Robert McNeel is an employee-owned, privately held company that specializes in design software development. One of their most popular offerings is Rhino. This versatile 3D modeler is used by creative people all over the world. This popular NURBS based 3D modeling software is commonly used for CAM, CAD, 3D printing, rapid prototyping, and reverse engineering. Rhino is used in a variety of industries. It quickly allows users to communicate ideas and develops designs. The latest release, Rhino 7 is now available and it is the most significant release yet! With Rhino & you can create, edit, document, analyze, animate, and render NURBS curves, surfaces, solids, polygon meshes, and point clouds. You’re only limits are those of your hardware in terms of complexity, size, and degree.

Before we discuss what’s new in the release, please note that Rhino’s in-house developed plugins will work with Rhino 7, and porting the plugin from 6 to 7 should be quick and easy. However, if you work with a plug-in from another developer, it is always a good idea to confirm with the plugin developer directly about compatibility.

New Features in Rhino 7

Rhino 7 is the most significant update in Robert McNeel’s history. They have unlocked some new modeling workflows and refined many steadfast features allowing you to free-form precisely. The most significant new features are SubD, Rhino.Inside.Revit, and QuadRemesh.

Let’s start with SubD which is subdivision surface modeling. This is a great feature for designers who need to explore organic shapes fast. A new geometry type, SubD, allows you to create editable and highly accurate shapes. SubD is unique because it allows for quick editing, but also combines free-form accuracy.

Next, Rhino.Inside.Revit® gives you the power of Grasshopper and Rhino in the Autodesk Revit® environment. This new technology allows for embedding Rhino into other 64-bit Windows applications. It is an add-on for Revit that will load Rhino and its plugins (for example, Grasshopper) in Revit’s memory. It basically provides tools that bridge the gap between the world of BIM and Rhino’s free-form modeling.

Finally, the new QuadRemesh allows you to quickly create a quad mesh from already existing surfaces, meshes, solids, or SubDs. This feature is ideal for animation, rendering, FEA, CFD, and reverse-engineering.

Other Improvements

Improvements on existing features in Rhino 7 are focused on allowing you to create gorgeous work. Work becomes more efficient and yields better results with new updates to Rhino’s display pipeline. Robert McNeel is always striving to keep up with modern graphics hardware. With this new release, some models will display much faster on both Mac and Windows. They’ve also made refinements to Display Modes to make them more eye-popping as you work. Plus, you’ll find new presentation tools such as Denoisers, Emissive Materials, Light Falloff, Gradient Hatches, LayerBook, PBR materials, and more.

Work becomes more efficient and yields better results with new updates to Rhino’s display pipeline. Robert McNeel is always striving to keep up with modern graphics hardware. With this new release, some models will display much faster on both Mac and Windows. They’ve also made refinements to Display Modes to make them more eye-popping as you work.

You’ll also find improvements to the documentation workflow, Grasshopper, free SDKs, with API refinements, better documentation, new commands, and some major new features that broaden and deepen the foundations of the geometry development platform.

Resources & Education Discounts

There are a number of resources available for Rhino. They include a learning portal with tutorials, food4Rhino that offers a variety of apps for Rhino and Grasshopper, a community forum, as well as a support page.

Students and educational institutions are eligible for academic discounts on Rhino 7 at Studica.