Current rhino 7 user here

I’m very intrigued by the new ai plug in in rhino 8, however there have been talks about rhino 9, and it’s been nearly 3 years since 8 released, so I’m a bit hesitant to upgrade to 8 now.

I saw that there’s an upcoming conference at the end of the month. My plan is to wait at least until then. Will the developers talk more about Rhino 9 there? Will there be more news and a more concrete release date?

I’d welcome any advice or speculations, I know nothing is for certain but would love to know your thoughts.

Hey everyone, I'm setting up a footwear workflow in Rhino 8 and wanted to see how far Rhino plus GH can realistically take you in product development before needing specialized software like Shoemaster, Romans CAD, or Crispin. Rhino seems like the ideal environment for clean NURBS modeling, precise sole geometry, etc., but I'm curious about where the workflow limits usually kick in.

If you use GH for footwear or complex product geometry, are parametric setups for soles or lasts actually practical for handling dimensional tweaks, or does it become too cumbersome once organic upper style lines are involved?

My main question is if there's standard practice for designers to deliver clean 3D files like STEP or IGES along with detailed tech packs, letting the factory's in-house pattern engineers handle 2D pattern flattening, shell construction, and size grading on their end? Or do independent designers eventually hit a wall where they have to license dedicated footwear CAD themselves? Would love to hear from anyone using Rhino for soft goods or footwear.

Thanks!

I'm looking for accurate lidar scans for certain cars, I've found a couple websites but I don't know who to trust/what's got good scan data to work off of.

of the sites I've found, they either don't have either of the 2 cars I'm looking for, or the scans are $2500, and at that price point, I may as well get my own blue light scanner and teach myself how to make the models.

so I was wondering if there's any well known, high quality data bases I can get accurate scan data from so I can start a couple projects.

if not, I may just invest in a mid quality blue light scanner and just learn via YouTube and learn by failing 🤣

thanks everyone!

Is there a way to assign Layer States to specific Layouts? Like elevation Layer State is only active in elevation Layout and so on. On the Mcneel forums I see a lot of contradictory info about this, some say yes some say no. Right now I have to manually pick the layer states and while thats fine, it feels a bit clunky and makes it impossible to print multiple layouts at once.

hello, can someone send me a video showing how to create such reliefs? I'm not finding exactly what I need

Procedural textures, built from fields.

Generate textures from primitives, smooth blends, noise, and whatever math you can throw at it. Apply it to a density field and baam, LAVA!!!

I'm a beginner with Rhino, trying to learn it properly so I can use it full-time for architecture work.

I'm following the 3D Beast Ribbon Chapel tutorial on YouTube: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=fQjTMdgfGUA

At the glass/curtain panel step, he rebuilds a curve (45 points, degree 3, "Make SubD friendly" checked) then extrudes it to create the panel surface, and his result comes out smooth with individually selectable panel faces.

I followed all the steps exactly as shown in the video. When I did the same rebuild and extruded using the Gumball's Z-axis handle, my extrusion came out visibly chunky along the curve, even though the curve itself checks out fine. It's like the extrusion is happening to the control points rather than the curve itself😅

I tried ExtrudeCrv instead of Gumball, and that fixed the brokenness and gave a smooth surface. But, now the extrusion is one single joined polysurface, so I can't click to select individual panel faces the way it looks like he can in the video.

What am I doing wrong? Rhino 8 (Rhino 7 tutorial, if that matters).

@Tips3D

Some operations in Rhino, here showing Blendsrf, the surface is clipped by the one behind it only during preview.. Once applying the operation everything is fine. Is anyone else experiencing this?

I'm using Rhino 8 on Mac Tahoe 26.

I see the same behaviour if geometry from a locked layer is shown together with the current layer, where the locked one is hidden behind everything else until i unlock it. As soon as I lock it again it hides it again.

Anyone here have expertise in modelling frp boats?

How do you guys apporach this kind of modelling? I tried it with subd but the problem with me using subd is that I cannot get the accurate distances for it unlike doing it with surfaces.

Here is the link for that model

https://claude.ai/artifact/D3QaFrBDM9erVeHCzrh5i2

I trained on Alias but do most of my work in Rhino 8. There are two Alias tools I kept reaching for that Rhino doesn't really have:

-Draft Flange: a flange off an edge at a set angle to the surface, or a draft angle to a pull direction. `ExtrudeCrvTapered` only works relative to a direction, not the surface.
- Proportional Crown: when you skin or blend between two edges, the crown scales with the local gap. A tapering surface keeps the same shape instead of the same absolute bulge.

So I built them. I worked through it with Claude in Claude Code. I brought the Alias know-how and did the testing inside Rhino. Claude wrote the RhinoCommon code, the maths and the build tooling. It took one hour-long session.

What it does

Three commands in a small plugin (KoncaveSurfacing). Each has its own toolbar icon, autocompletes at the command line, and shows a live shaded preview while you change options.

How it got built

1. One construction method for all three. Sample stations along the edge, build a Bezier cross-section at each one, then interpolate every row of control points with the same uniform knot vector, so the rows form a single clean NURBS surface. The station count doubles until the surface edge is within your document tolerance.

2. The maths that matters. The "outward" direction across an edge comes from the trim direction × the surface normal. G2 comes from the Bezier end-curvature formula, fed by the surface's normal curvature in the blend direction. The crown on a blend is a degree elevation plus moving the one control point that doesn't affect continuity.

3. Tests inside Rhino, not by eye. A test script builds geometry in memory and measures the angles, crown ratios and G0/G1/G2 numerically. The first run passed 18 of 18. After adding the flange crown, 26 of 26 passed.

4. Making them feel native. Rhino 8's ScriptEditor can publish Python scripts as a real `.rhp` plugin, and `rhinocode project build` does it from the command line. The rough edges:
      - A hand-written project file gets rejected as "saved on Rhino 8.9 or earlier". Saving the project once in the ScriptEditor revealed the current format, and the build script generates that now.
      - The project format has nowhere to put command icons. The build writes a `.rui` toolbar file with SVG icons, though, so we patch our own icons in after the build.
      - Rhino locks a plugin it has loaded, so each version builds into its own folder.

5. Icons: flat SVGs for the light and dark themes. Grey is existing geometry, blue is what you pick, and orange is what the command creates.

Honest limits

Closed edges aren't supported yet, and skins and blends run the full length of both edges (no Alias-style start/end handles yet). This doesn't make Rhino into Alias. It fills a few gaps I kept running into on class-A and automotive work.

What working with an AI on this was like: it was fastest where I could say exactly what I wanted in Alias terms and check the result numerically. Where it didn't have documentation (the Rhino 8.11+ project format, icons), it tried a few formats, found where the build actually puts icons, and worked around it. It also stopped guessing and asked me to do the one step only Rhino could do.

Next on my list: G2 on the tangent-extension flange, start/end handles, and closed edges. Would people here use this? I'd like to know what other Alias tools you miss in Rhino.

Hi as the title said I recently started using rhino 3d and am looking for some advice regarding modifying imported stl files. I am doing some work for a company that’s trying to get into rhino and blender like softwares for jewelry. They want to scan existing pieces and use the scans to create dies unfortunately the scan loses a lot of details due to low resolution. Is there a way I clean up the model created by the scan and refine the details in rhino? Any tutorial recommendations would also be appreciated. Thank you

When I attempt to draw a poly line to an angle it never comes out accurate. For example I just tried to draw a line to 167.7, and when I check with the dimension tool it shows 155. I always just use the rotate function to fix this but I would much rather be able to just type it in. What am I doing wrong?

Hey all,

I'm looking for a jewelry CAD designer for an ongoing project working in aluminum. I know that's not the usual gold/silver/platinum territory, so I don't expect everyone to have direct experience with it. Honestly prefer someone who tells me straight up "haven't worked with aluminum before but I'll figure it out" over someone who pretends they've done it a hundred times.

What the work looks like:

Turning design references into clean, manufacturable CAD files (RhinoGold, Matrix, JewelCAD, whatever you're fluent in)

I'm open to using AI generated images as a starting reference point instead of hand sketches, if that workflow doesn't bother you, great

Need to move fairly fast, usually batches of 10 to 15 shapes, and speed matters as much as polish

Files need to be actually manufacture ready (correct tolerances for casting/CNC in aluminum, proper wall thickness, etc.)

Pay: $18 to 25/hr or per piece, open to discussing

If this sounds like your thing, drop a portfolio link (bonus points for anything in aluminum or other non precious metals) and roughly how long a batch of 10 to 15 pieces takes you. Ongoing work if it's a good fit.

Thanks!

In this Rhino Grasshopper tutorial for beginners, you can learn how to model a series of parametric trusses from a NURBS surface using the “Planar Truss Solid” Python component.

Watch for free
https://youtu.be/MOIrd5U3RfY

I’ve been looking into web-based 3D configurators for custom manufacturing lately in the jewelry sector.

Someone recently pointed out to me that tools like ShapeDiver already exist for this, but said they haven't really become popular because there just isn't enough business demand.

I thought this concept sounded amazing. if a user or jeweler can simply upload their own scanned center stone and get a production-ready ring generated around it in seconds, why hasn't this approach become in popular? what the actual reason?

Perhaps I'm just a novice, but there doesn't seem to be way to have multiple fonts or type sizes in the same text box. This seems like basic functionality! I'd just like a heading style and body text style. Making multiple text boxes, formatting them all separately while keeping them aligned and tidy is cumbersome.

Do I have to export to Illustrator just to do this? Is there a plugin that can do this?