• Official Command List
• Categorized Command List

TUTORIALS

• Introduction to Rhino
• Getting Started video+annotated tutorials
• Rhino and Grasshopper tutorials by DesignReform
• Fabrication related tutorials index by CadDigest
• Rhino tutorials by Lynda (CMU Students have free access with their Andrew IDs through here)

Rhino Minimal 101

Rhino tutorials

1. An overview of the Rhino 4 user interface
2. Basic object types in Rhino
3. Lynda Rhino 4 Tutorials
4. Getting Started [with Rhino] Webinar

 A FEW commands to do a LOT of things

NB 1.  When there’s a length or an option, you can type it (if you can)
NB 2.  Use a two button mouse, use a big/second screen (if you can)

drawing:

(generally: you can either click to draw or type the dimensions you want)

• points
• circle
• line
• rec
• polyline
• interpcrv
• crv

measurements:

• length: length of line or curve
• distance: distance between two points
• area: area of a surface

geometric transformation:

• move
• copy
• rotate
• extend: make a curve longer
• scale1D: good for resizing lines
• scale2D: good for resizing flat shapes
• scale (you can indicate with numbers the scaling factor)
• mirror: copy/move and rotate; can be used to reflect or flip
• arraycrv: orient and copy
• orient: good when the thing you’re moving is asymmetric/sided/chiral
• offset: scale and copy
• fillet: round sharp corners

2d-3d-2d:

• planarSrf: turn a closed curve into a surface
• loft: make connecting surface between two lines/curves
• extrude
• make2d: create 2d shape of selected surface, according to current view
• unrollSrf: turn a volume into flat components
• dupBorders: produce curve from boundary of a surface

cutting/expanding:

• explode
• split: divides a line/curve/surface at a center point/line/intersective-surf/curv
• trim: split + delete
• extend
• rebuild
• curveBooleon

make many out of one:

• divide: dividing lines/curves into equal parts
• rebuild: either turn cuves into lines or make ugly curves pretty curves

housekeeping/getting-around:

• layer: show layers window (use many layers!)
• show/hide: select an object and temporary show it or hide it
• setPt: set all X and/or Y and/or Z points of a geometry to a new value
• zs: zoom set, show you just the selected object in the active transport
• join: make one curve/surface out of many segments
• explode: separate segements of a curve/surface
• group
• orientCameraToSurface

Relevant Links:

COMPANY

• McNeel: The company that makes Rhino3D
• Rhino3D: The main website
• Rhino3D Tutorials: The official documentation

COMMUNITY

• The Rhino3d wiki: community developed site with all things Rhino
• Rhino3d newsgroup: people asking/answering questions

COMMANDS

Grasshopper for Rhino:

Plugin that provides a visual programming environment for parametric design in Rhino

RESOURCES and TUTORIALS

EXAMPLE DEFINITIONS

• Here are the Grasshopper intro definitions from class.
• Here are the Additional Grasshopper example definitions including the speaker cone from my work A Tentative Call to the Other, the auto-mesh-sectioner and another panelling example.
• ExplodeBreps @ UVA: many example definitions for useful things like surface decomposition, tessellation, finger joinery, etc.
• Here is Ali’s set of Grasshopper goodies

Critical GH components for getting started:

DRAWING

Rhino and Python

OFFICIAL DOCUMENTATION

• Python Documentation and Tutorials
• Rhino.Python Programmers Reference
• Community Portal for Rhino/Python

WHAT YOU NEED

• OS X: Installation Instructions
• Windows: download the latest Rhino 5

LEARNING

• Python for Rhino 101 Primer: unofficial official get-started guide
• DiveIntoPython.net: portal for learning python
• Basic Tutorials: from python.rhino3d.com
• Jose Sanchez has some great Rhino + Python tutorials on Vimeo
• PointCrowd.com: Rhino + Python educational portal by Ari Kardasis and Masoud Akbarzadeh of MIT MediaLab (lots of great sample code here)

EXAMPLES

• Class Examples: a few simple scripts I showed in class, some adopted from the above sources
• Rhinoscript > RhinoCommon < IronPython: McNeel pages on the conbination of Rhino.NET + Rhino.Common + Python with lots of great sample code here, particularly for RhinoCommon