. A circle is a true circle, not a polygon; a surface can be as smooth as you need and still exported for CNC or 3D printing. Rhino also supports meshes (triangles) for rendering, scans and printing, and SubD for smooth organic shapes.

Grasshopper, included with Rhino, is a visual programming environment: you connect components on a canvas to generate geometry from rules and parameters — a facade whose openings respond to sun angle, a structure whose members resize with span. Change a slider and the design regenerates. The Grasshopper lesson introduces it.

Rhino's native format is .3dm, openly documented through openNURBS. Rhino imports and exports many formats: DWG/DXF, STEP, IGES, OBJ, STL, FBX and more.

McNeel offers a free evaluation of Rhino on its website, and discounted educational licences. Licences are perpetual per version rather than subscription-only — check current terms before buying.